Debian vs Ubuntu are both great flavors of the Linux operating system. They were both designed and targeted at the normal computer user.
Thus, they are competitive alternatives to the Windows and OS X monopolies. In this article, we’ll give you a quick brief on both distributions. Btw, you may be interested in our list of best Linux distros.
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Debian vs Ubuntu – What’s Your Flavor?
Debian is one of original Linux distros developed back in 1993 by Ian Murdock. It was a community driven open source flavor of Linux designed to be robust, capable and most importantly free.
Unlike most Linux distros, Debian is supported by its passionate community of developers with no particular commercial organization in charge.
According to The Linux Counter Project over 16% of machines run on Debian. Which makes it the second most used Linux distribution in the marketplace.
However, it’s not very user-friendly. Although the development community have been making efforts in the past several years to change that; there’s still lots of room for improvement.
From a Debian vs Ubuntu hardware compatibility perspective, Debian does not put hardware limitation except those put by Linux or kFfreeBSD kernel and the GNU tool-sets. Take a quick look at this list for compatibile desktop and handheld device architectures.
Furthermore, Debian provides a small library of software availability. But the good news is that most Ubuntu software will run on Debian.
Here is good resource for software available in the Debian system.
One great feature of Debian is its stability. When Debian releases a stable version, you best believe it’s stable. This is due impact to its robust testing community that ensure all bugs are fixed before release.
Its performance is faster and more reliable than Ubuntu. It maintains a much larger support community that is more technically oriented.
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So what’s up with Ubuntu?
On the other hand, Ubuntu is a fork of Debian developed by a company called Canonical Limited. Canonical Limited was founded by Mark Shuttleworth (also founder of Thawte).
Wait – what is a “fork” you ask?
A fork is simply when anyone (in this case a developer) takes the source code from Project A; copies it and starts developing it independently as Project X.
So therefore, Ubuntu is basically a copy of Debian with the goal of making a more user-friendly version of Debian. Its mission is to make Linux user-friendly to the average computer user.
It is much more newer than Debian with its first release in October 2004. The term “Ubuntu” is an African concept which basically means “I am what I am because of who we all are”.
How is Debian vs Ubuntu compared you may wonder?
According to the the same statistics provided by The Linux Counter Project, over 23% of all machines run on Ubuntu. Thus making it #1 most used Linux distro and higher than Debian in terms of installations/utilization.
Although Ubuntu a free and open source software like Debian; it’s privately developed and managed by Canonical Limited.
Comparatively, Ubuntu beats Debian hands down when it comes to ease of use.
Ubuntu is easy to use. It’s made for newbies and provides features such as cloud storage, software center (for software updates), and media management (for managing all our media).
Likewise, Ubuntu is compatible with a wide array of hardware devices. Information on supported hardware can be found here.
Additionally, it boasts hundreds of Linux-compatible software options available for easy install. Visit https://packages.ubuntu.com/ to search for available software packages.
Remember we mentioned that Ubuntu is a fork of Debian?
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Be that as it may, it’s not as stable as Debian. This is in part due to Ubuntu’s extra features that certainly makes it more prone to bugs and crashes.
However, you can take consolation in the fact that its still more stable than Windows :). But that is a topic for another day.
Same thing applies when it comes to performance; Debian performs better. All the added features affect Ubuntu’s performance. But yet again, it still performs better than Windows :).
Final Thoughts
In conclusion of Debian vs Ubuntu, both distros are great Linux operating systems. Some users prefer Debian over Ubuntu. While others prefer Ubuntu over Debian.
Debian is more for the technies while Ubuntu is more for the newbies. Give both a try. You will be glad you did.