4 ms·
In the early 2000s, several things happened at around the same time. * Red Hat Linux (previously the go-to desktop linux) was discontinued in favour of RHEL/Fe
by michaelt 3y ago
In the early 2000s, several things happened at around the same time.
* Red Hat Linux (previously the go-to desktop linux) was discontinued in favour of RHEL/Fedora in ~2003.
* Ubuntu was first released in 2004.
* Around 2000 a new release would come as a CD image and the normal way of upgrading was to wipe out everything except your home directory. This meant trying out a new distro was pretty much as easy as upgrading your existing one.
* As you say, although Yum was released in 2002, apt-get had been around since 1998, and so at that time was more mature.
* Wifi became increasingly common, and almost always needed proprietary binary blobs. Proprietary ATI and nvidia linux drivers became available. And of course MP3 was widespread.
Ubuntu arrived at an opportune moment - former Red Hat users looking for a new home, users used to wiping their system and installing a new distro, and clear benefits if wifi, graphics and MP3 all work out the box.
- reidrac 3y agoIn my circles, and for a long time, "Ubuntu" meant "I can't install Debian". Because Debian used a text based install that required a bit more knowledge (and reading), and Ubuntu was more user friendly at the time.
- varjag 3y agoSuch a weird flex. Debian sure wasn't Slackware, it was one of the easiest distros to install and manage. It took years until commercial distros like RedHat could catch up.
- stephenr 3y agoThe point of the quote isn't that Debian is hard. It's that people chose a worse distro because they need hand holding. Consider a comparable quote: > Taskrabbit is an ancient Swedish word meaning "I can't assemble IKEA furniture".
- brnt 3y agoThe Debian install wizard is quite long and technical. I can see how Ubuntu (no more than a handful of questions) appeals.
- avhon1 3y agoI remember my first time trying to install Debian, being a total noob to the whole thing. I thought parts of the installer were broken, because I couldn't toggle TUI checkboxes. Every time I tried, the installer would instead jump to the next screen. Years later, I figured out that you're supposed to use the spacebar to select/toggle UI elements, not the Enter key. Nobody told me that, and the text-mode installer certainly doesn't tell you! Ubuntu 11.04, on the other hand, was no trouble to install.
- stephenr 3y agoAs usual Urban Dictionary has the goods: > Ubuntu is an ancient african word, meaning "I can't configure Debian" https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ubuntu https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ubuntu