Why Linux, Why Debian

[Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>]

Hi,

        I have been asked to give a talk at my local LUG with that
 topic. The audience is  fairly technical, and there is going to be a
 companion talk "Why FreeBSD" later in the year.

	I know why _I_ have decided to go with Linux, and Debian, but
 I want to deliver a talk with from a broader perspective than that,
 so I want to solicit opinions towards that.

	I'll create a talk that shall be under the GPL, and shall be
 submitted to the page at http://www.debian.org/events/talks.

	I don't intend to spend much time on enumerating the
 advantages of a UNBIX-like OS as opposed to Windows;
  a) Security, b) flexibility, c) control of features, d) philosophy,
  e) cost, f) sped, g) efficiency, h) reliability i) (not having the gui
     as an integral part of the OS), j) choices when it comes to
     application software, k) no viruses,  l) openness and speed of
     resolutions of flaws, m) clustering, n) multi-user OS, kinda
     cover it.

	However, I would indeed want to cover why one would want to
 select Linux over the BSD's, and why one would want to select Debian
 over the other distributions.

	In order to start a dialogue, I have a few questions I would
 like to solicit responses to the following (please do not hesitate to
 add to the following; these are merely things I have thought off the
 top of my head).

 1) Do you think that OpenBSD 's repuation as a secure OS is
    justified? Does the secure part of OpenBSD provide a useful platform
    for your needs? Would SELinux meet or exceed the needs for a
    secure OS for you?

 2) Is the userland in openBSD too inconvenient to work with? Is the
    userland for FreeBSD too inconvenient  (as compared to Linux
    userland)? 

 3) Do you think that BSD kernels have better quality than Linux
    kernels? Do Linux kernels have more features?  Are these features
    important for you?

 4) Do you think that network performance of the BSD's is better than
    that of Linux, including that of the 2.6 kernels?  What about NFS
    performance? 

 5) Are upgrades easy for the BSD OS's?

 6) Are security fixes available in a timely fashion for the BSD's?
    For Linux in general? For Debian?

 7) are security patch mechanisms convenient for the BSD's?
    For Linux in general? For Debian?

 8) Is the hardware support for the BSD's as good that of Linux? Does
    NetBSD support more architectures than Linux does? Which of these
    architectures is important for you?

 9) Does the gentoo configurability deliver significantly better
    performance? Is the added step of compilation too much of an
    inconvenience? 

 10) Does the BSD ports system compare favorably to gentoo or sorceror
     Linux? Does the ports system always build for you? are upgrades
     to individual packages easy, using ports/portage/emerge? 

 11) Is it easy for you to discover new software when not using
     Debian? When using gentoo? When using one of the BSD's?

	Feel free to reply to me offline, I'll summarize on list; but
 I think that a lively dialogue shall elicit more material for an
 evangelizing document ;-)

	manoj

http://www.debian.org/intro/why_debian

-- 
The two oldest professions in the world have been ruined by
amateurs. G.B. Shaw
Manoj Srivastava   <srivasta@debian.org>  <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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