"Bring up the topic of Ubuntu and you'll receive a mixed
response from unexpected corners. No, it's not the Windows brigade,
but the Debian crowd. So just how does Ubuntu differ from Debian to
inflame such passion?
"First things first: Ubuntu is a derivative work from Debian.
It's a Linux distro based on a pre-existing Linux distro. Let's be
clear they're not like apples and oranges.
"On the one hand, that sounds bizarre. On the other, it’s
a perfect example of the GNU Public License at work: anyone is free
to take open source software and rework it and redistribute it for
the overall benefit of the community, if they believe they can make
it better.
"It so happens Mark Shuttleworth's Canonical organisation
believe they can make something better, in this case Debian
Linux.
"And here's where the issue comes in: whenever a Linux advocate
like myself writes about Ubuntu and how it is possibly the most
popular version of Linux presently available, feedback will
inevitably flow in from someone asserting that Ubuntu is just a
cheap and tawdry Debian wanna-be."
