Debian 9 vs Ubuntu 18

[Matthew Crews]

On 9/3/18 10:50 PM, Jim wrote:
> I've been using Kubuntu for 5 years now since I freed my computer from 
> windows and started running linux.  For most of that time I used Kubuntu 
> 14.  I tried 16, but soon gave up on it because there were too many 
> bugs.  In July I put Kubuntu 18 on this machine. There are some annoying 
> bugs with it, but nothing that keeps me from using it.
> 
> I saw on here recently that someone said they use the stable branch of 
> Debian.  I'm looking for some advice.  Should I stay with Kubuntu or 
> switch to Debian 9 stable?  If you have an opinion, please tell why you 
> favor one over the other.


I'm one of those guys that uses Debian Stable over Ubuntu.

The main reason is because Debian adheres to the idea of free software
much tighter than Ubuntu. Debian does offer some non-free software in
the repositories, but the main ones of note are graphics card drivers,
CPU microcode updates, and other device drivers (such as ethernet and
wifi).

Those annoying bugs that you have to deal with on Kubuntu, and really
all versions of Ubuntu, is because Ubuntu bases itself off of the Sid
(unstable) branch of Debian, plus the Ubuntu things that are placed on
top. Whatever software is available in Sid when it's time to release the
latest Ubuntu, thats what Ubuntu gets, bugs be damned. Debian Stable
doesn't release a new version until it is good and ready, and as many
bugs are ironed out as possible.

The flip side is that Ubuntu will tend to have newer packages than
Debian. Debian is still using Gnome 3.22, Plasma 5.8, and XFCE 4.12,
whereas Ubuntu is using Gnome 3.28, Plasma 5.12, and XFCE 4.13 (the
development branch of 4.14), and those versions will be bumped up with
the 18.10 release next month. Also, BECAUSE Debian ships with older
packages, it can be (literally) years before some bugs are fixed. If you
have your heart set on the latest versions of Plasma, I would probably
stick with Kubuntu or KDE Neon.

Ubuntu is also designed to be a bit more user friendly than Debian. For
my in-laws I gave them one of the Ubuntu spins, because they are much
easier for my inlaws to self-administer than Debian. They have a phobia
from the command line, and Ubuntu is just friendly enough where they
don't need to open the terminal for any reason.

Peoples complain about software availability in Debian versus other
distros, but Debian supports both Snaps and Flatpaks, and you can
usually find the software you are looking for in either of those
systems. Flatpak will have the latest version of LibreOffice and
Kdenlive, for example.

One other thing: as someone else pointed out, a lot of third party
software (not available in the repos, or as a flatpak or snap) assume
you are using Ubuntu. Its hit or miss whether it will work in Debian,
and even if it does, it can be difficult to force it to work.

Now, are these good reasons to switch from Kubuntu to Debian?

No.

Kubuntu 18.04 is the best Kubuntu in half a decade. Its leaps and bounds
better than Kubuntu 14.04, 16.04, and even the ancient 12.04 when it was
still using KDE4. Plasma 5.12 (which is what Kubuntu uses) is what I
would call a production ready desktop environment, and has been great
from my experience, as long as you stick with AMD or Intel graphics
drivers (Nvidia graphics don't play nice with it, or else I would be
using it too).

If you switched to Debian Stable, and you want to continue to use KDE,
you will be using the unsupported KDE 5.8 (5.12 still has upstream support).

If you are happy enough with Kubuntu, keep plugging along with it, or
switch to KDE Neon (after they switch their base to Ubuntu 18.04
anyway). Be sure to file bug reports as you come across bugs. They will
be fixed with time.

-Matt