Bruce Byfield

At first, users might wonder why Linux Mint offers both its Ubuntu-based Linux Mint Standard Edition and the Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE). Since Debian, Linux Mint, and Ubuntu all derive from the Debian repositories, isn’t the family resemblance too close to bother? To the casual user, the choice may appear to be no more […]

The upcoming Artful Aardvark release marks Ubuntu’s return to GNOME as its desktop environment. After seven years, Unity will be abandoned, along with plans for a single desktop for all devices and the replacement of the X window system with Mir. According to Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu’s founder, these changes are being made in the hopes […]

I admit it, I was wrong. Contrary to what I have been saying for several years, the age of innovation on the Linux desktop has not ended. It was simply proceeding quietly in KDE’s Plasma 5. For years, I fell into the habit that the age of innovation in desktop environments had ended because of […]

Linux Mint is an independent distribution, but it continues to have close links with Debian. Since 2015, Mint and Debian have had the largest number of page hits on Distrowatch, with Ubuntu closely behind them. However, although both have a similar record for stability and software choice, small differences between the two may make you […]

For the last four years, Debian and Ubuntu have been in the top three Linux distributions on Distrowatch. Since 2005, neither has been out of the top six. Together, they form one of the greatest influences on Linux development, and that influence seems likely to continue for the foreseeable future. They remain closely related, although […]

Debian and Ubuntu are the most influential Linux distributions ever. Of the 290 active distributions currently listed on Distrowatch, 131 are derived from Debian, including Ubuntu, and another 58 are derived directly from Ubuntu — roughly two-thirds. Yet the experience of using them differs in just about every aspect. Consequently, choosing between them is no […]

Debian has a reputation for being an expert’s Linux distribution. System administrators and users who remember when Linux’s main interface was the command line, but for the ordinary user, it is a distribution to be feared. It took a comprehensive revamp, the story goes, to make Debian suitable for users in the form of derivative […]

In twenty-four years, Debian has gone from one of half a dozen leading distributions to the premier representative of Linux. Its derivatives Linux Mint and Ubuntu are the most popular distributions today, and new security and server distributions are likely to be based on Debian itself. So far, over three hundred other distributions have been […]

Debian is not like most Linux distributions. The Debian installer is more thorough than most, and steers you unsubtly towards free software. As a result, configuring Debian after installation is unusual, too. Depending on your needs and preferences, post-installation setup can include steps necessary after installing any distributions, steps necessary for any Debian installation, and […]

Nothing distinguishes the Debian Linux distribution so much as its system of package repositories. Originally organized into Stable, Testing, and Unstable, additional repositories have been added over the years, until today it takes more than a knowledge of a repository’s name to understand how to use it efficiently and safely. Debian repositories are installed with […]