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Paul Sutton wrote: > Simon Avery wrote: >> Alan Pope wrote: >> >> >>> I personally use Ubuntu over Debian for two main reasons:- >>> * I like regular releases - Ubuntu releases a new version every 6 months, >>> which works for me. >>> * I like the community around Ubuntu. >>> >> That is something that annoys me about Debian sometimes - the anality of >> its contributors. >> >> I'm not going to get into an arguement with a hardcore debianite, but >> IMO rebadging Thunderbird and Firefox as Icedove and Iceweasel is just >> STUPID. Sorry - there's no other word for it! >> >> > Yeah, not only that it confuses people and when you try and explain the > reasoning it sounds really petty and hardly something a new user is going > to be impressed with. However I do understand why it's done. > > Paul > Some people do the right thing for the wrong reasons, some people do the wrong thing for the right reasons and some people do what they feel is right. I had the same frustration of trying to explain how the proprietary / non free branding elements in Firefox and Thunderbird lead to the Debian community creating iceweasel and icedove. However the Debian Community did the right thing (stuck to their 100% freedom ethos) for the right reason (being vigilant about complacency). Debian is the "standard bearer" for free software, and long may it continue to be. It is only when people ask "why do they do it that way?" that you can start to gain an understanding of the "purist" model that is Debian. And it is not like Debian can't be altered to a "non-purist" state by installing Firefox or Thunderbird (or in my case codecs for video from debian-multimedia.org). Debian challenges us to gain understanding in what it means to use (and abuse) free software. It asks us to conform to that standard, but does not restrict us if we should need something that doesn't fit the ethos of freedom. The point is this, by default what you get from Debian is a "purist" idea of what a free software distribution is. Once you have that the choice is yours with how you configure and augment that distribution. And finally lets remember that Debian is almost unique among GNU/Linux distributions in that there are no shareholders, corporations or good guys with loads of money backing it, Debian is 100% community based, sure it doesn't release distributions as often as some, but on the other hand updates are frequent and for the most part solid. RedHat, Suse, Ubuntu could all vanish tomorrow because they rely on financial model, Debian however only requires the good will of the community and that is a lot harder to kill. Perhaps these are the very reasons that so many other distributions are centred around Debian ? Tom. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html