Debian, Ubuntu, and dpkg
Over the last few days, I’ve been trying to get GMT up and running on Ubuntu 9.10. I’ve run into several roadblocks and difficulties along the way, including problems with installing and accessing supporting software packages. The one that’s been causing me the most headaches is GDAL.
Kurt was helping me to figure it all out, and in the process introduced me to a new command that I’d never used before: dpkg. He got me to use it to look for installed packages. I looked up the man page for it, and discovered that it is a package manager for Debian. Which led to my question “What is Debian?”. I’ve seen all kinds of references to Debian in Ubuntu, and lots of cross references in documentation and online forums. I always thought Debian was a completely different OS, but there is more to it than that.
Here is a link to a page on the Ubuntu website: Debian and Ubuntu. Ubuntu is built on the Debian Linux distribution. It is supposed to have more frequent security updates, a nicer desktop user interface, and frequent system updates so that an up-to-date Ubuntu system will provide access to software packages that are at most 6 months old. The Ubuntu website also claims that they provide bug fixes and feedback to Debian during their development process, not just at the release. In fact, there are supposedly several Ubuntu developers who are also Debian developers.
However, it’s probably worth knowing about the other side, too – some people really like Debian a lot more than Ubuntu, or other Debian-based distros. This person discusses some dissent over Ubuntu being owned by a company (Canonical), thus undermining its open-source-ness. Debian’s also strict about free software, while Ubuntu, apparently, is a bit lax on that issue. (re-branding Firefox as Iceweasel??) They also say that Debian is compatible with Special Computer Architecture – so more robust for unusual setups, I guess.
In any case, I am happy with Ubuntu 9.10, but it’s good to know some background.