Looking for a bit of advice...I have been using Ubuntu 14.04 for a few months now, so I was wondering if I should take a stab at Debian and if it would be more than I can handle. I know Ubuntu is based on Debian, so I thought why not try the original.

There isn't an awful lot more to installing Debian than Ubuntu. The main difference I can think of is that proprietary drivers and firmware for wireless and graphics cards are installed a little differently by enabling non-free repositories and installing rather than using Jockey. DVD playback may also require adding the deb-multimedia repository but, again, it's very straightforward.
You will also find that Debian Stable will have older versions of applications for stability reasons (though security fixes are kept up to date) which my or may not bother you.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks 273 for the quick reply.

If you need a wireless driver, you have to get it first and put it on a usb stick. Then the Debian installer will install it along with the other software.

Debian wireless works out of the box, unless you install just the command-line version.

My hardware doesn't until the non-free drivers are installed. This thread could use a poll so I could have clicked Debian.

Other than firmware for wireless and a few video cards, Debian is now practically Ubuntu. Case in point; that Synaptic garbage is now part of a default installation (which can be joyfully avoided by installing a minimal system, then adding only what is wanted). So you probably would not have any problems.

If, however, you miss the nuances of Buntu, you can do what most new Debian users do these days. Enable sudo and give it total root access, allowing mentally retarded Buntu-style sudo abuse. If that is done to a standard installation, Debian is just like Buntu. (If you migrate to Debian, please do not do that.)

If by "sudo abuse" you mean adding this line (the one in bold) to the /etc/sudoers file:
then it would be a service if you would show us your non-abusive version of your sudoers file.
Thanks,
jdk

1) I do not have a sudoers file.
2) The first step is to understand what the purpose of sudo is. The rest will then fall into logical place.
Your welcome.

Debian lets you login as root. There's no need to sudo things you intend to run as root as you can become root. That's the debian default. You can do that in ubuntu too, by breaking things a bit.

Debian tends NOT to install everything by default. So you'll likely have to install the things you use. Things like drivers for proprietary things like graphics cards and wireless cards. If you wish to game you'll probably want to run the testing or sid version of debian. Debian stable / wheezy uses glibc 2.13 which isn't great for games that use openGL which will likely require glibc 2.14 or later.

I use debian over ubuntu. There's just too much cruft on ubuntu by default. Which can be a bit fragile if you go off the ubuntu road. As in non-unity wm's. In debian you can use other wm's without breaking the abilities of your hardware to function. Maybe ubuntu has changed, but I tried using IceWM under ubuntu in the 10.04-12.04 days and usb-storage stopped working and some networking woes as well. I've never had issues like that in debian.

There is nothing wrong with sudo. I personally could never get on with using it instead of su, but it's a good tool. Obviously if it's set up passwordless, then that might not be a great idea.

The reason why some users hate it so vehemently is due to how it has been handled by Ubuntu on their official forums - i.e. forced and discussion of enabling the root account banned/censored on their forums, posts deleted and in some cases users actually banned. If this had never been the case, the kind of anti sudo sentiment you see a lot of today would be much lessened if not almost non existent.

As for Debian, the days of that being a difficult distribution to install and configure are long gone. The biggest hurdles for most users is installing non-free firmware or drivers, once that hurdle has been jumped it's pretty much plain sailing. You can actually get CD images including firmware for anyone who might need them. If you have broadcom wireless and are relying on that to work during install, you're out of luck however as I don't know of any distributions which redistribute their firmware.

No there is not. Sudo is a tool that performs the function it was designed for very well.

I cannot speak for others, but I do not hate sudo, for the reason stated above. What I hate is ignorant abuse of that tool.

For some people the last remaining hurdle is replacing the "ugly" founts.

(Yes, I am in a bitchy mood today.)

Thanks all for the feedback.

I was under the impression that /etc/sudoers came with the sudoers package. Am I mistaken?
I'd love to hear your opinion on the purpose of sudo and what constitutes "ignorant abuse of that tool". Forgive me for being so slow but nothing you write is falling "into logical place."
jdk

My opinion about root access - it's my computer and I should have access to it. I understand the need for security on a multiuser system; however, for my personal computer it's whatever works simply and sudo works...