Debian vs Ubuntu

[animaguy]

I am sort of a semi newbie who is slowly advancing to more advanced topics.

I do not fully understand the difference between Debian and Ubuntu based. What arr the advantages? What arr the differences? What are the disadvantages?

I now run Linux Mint 13 w/xfce. My understanding is that this distro is Ubuntu based. Is that true?

I am learning to setup a CentOS 6 webserver. I have read that another popular server distro is Debian. Any thoughts or opinions on that would be appreciated.

If I decided to install LMDE how similiar is it to Debian?

I am highly considering experimenting with Debian.

I would certainly appreciate any input.

Thanks.

[cwsnyder]

I do not fully understand the difference between Debian and Ubuntu based. What arr the advantages? What arr the differences? What are the disadvantages?

LMDE has a smaller memory footprint than Linux Mint 13, but can't use the Ubuntu based PPAs, and operates more like Debian Testing than Ubuntu does. If you want Unity, it is simpler if you stay with Mint 13, which is Ubuntu based. LMDE is an 'install once, then do incremental updates.' Linux Mint has regular updates which require major updates about every 6 months, as the parent Ubuntu does.

CentOS/Fedora/RedHat Enterprise Linux (a.k.a. RHEL) use rpm (RedHat Package Manager), while Debian uses apt-get, aptitude, or Synaptic as a package manager (basically 3 ways of accessing the same manager), and from the desktop, can use the Ubuntu Software Manager. There are also differences in the kernel hardware support, minor differences in system folder usage, and other differences in setup, virtual machine management, etc. Debian and RHEL both only release when ready rather than on a fixed schedule as Ubuntu/regular Mind does, and thus can have several years between stable releases. Both will also have older desktop applications than the latest Ubuntu/Linux Mint, because the application version is frozen at the time of the stable release and only receive security and stability updates.

LMDE is called a 'semi-rolling release' in that you install once and the default installation tracks the Debian Testing repositories, not Debian Stable or Old-Stable. LMDE also has many tweaks by the Mint team to make LMDE look and operate more like Linux Mint standard version.

[animaguy]

Thanks that was very helpful.