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Is there a difference between Ubuntu and Debian with regard to command line and terminal use?

I'm talking about things like command syntax, options, etc..

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  • I'm not sure this question can be adequately answered here...
    – Thomas Ward
    May 2, 2013 at 22:16
  • Ubuntu and Debian have the same system shell (dash provides sh) and the same default user shell (bash, like almost all GNU/Linux OSes). Most if not all commonly used command-line utilities work the same in Ubuntu and Debian, since Ubuntu is a Debian-derivative whose major differences with respect to everyday user experience (of an already installed system) mostly affect the graphical UI. I (or anyone) can answer saying that or an expanded version of it if this is reopened. Aug 24, 2014 at 22:07
  • Well, right off the bat, one difference I spotted was that ubuntu's sudo is su in debian. And I think it works a bit differently too. Oct 7, 2019 at 9:57
  • Then, now that I tried the shutdown command, it does not exist in debian! Not sure what these "so far I couldn't spot any difference" asnwers that appear in the answers are all about... There seem to be many differences! faqforge.com/linux/distributions/debian/… Oct 7, 2019 at 9:59

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Ubuntu is a Debian derivative and I haven't come across situations where a command exists both in Debian and Ubuntu but their accepted syntax is different.

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Well so far I couldn't spot any difference. At first I Installed Debian on one of my Notebook because of work... And after that I switched to Ubuntu and so far I didn't Notice any Differences In Syntaxes etc.

Ubuntu vs Debian

As You can read in the link above, Ubuntu and Debian are both based on Linux and both use the apt package management system. But still if you are a total program geek or whatever you will probable like debian more...

but for the basic commands and syntaxes I couldn't spot a difference.

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They are the same in 99% of all commands. You will of course find for example, aptitude installed in Debian but not even Ubuntu. The same goes with commands that are Ubuntu only like ubuntu-bug.

But in general, whatever you learn in Debian, can be applied in any of the distros that derive from it. With this in mind, most of the stuff related to the terminal you learn in Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Linux Mint or any other Debian derivative distro will be the same.

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