this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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Ubuntu's popularity often makes it the default choice for new Linux users. But there are tons of other Linux operating systems that deserve your attention. As such, I've highlighted some Ubuntu alternatives so you can choose based on your needs and requirements—because conformity is boring.

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[–] cbarrick@lemmy.world 90 points 9 months ago (31 children)

From an engineering perspective, I prefer Debian distros. Apt is the greatest package manager ever built. For a production server, I'd choose Debian or maybe Ubuntu if I needed to pay someone for support.

But for a desktop, Ubuntu kinda sucks. These days, I think I'd recommend Fedora to Linux noobs.

And for my toys at home, I run Arch btw.

[–] xor@infosec.pub 0 points 9 months ago (4 children)
[–] cbarrick@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Yep. From an engineering perspective I prefer Debian distros. Ubuntu is a Debian distro. I said I would consider using Ubuntu in prod, and this is the reason.

[–] nooneshere@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What can the apt of Debian do that Ubuntu can't

[–] cbarrick@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Nothing. They're mostly the same thing.

The Ubuntu version will sometimes print "ads" to your terminal :P.

For a prod server, I'd choose Debian over Ubuntu if I didn't have paid support, because I'm not a fan of Canonical. If I needed paid support, I'd choose Ubuntu, because Debian is strictly a community distro. (That community happens to include major companies, like Google.)

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