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what can Debian learn from its competitors

Asked by [ Editor ] , Edited by Tshepang Lekhonkhobe [ Editor ]

Looking at the competitors (Ubuntu, Fedora, Mac, Windows…), what is it that you envy from them?

Please restrict your answers to technical matters (EG, don’t say things like “Debian should release more regularly…”).

NN comments
cusco
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After whatching answers and comments, I realize that if people answer this question on-topic, those answers can become a nice wish-list for Debian…

tshepang
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, and that was my intention; some sort of high-level bug reports, all for the betterment of this great OS :–)

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13 answers

6

depaloan [ Editor ]

  • Simple compiling/recompiling from Gentoo
  • Extensive documentation/wiki from Gentoo/ArchLinux
  • Sexy look from openSUSE
  • Delta packages from Fedora
NN comments
d.paleino
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Regarding delta packages, something like that is currently already possible. There’s the debdelta package, with the debdelta-upgrade binary, which might come handy. I only used it a couple of times, but when debdelta is installed, the cupt package manager will use it to upgrade the system.

The repository containing the deltas is not yet official though.

rhonda
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@d.paleino Adding a link to that unofficial repository might be helpful. ;) Have you tried the turnaround for packages with huge data, like wesnoth or nexuiz? I would be interested in the gain here.

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6

wes.frazier [ Editor ]

Slicker default themes. I know this is very subjective and its a matter of personal taste and if you don’t like it change it, etc, etc.

However most of the bigger distros have more professional looking default themes and art.

Debian’s current website also feels a little stylistically dated. I think a lot could be done to make it more visually appealing.

Otherwise I wouldn’t change much at all! I love debian!

NN comments
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3

magicfab

I’d like to see three big fat links on the Debian home page:
– A link to ask.debian.net
– A “Download” link
– A “Contribute to Debian” link

Most importantly, I’d like to see much less copy on the home page, there’s just too much to keep new users and guide them properly.

Debian Colombia has the idea:
http://www.debiancolombia.org/

I really wish there were less steps and information there.

Fedora also makes it very easy to try them:
http://fedoraproject.org/

NN comments
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1

amacater [ Editor ]

This would also make a good question asked the other way – what could others learn from Debian :–) [They could all learn the benefits and costs of supporting many more architectures, for example]

From Red Hat :

SELinux integration

Best parts of kickstart text only installation – though that’s tied heavily into the installer anaconda

From OpenSUSE –

best parts of Active Directory integration

From Ubuntu

best parts of the OEM install method

Some of the tweaks for Ubuntu Netbook Remix / UNE

AppArmor integration?




NN comments
tshepang
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I’d like to see more specifics (EG, what are those ‘best parts’?). Preferably, mention those as separate answers.

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0

marc dm

Someone else said it earlier. I’d like to see nicer artwork as default. Unfortunately, I’m not much of an artist, so all I can do is recommend some themes we could package by default.

Now I don’t know if this is a debian specific issue, but I’d like to see a Gnome skin on top of K3b. I’ve given up on waiting for a real burning program in Gnome. Brasero is a waste of time. So can we just get a k3b-gnome package that makes k3b look like a gnome app and puts it in the menu.

Apart from that, I’m happy.

NN comments
tshepang
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“Now I don’t know if this is a debian specific issue..” means that you are not answering the question I asked. I like the “Brasero sux” comment though :–)

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0

particleswarm [ Editor ]

I enjoy Debian as it is. I would love to see recent versions of some packages but then, in my case, I can live without those for the moment. Sometimes I burrow some of them from Ubuntu.

NN comments
tshepang
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can you reword your answer along the lines of “more recent packages”; also, get specific (EG, do you mean Stable is too outdated), especially given that Unstable is rarely ever out-of-date, and especially because Debian got Experimental.

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0

richs-lxh [ Editor ]

I’d like the Debian community and developers to decide if we want Debian to be a Linux (Geek) Users' distro, or a contender for the desktop market.


If people want popularity, the marketing division needs to start working with suppliers to get preinstalled Debian laptops/desktops in shops/online aka system76 (Ubuntu)

If people don’t want popularity, leave it as it is, as a community driven Linux distro for those who like it as it is.

Personally I am more than happy with Debian as it is, both personally and at work providing Debian server solutions for large companies.

I would love to see Debian preinstalled laptops/desktops available at my local computer store, in fact ANY Linux distro, just to get it out there.

There are a couple of mindsets, one says, “hey, if you can’t burn an iso and read documentation to install the distro, read wikis to learn how to use it ect, then sorry, Linux isn’t for you” (Not my opinion by the way).

Then there is the “If we want people to use/buy Linux computers, we have to at least understand that 95% of the general public are not geeks/IT admins/students, and can’t be bothered to install and learn complete OS”

So, make it easier, or just leave it, but don’t keep complain that Mac and Windows have the desktop market covered.

That’s what I want, a goal, from the Debian users and Developers. Either Just another distro or The distro.
NN comments
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0

richs-lxh [ Editor ]

I’d like the Debian community and developers to decide if we want Debian to be a Linux (Geek) Users' distro, or a contender for the desktop market.

If people want popularity, the marketing division needs to start working with suppliers to get preinstalled Debian laptops/desktops in shops/online aka system76 (Ubuntu)

If people don’t want popularity, leave it as it is, as a community driven Linux distro for those who like it as it is.

Personally I am more than happy with Debian as it is, both personally and at work providing Debian server solutions for large companies.

I would love to see Debian preinstalled laptops/desktops available at my local computer store, in fact ANY Linux distro, just to get it out there.

There are a couple of mindsets, one says, “hey, if you can’t burn an iso and read documentation to install the distro, read wikis to learn how to use it ect, then sorry, Linux isn’t for you” (Not my opinion by the way).

Then there is the “If we want people to use/buy Linux computers, we have to at least understand that 95% of the general public are not geeks/IT admins/students, and can’t be bothered to install and learn complete OS”

So, make it easier, or just leave it, but don’t keep complaining that Mac and Windows have the desktop market covered.

That’s what I want, a goal, from the Debian users and Developers. Either Just another distro or The distro.
NN comments
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0

envite

Just one thing, from Gentoo:
Ease of having all software (with Debian patches applied, of course), recompiled for own machine.

(I said ease, I know about Debian source packages)

NN comments
envite
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…particularly kernel and libc, and maybe GTK or QT

tshepang
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can you show the commands you use on Gentoo vs. the equivalent Debian commands; you might get surprised that there actually is a Debian tool that makes it as easy

gabe
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apt-build world

That will rebuild all your Debian packages from source. Eat it, Gentoo.

Actually, you need to prepare a bit more than that, but once you’ve generated a list of packages to recompile (easy) and set up apt pinning so your custom-built packages don’t get overridden by official binary updates, you are golden.

Read the apt-build readme. It is not optional.

envite
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If yoy need to do apt pinning, it is not as easy as would be ‘apt-emerge linux-image-2.6’ or ‘apt-emerge libc6’

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