3 questions about new installations & updates

[Art Edwards]

On 11/27/2011 06:23 AM, Liam Proven wrote:
> On 25 November 2011 23:11, Robert Holtzman <holtzm at cox.net> wrote:
>> On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 06:59:44PM +0000, Liam Proven wrote:
>>
>>         .........snip.........
>>
>>> So, to answer #1, no, don't switch to Debian. It's less friendly,
>>> rather more old fashioned and does not include useful things that
>>> Ubuntu does. It also does not have a relatively friendly, welcoming
>>> support community like Ubuntu. If you have to ask, you don't want it.
>> First, Debian is no more or less "friendly" than Ubuntu, Ubuntu being an
>> outgrowth of Debian...
> The point for Ubuntu's creation being that building a working desktop
> out of Debian was too hard. It is much better now, but it's still not
> as simple.
>
>> and Debian's default Gnome 2.30.2 desktop is more
>> like Windows than Ubuntu's Unity or Gnome 3.
> And this is an /advantage/, is it?
>
>> Other than some proprietary drivers, what useful things does Debian lack
>> that Ubuntu doesn't? The only thing I had to install was
>> flashplugin-nonfree.
> Proprietary graphics-card drivers, proprietary wireless card drivers,
> or a tool to install them?
> Actual known named Mozilla apps, as opposed to renamed ones with the
> icons changed?
>
>> Squeeze (Debian 6.x) worked for me out of the box.
> Debian 6 won't recognise any of the PCMCIA *Ethernet* cards on my old
> Thinkpad, let alone Wifi. It doesn't work with /wired/ Ethernet cards.
> I had to get a USB Ethernet adaptor in the end. The 3rd or 4th one I
> tried (I forget) worked. None of the others.
>
>> The Debian support community is as welcoming as is Ubuntu's and about as
>> populous.
> It must have changed dramatically in recent years, then.
>
>> As far as it's being friendly, check the debian-users archive
>> and read the recent (current?) "Debian: A noob query" thread. The only
>> thing I find lacking in the Debian-users list is the entertainment
>> factor this list provides.
> I will!
>
I have to say that I spent many years using debian, and I was mostly
happy. The proprietary drivers was a significant issue, but I don't know
how that is now. The users list was just about as useful as ubuntu's. In
fact, it seems that the ubuntu lists used the debian lists as a model.

Art Edwards