[kwlug-disc] Natty Release & Linux / WinXP coexist

[Paul Nijjar]

On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 09:51:54AM -0400, John Johnson wrote:
> On 2011-04-24 23:28, Steve Izma wrote:
>
> Briefly (and, maybe, inaccurate):
>
> * Debian is a free (FLOSS) OS development under GNU based on the  
> GNU/Linux kernel.
> * Ubuntu is derivative of Debian.
> * Debian-Etch is an older, stable release of Debian  (1st release 2007).
> * Debian-Etch: last update May 2010, and as of Feb 2010 Debian-Etch is  
> also no longer supported w/security updates
> * Debian-Lenny is also an older, stable release of Debian (1st release  
> 2009) superseding Debian-Etch
> * Debian-Squeeze is the current stable release of Debian (1st release  
> Feb 2011) superseding Lenny
> * Ubuntu-Natty is a derivative of previous releases of Ubuntu and is  
> based on Debian-Lenny

I may actually be running Lenny at home, not Etch. It does not matter
a lot, though, because the machine is not connected to the Internet --
I don't care too much about security updates. 

Natty is not based on Lenny or Squeeze. Ubuntu pulls its packages from
the "unstable" tree of Debian, which is ever-changing (and has
codename Sid). Squeeze is the closest analogue to Natty but it is not
guaranteed to be very similar. 

Ubuntu has been diverging from Debian more and more with each release,
in terms of the technological decisions they have made. That's fine,
but you should be aware of it. 

As mentioned upthread, you might also consider the long-term release
of Ubuntu, codenamed "Lucid Lynx". At this point it is not clear that
there are big advantages to doing this, but the support length is
about the same and at least people are aware of the bugs in Lucid. 

> Conclusion: Ubuntu-Natty will bring in "the latest version of Debian  
> stable (squeeze)" and, as advised, should do the trick for me.

As mentioned above, I am not sure I would agree with your conclusion.
But if you are not averse to blowing away the distro if it does not
work out for you, it's not a bad place to start. 

- Paul

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