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A lot of friends have these problems at University. Turns out the common factor is Ubuntu. After I tell them to install Debian and enable non-free sources, they

A lot of friends have these problems at University. Turns out the common factor is Ubuntu. After I tell them to install Debian and enable non-free sources, they never have weird bugs again.

raptorjesus 11y ago
Worth a try. Will spend an evening on this. Thanks for the heads up.
osense 11y ago
I sometimes get this feeling that Ubuntu is giving Linux a bad name, with all the weird stuff that happens (or unexpectedly fails to happen) when running it. Of course, I only have anecdotal evidence here... I've switched to Arch about a year ago and sure, the installation was a bit painful, but after that, I don't know... it just works (including the switch to the new 4.x kernel, but I'm given to understand that the jump was fairly minor). Oh, and Plasma 5 is pretty :) I had Debian for a while, but the outdated packages were killing me (and I was on testing). Other than that, I couldn't really complain.
- raptorjesus 11y ago
  Agreed. I've run the last two LTS releases on our ops servers and it has been a pain in the arse to be honest. I would like to have a bash at Arch but I can't be bothered to install it and it doesn't have a great security reputation. I'm not too fussed about up to date packages but a recent Python 3 would be nice.
  - ZenoArrow 11y ago
    Have you considered trying out CentOS on those ops servers? There's plenty of support and documentation online. Package versions do tend to lag a bit, but I believe Python 3 is available (EDIT: It is... http://sopel.chat/python3-centos7.html http://sopel.chat/python3-centos7.html ).
    - raptorjesus 11y ago
      Yeah we've got a number of CentOS 5 boxes and a CentOS 6 proxy. They are rock solid but terribly out of date. Python 3 is a compile it yourself on centos I understand.
      - dingdingdang 11y ago
        Interesting, I'm also servicing an ailing CentOS 5 server; un-upgradeable and a pain: currently having to migrate the core application onto a new server, haven't had issues with Ubuntu LTS for server usage in the past so that's what I'm going for but the discussion here makes me want to go with Debian instead next time!
      - ZenoArrow 11y ago
        Python 3 is available through a Red Hat supported repo for CentOS 6 and CentOS 7. https://access.redhat.com/products/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/Developer/#rhscl=&dev-page=5 https://access.redhat.com/products/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/...
ZenoArrow 11y ago
Thanks for the advice on Debian, I figured Ubuntu would be similar in stability to Debian Testing, as Ubuntu uses the same code base for its main repos AFAIR, perhaps I was wrong. Which release branch do you recommend to your friends? Debian Stable? To be fair to Ubuntu, I've had issues with distros other than Ubuntu, though admittedly I've not used Debian much.

A lot of friends have these problems at University. Turns out the common factor is Ubuntu. After I tell them to install Debian and enable non-free sources, they never have weird bugs again.

raptorjesus 11y ago

Worth a try. Will spend an evening on this. Thanks for the heads up.

osense 11y ago

I sometimes get this feeling that Ubuntu is giving Linux a bad name, with all the weird stuff that happens (or unexpectedly fails to happen) when running it. Of course, I only have anecdotal evidence here... I've switched to Arch about a year ago and sure, the installation was a bit painful, but after that, I don't know... it just works (including the switch to the new 4.x kernel, but I'm given to understand that the jump was fairly minor). Oh, and Plasma 5 is pretty :) I had Debian for a while, but the outdated packages were killing me (and I was on testing). Other than that, I couldn't really complain.

raptorjesus 11y ago
Agreed. I've run the last two LTS releases on our ops servers and it has been a pain in the arse to be honest. I would like to have a bash at Arch but I can't be bothered to install it and it doesn't have a great security reputation. I'm not too fussed about up to date packages but a recent Python 3 would be nice.
- ZenoArrow 11y ago
  Have you considered trying out CentOS on those ops servers? There's plenty of support and documentation online. Package versions do tend to lag a bit, but I believe Python 3 is available (EDIT: It is... http://sopel.chat/python3-centos7.html http://sopel.chat/python3-centos7.html ).
  - raptorjesus 11y ago
    Yeah we've got a number of CentOS 5 boxes and a CentOS 6 proxy. They are rock solid but terribly out of date. Python 3 is a compile it yourself on centos I understand.
    - dingdingdang 11y ago
      Interesting, I'm also servicing an ailing CentOS 5 server; un-upgradeable and a pain: currently having to migrate the core application onto a new server, haven't had issues with Ubuntu LTS for server usage in the past so that's what I'm going for but the discussion here makes me want to go with Debian instead next time!
    - ZenoArrow 11y ago
      Python 3 is available through a Red Hat supported repo for CentOS 6 and CentOS 7. https://access.redhat.com/products/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/Developer/#rhscl=&dev-page=5 https://access.redhat.com/products/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/...

ZenoArrow 11y ago

Thanks for the advice on Debian, I figured Ubuntu would be similar in stability to Debian Testing, as Ubuntu uses the same code base for its main repos AFAIR, perhaps I was wrong. Which release branch do you recommend to your friends? Debian Stable? To be fair to Ubuntu, I've had issues with distros other than Ubuntu, though admittedly I've not used Debian much.