From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,44ae7ca9a8aafe18 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news3.google.com!proxad.net!news.in2p3.fr!in2p3.fr!news.ecp.fr!feeder1.cambrium.nl!tudelft.nl!txtfeed1.tudelft.nl!feeder4.cambrium.nl!feed.tweaknews.nl!not-for-mail From: Ludovic Brenta Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Which Linux is best on lab top References: <1177462063.781671.49050@c18g2000prb.googlegroups.com> Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:39:02 +0200 Message-ID: <871wi8oksp.fsf@ludovic-brenta.org> User-Agent: Gnus/5.110006 (No Gnus v0.6) Emacs/21.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:Ga7n9pINRsXgfY8iDxaN34ENfsM= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: Tele2 X-Trace: DXC=0V9Y_oi`Kh5gC>1ZBi:o1:6`Y6aWje^Y:o<6IamL;BH Anh Vo writes: > I am looking for a Linux flavor with easy setup, more driver support > and auto update. Red Hat is not quite good on these areas. Ubunto > Linux does provide these capabilities according what I have read and > heard. However, I would like to hear from the experts who have been > using it. Thanks. Like others have said, it really boils down to Debian or Ubuntu. People installing Ubuntu usually download a new 650-meg ISO image and reistall from scratch every 6 months. Only a few of them know about the better alternative, which is... People installing Debian usually install only once, and upgrade in place whenever they want. They choose between stable, testing and unstable and track that. Neither Debian nor Ubuntu have auto-upgrade, because Debian doesn't do things behind people's back. You ask for an upgrade explicitly, when you choose to, and it is very easy because APT tracks dependencies and preserves your configuration files. I have a machine at home where I installed Debian 3.0 "Woody" in late 2002 and never reinstalled since (this machine doesn't boot from CD or network and its diskette drive died since, so I *couldn't* reinstall from scratch even if I wanted to). It now runs Debian 4.0 "Etch". The same holds for my two laptops (first installed in March 2004 and November 2006 respectively, and constantly upgraded to track Etch). The Ada toolchain is not on the Ubuntu CD-ROMs; you have to install from the network. The Ada toolchain is on the Debian CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs; you can install either from there or from the network. I do not receive bug reports filed against Ubuntu, or read the Ubuntu mailing lists or forums. But I do see the Debian bug reports and I am on Debian mailing lists (e.g. debian-gcc@lists.debian.org). So my advice is: go with Debian, the mother of all distributions. Why use a derivative when you can have the original? Of course you may think I'm biased. I'm not. I chose Debian in 2002 because it was the largest distribution and because it was possible for outsiders like me to contribute. If things changed, I would consider switching again, but so far Debian has kept its promises. PS. Thanks to Jeffrey, Georg, Pascal and Alex for the kudos. -- Ludovic Brenta.