Introduction
We encountered many issues with Ubuntu 12.04 not being stable enough and having bugs unfixed, or ubuntu dependencies not being as good as the Debian one.
All of our clients are using Ubuntu 12.04 32 bits and we decided to find an alternative to replace Ubuntu before the LTS expires.
Which alternative?
We decided to choose Debian for the following reason:
- More stable than Ubuntu as doesn't have the extra layers of the latest
- Not loaded with all the extra softwares
- Doesn't have any commercial direction
- Supports LTSP
- Our team is used to Debian's way
- Our server run Debian
32 bits vs 64
Our servers run 64 bit version of Debian but we need to see if all software are compatible.
Stable or Testing
- For Services: Stable
- For BlueLight team: Testing
Using Testing will allow us to work on the coming version of Debian and therefore foresee the possible problems. It will allow us to test in advance the stable to come and be prepared at the time the release come.
Migrating from Ubuntu to Debian
Problems
- People are now used to have the close, minimize, maximize buttons on the left
- People are used to the launcher
- People are used to firefox, thunderbird and chrome
Solutions
- Use tweaks to make the system look like unity, get the users used to the left buttons even if not handy
- Gnome 3 has a similar launcher
- icedwisel, icedove and chromium just have different icons than their homologous
For thunderbird install, use the mint deb if necessary: http://packages.linuxmint.com/pool/import/t/
From Thunderbird to Icedove
for each user
mv ~/.icedove{,-org}
mv ~/.thunderbird ~/.icedove