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I'd say the ease with which Debian can be kept up-to-date as a rolling distribution (just follow testing or unstable (which isn't all that unstable, breakage is
by Yetanfou 9y ago
I'd say the ease with which Debian can be kept up-to-date as a rolling distribution (just follow testing or unstable (which isn't all that unstable, breakage is rare, for that you want experimental)) versus the convoluted process of moving from one Ubuntu release to the next. Where Debian can be kept in line with apt update; apt dist-upgrade (or full-upgrade which does the same) Ubuntu generally necessitates a re-install between releases.
- mschuster91 9y ago> Ubuntu generally necessitates a re-install between releases. What? I have taken fossilized servers neglected for ten years and managed to successfully get them to 16.04 LTS - stuff is harder with Debian where e.g. mysql-server has disappeared in buster and replaced by MariaDB.
- Yetanfou 9y agoIt is possible - but officially discouraged - to do a dist-upgrade on Ubuntu. Sometimes it works, other times it 'almost' works. It is the latter problem which makes the official discouragement a reasonable precaution against breakage. Things like the mysql->mariadb migration in Debian might necessitate manual intervention but this is made clear from the onset.
- NathanOsullivan 9y agodist-upgrade is discouraged on Ubuntu for switching releases because there is a supported tool for the same purpose called "do-release-upgrade".