Why would you recommend Debian over Ubuntu ?

Stability ? ANything else ?
Does Ubuntu use the same packages as debian ?

 

Ubuntu is a really noob friendly distro. Ubuntu seems to be the distro of the moment. Debian is a bit more advanced. I would recommend trying them both out and see which one you like.

 

Ubuntu and Debian used to be very close with Ubuntu just being a more friendly Debian. But now they are moving apart. Ubuntu, for example, is starting to make some of it's own packages, disabled the root account by default, is thinking of moving to a new init schema, etc. I'd go for a Debian based system (such as Kanotix or grml) but if you're still a newbie, you might prefer Ubuntu.

 

People that use debian use it because they want to customize it the way they want it. Many don't want all the "extra" software that comes installed on ubuntu or they may not like the lack of a root account. My experience with debian was short and painful on my desktop. It would be less so on my laptop because of its Nvidia graphics card. Pretty much nothing comes installed. You get a terminal and aptitude and are set free into the wild blue yonder. I personally like having a ton of driver and hardware support out of the box. I would rather not spend hours on end getting all my hardware to work correctly. I use ubuntu for this reason. The only thing that didn't work immediately was my sound card which was easily fixed. Maybe some day I'll feel comfortable enough to attempt Debian. I've still got the CD's but until then you'll find me on ubuntu.

 

Personally, I wouldn't, at least not for a laptop. Debian is great for servers and workstations, since it's rock solid stable, and once a final release is made, the updates are mainly for security purposes or bugfixes. Also, a longer release cycle means older versions are supported longer, and folks looking to keep with the latest version don't have to update as often. Ubuntu, otoh, is a lot more fun, in my opinion. Packages are updated often to give the latest and greatest new features, and toys like beryl and comiz are simple to install. Instead of messing around with choosing random packages from a text-based program showing EVERY program in the repositories, Ubuntu automatically sets up the pacakges most users of other distros, like SuSE or Fedora have come to expect by default. Partitioning is also done by a simple, graphical interface (if you use the livecd) rather than by a text-based program. The extra "cruft" that comes with ubuntu that you might not need is easy to remove through synaptic, the graphical package manager. Oh, and Ubuntu boots fast as heck thanks to their new init process. The only real issue I hold against ubuntu is that it's almost become TOO graphical, often it's hard to figure out how to use the command line to do what's fairly simple to do in a graphical mode, or through the command line on other distros.

I've run ubuntu on my HP ze2000 ever since the day I got it (literally), a little over a year ago, and never run into any compatibilty issues, save for HP's terrible choice in a low-cost wireless card.