Linux Shootout: 7 Desktop Distros Compared (InformationWeek) [LWN.net]

Linux Shootout: 7 Desktop Distros Compared (InformationWeek)

Posted May 5, 2008 9:35 UTC (Mon) by avtechmjc (subscriber, #50477) [Link]

No company is going to install Debian when Ubuntu is available...

Linux Shootout: 7 Desktop Distros Compared (InformationWeek)

Posted May 5, 2008 9:50 UTC (Mon) by donbarry (guest, #10485) [Link]

That's simply not true, and our base of 40+ machines happily running 
Debian is a perfect example.  We know Debian's direction and transparency,
and have no clue what additional random profit-maximizing gimmicks or 
quick package hacks will be made at the whim of Shuttleworth (one can't say
Ubuntu, because in this case it's a wholly owned vanity distribution). We also have no desire
to clean up the pieces afterwards.

Linux Shootout: 7 Desktop Distros Compared (InformationWeek)

Posted May 5, 2008 11:41 UTC (Mon) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link]

No company is going to install Debian when Ubuntu is available...

That's not true. We use Debian on our servers. Our technical people also use Debian. We use Ubuntu for the sales guys. Our Ubuntu PCs basically have nothing important on them; we can blow them away and rebuild a fresh one easily. All the important directories are NFS-mounted.

Linux Shootout: 7 Desktop Distros Compared (InformationWeek)

Posted May 5, 2008 11:54 UTC (Mon) by superstoned (subscriber, #33164) [Link]

No company is going to install Red Hat or CentOS with Fedora available?!?

CentOS vs. Fedora

Posted May 5, 2008 15:04 UTC (Mon) by dowdle (subscriber, #659) [Link]

Depends on what you want.  If you want a bleeding edge desktop, go for Fedora.  If you want a
longer support cycle and less changes... and more stability... go for CentOS / RHEL.  Because
you want the later more on a server, CentOS / RHEL is a better choice for servers.

Linux Shootout: 7 Desktop Distros Compared (InformationWeek)

Posted May 5, 2008 12:22 UTC (Mon) by mgb (subscriber, #3226) [Link]

We have only one desktop with hardware that can run Debian Stable.  Some of our desktops will
run on Debian Testing but most need a mixture of Debian Testing and Debian Unstable.

Debian Testing is so volatile that Debian on the desktop has become a significant admin time
sink.  I don't like some of Ubuntu's quirks and the limited support for Universe is an issue
but we're seriously thinking of switching our desktops to Ubuntu.

If Debian is to be relevant on the desktop they're going to have to fast track new hardware
support - particularly xserver-xorg and linux-image - into Stable updates.  Debian is starting
to get a rep for only running on old hardware.

Linux Shootout: 7 Desktop Distros Compared (InformationWeek)

Posted May 5, 2008 12:54 UTC (Mon) by tzafrir (subscriber, #11501) [Link]

backports.org?

BTW: we had better luck with Etch than with CentOS 5.1 with new hardware here.

Linux Shootout: 7 Desktop Distros Compared (InformationWeek)

Posted May 5, 2008 13:23 UTC (Mon) by mgb (subscriber, #3226) [Link]

backports.org has no xorg or xserver-xorg updates.

backports.org updates linux-image-2.6 from 2.6.18 to 2.6.22 but our Thinkpad T61's need 2.6.24
(or a patched kernel).

Hence we need to using Testing or a Testing/Unstable mix.

Linux Shootout: 7 Desktop Distros Compared (InformationWeek)

Posted May 5, 2008 14:29 UTC (Mon) by tzafrir (subscriber, #11501) [Link]

I believe backports.org already has 2.6.24 . Also try:

http://mirror.home-dn.net/d-i/

Linux Shootout: 7 Desktop Distros Compared (InformationWeek)

Posted May 5, 2008 13:19 UTC (Mon) by smoogen (subscriber, #97) [Link]

You shouldn't use absolutes like that.. with 6 billion people in the world... someone is going
to base their company desktop structure on Debian, Slackware, gNewSense, or some distribution
that their next door neighbors cousin writes in their spare time. That is the nature of
distributions...

Linux Shootout: 7 Desktop Distros Compared (InformationWeek)

Posted May 5, 2008 13:51 UTC (Mon) by avtechmjc (subscriber, #50477) [Link]

OK... I'll de-assert. Some companies will use Debian :-)

Debian vs. Ubuntu?

Posted May 5, 2008 15:01 UTC (Mon) by dowdle (subscriber, #659) [Link]

I'd say that on the desktop that is possibly true... but on servers, I'd say the reverse is
the case... Debian is much more proven on the server than Ubuntu is... hands down.

I'm a RHEL / CentOS / Fedora person myself.

Ubuntu 8.04

Posted May 5, 2008 10:50 UTC (Mon) by jake (editor, #205) [Link]

> The original article got it wrong everywhere, but there's no reason to 
> duplicate the error here in the LWN blurb...  It's "8.04" not "8.4".

You make a good point, fixed now, thanks!

jake

Ubuntu 8.04

Posted May 5, 2008 14:10 UTC (Mon) by oak (guest, #2786) [Link]

As it's just <year>.<month>, does it really matter whether the month is 
prefixed with a zero or not (04 and 4 are both April....)?

Ubuntu 8.04

Posted May 5, 2008 15:46 UTC (Mon) by seyman (subscriber, #1172) [Link]

> As it's just <year>.<month>, does it really matter whether the month is 
> prefixed with a zero or not (04 and 4 are both April....)?

For some counting methods, 8.4 > 8.10 .
So, yes, some times, it really matters. :-)

Ubuntu 8.04

Posted May 5, 2008 15:57 UTC (Mon) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link]

If you use an approach to version numbers that says that 8.4 > 8.10, you force both RPM-based and .deb-based distributions to use epochs to tell the package manager that 8.4 is newer. So you would be well advised not to do this: don't interpret version numbers as rational numbers, the standard convention is to treat them as sequences of integers, lexicographically sorted.

Ubuntu 8.04

Posted May 5, 2008 20:37 UTC (Mon) by jamesh (subscriber, #1159) [Link]

The problem here is with people rather than computers.  The version numbers look like normal
decimal numbers, and people know that 8.4 is greater than 8.10.

By using 8.04 instead, the ambiguity goes away.

Ubuntu 8.04

Posted May 6, 2008 3:32 UTC (Tue) by Los__D (subscriber, #15263) [Link]

IMHO the problem is someone defining x.1x > x.2 in the first place...