[happygonutty]

Let's not be off topic by jumping into other distros but this thread should focus on Debian or Fedora. Okay?

So I have been seeing lots of tensions between the Debian community and the Fedora community throughout the decades. Well Linus Torvalds happens to use Fedora as I have seen. So now my question is, what is your insight between the 2? And when should someone use one over the other? What would you recommend? And why? Thanks.

[Bastille]

I'm currently stuying for LPIC-1 and 2, and I'm also working on a thread for HF to explain how Linux works and what are the differences between the distros so your thread is a good exercise.

The summary part has been generated by ChatGPT, but I add my own experience and advices in yellow.

Summary:

Debian: Debian emphasizes stability, security, and software freedom. Its development process is community-driven with democratic decision-making. It follows a slower release cycle, which generally leads to versions that are more stable but less frequent. Debian offers a more conservative selection of software in its official repositories, meaning software versions may be older but generally more stable.
> This leads to slow-development with a new version every 2-3 years and older packages than Fedora.

Fedora: Fedora is often seen as more focused on innovation and adopting recent technologies. It also emphasizes software freedom, but its development cycle is faster than Debian's.
> Better for techy people that want to be aware of the last packages versions, kernel version, desktop environment versions, ..., and features.

[end of summary part]

Fedora is related to RHEL which is often used in profesional environments :



Here we can see that Fedora is a way for RHEL to "crash-test" Red Hat Linux, as Red Hat Linux is really close to Fedora. Before adding / removing something on Red Hat, they do it on Fedora and the community gives feedbacks.

Q: What would you recommend and why ?

The answer depends on what you want to achieve or learn.

You may encounter Red Hat Linux in professional environments, and if you plan to work as a sysadmin, for example, it could be a good idea to use Fedora as your daily OS to get familiar with the specific packages that come with Red Hat Linux, such as DNF.

If you plan to set up servers in your home lab, I would recommend going with Debian instead; it's more stable. Additionally, since Debian is free, if you work for a company that uses Linux for its servers, you're more likely to encounter Debian-based servers than Red Hat servers (though with the return of CentOS as CentOS Stream, this is changing).

As you can see, there is no universal answer. However, if you share more about your plans, I could provide better advice.

[Wizdominance]

My opinion, well it goes something like this OP.

Debian...
Like the Yseurk said, if you opt for something free, want democracy and the most widely used then towards Debian as it is often used in most companies due to its capabilities and it has lots of support compared to Fedora.

Fedora....
If you want something bleeding-edge out of the box similar to a rolling release with fast stable updates especially the kernel updates since Linus Torvals is developing and maintaining the kernel using a Fedora then go for a Fedora.

Distro's don't matter, it is the user who always matters and his/her knowledge based on experience. I myself am using Fedora but I am not promoting Fedora as I also use Debian for my servers and customers. The thread's question is much like comparing APT and RPM. Hahahaha!

[happygonutty]

The answer depends on what you want to achieve or learn.

You may encounter Red Hat Linux in professional environments, and if you plan to work as a sysadmin, for example, it could be a good idea to use Fedora as your daily OS to get familiar with the specific packages that come with Red Hat Linux, such as DNF.

If you plan to set up servers in your home lab, I would recommend going with Debian instead; it's more stable. Additionally, since Debian is free, if you work for a company that uses Linux for its servers, you're more likely to encounter Debian-based servers than Red Hat servers (though with the return of CentOS as CentOS Stream, this is changing).

As you can see, there is no universal answer. However, if you share more about your plans, I could provide better advice.

It has been a long debate for sometime now and I always keep on questioning why and why people would still make different flavors of distros if one or the other just has the same function and it already exists. For me, just get the most universal one then use it for work opportunities, but if its for personal use, use something that pleases your needs. 🙃

Distro's don't matter, it is the user who always matters and his/her knowledge based on experience. I myself am using Fedora but I am not promoting Fedora as I also use Debian for my servers and customers. The thread's question is much like comparing APT and RPM. Hahahaha!

Yes it totally doesn't matter because you are the user. What matters most is that you can do what you need to do and you can fully utilize the flavor of your choice. 🙃

[Betty Blue]

I'm currently stuying for LPIC-1 and 2, and I'm also working on a thread for HF to explain how Linux works and what are the differences between the distros so your thread is a good exercise.

The summary part has been generated by ChatGPT, but I add my own experience and advices in yellow.

Summary:

Debian: Debian emphasizes stability, security, and software freedom. Its development process is community-driven with democratic decision-making. It follows a slower release cycle, which generally leads to versions that are more stable but less frequent. Debian offers a more conservative selection of software in its official repositories, meaning software versions may be older but generally more stable.
> This leads to slow-development with a new version every 2-3 years and older packages than Fedora.

Fedora: Fedora is often seen as more focused on innovation and adopting recent technologies. It also emphasizes software freedom, but its development cycle is faster than Debian's.
> Better for techy people that want to be aware of the last packages versions, kernel version, desktop environment versions, ..., and features.

[end of summary part]

Fedora is related to RHEL which is often used in profesional environments :



Here we can see that Fedora is a way for RHEL to "crash-test" Red Hat Linux, as Red Hat Linux is really close to Fedora. Before adding / removing something on Red Hat, they do it on Fedora and the community gives feedbacks.

Q: What would you recommend and why ?

The answer depends on what you want to achieve or learn.

You may encounter Red Hat Linux in professional environments, and if you plan to work as a sysadmin, for example, it could be a good idea to use Fedora as your daily OS to get familiar with the specific packages that come with Red Hat Linux, such as DNF.

If you plan to set up servers in your home lab, I would recommend going with Debian instead; it's more stable. Additionally, since Debian is free, if you work for a company that uses Linux for its servers, you're more likely to encounter Debian-based servers than Red Hat servers (though with the return of CentOS as CentOS Stream, this is changing).

As you can see, there is no universal answer. However, if you share more about your plans, I could provide better advice.

You should add to this that just because Debian doesn’t update packages as often, packages still get critical security updates regardless of how old they are, and the Debian security team is very diligent.

[happygonutty]

You should add to this that just because Debian doesn’t update packages as often, packages still get critical security updates regardless of how old they are, and the Debian security team is very diligent.

True and also Debian has unstable packages that you can use if you are too paranoid with security patches. Only down side is that there are higher chances that the package might brick because its unstable. 🙃

[Wizdominance]

True and also Debian has unstable packages that you can use if you are too paranoid with security patches. Only down side is that there are higher chances that the package might brick because its unstable. 🙃

That is the reason why I always update but I never use unstable bro because from the word itself you are right, my packages would totally break. I guess a decent ufw would work or maybe updating several packages bro.

[Betty Blue]

True and also Debian has unstable packages that you can use if you are too paranoid with security patches. Only down side is that there are higher chances that the package might brick because its unstable. 🙃

It has more to do with the release cycle than the packages themselves. Stable just means the packages don’t change. It doesn’t mean “this is more stable”. Unstable isn’t the rolling release branch of Debian, it’s the development branch of Debian.