[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
On 08/04/11 19:02, Simon Waters wrote:
On 08/04/11 17:01, Neil Winchurst wrote:Mint Xfce which is based on Debian.Aren't most distros are based on Debian these days?
Nope, there are distros based on Gentoo, some on CentOS (which in turn is based on RedHat Enterprise Linux), some on Slackware (interestingly it seems that originally SuSE was based on Slackware, I thought it was based on RedHat).
Anyway, if you follow this link and click on the picture on the side and show it full size it lists loads of distros and what was spawned from them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions (It's actually an interesting list)
I think the point is "based on Debian" typically isn't Debian.
True, I guess because the individual distros based on Debian take the Debian base and build on that, make changes and what not. I certainly wouldn't think of Ubuntu as pure Debian now. But I like the fact I can take most of what I've learnt on Ubuntu and Mint and apply it to Debian fairly easily.
There was a Debian Pure Blends project, which I can seem a good idea to me, I was involved in something similar at one point before Pure Blends (which didn't get very far alas).
Interesting, never heard of that one.
I don't quite get the idea of derivatives of Debian which are free software, I can kind of understand Debian plus multimedia drivers or Debian plus Adobe and Java type distros. In many cases I think the effort would be better spent improving Debian, forking is sometimes helpful but most of the time it just means more time and effort spent duplicating what already exists (bug trackers, mailing lists, etc). That said some of the "forked" distros are little more than Debian plus a small repository and that kind of makes sense in a Debian doesn't do what I need way.
You mean like gNewsense? Isn't that based on Ubuntu but completely free?I did think that it's basically taking Ubuntu and trying to make it a bit more like Debian, in which case why not run Debian?
That said Mint and Ubuntu both have been more successful than Debian on the desktop, although it isn't clear to me the "advantages" that were promised still exist for Ubuntu as their rapid release cycle seems to mean even more crass bugs than those I keep stumbling over in Debian proper.
At first I think it might have been ease of use, ease of installation etc and the fact that it was easy to get non-free stuff working either with a reasonably automated download (such as the first time Flash is required it puts up a prompt and lets you install it easily, or if it detects hardware requiring non-free drivers it prompts to install them).
But now, well with all the changes going on with Unity I've pretty much turned my back on Ubuntu and use Mint. I've had some real show stopping issues with Ubuntu in the past, it just seemed like they wanted to rush it out the door. There's been a few times I've found Ubuntu just didn't work out of the box on hardware, but other times worked fine. Usually it was on an obscure mix of hardware, and usually when I was installing it for a newbie!
Rob -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq