[lug] Recommendations For Older Hardware?

[Davide Del Vento]

> May I ask why?

The answer might be a little bit outdated, since I haven't tried the
latest releases, but I assume not too much has changed.

Install: Ubuntu includes non-free drivers and its installed is a
no-brainer, whereas with Debian you usually have to ticker more during
the install process.

Ease of administration: ubuntu provides less choices, in that it has
its own defaults (which you can change, but you have to dig). Debian
has the opposite design: more choices upfront, which is great for the
experienced user, but less so for the newbie.

Ease of use: ubuntu spends a great part of its developers effort in
usability, where to put button and menus, etc. In my opinion is wasted
time (for the geek), but non-geek users seem impressed and appreciate
those efforts.

I guess both Debian stable and Ubuntu LTS have long term updates,
which is absolutely great (compared, for example, to the much shorter
Fedora support). Ubuntu has usually newer versions of the packages,
even though with the LTS they eventually become stale anyway.

Bottom line: even my father in law (windows user, but absolutely not
geek)  was able to install Ubuntu and he is a very happy user of it,
after I lended him my laptop for a week and nudged him to try Ubuntu
on his machine. I don't think I would have succeeded if my
recommendation was: "why don't you try Debian?" Maybe I'm wrong, I'll
try Debian with my mother in law :-))

I guess for an experienced user on a server, Debian should be just
fine (but I'm more into sidux, these days, especially if the server is
constantly updated and having new stuff is a plus - so check it out).

HTH,
Dav