I'm building a new home server from a scrap Compaq Deskpro 2000. I thought I'd use a more recent version of Debian, "Sarge" rather than "Woody", and so far it's been a nice expereince. CUPS didn't work, but BSD lpr was okay, so no harm done, and although things have changed, most things still just work - as they normally do in the Debian universe.
The biggest change is the migration from Perl 5.6 to 5.8 and Apache 1.3 to 2.0, which also means from a new version of mod_Perl too. I've still got a few things to fix at the moment, my home site is a tad broken at the moment, but I think that's just a minor fix - I hope.
I just installed Ubuntu on my laptop at the weekend and it all worked rather well. It's Debian based, but more aimed at the Desktop. Now I just need to play with it some more... My main point of happiness was that the wireless worked instantly, which took me ages to get right under plain Debian.
-Dom
Re:Ubuntu
ajt on 2004-11-02T15:58:01
I've seen a lot of press coverage about the various Debian variants of late. A colleague at work has used Knoppix to install Debian, it seems the world and his "spouse equivalent" are releasing Debian variants.
Ubuntu and UserLinux look very nice, but I don't like GNOME, so I prefer the look of the KDE variants like Knoppix or Kanotix et al. However, they are all feeding good stuff back into Debian and Linux in general, so I win whatever happens.
The new server isn't running X, so for this machine I've stuck with stock Debian, but for my desktop I'd consider a Debian variant. Though to be honest I found setting up Debian Sarge on a machine for my father so easy, much easier than Debain Woody, that I don't know if I actually need a fancy variant.
For notebooks I can see the point, I believe than the Debian variants are much easier to install, and do run reliably with all the hardware, almost as easy to work with as a Mac I'm told.
