On Mon, Feb 12, 2007 at 11:44:03AM -0600, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
Knoppix's focus is on being a livd-CD distribution, and itinstalls a wierd admixture of not-quite-unstable Debian on the hard drive. Ubuntu does indeed focus on living on the HD.
If you want a distribution for th long term, a LIVE CDperformance might not be up to par; I would suggest either Etch or Ubuntu. And, if you want Debian, you might want to actually try out Debian -- but for a novice user, you are probably better off with Ubuntu/Kubuntu/some other derivative.
Well, while Manoj himself has spoken about Ubuntu/Kubuntu and friends being better for novices, I strongly feel that though the learning curve is steep for Debian, I would still prefer the Debian way. Somehow, my friends who have had a little GNU/Linux experience (more due to academic software requirements) have always felt stifled by Ubuntu's "user friendliness", such as having no root user by default, running apt in the background thus preventing a manual run etc. Also, I have *always* run into package/dependency woes in Ubuntu, though it might be more due to my bad luck.
Just my view. Of course, there is no denying that Ubuntu has brilliant artwork and nice features, but Debian is also getting there soon, while keeping the install sane. Another thing is that the Ubuntu forums are very helpful, and you can expect replies to queries pretty quickly. Of course, debian-user isn't any less...
Anyway, the comparisons are endless, and, as suggested, the only way to choose is try things out and emerge wiser in the process.
Kumar