Hello,
I have been using Ubuntu for a couple of years, and I am increasingly unhappy with it. I dislike the Ubuntu One integration, I think upstart is irritating, and I am sick of my bug reports vegetating forever in Launchpad. Therefore I want to switch distributions, and I have already narrowed it down to either Debian unstable or Fedora (but a release, not rawhide).
Unfortunately I have a hard time deciding between the two, because I am very much biased by the fact that I have already used Debian in the past and a lot of experience with it. So I invariably come up with random nice Debian features which then turn out not to exist in Fedora. But on the other hand, all the nice Fedora features that Debian can't offer are unknown to me.
Hence, to allow me to make a good decision, I would be very happy to hear about your favorite Fedora feature that I would totally miss if I went with Debian.
Just to be clear: I am *not* interested in starting a Debian vs Fedora thread here. So am only asking for your pro-fedora points, so there shouldn't even be the possibility of a flamewar :-).
Best,
-Nikolaus
On 04/16/2011 09:14 PM, Nikolaus Rath wrote:
Hello,
I have been using Ubuntu for a couple of years, and I am increasingly unhappy with it. I dislike the Ubuntu One integration, I think upstart is irritating, and I am sick of my bug reports vegetating forever in Launchpad. Therefore I want to switch distributions, and I have already narrowed it down to either Debian unstable or Fedora (but a release, not rawhide).
Unfortunately I have a hard time deciding between the two, because I am very much biased by the fact that I have already used Debian in the past and a lot of experience with it. So I invariably come up with random nice Debian features which then turn out not to exist in Fedora. But on the other hand, all the nice Fedora features that Debian can't offer are unknown to me.
Hence, to allow me to make a good decision, I would be very happy to hear about your favorite Fedora feature that I would totally miss if I went with Debian.
Just to be clear: I am *not* interested in starting a Debian vs Fedora thread here. So am only asking for your pro-fedora points, so there shouldn't even be the possibility of a flamewar :-).
Best,
-Nikolaus
Having used all three extensively, I'd argue for Fedora (I switched shortly after Ubuntu 10.10 came out). All of the distributions are good, and it really just comes down to what benefits you want and what annoyances you can live with.
Debian unstable is still a server-oriented OS, so you will be missing a lot of modern toys. Fedora is to RHEL/CentOS as Ubuntu is to Debian; Desktop-focused vs Server-focused, respectively.
Some key differences between Ubuntu and Fedora;
Fedora is more security-focused where Ubuntu is more usability focused. Your first user in Fedora will not have sudo setup. You will need to setup sudo yourself or use su as needed. Likewise, Fedora will ask you for the *root* user's password every time elevated credentials are needed. This is safer, but can feel more intrusive.
If you're a developer, Fedora uses RPM which I find much easier to work with than .deb packages. This is really personal preference though.
Fedora 15 *just* went gold, and will use Gnome 3. Whether this is a plus to you are not will largely depend on your computer.
Beyond these, I can't think of a whole lot of differences. I actually brought over Ubuntu's default theme to my Fedora box, so I guess I'd have to say that I like the look of Ubuntu more. :P
They're all good distros. Try it out and see if it suits you.
On 04/17/2011 09:23 AM, Digimer wrote:
Fedora is more security-focused where Ubuntu is more usability focused. Your first user in Fedora will not have sudo setup. You will need to setup sudo yourself or use su as needed.
FYI, this is changed in the coming F15. When you create the user on install there is a check-box (can't recall if it checked by default) asking if you want the user to be an "Administrator". If the box is checked the user will be added to the "wheel" group. This group is given ALL permissions in sudo.
On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 9:23 PM, Digimer linux@alteeve.com wrote:
On 04/16/2011 09:14 PM, Nikolaus Rath wrote:
I have been using Ubuntu for a couple of years, and I am increasingly unhappy with it. I dislike the Ubuntu One integration, I think upstart is irritating, and I am sick of my bug reports vegetating forever in Launchpad. Therefore I want to switch distributions, and I have already narrowed it down to either Debian unstable or Fedora (but a release, not rawhide).
Unfortunately I have a hard time deciding between the two, because I am very much biased by the fact that I have already used Debian in the past and a lot of experience with it. So I invariably come up with random nice Debian features which then turn out not to exist in Fedora. But on the other hand, all the nice Fedora features that Debian can't offer are unknown to me.
Hence, to allow me to make a good decision, I would be very happy to hear about your favorite Fedora feature that I would totally miss if I went with Debian.
Just to be clear: I am *not* interested in starting a Debian vs Fedora thread here. So am only asking for your pro-fedora points, so there shouldn't even be the possibility of a flamewar :-).
Debian unstable is still a server-oriented OS, so you will be missing a lot of modern toys. Fedora is to RHEL/CentOS as Ubuntu is to Debian; Desktop-focused vs Server-focused, respectively.
Debian unstable isn't just for servers! You can use any number of DEs.
I prefer Fedora because I prefer the default look and because I feel more comfortable with the "original" Mozilla applications.
Otherwise i find them to be pretty much the same with one exception. The pace of updates of Debian unstable slows down as a new Debian stable's about to be released and it then accelerates too quickly after the release (and you have to hold off on dist-upgrades so as not to break your install).
If you're a KDE user, you might want to try aptosid. It's based on Debian unstable (it used to be called sidux).
On 04/16/2011 06:14 PM, Nikolaus Rath wrote:
Hello,
I have been using Ubuntu for a couple of years, and I am increasingly unhappy with it. I dislike the Ubuntu One integration, I think upstart is irritating, and I am sick of my bug reports vegetating forever in Launchpad. Therefore I want to switch distributions, and I have already narrowed it down to either Debian unstable or Fedora (but a release, not rawhide).
Unfortunately I have a hard time deciding between the two, because I am very much biased by the fact that I have already used Debian in the past and a lot of experience with it. So I invariably come up with random nice Debian features which then turn out not to exist in Fedora. But on the other hand, all the nice Fedora features that Debian can't offer are unknown to me.
Hence, to allow me to make a good decision, I would be very happy to hear about your favorite Fedora feature that I would totally miss if I went with Debian.
Just to be clear: I am *not* interested in starting a Debian vs Fedora thread here. So am only asking for your pro-fedora points, so there shouldn't even be the possibility of a flamewar :-).
Best,
-Nikolaus
If you want very recent vintage software releases, then Fedora Rawhide is the way to go. But you say you file bugs that no one fixes. Well, I venture that if you switch to even the current release of Fedora, you might still encounter problems with one thing or another, and you will decide to file bugs. This what you get when you jump on a fast moving train. Lots of bumps and scratches. If you want something a lot more stable, mature and debugged over the years, then I suggest Centos-6 or RHEL 6, or Scientific Linux 6 (which like Centos, is a clone of RHEL6).
Linux is free software. Personally, if I encounter bugs (such as core dumps, or kernel oops or kernel panics), then I will open a bug, but will not insist that it be addressed. Or if some software is not working as documented, then the mailing lists usually provide answers. Some good, and some not so good.
Keep in mind that all the developers have regular jobs besides hacking linux, so they are not there to jump at our beck and call.
Good luck
JD
On 4/16/11 6:14 PM, Nikolaus Rath wrote:
Hello,
I have been using Ubuntu for a couple of years, and I am increasingly unhappy with it. I dislike the Ubuntu One integration, I think upstart is irritating, and I am sick of my bug reports vegetating forever in Launchpad. Therefore I want to switch distributions, and I have already narrowed it down to either Debian unstable or Fedora (but a release, not rawhide).
Here is my 'take' and this comes from someone who has been running Linux for almost 20 years (Slackware .91 anyone).
Fedora: Bleeding edge Linux distribution where anything can and does happen. However, this is where the action takes place and if you find something broken it is likely to get fixed (and might break other things in the process.) Debian: Old, creaking ancient and very, very stable. However, things are less likely to be fixed if you find they are broken.
Both can be used as a Desktop OS, but as pointed out Ubuntu is a much more friendly desktop OS, and is a little more 'bleeding edge'.
My suggestions, based on experience and being here when Fedora was originally released is that Fedora is Red Hat's "working copy" Linux distribution for future Red Hat Distributions and should never be used in a production level system. RHEL/CentOS is where you should be if you want a RedHat based distribution, much like Debian is where you should be if you want that type of distribution. Both have their pluses and their shortcomings. What you use is whatever fits your needs and you are always 'free' to modify what you get to suit your needs.
James McKenzie
Hi Nikolaus,
On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 6:14 PM, Nikolaus Rath Nikolaus@rath.org wrote:
Hence, to allow me to make a good decision, I would be very happy to hear about your favorite Fedora feature that I would totally miss if I went with Debian.
I don't exactly knwo what Debian unstable offers these days, but here is my take on this.
1. Python 3 - can be installed parallel to Python 2.6 + Support for Python specific commands within gdb 2. I have used Ubuntu for couple of years at the university, but I prefer rpm/yum over dpkg/apt/aptitude 3. Newer kernels + 2.6.38 for F15 + 2.6.35 for F14 + 2.6.34 for F13 4. Compared to Ubuntu, I feel the quality control on packages are higher in Fedora. I have very little experience with Debian, but from my few months of trying it out, although better than Ubuntu I found it lacking compared to Fedora. 5. Many others might debate this, but I feel more secure with SELinux set to enforce. I feel Fedora integrates SELinux much better than any other distro. 6. Again debatable, but I like LVMs. Not sure how good the support is in Debian. 7. Possibility to test bleeding edge technologies like the btrfs filesystem 8. Although the ppa system is nice, but I find the community repositories available for Fedora have a higher packaging standard and are in general more reliable.
Hope this helps.
On Sat, 16 Apr 2011 20:07:11 -0700 suvayu ali fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Nikolaus,
On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 6:14 PM, Nikolaus Rath Nikolaus@rath.org wrote:
Hence, to allow me to make a good decision, I would be very happy to hear about your favorite Fedora feature that I would totally miss if I went with Debian.
I don't exactly knwo what Debian unstable offers these days, but here is my take on this.
Typing this from a Debian testing machine, my primary workstation.
- Python 3 - can be installed parallel to Python 2.6
also possible on Debian
- Support for Python specific commands within gdb
- I have used Ubuntu for couple of years at the university, but I prefer rpm/yum over dpkg/apt/aptitude
- Newer kernels
- 2.6.38 for F15
2.6.38 for testing, 2.6.32 for squeeze(stable), possible to mix repos (stable+testing+unstable, for example)
- 2.6.35 for F14
- 2.6.34 for F13
- Compared to Ubuntu, I feel the quality control on packages are higher in Fedora. I have very little experience with Debian, but from my few months of trying it out, although better than Ubuntu I found it lacking compared to Fedora.
I might of course be biased, but to me Debian's quality control is like no other.
- Many others might debate this, but I feel more secure with SELinux set to enforce. I feel Fedora integrates SELinux much better than any other distro.
This is highly debatable, don't want to start a flamewar.
- Again debatable, but I like LVMs. Not sure how good the support is in Debian.
As good as in Anaconda.
- Possibility to test bleeding edge technologies like the btrfs filesystem
Idem.
- Although the ppa system is nice, but I find the community repositories available for Fedora have a higher packaging standard and are in general more reliable.
Hope this helps.
-- Suvayu
Open source is the future. It sets us free.
users mailing list users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
On 17 April 2011 01:14, Nikolaus Rath Nikolaus@rath.org wrote:
Hello,
Hence, to allow me to make a good decision, I would be very happy to hear about your favorite Fedora feature that I would totally miss if I went with Debian.
Best,
-Nikolaus
On Sun, Apr 17, 2011 at 11:14 AM, Nikolaus Rath Nikolaus@rath.org wrote: [snip]
Hence, to allow me to make a good decision, I would be very happy to hear about your favorite Fedora feature that I would totally miss if I went with Debian.
Dunno if this helps, but: https://kororaa.org/why-fedora/
-c
On 17 April 2011 01:14, Nikolaus Rath Nikolaus@rath.org wrote:
Hello,
Hence, to allow me to make a good decision, I would be very happy to hear about your favorite Fedora feature that I would totally miss if I went with Debian.
Just to be clear: I am *not* interested in starting a Debian vs Fedora thread here. So am only asking for your pro-fedora points, so there shouldn't even be the possibility of a flamewar :-).
Sorry for the other e-mail, somehow I clicked at Send.
In my opinion Debian is more of a stable system, thereof more used as a server I think. I don't know what Debian unstable has in their repos, but the stable releases of Fedora themselves use pretty recent software versions, not to mention rawhide. Debian's install is pretty simple and with it installed, there's only a few programs which were installed with it. That's good in some ways but a bit tough in other ways. Even if apt-get recognizes a lot of dependencies for simple programs, I think perhaps it may not detect some that may give normal functionality, one example that occurred while I was using devede with Arch Linux(pretty simple installl as well): pacman installed it with the dependencies all ok but it lacked the audio functionality and video converting. None of the files were able to be playable with the DVD, it worked in the PC but somehow some libraries wasn't installed at all for the complete functionality but only the required ones to have it properly installed.
One of the things I like in Fedora (I don't know if it's with Debain as well) is that it has already installed a bunch of useful libraries etc., to work on with most of the software you may install, that includes configuration GUI's as well. Having to search for such things when you really need to play something or work with an software that doesn't work at the moment is a bit tough and stressful, that's one of the good things I persoanlly like in Fedora and a bit difficult thing to deal with stable distros like that.
I also think many people use Debian as a desktop, but that's because they like the system and it suis their needs, if Debian or Fedora suits yours, I don't know, why don't try both?
2011/4/17 Nikolaus Rath Nikolaus@rath.org
Hello,
I have been using Ubuntu for a couple of years, and I am increasingly unhappy with it. I dislike the Ubuntu One integration, I think upstart is irritating, and I am sick of my bug reports vegetating forever in Launchpad. Therefore I want to switch distributions, and I have already narrowed it down to either Debian unstable or Fedora (but a release, not rawhide).
Unfortunately I have a hard time deciding between the two, because I am very much biased by the fact that I have already used Debian in the past and a lot of experience with it. So I invariably come up with random nice Debian features which then turn out not to exist in Fedora. But on the other hand, all the nice Fedora features that Debian can't offer are unknown to me.
Hence, to allow me to make a good decision, I would be very happy to hear about your favorite Fedora feature that I would totally miss if I went with Debian.
Just to be clear: I am *not* interested in starting a Debian vs Fedora thread here. So am only asking for your pro-fedora points, so there shouldn't even be the possibility of a flamewar :-).
Best,
-Nikolaus
Debian is very stable and apt-get is very easy. Fedora is unstable but it has more new software and new features. It is no a easy choice. So I agree Chris Smart's opinion, you had better try Fedora and Debian by yourself.
Hi Nikolaus
I'm thinking that you could make yourself a list of what apps you would like to have and another of what apps you really need to do your thing for both and compare. I have not found the problem you mention, of apps for one that are not on another.
I was a Fedora user since Red Hat 6.5 and about 18 months ago switched to Ubuntu 10 which does everything I need, then came Fedora 14 so I loaded it onto another hard drive and am quite chuffed because I have the best of both worlds. For me there is almost nothing to pick between them, I enjoy the differences particularly with trying to set up multi install in Drupal and SELinux on Fedora 14 Be warned, in Fedora you will get many, many SELinux reports until you teach it what is acceptable to you and what is not. That for me was a nuisance.
I have never bothered with Ubuntu one, in my reckoning that technology is still new enough to be avoided unless one knows what one is doing and has strong reasons for using it, I don't.
Roger
2011/4/17 Nikolaus Rath Nikolaus@rath.org
Hello, I have been using Ubuntu for a couple of years, and I am increasingly unhappy with it. I dislike the Ubuntu One integration, I think upstart is irritating, and I am sick of my bug reports vegetating forever in Launchpad. Therefore I want to switch distributions, and I have already narrowed it down to either Debian unstable or Fedora (but a release, not rawhide). Unfortunately I have a hard time deciding between the two, because I am very much biased by the fact that I have already used Debian in the past and a lot of experience with it. So I invariably come up with random nice Debian features which then turn out not to exist in Fedora. But on the other hand, all the nice Fedora features that Debian can't offer are unknown to me. Hence, to allow me to make a good decision, I would be very happy to hear about your favorite Fedora feature that I would totally miss if I went with Debian. Just to be clear: I am *not* interested in starting a Debian vs Fedora thread here. So am only asking for your pro-fedora points, so there shouldn't even be the possibility of a flamewar :-). Best, -NikolausDebian is very stable and apt-get is very easy. Fedora is unstable but it has more new software and new features. It is no a easy choice. So I agree Chris Smart's opinion, you had better try Fedora and Debian by yourself.
Roger arelem@bigpond.com writes:
Hi Nikolaus
I'm thinking that you could make yourself a list of what apps you would like to have and another of what apps you really need to do your thing for both and compare. I have not found the problem you mention, of apps for one that are not on another.
I am not talking about apps, I am talking about things like:
- ability to install completely on LVM (including /boot) - tracking of packages that were manually installed vs packages that were only installed to satisfy dependences - 3-way merge of changed configuration files on package upgrade - ability to do release upgrades live on a running system - excellent automated grub2 setup (os-prober)
Nothing of this is really essential, but these are nice Debian features that Fedora apparenttly doesn't have. Now I would like to know about stuff comparable to this that Fedora has, but Debian hasn't (I'm sure there are many).
Best,
-Nikolaus
On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 10:01 PM, Nikolaus Rath Nikolaus@rath.org wrote:
Roger arelem@bigpond.com writes:
Hi Nikolaus
I'm thinking that you could make yourself a list of what apps you would like to have and another of what apps you really need to do your thing for both and compare. I have not found the problem you mention, of apps for one that are not on another.
I am not talking about apps, I am talking about things like:
- ability to install completely on LVM (including /boot)
I've heard it can be done with Fedora. If you really want to. Check the wiki, maybe need to dig back a few versions.
- tracking of packages that were manually installed vs packages that
were only installed to satisfy dependences
- 3-way merge of changed configuration files on package upgrade
- ability to do release upgrades live on a running system
- excellent automated grub2 setup (os-prober)
FWIW, the Debian grub2 finds all my Fedora installs and puts them in the boot menu when I run the update utility. (It can't seem to overcome BIOS issues and boot from my third drive when I have all three hooked up, but that's a different issue. Fedora's classic grub isn't handling that well, either.)
Nothing of this is really essential, but these are nice Debian features that Fedora apparenttly doesn't have. Now I would like to know about stuff comparable to this that Fedora has, but Debian hasn't (I'm sure there are many).
I still suggest dual-booting and playing with both.
»Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a Banana.«
Semantic flies like a lead balloon.
;-9
Joel Rees
On 18 April 2011 14:01, Nikolaus Rath Nikolaus@rath.org wrote:
Nothing of this is really essential, but these are nice Debian features that Fedora apparenttly doesn't have. Now I would like to know about stuff comparable to this that Fedora has, but Debian hasn't (I'm sure there are many).
Debian has an advantage on number of packages available. Debian claims on its website to have 30 K packages. And this is on Fedora:
[xx@d3000 ~]$ yum repolist Loaded plugins: langpacks, presto Adding en_IE to language list repo id repo name status adobe-linux-i386 Adobe Systems Incorporated 18 fedora Fedora 14 - i386 17,880+3 rpmfusion-free RPM Fusion for Fedora 14 - Free 364 rpmfusion-free-updates RPM Fusion for Fedora 14 - Free - Updates 504 rpmfusion-nonfree RPM Fusion for Fedora 14 - Nonfree 176 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates RPM Fusion for Fedora 14 - Nonfree - Updates 267 updates Fedora 14 - i386 - Updates 6,346 repolist: 25,555
The total of 25 K is misleading as some packages are counted twice, so the Fedora total is probably around 20-22 K. Also there are other repos that I have not enabled, such as Atrpms.
On 04/25/2011 05:32 PM, Piscium wrote:
Debian has an advantage on number of packages available. Debian claims on its website to have 30 K packages. And this is on Fedora:
[xx@d3000 ~]$ yum repolist Loaded plugins: langpacks, presto Adding en_IE to language list repo id repo name status adobe-linux-i386 Adobe Systems Incorporated 18 fedora Fedora 14 - i386 17,880+3 rpmfusion-free RPM Fusion for Fedora 14 - Free 364 rpmfusion-free-updates RPM Fusion for Fedora 14 - Free - Updates 504 rpmfusion-nonfree RPM Fusion for Fedora 14 - Nonfree 176 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates RPM Fusion for Fedora 14 - Nonfree - Updates 267 updates Fedora 14 - i386 - Updates 6,346 repolist: 25,555
The total of 25 K is misleading as some packages are counted twice, so the Fedora total is probably around 20-22 K. Also there are other repos that I have not enabled, such as Atrpms.
This isn't really a good comparison as the same command in my Fedora 15 installation, gives me
repolist: 29,883
Raw count is a fairly meaningless measure. What would be interesting is to talk about what software if any that you use on a regular basis is missing from the Fedora (+ popular third party repos)
Rahul
On 25 April 2011 13:16, Rahul Sundaram metherid@gmail.com wrote:
The total of 25 K is misleading as some packages are counted twice, so the Fedora total is probably around 20-22 K. Also there are other repos that I have not enabled, such as Atrpms.
This isn't really a good comparison as the same command in my Fedora 15 installation, gives me
repolist: 29,883
Raw count is a fairly meaningless measure. What would be interesting is to talk about what software if any that you use on a regular basis is missing from the Fedora (+ popular third party repos)
Yours is a good point, and also the way I see things. So yes, everything I use on a regular basis is available in the repos I have currently enabled, plus a package or two in Atrpms. And there are also two applications that I build from source, but they are very specific and I think no distro has them yet (they are very simple to build anyway, so not worthwhile to package).
But then there is software I want to try out, and here the picture is different. So some weeks ago when I was looking at window managers I did log to Debian as they have a greater choice, but the one I eventually chose is both in Fedora and Debian.
On 04/25/2011 07:42 PM, Piscium wrote:
Yours is a good point, and also the way I see things. So yes, everything I use on a regular basis is available in the repos I have currently enabled, plus a package or two in Atrpms. And there are also two applications that I build from source, but they are very specific and I think no distro has them yet (they are very simple to build anyway, so not worthwhile to package).
What would those two be? If they are simple to build, no reason not to package them.
But then there is software I want to try out, and here the picture is different. So some weeks ago when I was looking at window managers I did log to Debian as they have a greater choice, but the one I eventually chose is both in Fedora and Debian.
Yep. Precisely the point. It's possible if you are picking up niche packages, one distro might have a advantage (often temporary because once you have it packaged, the metadata can be transferred fairly easily between RPM and Deb or whatever) but what gets used by users, I would be surprised if it wasn't already available in majority of cases and package count is immaterial.
Rahul
On 25 April 2011 15:15, Rahul Sundaram metherid@gmail.com wrote:
On 04/25/2011 07:42 PM, Piscium wrote:
Yours is a good point, and also the way I see things. So yes, everything I use on a regular basis is available in the repos I have currently enabled, plus a package or two in Atrpms. And there are also two applications that I build from source, but they are very specific and I think no distro has them yet (they are very simple to build anyway, so not worthwhile to package).
What would those two be? If they are simple to build, no reason not to package them.
I will mention just one of them, a Latin dictionary, created by William Whitaker: http://users.erols.com/whitaker/words.htm
When I started using Linux I used a tar ball with binaries provided by a college teacher somewhere in the USA, but then I realized it had an older version of the code and of the dictionaries. So I got the dictionaries from the Windows zip file and built the source myself from the website.
Interestingly it is written in Ada as the author worked for the American military. I thought of packaging it myself but it is unlikely I will do it anytime soon, so if anyone has an interest please go ahead.
It is very simple to build. It comes with good build instructions and one just calls gnatmake which does its magic. I did change one line of code for a different configuration setting, but it is possible alternatively to use a configuration file to the same effect.
And as it is not being developed anymore there is no work required on new versions of for bug fixing. Mind you, I have yet to find a bug.
On Sun, Apr 17, 2011 at 10:14 AM, Nikolaus Rath Nikolaus@rath.org wrote:
Hello,
I have been using Ubuntu for a couple of years, and I am increasingly unhappy with it.
I must say I don't blame you.
I'd rather use Apple than Ubuntu, myself.
I dislike the Ubuntu One integration, I think upstart is irritating, and I am sick of my bug reports vegetating forever in Launchpad. Therefore I want to switch distributions, and I have already narrowed it down to either Debian unstable or Fedora (but a release, not rawhide).
Cool.
I'm just beginning to pick up debian and play with it. (Working my way through the holes in my Linux knowledge by preparing for the LPIC.)
Unfortunately I have a hard time deciding between the two, because I am very much biased by the fact that I have already used Debian in the past and a lot of experience with it. So I invariably come up with random nice Debian features which then turn out not to exist in Fedora. But on the other hand, all the nice Fedora features that Debian can't offer are unknown to me.
I think, rather than not existing, they are done differently. (At least, that's what I find looking the other direction.)
Hence, to allow me to make a good decision, I would be very happy to hear about your favorite Fedora feature that I would totally miss if I went with Debian.
Hmm. How about a different question: How will you know what you are missing if you just go with one or the other?
Just to be clear: I am *not* interested in starting a Debian vs Fedora thread here. So am only asking for your pro-fedora points, so there shouldn't even be the possibility of a flamewar :-).
Several of the replies have suggested this, and I will join in. If you have the time, dual-boot. Or triple.
Or, if you're like me, use two or three hard drives and quad+ boot. (It gets a little hard to manage, but it can be done, especially if you're willing to use monolithic file systems for distributions you're just testing for a week or so. Also, if some of your OSses are BSDs, those can slice up a single BIOS level partition as they like, so you can have more per disk.)
TBH, I'm finding the third hard disk throws a bit of a wrench in the works. Grub does have a bit of a hard time with two, and it just gets worse with the third, especially when debian will use grub2 if you don't tell it otherwise. But dual and triple boot with two drives is workable.
Joel Rees
But dual and triple boot with two drives is workable.
Actually a gazillion boot system with only one drive is workable:
I had about 17 different linuxes on a box at work, all sharing a single small /boot partition by doing a dd command to copy out one /boot and copy in another when I wanted to boot a different linux (17 was where I ran out of space for root partitions on the LVM I had all my roots in).
-
Andrew Haley -
Chris Smart -
Digimer -
Ed Greshko -
Guilherme Patriota -
James McKenzie -
JD -
Joel Rees -
lowstz -
Nikolaus Rath -
Piscium -
Rahul Sundaram -
Rares Aioanei -
Roger -
Suvayu Ali -
Tom H -
Tom Horsley