Re: choosing a linux distribution
Matt,
I apologize if you seem to have been hit recently by the Debian
Advocacy Brigade, but I -do- want to add one thing myself.
Craig Sanders said:
>
> RE: your web page at http://mkracht.aye.net/~matt/linuxdist/
>
> > Debian
> >
> > Web: http://www.debian.org/
> > FTP: ftp://ftp.debian.org/
>
> You've got this part correct, at least.
>
[and then goes on to state some problems he had with your review
of Debian]
I think your page could be improved -- and made significantly more fair
in the process -- if you included with each distribution listed the
version number of the distribution you were reviewing, and where you
got the distribution. As Craig mentions, there have been some
notoriously bad Debian CD's made by some companies (He mentions
Infomagic, and other companies have also been mentioned on the Debian
mailing lists. I choose to not name names).
Many of the problems you cited with Debian (6 disk install, difficult
CD-ROM install, older versions of programs) exist with Debian 1.2, but
are fixed with Debian 1.3. Debian 1.3 ships from at least one company
in a Debian-approved 2 CD set that is bootable -- for a no-floppy
install. The time between 1.2 and 1.3 allowed for many programs to be
upgraded and tested before 1.3's release. Other problems (like
dselect's user interface) are being worked on.
It is unfortunate that your apparent review of Debian 1.2 became known
to the Debian community so shortly after the release of Debian 1.3,
especially without being identified as Debian 1.2. For many of us, the
Debian you reviewed isn't the Debian we use on a daily basis. As Craig
mentioned, newer versions of most of the packages are available in 1.3,
or from the "unstable" distribution on all of the Debian distribution
mirror cites. The latter is updated on a regular basis.
A 2-disk Debian CD set made from the "Official" Debian 1.3.0 ISO9660
disk images is available for $4.95 from Linux Systems Labs (see
http://www.lsl.com). Offhand, I don't know of any other Debian vendors
offering 1.3.0 from the official disk images. I would encourage you to
pick up a copy and re-evaluate Debian. If you still don't like Debian,
you are entitled to your opinion.
In the mean time, please update your web page to state what versions of
Slackware, Red Hat, and Debian you are reviewing.
--
Buddha Buck bmbuck@acsu.buffalo.edu
"Just as the strength of the Internet is chaos, so the strength of our
liberty depends upon the chaos and cacaphony of the unfettered speech
the First Amendment protects." -- A.L.A. v. U.S. Dept. of Justice
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