Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
These are known as stable, testing and unstable. “stable” is, as you might expect, the most current robust edition. It is the one generally recommended for use – particularly on any computer which is to be used by the less computer-literate or for critical applications.
“testing” is similar, but includes software updates and additional packages which have not yet been deemed stable. There’s usually no harm in running this version and it may include some extra features that are beneficial to you.
“unstable” is, fairly obviously, not guaranteed to perform in a known and predictable way because it is where all the active Debian work is being expended. The unstable release is still under development and is being fixed and improved constantly.
The biggest gripe people have about Debian – well, perhaps besides it requiring three DVDs for a complete offline installation – is that “stable” is slow moving. There’s no release date at this time for the next stable Debian, for instance, while we know without any shred of doubt Ubuntu will be putting theirs forth in April.
“unstable” changes dramatically; it’s definitely not standing still. Yet, it’s also not something you’d put into a production environment for real-world purposes. If you’re keen on the bleeding edge of where Linux stands then maybe unstable is for you.
If, however, you don’t want to make choices about how brave you feel, how many discs you need, what type of desktop manager you wish to use – and even what the heck a desktop manager is and does – then Ubuntu is simply put a much better choice for you.
If you prefer a system that just installs and works then look no further than Ubuntu. If you’d rather kick off with a base system and then add what you need, Debian will be your choice.
If you need something with just that bit more spit and polish and user friendliness then it’s Ubuntu you seek; if you’re hankering for the widest possible collection of applications and utilities and games and programs then Debian is in your future.
Both have their place in the world. Indeed, without Debian there’d be no Ubuntu: that’s pretty clear.
Yet, it can’t be denied Ubuntu has made massive ground in improving the reputation of Linux. The penguin-festooned operating system used to be considered the arcane domain of weird supernerd command-line hackers. The efforts expended into Ubuntu are now making it easier to see Linux as something your grandmother really could use.
Ubuntu is shiner than Debian; its software repositories are smaller, but they’re more up-to-date. Make no mistake, Debian is stunning for what it is excellent at – and that’s being an expert’s system, a highly-customisable operating system, a platform for servers. But Ubuntu is stunning too for what it excels at – and that’s being a Linux for ordinary folk.
David Bass
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