Re: Latest Mandrake
On Sat, Dec 16, 2000 at 08:34:11AM -0700, Randolph Chung wrote:
> > > Hogwash. dpkg-reconfigure -plow xserver-xfree86
> > I meant hardware auto-detection.
>
> Even potato had hardware detection for X (anXious) that is part of the
> installation process.....
>
> One thing that no one has really touched on ... people complain that
> Debian's installation system is not as smooth as Mandrake, RedHat, etc.
>
> *WE KNOW THAT*
i don't.
i just built another debian box yesterday using the latest 2000-12-03
install floppies, and was again impressed at how good it is - it gets
better and better with every new release of the boot-floppies.
i just can't see what it is that people complain about - it couldn't
possibly be any easier. a smooth, easy, and faultless installation.
IMO, the boot-floppies team are doing a great job.
there's another underlying assumption in this thread that i don't get
either - that it's possible to be all things to all pepole. IMO, debian
is good for some people, mandrake is probably good for others - i know
it would creep me out to have the installer making MY decisions for
me. i want an installer to do what debian's installer does, which is
to implement my choices painlessly and easily. i don't want it to make
choices for me.
maybe there are some things that debian could learn or borrow from
mandrake (and other dists) but that doesn't mean we should slavishly
copy them. i'm sure there are also lots of things that mandrake could
learn from debian. the really good, universally useful ideas will be
cross-borrowed into all of the distributions eventually.
but that still leaves a lot of room for niche specialisation. if
mandrake is better for ex-windows users who don't want to know how their
computer works and don't want to get their hands dirty with "stupid"
config files then i'm happy that it exists for them. debian happens to
be better for people who aren't afraid of their computer and i'm glad
that it exists for people like me.
craig
--
craig sanders
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