What is the difference between Debian and Ubuntu?

Question

From what I heard Ubuntu is a basically a Debian Linux with some extra applications and drivers pre-installed in order to make it more user friendly.

Is that all? Or are there deeper, more fundamental differences between the two?

Answer 1

Yes, there are more fundamental differences. Debian focuses stability and they don't have a for-profit company behind them; Ubuntu focuses ease of use ("Linux for Human beings") in detriment of some conservative stability and has a for-profit company behind them (Canonical).

Of course, there are some other differences (from philosophical ones to release schedules). Check official docs about Ubuntu Development and Ubuntu for Debian Developers to understand them:

Ubuntu is based on Debian, sharing many of its packages, tools and techniques with that project. Differences between Ubuntu and Debian are described in UbuntuForDebianDevelopers.

Ubuntu is periodically released according to a set schedule.

Ubuntu, like Debian, is a free software project which is open to anyone to participate. However, it differs from Debian in that many key project resources, including servers, bandwidth and a number of core developers, are provided by Canonical. Canonical is a for-profit company which derives revenue primarily from services related to Ubuntu, such as support contracts.

Some personal thoughts:

Some people don't like to use a distro that isn't completely run by individuals without commercial interests, so they choose Debian. Users who want a more hand-crafted system usually prefer Debian too since they can create a "base system" and just add what they need, keeping a clean OS.

Other people prefer more ease of use (an out-of-the-box solution that just works), with features that aren't extensively tested but are good enough for daily usage, and choose Ubuntu.

If you don't have philosophical reasons to choose a distro (like free software), I recommend you to download both and just test them to see which one is better. (I use both, for different needs and scenarios.)

Answer 2

Ubuntu is based on Debian, it uses the same package structure but includes some more upto date versions (Debian is very conservative).

It also has more non-free apps available (Debian is very pro-free)

It also has a very nice isntaller

Answer 3

GmonC and mgb said most of the stuff but i have to add that there are some differences in packages so ubuntu packages are not compatible with debian and vice versa. Of course in theory this works but in practice it's not a good option (im reffering to packages from official repositiories). You can mix single packages but not many of them (believe me, im telling you this from personal exp). Single packages like "gtk2-engines-murrine" will work but something like "lives" could mess up your sys.
Have in mind that there are 4 branches of packages in Debian (stable, testing, unstable and experimental) and in ubuntu you got several too (stable, backports ppa...).

Answer 4

Debian is good for servers and for programming Perl and for other things but mostly that. Debian is considered extremely stable. This also means that some packages is very old. Some people claim that Debian is hard to configure, on most part they are right (if you are a person who want to configure everything as you want it, look for another distro).

There are lots of Perl software you can almost only run on Debian (Catalyst web framework springs to mind). The Perl documentation 'tutorials' is often 'debian only'.

_{(On Ubuntu, I say nothing since everything has been said already).}