7 ms·

For some reason I always assumed Google had their own customised OS built on top of Debian instead of using Ubuntu OOTB. Debian offers a much more stable base w

For some reason I always assumed Google had their own customised OS built on top of Debian instead of using Ubuntu OOTB. Debian offers a much more stable base which someone with the resources like Google has can easily customise for internal Engg usecases. Esp. in the last few years, Ubuntu has been having a rough time with the ups and downs, while Debain-land has been much calmer. End of the day, Ubuntu has to bring in new bells and whistles for the user community (which has backfired multiple times) as it's targeted as a daily general-use distro while Debian only has to guarantee stability. That's more or less the approach many Engg teams with much lesser Engg resources also take. Or are the Engg teams I've worked with just the minority?

rusk 9y ago
Hi, just to clarify, is "Engg" a shorthand for "Engineering"? I've never seen that form used before ... usually just "Eng" suffices ...
- adityab 9y ago
  Rather common in Indian English from what I've seen.
  - rusk 9y ago
    Ah! That explains it thanks!
  - fb03 9y ago
    Question: Is it Engg because it is suppressing the middle characters of the word, like Eng...g ? That's really amusing from my perspective (having lived in an Asian country) because for us Westerns, most abbreviations come from using the first few characters of a word. I've seen the same pattern in Japanese: The word "OSU", which people usually conjure to salute each other in the morning or as they enter a dojo or fight, is actually an abbreviation of "Ohayou Gozaimasu", built in the same way as I imagine the Indian English's "Engg" was built: Taking only the first and the last parts of the term. O(hayou gozaima)SU.
    - ndh2 9y ago
      i18n = internationalization l10n = localization
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
- nindalf 9y ago
  I've seen both shorthands used.
  - walshemj 9y ago
    I have not see the longer form
bad_user 9y ago
The bells and whistles of Ubuntu includes the firmware and drivers necessary for computers to work out of the box. In the past every time I tried out Debian on my laptops, I ended up with hardware problems. Last time this happened, my Wifi wasn't working due to Debian not including the device's firmware. And there was no easy fix available, the only thing I could do was to recompile the kernel by myself. I then installed Ubuntu and it worked out of the box. Ubuntu is decent even on one of my MacBook Pro laptops I have, which is filled with components that need proprietary drivers. My younger self wouldn't believe what I'm about to say, but I can't deal with hardware problems or any of that crap anymore. Still if I were to now buy a non-Apple computer, it's Ubuntu that I'd install on it. On Google, they have people dealing with this shit, providing round the clock support and standardized hardware. That's not something that small companies can afford to do.
- mnw21cam 9y ago
  Often the required firmware is in the non-free section of Debian, which isn't enabled by default for idealism/purity reasons. It is very simple to enable installation of packages from the non-free section, and then usually everything just works. Basically, Ubuntu have chosen a different default - it probably doesn't actually have any firmware that Debian doesn't. Neither approach is wrong.
  - smcl 9y ago
    Or if you are installing from a CD or USB image you can instead grab one of the "non-free" images which should have the necessary firmware and repositories setup and ready to use after initial install. I don't think it's very easy to find these directly from the website but in case anyone's interested here's the location: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/ https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-in...
  - jlgaddis 9y ago
    > It is very simple to enable installation of packages from the non-free section, and then usually everything just works. Not without a network connection, it doesn't. There are other ways (flash drive, etc.) to get the firmware onto the machine, of course, but I can understand bad_user's frustration.

rusk 9y ago

Hi, just to clarify, is "Engg" a shorthand for "Engineering"? I've never seen that form used before ... usually just "Eng" suffices ...

adityab 9y ago
Rather common in Indian English from what I've seen.
- rusk 9y ago
  Ah! That explains it thanks!
- fb03 9y ago
  Question: Is it Engg because it is suppressing the middle characters of the word, like Eng...g ? That's really amusing from my perspective (having lived in an Asian country) because for us Westerns, most abbreviations come from using the first few characters of a word. I've seen the same pattern in Japanese: The word "OSU", which people usually conjure to salute each other in the morning or as they enter a dojo or fight, is actually an abbreviation of "Ohayou Gozaimasu", built in the same way as I imagine the Indian English's "Engg" was built: Taking only the first and the last parts of the term. O(hayou gozaima)SU.
  - ndh2 9y ago
    i18n = internationalization l10n = localization
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
nindalf 9y ago
I've seen both shorthands used.
- walshemj 9y ago
  I have not see the longer form

bad_user 9y ago

The bells and whistles of Ubuntu includes the firmware and drivers necessary for computers to work out of the box. In the past every time I tried out Debian on my laptops, I ended up with hardware problems. Last time this happened, my Wifi wasn't working due to Debian not including the device's firmware. And there was no easy fix available, the only thing I could do was to recompile the kernel by myself. I then installed Ubuntu and it worked out of the box. Ubuntu is decent even on one of my MacBook Pro laptops I have, which is filled with components that need proprietary drivers. My younger self wouldn't believe what I'm about to say, but I can't deal with hardware problems or any of that crap anymore. Still if I were to now buy a non-Apple computer, it's Ubuntu that I'd install on it. On Google, they have people dealing with this shit, providing round the clock support and standardized hardware. That's not something that small companies can afford to do.

mnw21cam 9y ago
Often the required firmware is in the non-free section of Debian, which isn't enabled by default for idealism/purity reasons. It is very simple to enable installation of packages from the non-free section, and then usually everything just works. Basically, Ubuntu have chosen a different default - it probably doesn't actually have any firmware that Debian doesn't. Neither approach is wrong.
- smcl 9y ago
  Or if you are installing from a CD or USB image you can instead grab one of the "non-free" images which should have the necessary firmware and repositories setup and ready to use after initial install. I don't think it's very easy to find these directly from the website but in case anyone's interested here's the location: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/ https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-in...
- jlgaddis 9y ago
  > It is very simple to enable installation of packages from the non-free section, and then usually everything just works. Not without a network connection, it doesn't. There are other ways (flash drive, etc.) to get the firmware onto the machine, of course, but I can understand bad_user's frustration.