Debian releases are more similar to Service Packs on Windows.
Windows releases are entirely different products.
There are changes to the defaults, sometimes, but they’re just that: changes to the defaults. If you’re upgrading your existing install, they won’t affect you.
For example: Debian switched to Gnome as its default DE a couple years ago. It used to be XFCE. However, if you already had a system with XFCE, if wouldn’t go and replace it for you.
On Windows side, meanwhile, when Microsoft decide to change up the DE, you get the changes, whether you like it or not. Remember Windows 8? It’s not like those who upgraded from Windows 7 got to keep their Aero theme and Start Menu.
I disagree that it’s more similar to service packs. Debian has dropped entire architectures at some releases, and they frequently break binary (and sometimes source) compatibility, far more frequently than service packs do. Hardware compatibility breakage is pretty common between releases too.
It’s probably true that Microsoft changes more between releases, but if you installed Debian on your 32-bit big endian MIPS hardware, you needed to switch to a different OS or buy new hardware when they drop support for Buster.
I suppose it’s true for very old or more exotic hardware.
Since last year we can’t even run Linux on i486 CPUs, and it’s not even some relatively exotic architecture!
Debian releases are more similar to Service Packs on Windows.
Windows releases are entirely different products.
There are changes to the defaults, sometimes, but they’re just that: changes to the defaults. If you’re upgrading your existing install, they won’t affect you.
For example: Debian switched to Gnome as its default DE a couple years ago. It used to be XFCE. However, if you already had a system with XFCE, if wouldn’t go and replace it for you.
On Windows side, meanwhile, when Microsoft decide to change up the DE, you get the changes, whether you like it or not. Remember Windows 8? It’s not like those who upgraded from Windows 7 got to keep their Aero theme and Start Menu.
I disagree that it’s more similar to service packs. Debian has dropped entire architectures at some releases, and they frequently break binary (and sometimes source) compatibility, far more frequently than service packs do. Hardware compatibility breakage is pretty common between releases too.
It’s probably true that Microsoft changes more between releases, but if you installed Debian on your 32-bit big endian MIPS hardware, you needed to switch to a different OS or buy new hardware when they drop support for Buster.
I suppose it’s true for very old or more exotic hardware.
Since last year we can’t even run Linux on i486 CPUs, and it’s not even some relatively exotic architecture!