Desktop Debian = Ubuntu

Posted Sep 2, 2009 4:55 UTC (Wed) by zlynx (guest, #2285)
In reply to: It says "lower spec" by N0NB
Parent article: Con Kolivas returns with a new scheduler

I don't think that I know anyone who runs Debian on the desktop anymore. It seems most run Debian on servers and Ubuntu on the desktop, if they like Debian'ish systems.

Desktop Debian = Ubuntu

Posted Sep 2, 2009 5:43 UTC (Wed) by jordanb (guest, #45668) [Link] (3 responses)

Try meeting some more people. It's a whole world out there.

Desktop Debian = Ubuntu

Posted Sep 2, 2009 7:39 UTC (Wed) by patrick_g (subscriber, #44470) [Link] (1 responses)

>>> Try meeting some more people. It's a whole world out there.

What is your solution? Recompiling the kernel and lose all the advantages of a distribution kernel? Use a server optimized kernel on your laptop?

Desktop Debian = Ubuntu

Posted Sep 2, 2009 13:00 UTC (Wed) by nye (subscriber, #51576) [Link]

IIRC a couple of years back Con Kolivas had a feature to allow switching the scheduler at runtime, which was deemed a pointless feature and rejected.

Desktop Debian rocks

Posted Sep 2, 2009 8:32 UTC (Wed) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link]

Alternatively, try finding out some hard data. For example, Debian's own popularity contest. Taking base admin packages as a baseline (83696), of which over 95% are regularly used, you may find that about 56% use X11 libraries regularly, about half installed desktop-base and 26% use metacity. GNOME is even more popular with 56% having installed gnome-keyring and 32% using it regularly. KDE is less popular with only 23% installing kdebase-data and 10% using any package regularly (interesting, didn't know there was such a disparity with GNOME), while XFCE shows up at 3.7%.

You might say that these are servers being admin'd graphically. Let us see typically desktop-y applications: quick browsing shows regular users of Firefox (iceweasel really) at 33%, libgstreamer at 27%, evince at 26%, libgphoto2 and openoffice both at 25%. To put these figures in perspective, Apache is at 44% and Samba at 27%.

There are lots of bias in the sample: only utter geeks would install popularity-contest, and only properly connected machines will show up. I would counter that both things pretty much describe Debian's audience. IMHO saying that 50% of Debian users have it as a desktop is a good estimation.

Desktop Debian = Ubuntu

Posted Sep 2, 2009 11:54 UTC (Wed) by N0NB (guest, #3407) [Link]

I prefer Debian over Kubuntu as my Kubuntu partition is still infested with GNOME nonsense. At least on Debian I can eliminate the GNOME stuff (or not install it in the first place) without breaking the distribution. That said, right now desktop effects with compositing are working much better in Karmic than Sid, both are up-to-date.

Desktop Debian = Ubuntu

Posted Sep 2, 2009 20:41 UTC (Wed) by branden (guest, #7029) [Link] (3 responses)

"I don't think that I know anyone who runs Debian on the desktop anymore."

Nice to meet you. I'm Branden.

Desktop Debian = Ubuntu

Posted Sep 2, 2009 20:47 UTC (Wed) by zlynx (guest, #2285) [Link] (1 responses)

But do I know you?

I mean, when I said it, I meant people I actually know in person and I know what they're running.

Now, as I don't make a habit of going around asking people if they're running Ubuntu or Debian or what, my sample size is about 5 people.

One of those I know used to run a Debian laptop and I *think* he is running Ubuntu now but possibly not. I know the other 4 are running Ubuntu.

Desktop Debian = Ubuntu

Posted Sep 2, 2009 21:01 UTC (Wed) by alex (subscriber, #1355) [Link]

Hey I suggested my other half install Debian on her old laptop as she wanted experiment with free software. I was slightly worried she would have issues with the wireless but it all installed and ran fine. I think Debian makes a fantastic desktop OS if your not concerned about the latest whizz bang graphics effects or media players. It's stable and lightweight and very developer friendly.

Desktop Debian = Ubuntu

Posted Sep 3, 2009 13:10 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Former DPLs need not apply ;}

(of course I'm running Debian on the desktop too, and adminning it remotely for my mum, who's in the same boat, and all she wants is something that Just Works and isn't virally infestable...)