OT: What's the deal with Ubuntu?

[Jiann-Ming Su]

On 5/9/05, Kanwar Ranbir Sandhu <m3freak at rogers.com> wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
> 
> There's a lot of talk around the Linux camp about Ubuntu: why? I've read
> some reviews about it and a few snippets here and there of users
> opinions on it, but I still don't get it.
> 
> Short of installing Ubuntu myself, can anyone give me a quick run down
> on why Ubuntu is apparently rising like a rocket?  Any big differences
> between Ubuntu and Fedora, besides the fact that Ubuntu is based on
> bleeding-edge Debian?
> 

I've been using RH since RPM was a perl script.  When I was finally
exposed to the power of apt, I haven't looked back.  I still do RH for
systems that need the application support, but for my personal systems
it's all Debian.  Ubuntu is Debian based, but they update more
quickly.  There's pros and cons to this.  If you are doing pure
development work, you probably don't want your platform changing all
the time.  Ubuntu concentrates on i386 systems, which allows them to
update more quickly.  Debian doesn't stablize until all platforms that
it supports are working.  Debian's biggest fault was their installer,
which I think is no longer an issue.  The Woody installer was
unuseable.  But, the new Sarge is very good, especially the
netinst/businesscard CD.  I think Ubuntu has its own installer.  Yum
comes close, but apt and the rich Debian repositories is worth the
switch.
-- 
Jiann-Ming Su
"I have to decide between two equally frightening options. 
 If I wanted to do that, I'd vote." --Duckman