In years past, I chose Ubuntu over Debian because of some key packages that were more up to date on Ubuntu LTS then Debian. Now that I’m running basically everything in containers I’ll be switched back to Debian over the next upgrade cycle
Anytime is an upgrade cycle when youre indecisive as hell
(Almost don’t even use my PC cause its always migrating somehow lmao)
Most people only relate Linux to Ubuntu, Linux init system to SysVInit or SystemD, Containerisation to Docker or Kubernetes, Linux desktop to Gnome.
In some cases, it may be due to official support being available but most of the time it’s just that people are being taught Ubuntu first as “THE Linux” and that’s what they use since then.
Ubuntu has a bigger market share in the support department. Makes it easier to find advice that applies specifically to your setup.
Because that one GitHub project that solves your needs but has sparse documentation and only works if it’s as close to what I assumed it was created on.
Familiarity (my client distro is Pop and is based on Ubuntu), and I like the LTS life cycle (predictable).
I do uninstall snaps, though, and mostly just use Docker for things. I could use Debian, but again, for me it was about familiarity and support (a lot more Ubuntu specific documentation).
I used Ubuntu for a while and distr-hopped before deciding to land on Debian. I figured major distros used it as their base for a reason. The older I get the more I appreciate the “it’ll release when its ready” approach that Debian takes. There’s no economic pressure to release with major bugs hoping the next sprint will fix most issues, like a lot of “enterprise” software. The Debian release cycle is not 100% predictable, but it is reliable. I’ve had a server go through a few major upgrades for nearly a decade before the hardware itself gave out. The OS was rock solid the entire time. Additionally, with flatpak, outdated desktop apps are no longer an issue and I use docker for hosting services.
I will admit that Debian is pretty “bland” from a fresh install, but I don’t mind that at all.
Cuz it doesn’t really matter that much
Historically I’ve done exactly that. Debian for servers, Ubuntu for workstations (because I like GNOME). But my hate for Snap runs so deep that I’ve started using Debian w/ GNOME more and more often over the last year or so.
But my hate for Snap runs so deep that I’ve started using Debian w/ GNOME more and more often over the last year or so.
As a Linux Mint user I’ve seen the writing on the wall and will be switching to Linux Mint Debian Edition next time I reinstall my desktop.
ZFS support
I’m confused. I have been running debian with ZFS for years. How is it unsupported?
It is preinstalled and precompiled on ubuntu so you don’t need to use dkms to compile the module. IIRC you can even use zfs as root filesystem right from the installation.
Having worked at a cloud provider for awhile and also done support, the reasoning is generally that Ubuntu is the “path of least resistance” to getting running. They have a super engaged community and the market share leads to a lot of guides across the web being primarily made for Ubuntu.
To be fair, it also helps that their LTS support is really nice and their repos are a lot closer to up-to-date than a bunch of others.
Before self-hosting web apps became one-click install away, Ubuntu was a lot more convenient with newer technologies, readily available documentation, and a clear update schedule. At least, that was my case.
Because when you use Debian and you find a bug, you will notice that it was fixed years ago but for “stability” you are using an ancient version
For example if you use samba as active directory domain controller on Debian, it doesn’t let login windows 11 users. This bug was fixed in 2019
I’m using “testing” repos for this reason (testing is still stable, it’s the next stable)
It might be late still, I don’t know
I’m really curious if that’s still true for debian 12, it’s using a 6.1 kernel and stuff isn’t nearly as old.
I recently switched one of my VPS to Debian 12.1 coming from Ubuntu 22.04.* LTS, because of the newer kernel and newer packages. I think there was an Ubuntu update this week, didn’t have time to look into it, so I’m not sure if it still applies.
Because Debian 12 has come out relatively recently
I have always gravitated toward Debian until recently. I run LXCs on proxmox and apparently Debian needs nesting enabled or else it takes around 30s to login. I think it’s trying to access a system file when a user logs in that can’t be accessed when nesting is disabled, and it waits to timeout before continuing with the login. Also, I have noticed that when running htop on Debian, it reports the total number of cores on my server, rather than the number of cores I have assigned to the container. Ubuntu doesn’t have either of these problems - I can run it with nesting disabled (more secure) and still login without delay, and htop reports only the number of cores I have assigned to the container.
These are small issues, and there’s probably a way to address them, but I haven’t found any solutions yet. And when I just want to spin up a LXC quickly so I can work on an idea/pipeline/whatever, I’m finding myself going with the more frictionless option lately.
Edit to add: I run all of this headless, so I can’t comment on GUI differences or anything like that
What version of debian is this?
Debian 12 - bookworm
Remember that time I got salty because I was using a distro that’s always 10 years out of date and is actively user hostile?
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters LTS Long Term Support software version LXC Linux Containers NAS Network-Attached Storage VPS Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)
4 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 20 acronyms.
[Thread #35 for this sub, first seen 13th Aug 2023, 09:35] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
I’m a bit of a noob so I ended up going with Ubuntu after trying a few other distros. I’m sure I could have fixed the issues I was having but it was easier to troubleshoot and find solutions online due to the larger install base.
Also more things were just working out of the box
