Any thing specific to Ubuntu that Debian cannot do?

[Dynamo]

Hi,

Is there anything that is specific to Ubuntu that will not work on Debian?

Example 1: Ubuntu One cloud base drive.

Example 2: Arkeia Network Backup Software for Ubuntu
http://www.arkeia.com/en/partners/techn ... ers/ubuntu

Thanks for any advice.

[emariz]

DKMS, Ubuntu Software Store, Jockey, Xsplash, Upstart, Firefox...

[sinical]

I really wish the PPA's worked with debian Its nearly making me wanna switch over

[advocatux]

Hi,

Is there anything that is specific to Ubuntu that will not work on Debian?

Default brown theme color, it doesn't mix well with Debian logo

[craigevil]

DKMS, Ubuntu Software Store, Jockey, Xsplash, Upstart, Firefox...

$ apt-cache policy dkms
dkms:
Installed: 2.1.0.1-2
Candidate: 2.1.0.1-2
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091102 Firefox/3.5.5 works just fine same for iceweasel
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.4) Gecko/20091028 Iceweasel/3.5.5 (like Firefox/3.5.5; Debian-3.5.5-1)

Package upstart
* squeeze (testing) (admin): event-based init daemon
0.6.3-1+b1: armel ia64
0.6.3-1: amd64 hppa i386 mips mipsel powerpc s390 sparc
* sid (unstable) (admin): event-based init daemon
0.6.3-1+b1: armel ia64
0.6.3-1: alpha amd64 hppa i386 mips mipsel powerpc s390 sparc

Jockey doesn't do anything that a simple apt-get install doesn't already do.
Bugs in Jockey driver manager - https://bugs.launchpad.net/jockey

xsplash,usplash,plymoth all suck and make booting slower. feel free to time a default Debian install with karmic. Debian on my desktop boots to lxde in under 30 seconds, on my eee it boots in under 20 seconds.

So the answer to the OP is pretty much NO, there is nothing Ubuntu does that Debian doesn't already do.

[Dynamo]

Come on guys, you know what I meant. I was wondering about the important features that affect usability and performance. So far what I discover is:

- The theme is negligible.
- The Ubuntu Software Centre may be cool but I guess can be compensated by something else

- The lack of PPA in Software source seems more serious, lets say I use Wine and Avant Windows Navigator. I put their deb http://etc. in software source and each time I do system update, these software are also updated. Is it possible to do the same with Debian? As the line start with "deb" so I expect it to be possible. However, seems like PPA is not working OK (comment by "sinical" in post #3), what is it about exactly?

[craigevil]

Come on guys, you know what I meant. I was wondering about the important features that affect usability and performance. So far what I discover is:

- The theme is negligible.
- The Ubuntu Software Centre may be cool but I guess can be compensated by something else

- The lack of PPA in Software source seems more serious, lets say I use Wine and Avant Windows Navigator. I put their deb http://etc. in software source and each time I do system update, these software are also updated. Is it possible to do the same with Debian? As the line start with "deb" so I expect it to be possible. However, seems like PPA is not working OK (comment by "sinical" in post #3), what is it about exactly?

Wine is already in Debian repos as is awn. If you want a newer version of wine you can use the repo at:
WineHQ - Wine for Debian Lenny - http://www.winehq.org/download/deblenny

Seriously other than some off the wall package ubuntu has very few packages that debian doesn't. And most of them already have a 3rd party debian repo, check out the sources.list in my signature. Just using the 'official' debian repo lenny has over 20k packages and sid has close to 25k, add in debian-multimedia.org and you have even more.

[Polaris96]

Upstart qualifies as important. It's nice but I don't miss it.

TrueCrypt is a nice steganographic (hidden and encrypted) filesystem that we don't have. You could compile from source if you NEEDED it. ecryptfs is plenty good for most people.

probabaly Ubuntu's nicest feature is the multimedia repo. You get all the bells and whistles by simply coding:

Code: Select all

apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

I can't think of anything else important that isn't available here

[craigevil]

Debian utilities for Truecrypt (R) 4.3a source in Launchpad - https://launchpad.net/truecrypt-installer

While not an 'offical' debian script exoodles works great.
Easy way to install Multimedia codecs, flash, java, mplayer - LinuxQuestions.org - http://www.linuxquestions.org/blog/crai ... ayer-2092/

[Polaris96]

@ craigevil: many people know how much I love ubuntu lol. I USE debian.

[Roel63]

- The Ubuntu Software Centre may be cool but I guess can be compensated by something else

There is no need to compensate the Ubuntu Software Centre. The Software Centre is coming to Debian already.

It's in Sid by now.

[nadir]

how is it called? i can`t find it. thanks

[Roel63]

how is it called? i can`t find it. thanks

Can't find it at the moment, but look here:

http://juliank.wordpress.com/2009/11/30 ... to-debian/

Info was found through http://planet.debian.org

[julian67]

Here is one thing specific to Ubuntu that Debian cannot do:

Ship an install CD/DVD that includes software that depends on a proprietary service (Ubuntu One).

[Roel63]

Here is one thing specific to Ubuntu that Debian cannot do:

Ship an install CD/DVD that includes software that depends on a proprietary service (Ubuntu One).

But Debian developed contrib and non-free repositories to support proprietary drivers and firmware. Isn't that almost the same?

[julian67]

Here is one thing specific to Ubuntu that Debian cannot do:

Ship an install CD/DVD that includes software that depends on a proprietary service (Ubuntu One).

But Debian developed contrib and non-free repositories to support proprietary drivers and firmware. Isn't that almost the same?

No. http://www.debian.org/social_contract

Only software in main ever appears on the install CD. The default install never includes or offers non-free software or free software which requires non-free software to function.

Ubuntu made a similar claim, theirs was only free software on the default install. They quietly changed that to 'core applications will be free' to accommodate Ubuntu One.

There's also the issue of exploiting the trademark. Debian's trademarks are not owned by a commercial vendor who sells proprietary software/services, so you won't see the trademarks (and reputation and goodwill) exploited to sell a proprietary service. So there's another thing Ubuntu can do which Debian can't. I don't know of any example of Debian using the distro to monetize the user base.

At first sight it looks like a small change but it has bigger implications, not least the change in relationship from posing as a community-type distro to one which sees the users as a potentially profitable income stream. There are other moves towards this with the app store and Canonical's commercial partners. Again this is something Debian can't do, with the social contract stating

Our priorities are our users and free software

[refracta]

Any thing specific to Ubuntu that Debian cannot do?

suck

[Roel63]

Any thing specific to Ubuntu that Debian cannot do?

suck

Great, high-level, well explained opinion. These opinions make reading the Ubuntu forums so much more pleasant.

At first sight it looks like a small change but it has bigger implications, not least the change in relationship from posing as a community-type distro to one which sees the users as a potentially profitable income stream. There are other moves towards this with the app store and Canonical's commercial partners. Again this is something Debian can't do, with the social contract stating

Our priorities are our users and free software

The app store will be included in a next Debian release as well, as I already stated (see Planet Debian for details). Further, explanation understood. It seems the free software ideology is no longer a real issue to Ubuntu.

[refracta]

Great, high-level, well explained opinion. These opinions make reading the Ubuntu forums so much more pleasant.

nobody asked me to explain my opinion

If asked I would start with the color, hit on the launchpad integration, harp on the insane dependencies and ridiculous bloat, nag about how they use the 'free' word like it is going out of style yet seem to want to move further and further from 'free', and probably finish by talking about the linux ecosystem...but I hate to write a whole book so I simply say....suck...

[Polaris96]

@ Roel63:

I'm sorry, did you mean to imply that sarcasm is absent on UF? It must've changed a bit since last I was there.

Here are a few things ubuntu provides that cannot be readily obtained on the debian website:

1. Coffee mugs
2. (brown) T-shirts
3. moderators with really cool sounding handles
4. careful monitoring of help postings to prevent dangerous knowledge from reaching the novices
5. Christian, Moslem, satanic, Buddhist, Gay, Lesbian, and ungabunga ed.s to cater to the separatist in all of us
6. A sid package base in a distro intended for novices.

Hope this helps. Here's one for the road...

Code: Select all

sudo passwd root

c'mon

c'mon come ON ... you know you want to... EVERYbody tries it once.... it'll make you cool... and mature....