Debian and Ubuntu: uneasy coexistence continues

Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 04 August 2009 06:36

Business IT - Technology

The mailing list discussion was a long one; Werner Baumann summarised things neatly when he pointed out that two synchronisations between Debian and Ubuntu had emerged from the discission.

Baumann saw one scenario as follows: "Debian freezes in December; Debian developers concentrate on fixing RC bugs; Ubuntu developers concentrate on including newer versions of major software packages; When the number of RC bugs in Debian is low enough Ubuntu freezes; Ubuntu and Debian release at approximately the same time; With this model Debian developers will bear the main burden of bug fixing while Ubuntu will use the time to integrate newer software packages."

And the second: "Debian and Ubuntu freeze at the same time (December?); Debian and Ubuntu developers coordinate in fixing RC bugs Debian and Ubuntu release at about the same time; With this model the burden is shared and both operating system will be at the same state with respect to the main components; Differences will be according to different philosophy (questions asked by the installer, components and configuration of a standard installation, what is "user friendly"); There may be also differences in the versions of main software packages, but this differences would be clear at freeze time and due to different philosophy.

He summed it up thus: "While I think model 2 could prove useful for Debian and Ubuntu I can't see what Debian would gain from model 1. I believe this discussion would look very different if Ubuntu says it agrees on model 2," Baumann wrote.

To go back a bit, the friction between the two projects has always existed. In 2005, the founder of the Debian project, Ian Murdock, was concerned enough to call for timely release cycles by the Debian project. At the time, he also urged that an attempt be made to keep the growing family of Debian derivatives united around the common core of the distribution.

At least some Debian developers appeared at that time to think that Ubuntu takes more than it gives; this led in part to some wearing T-shirts with the words "F--- Ubuntu" at the annual Debian conference in Mexico in 2006 - an occurrence cited by one developer as his reason for leaving the Debian project.

Back at that time, some of the common frustrations felt by the Debian crowd were outlined by long-standing Debian developer Martin Krafft in a lengthy posting on his blog soon after the conference. And another Debian veteran, Joey Hess, voiced fears that Ubuntu was reducing Debian to "a supermarket of components."

And today, judging by the mailing list discussion which was gone through after the Debian announcement, it looks like we are back in that 2006 timeframe.