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Ask HN: Debian 8 or Ubuntu?

1 points by riggid ↗ HN
I am going to update one of my servers (linux, apache, mysql, php) in the comming months. Should I use Debian 8 (it will come out this year, right?) or some flavour of Ubuntu?

My main goal is: A server that just works and gets security updates. For as long as possible.

7 comments

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cogburnd02
Debian. Because less 'WTF!?'-stuff.
huydotnet
What is the 'WTF-stuff' in Ubuntu? What's wrong with it?
cogburnd02
Let's start with invasion of your privacy; from gnu.org [1]: "As of October 2012, Ubuntu sends personal data about users' searches [2] to a server belonging to Canonical, which sends back ads to buy things from Amazon."

More at [3].

I don't know if this problem persists, but it's enough for me to choose a distro that never did something like this to begin with.

[1] http://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.html

[2] http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/10/does-ubuntus-amazon-lens-...

[3] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/ubuntu-spyware.html

huydotnet
OK. That's all about privacy, right?

The good thing of Ubuntu is it's more stable than the other ones I used (Puppy, openSUSE,...), the last time I tried, Ubuntu booted ok with my Pentium 3, 128MB RAM, Intel onboard GPU.

The Ubuntu 8.x to 9.x sucks, but for 10.x and upper, it's cool again, at least, that's a good choice for Linux beginner :D

mrmondo
Yeah I know that feeling man - we've got a heap of devs and if one of them is complaining about something really silly that you shouldn't have to worry about in 2015 - it's almost always Ubuntu - Ubuntu's who ecosystem seems 'hacky' - where as Debian - We now run on hundreds and hundreds of our servers - it's far more up to date (with Backports) then RHEL based servers, more stable and less 'wtf' than Ubuntu and security updates are released lightning quick - my only gripe with Debian is the lack of decent SELinux policies by default.
dassreis
Security updates should be available as readily for Debian.

I think you should use whichever you're most familiar with and most comfortable using.

mrmondo
Debian - they test their packages properly and make sensible decisions (most of the time).