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Old 10-15-2006, 09:06 PM   #1
MikahK
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Question about Debian


I have read that Ubuntu is a Debian Linux. What exactly does that mean? Is SUSE Debian also and is Debian something I want?
 
Old 10-15-2006, 09:10 PM   #2
rickh
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Xandros is also a Debian Linux. (Suse is not.) Xandros might be easier for you to start with, but you may well have to buy it.

Do you want Debian? I don't know. It's the best, but evidently it's not for everyone.
 
Old 10-15-2006, 09:20 PM   #3
stress_junkie
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PCLinuxOS is built on Debian but it has a lot of stuff to make maintaining it easier than the straight Debian distribution. It's great.
 
Old 10-15-2006, 09:55 PM   #4
musicman_ace
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The reason people says that Ubuntu is Debian, or CentOS is Redhat is because lots of distrobutions evolve from one of the big names. This is probably not an exhaustive list, but here are the main types of distros

Redhat based (fedora, redhat, centos, possibly Suse)
Debian based (Debian, Ubuntu, Kubuntu)
Slackware based (Slackware, I think YellowDog)
Source based (LinuxFromScratch, Gentoo)


Now there are people that will take it a step farther by saying a distro is Gentoo based when Gentoo is categorized as "Source Based". It all means that the package management and updating tools are the same for each distrobution that is based on the Main variant. Usually they will specify a new distro being based on a very old distro. Redhat, Debian and Slack have been around for a long time and have very good reputations, so people base their new distro off of one of these to hopefully inform newcomers what to expect from their distrobution.

For you question about Suse. Suse has been around a long time, and I tend to think of it as Redhat based, but it also has commercial tools(YaST) that I don't think are available to be used on other distros. This might make it separate into a whole new catagory. I've not seen another Yast tool on any other distro. I do believe that Suse uses an RPM repository which is why I classify it as Redhat based.

Last edited by musicman_ace; 10-15-2006 at 09:58 PM.
 
Old 10-15-2006, 10:11 PM   #5
pixellany
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rickh
It's the best, but evidently it's not for everyone.
Did you mean to say: "IN MY OPINION, it is the best."??

I have been assured that Slackware is the best, but I have not yet been convinced. I use Fedora becuase I was assured it was best (It's NOT--it has flaws)

the "best" Linux distro is defined as the last one you try.
 
Old 10-15-2006, 10:12 PM   #6
pixellany
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stress_junkie
PCLinuxOS is built on Debian but it has a lot of stuff to make maintaining it easier than the straight Debian distribution. It's great.
I had the impression that PCLOS spun off of Mandrake/Mandriva. Are they both related to Debian?
 
Old 10-15-2006, 10:23 PM   #7
DeusExLinux
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PcLinuxOS is based off Mandriva/Mandrake, not Debian (although I do beleive it uses apt-get).. Mandriva is losely based off Red Hat (if I remember correctly).

There are more choices though, arch (what I use), is loosly based off a source distro with a bit of slackware thrown in.

It raelly just comes down to init scripts, pacakge managers, and basic configuration scripts.
 
Old 10-15-2006, 10:32 PM   #8
farslayer
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You could just consult the Debian website for what they refer to as Children Distros... Debian has lots of children..

http://www.debian.org/misc/children-distros

Personally If I'm going to use a Distro I will typically choose the Parent rather than one of the Children..

I left Mandrake to go with Redhat.. ( way back when Mandrake was based off RH but a LOT has changed since then..)
After RH Frustrated me I switched to Debian and haven't looked back. Debian was the right choice for me. ymmv

Last edited by farslayer; 10-15-2006 at 10:37 PM.
 
  


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