Debian founder doesn't like Ubuntu
[via Lugradio / Forums]
Ian Murdoch, Debian co-founder gave an interview on Internet News about the Hoary Hedgehog release.
Let's face it: he's not specially enthusiast about Ubuntu. The last sentence of the article is clear:
What he fears the most, is the incompatibility of Ubuntu packages with Sarge packages. It looks like differences are growing with Sarge."[..]Ubuntu's popularity is more harmful than helpful."
What Murdoch would like to see is a joined development effort from everyone on Sarge, to give those efforts back to Debian.
In my opinion, Ubuntu is doing what Debian doesn't : frequent and regular releases, intense and fast bug fixing, and a wider hardware integration (and that's the area where there is a lot to do). In an other way, we can watch the Ubuntu community growing at geometric scale. Within a few months, this distro went out of the blue at flash light and became #1 on distrowatch. The latest release made page #1 on Slashdot, too. Meanwhile, Woody is more than 3 years old, and Sarge release has been so many times, while the election for Debian Council are lacking participation.
Anyway, Murdoch recommends: a quick Sarge release AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to "launch back" Debian momentum. I don't think that Ubuntu means Debian death, but the "old ones" may show us that they're are much more responsive than what we see.
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[1] talking about the rest of the article, of course.
14 Juillet 2005 - 15:01, par Adilson