Over the past few years, I've come to the conclusion that cutting-edge software availability is the leading indicator of which Linux distribution I'm going to end up with. Perhaps this is why I've found myself flailing into the arms of Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based distributions recently? More often than not, I can find the software I want with a deb package or PPA ready to go.

It's time savers like the one mentioned above that has made non-Ubuntu centric distributions not worth spending much time with. It's not a lack of ability on my end, rather it's a lack of wanting to spend a weekend setting up a new installation just to meet my needs. My time is valuable, so any distribution I select to meet my needs will be reflective of this.

In this article, I will be looking at distributions based on Ubuntu and/or Debian (only), then exploring what makes each spin-off unique.

rest here