In both Debian and Ubuntu, only the main repo gets official security updates for free. Ubuntu has a paid option for universe whereas Debian doesn’t have that option and relies on the package maintainer to provide any updates.
I’d still recommend Debian over Ubuntu though, for various reasons.
Package maintainers can be slow to update packages though. Debian have a separate security team that get patches out ASAP, and those packages go into a separate security repo. I imagine Ubuntu does the same. It’s that security team that only deals with “official” packages, meaning anything that’s not in contrib, non-free, or non-free-firmware.
Debian
contribdoesn’t get official security updates, the same as Ubuntuuniverse. https://www.debian.org/security/faq#contribIn both Debian and Ubuntu, only the main repo gets official security updates for free. Ubuntu has a paid option for
universewhereas Debian doesn’t have that option and relies on the package maintainer to provide any updates.I’d still recommend Debian over Ubuntu though, for various reasons.
Do users get the package maintainer’s updates for free?
Definitely on Debian, and I think on Ubuntu too.
Package maintainers can be slow to update packages though. Debian have a separate security team that get patches out ASAP, and those packages go into a separate security repo. I imagine Ubuntu does the same. It’s that security team that only deals with “official” packages, meaning anything that’s not in contrib, non-free, or non-free-firmware.