Fedora v.s Debian: Support Please!

Fedora and Debian seem to be really popular these days.  Fedora is the "bleeding edge" of Linux while Debian is the "Stable Mabel" of them all.  As you know, I am biased towards Fedora and my published reason is because I like the color blue and I like fedoras in general.  But, there are other reasons so lets compare.  The biggest reason is the support I get with Fedora.  Debian also has support, but how do both camps pan out in the end?  Let's see.  (Now remember, I am biased towards Fedora, so take all this with a grain of salt and remember, this is just for fun.  I am not an official spokesperson for any distribution.)


Just doing a Google Search for Debian brings the number one hit  as

Debian -- The Universal Operating System

First off, this web site is hard to read.  The first thing I want to do when I come to this site is to zoom in a little with the ctrl-+ buttons so I can read the list of links.  But moving on from that, the big things I want is documentation, downloads, and forums.  I cannot find a forum on the main web site of Debian.

Forums are a really good way for the Linux community to interact and solve problems at the user level. Debian does have a forum and it is located at:

http://forums.debian.net/

Going backwards up the list, I want downloads.  To get Debian, you have to get it from the main web site http://www.debian.org/ or get it from a friend ,like me. The hard thing about getting it from the web site is which one to choose?  I know that I like ia64 or i386, but what about the average Joe? And, my past experience has been that not all the downloads work every time, so I end up having to download about 3 times before I get a good one. But that is another story. Oh, and you might think you are getting a Live CD in your download, but that is not always the case. If it doesn't say Live CD then it just may not be.

That brings me to the next thing on the "download" subject.  Most end users, like me, want to use a Live CD.  This is an image you download and then burn to a disk to be used to sample the OS before installing it.  If you want to install it, then you just click the icon on the desktop that says something like "install to hard drive".  Locating this "Live CD" is a little hard on the Debian web site.  But here I'll give you that link. There you go.  Now have fun choosing which one to download.  What is bit-torrent any way and once I get the bit-torrent, how can I use that?  Hmmmmm

Next, would be documentation.  To answer all my questions, I need documentation.  So, I go to the main site to look for it. There it is. So I click on the link for more information and there it is.  Lots of information to show me what to do.  No fancy stuff here.  It's all business.  Hopefully, all that documentation will tell me what to download and how to get it to disc and then how to install it.  And, I know because I have been through this, it does tell you how it all works.

Debian is a very stable distribution once you get it installed, configured, and running.  I do like it and actually like the story and philosophy behind it.  I do like Toy Story , stability and the flexibility of Debian.  However, I still like the color blue and I like the ease of installation I get from Fedora.


Googling fedora, I get:

Fedora Project Homepage

So, real quick, Fedora has a nice web site to get downloads, documentation and link to its forum.  Notice, I only linked you to the web site.  From there you can go anywhere in the network of Fedora Project web sites.  The main page is clear, easy to ready and understand.  The documentation explains which download to get for your system.  And as you click through the site, you find everything you need.  Even the Fedora Forum is linked within the site.  Each page is colorful and retains your attention.


So, the bottom line is, getting the information I need to install and maintain Fedora is much simpler than Debian.  Fedora has a colorful, attention keeping, web site that points me to all the right places I might want to go.  Debian has all the same information, but it is harder to navigate and can be discouraging at times, finding what I want in a short period of time.  Both have user forums which are a great help.


Fedora is a Red Hat sponsored Linux Distribution that I enjoy using because of its simplicity, complexity, and color.  How's that for a little paradoxical blurb?  Hey!! At the very "kernel" of it all, they're both Linux.  Have a nice week.