Re: freedom of debian
On Sat, 4 Oct 2003, Jason Housewright wrote:
> Greetings again and thanks for the replies dealing
> with lilo and grub (sounds like a bad movie doesn't
> it?). I hope that I'm not being too general with this
> next question...
>
> Using Debian, is it fair to say that one has more
> freedom regarding the software
> installed...specifically, I mean that my experience
> with GNU/Linux thus far has been that if you want to
> install an upgraded version of something...say mozilla
> for example, or KDE, that you have to overcome the
> older packages...I've been using an rpm distro if that
> clarifies a bit. Anyway, I want to be able to put what
> I want on my computer without having to go through a
> song and a dance so to speak just to get it. Perhaps
> I'm just lazy. You all have been great and this list
> is really informative. Thanks for your help. You are
> greatly appreciated.
> <snip>
Hi Jason,
rpm based distro work like this:
find the new package yourself,
find the dependencies yourself,
pray that eveything works ok.
Althought with Ximian red carpet express,
this is much simplifed.
And now there is an APT for rpm which is being improved with the new
Fedora Redhat project.
But Debian has (almost) always used apt-get which figures dependencies for
you (most of the time).
With debian, the files come to you whereas the old rpm system required you
to find packages and fix things yourself.
Also with apt-get you can get a source package if you want, to a freshly
minted app. Redhat has srpms but again you have to do all the work.
-Kevin
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