Re: distributions: UBUNTU vs DEBIAN

Attila Horvath wrote:
What is the difference between UBUNTU and DEBIAN
installations/distributions?
Debian is a free operating system almost always used with the Linux kernel, available on x86, m68k, sparc, alpha, ppc, arm, mips, hppa, ia64, s390, and (in development) amd64 and ppc64 hardware architectures. There are ports in a variety of developmental phases providing Debian for the FreeBSD, NetBSD, GNU/Hurd, and Solaris kernels. Its focus is on providing 1) a "universal" operating system, that is, one suited to the widest possible variety of applications, and 2) a system composed entirely of free (libre) software, and 3) a stable and dependable computing environment.

At any given point in time, there are three flavors of Debian available: the 'stable' release, which receives only security updates and is the most rigorously tested; 'testing', which will become the next stable release after QA and bugfixes; and 'unstable' which contains the newest packages and changes frequently. Packages move from the unstable area into testing after a QA process and a waiting period.

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution managed by Canonical Inc. It is currently available for three processor architectures (x86, amd64, ppc). Ubuntu is known for shipping very recent versions of GNOME as well as their focus on easy installation and use. You will probably get a better description from Ubuntu users.
I see where UBUNTU is derived from DEBIAN. How much of DEBIAN does UBUNTU
incorporate or does it matter since UBUNTU accesses DEBIAN's repositories
for package updates?
Ubuntu uses Debian's software packaging technology, the Advanced Packaging Tool (APT). Their installation system is also (or at least was at one time) derived from Debian's installer. The two distributions maintain their own separate software repositories. Mixing packages from the two distributions is not advisable and would have unpredictable (and almost certainly undesirable) effects.



cmr


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