The biggest deal was including non-free firmware on the install media.
In the past, if you used the official ISO and started the installation, it would format your disk and then inform you that it can’t connect to your Wi-Fi to download additional software.
Then it would install the semi-complete bare-bones system that fit on one install disc and boot you into a desktop with no network configuration.
Ah, I forgot about that. Yes, that’s a pretty big deal. Thanks for pointing that out. Debian have always been pretty purist about non-free software, to the detriment of new users.
To be fair, back then Ubuntu was basically just “Debian preconfigured for desktop with a check-box in the installer to include non-free stuff”.
Debian today feels like old Ubuntu, and Ubuntu today feels like a distro made by a corporation desperately trying to enshittify Linux.
The biggest deal was including non-free firmware on the install media.
In the past, if you used the official ISO and started the installation, it would format your disk and then inform you that it can’t connect to your Wi-Fi to download additional software.
Then it would install the semi-complete bare-bones system that fit on one install disc and boot you into a desktop with no network configuration.
Ah, I forgot about that. Yes, that’s a pretty big deal. Thanks for pointing that out. Debian have always been pretty purist about non-free software, to the detriment of new users.
To be fair, back then Ubuntu was basically just “Debian preconfigured for desktop with a check-box in the installer to include non-free stuff”.
Debian today feels like old Ubuntu, and Ubuntu today feels like a distro made by a corporation desperately trying to enshittify Linux.