Debian and Ubuntu

http://mjg59.livejournal.com/66647.html
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/56

These are some interesting reads.

I love debian. My line of thinking is very much in agreement with Mark Shuttleworth, although I can relate with Matthew Garrett.

Debian really brought me into the world of linux, and taught me most of what I know. It also gave me much of my respect for Free Software. Ubuntu brought linux to my parents. I'm very thankful for that. During my Grad Studies I needed a computer which just worked, and I didn't want to fiddle. So I switched from Debian to Ubuntu. Now that my parents use it, I need to be familiar with it for support. Debian will always be there for me. I run it on servers. I recommend it to people who want to run it on servers. I'll probably run it on my desktop again after grad studies.

I'm not a mediator, nor do I pretend to know the intricacies of the debian community well enough to offer advice. I just hope very much that debian will remember its roots: Free Software. As is common with any philosophical movement, it is easy to get caught up in the details and the letter of the law. Debian could learn from other movements: the spirit of the law is always more important to the direction of the project, than is the letter of the law. Here's to hoping that debian will be able to survive it's current turbulence.