I'm here just to remind everybody that the Debian Stable release cadence is about the same as Ubuntu LTS. Plus Debian doesn't have snaps, Unity and the other Ubuntu-specific "value-adds".
(on the other hand, Debian's bug report is stuck in the 1920's, still being completely based on e-mail)
Edit: also, if you use new hardware, just install Debian Testing, configure /etc/apt/sources.list to say "trixie" instead of "testing", which will ensure that next year you'll be using Debian Stable then Trixie becomes Stable.
And on top of that, Debian's bug tracker is where development happens (as opposed to Ubuntu's, which is a black hole). And packages that cannot be built, get a bug report BEFORE the release on Debian, but are silently not included in the release on Ubuntu. Ubuntu is "Debian with extra crap and extra bugs". Debian strongly recommended.
I feel this has changed over the years too. Many years ago I chose Ubuntu as it was fresher and bugs seemed to be fixed quicker, maybe as it was always more recent.
I moved to Debian and found there was not really any small bugs and, as a bonus, no major things completely broken like Ubuntu broke a few packages with some sort of snap dpkg confusion.
Ubuntu has a bit of a stinky vibe lately. The whole lxd thing and the number of people I know, some I have worked with and are great, went to work there and left quickly.
Nope, the process can start with "reportbug" utility, which needs a setup in the first run, but allows bug reporting from the comfort of your terminal.
On the other hand, once you install Debian, you won't be reinstalling it for the next two decades. It'll just update.
> also, if you use new hardware, just install Debian Testing...
Sure, that's fine for personal systems & office workstations which are behind a NAT, with a peaceful network.
For any server and internet facing devices, install Debian Stable with NetInstall ISO and enable firmware installation. Testing does not get security updates. I repeat: Testing does not get security updates.
Yeah, good reminder about Testing security. But some packages with serious security issues get a fast pass from Unstable to Testing sometimes.
Chances are that if you're installing a server that's new enough to need to run Debian Testing (or newer), you probably already know what you need to know. So yeah Testing is more for Desktops.
I tried the reportbug utility once, it made up an email for me (related to my machine's hostname) and I never ever heard about the bug again. Couldn't find it on the web interface. I'm not that stupid and I failed to report a bug. Beautiful web interfaces are a million times better for bugs, and they're also capable to send e-mail notifications to whoever wants them.
If you configured reportbug with an e-mail related to your hostname, you probably not configured it correctly. You need to give an SMTP server to it (preferably your primary e-mail's one), and create an app password, or enter your password (if you don't use 2FA). Then it sends an e-mail from your account as you.
The good thing about reportbug is, it works on your system with your own configuration, and walks you through the process. Microsoft Windows has a full invasive API to enable that with web browsers.
The mailing list tool used by Debian (Majordomo) is a bit backwards, but you can send command e-mails to bugs to be added to CC, or be removed, or to reclassify stuff. The best thing about it, these e-mails are also logged, keeping a nice trail of "who did what, when" kind of information. Please keep in mind that Debian e-mail lists start in 1994, so there are a lot of things to migrate when things move.
I personally also like KDE's Bugzilla, but finding correct components is a pain sometimes, so I directly use "report a bug" tool under "Help".
I don't think reportbug is perfect, but it does its thing way better than it looks. Maybe it can be improved. I need to look into it.
(on the other hand, Debian's bug report is stuck in the 1920's, still being completely based on e-mail)
Edit: also, if you use new hardware, just install Debian Testing, configure /etc/apt/sources.list to say "trixie" instead of "testing", which will ensure that next year you'll be using Debian Stable then Trixie becomes Stable.