Migrating from Ubuntu to Debian
Speaking as a long time Debian user I say take the plunge. You're familiar with Ubuntu, so there will be a lot you're already comfortable with. Don't expect to get 100% feature parity on day one though.
Some specific answers:
ubuntu-restricted-extraslooks like it's basically Flash andgstreamerplugins. For flash, just installflashplugin-nonfreeor get it right from Adobe and plop it into Firefox. For thegstreamerplugins there are unofficial sources available (although I don't know exactly where) for multimedia packages.- There's a post here about font smoothing on Debian. I've never tried it, but the author claims it works well.
- Ubuntu Tweak is all stuff that Debian folks generally prefer to do manually. You'll learn a lot, and have fun doing it.
And a final note, don't bother using debgen. Just use the Debian mirror for the country you're in (e.g., the U.S. is ftp.us.debian.org). After install your school's mirror to /etc/apt/sources.list.
What the best way to get around with the font smoothing problem in Debian?
Auto-hinting is not enabled be default. I have had great results by enabling auto-hinting in Xorg and using font families that do well with anti-aliasing. Procedures are below.
- (Optional) Install some pretty fonts (you'll need non-free for mscorefonts):
apt-get install ttf-dejavu ttf-liberation ttf-mscorefonts-installer xfonts-terminus dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config, select Autohinter, Automatic and Nodpkg-reconfigure fontconfig- Restart Xorg
Is there an alternative package to ubuntu-restricted-extras on Debian?
You are looking for non-free, contrib and Debian Multimedia.
(The DFSG is the Debian Free Software Guidelines. See the Debian Social Contract for more information - this is a major differentiating feature between Debian and Ubuntu.)
From the Debian Policy Manual:
The non-free archive area contains supplemental packages intended to work with the Debian distribution that do not comply with the DFSG or have other problems that make their distribution problematic. They may not comply with all of the policy requirements in this manual due to restrictions on modifications or other limitations.
and
The contrib archive area contains supplemental packages intended to work with the Debian distribution, but which require software outside of the distribution to either build or function.
Every package in contrib must comply with the DFSG.
An important note about non-free and contrib is that the Debian Security team does not handle security for packages from those repositories as they are not part of the official Debian distribution - security is handled by upstream maintainers.
See the Debian Securit FAQ:
Q: How is security handled for contrib and non-free? A: The short answer is: it's not. Contrib and non-free aren't official parts of the Debian Distribution and are not released, and thus not supported by the security team. Some non-free packages are distributed without source or without a license allowing the distribution of modified versions. In those cases no security fixes can be made at all. If it is possible to fix the problem, and the package maintainer or someone else provides correct updated packages, then the security team will generally process them and release an advisory.
Multimedia packages that can't be distributed through the normal debian package repos due to licensing of patent issues can be found at the unofficial (and unsupported) Debian Multimedia repository (as pointed out by Juan).
How much functionality can I expect from Ubuntu Tweak on Debian?
None that are supported. Ubuntu Tweak is for Ubuntu. I would highly recommend you do not use it with Debian - things will probably break in novel and interesting ways. There are Debian-ways to modify or configure your system to accomplish the same goals. They're not complicated and you'll pick them quickly.
The defaults are often sensible enough. I rarely feel the need or requirement to deviate from them.
For multimedia packages you can use Debian Multimedia. This repo is very stable.