Re: How would I get debian unstable?
On Thu, Jun 05, 2008 at 04:48:48PM +0200, Heikki Levanto wrote:
> No, I think it is typical for any distribution that is new enough not have
> made enough mistakes in the upgrade process. One of Debian's strengths is
> that they have been around for a long while, and have learned most of the
> time. I bet that in the beginning, upgrading a Debian/Stable was still a
> hazzle.
When I installed 2.0 the first time, just getting it to install was a
hassle. The number of times through dselect's install/configure cycle
was quite a pain. I recall the dependancies of emacs were a nightmare
to get it to work out. 2.1 and newer on the other hand always seemed to
upgrade very well.
> Sorry if I over react, but I am a bit allergic to anyone claiming something
> is "fundamentally the wrong way to do" almost anything. I guess most of the
> ways have their justifications for some situations.
It's inefficient, and the vast majority of arguments for the design are
incorrect since it doesn't actually accomplish what people claim it is
supposed to accomplish. You end up with less well tested software,
(due to lots of variation in configurations and compile options), lots
of potential for bugs (due to people playing with compiler options they
don't understand), and the rather vocal (although probable minority of)
users who believe that because they compiled it themselves on their CPU
it must automatically run faster than if someone else compiled it for
the same CPU.
I am an opinionated bastard (although I believe I have valid reasons for
my opinions) and I think gentoo is a stupid waste of time with zero
purpose for existing and all you learn from it is how much time you can
waste compiling software, and you only learn that lesson when you stop
using gentoo. Everything else you could have learned quicker and better
using something like Debian if you really had an interest in learning
how to mange compilation and optimization of software and the overall
system. I imagine most gentoo users will think I am wrong, at least
until the day they move on and realize their mistake.
> I learned a lot from the year I installed and run Gentoo on my desktop. That
> experience was the direct cause that I dared to to a Debian install over the
> net, with not much help from the local people... Just stick in a CD (I think
> it wasn't even Debian, possibly Knoppix), enable me to ssh in, and I took it
> from there. Bit scary to tell it to reboot, but it did come up, and was a
> functional system... I guess a Debian wizard would have done it with just
> Debian background, but walking through the Gentoo installation was a good
> learning experience. (and maintaining the system for a while too, although
> that was what convinced me to switch back to Debian).
I learned a lot moving to Debian about how to do things right (or at
least better than any other system I have used).
--
Len Sorensen
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