Slackware vs Debian (was: Re: Quality of security assurance with Debian vs. RedHat vs. SuSE)

[René Seindal <rene@seindal.dk>]

On Wed, 2002-06-12 at 08:49, Patrick Hsieh wrote:
> Hello Brad B <ion@qwest.net>,
> 
> Agree. Can someone give any persuasive reason for me to say goodbye to
> Slackware and embrace Debian? They differ a lot in their philosophy and
> development model. Is there any guys switching from Slackware to Debian?

I switched from Slackware to Debian about a year ago, and it is one of
the best things I ever did.  This is not to say I didn't like Slackware,
because I did, but Debian has some distinct advantages once you get a
hold of it.

I came to Slackware from SLS, which was were I started back in 1992. 
There weren't so many distros around back then, and SLS was very good
with floppies.   Both SLS and later Slackware was very BSD like, which
suited me as I came to Linux from a BSD/Mt.Xinu/SunOS background.

So I used SLS/Slackware for some nine years.

Compared to Slackware (as it was when I used it) Debian is heaven.

        * There are many more packages for Debian so the probability of
          finding a given piece of software already packaged is much
          higher.  My /usr/local is continously diminishing in size as I
          can automate the maintenance of packages I previous had to
          install by hand.
        * Packages come pre-configured, practically always in a very
          sensible way, so the effort of adaptation of the installed
          software is minimal, very often just answering a few debconf
          questions.  Some packages are more complicated, like INN, but
          in any case it runs sensibly out of the box so you point of
          departure is better.
        * Locating, downloading and installing a package is just one
          command, which is so much easier than in Slackware, where you
          have to locate and download the package by hand.
        * Dependencies are handled automatically by apt-get, so there is
          no time wasted hunting down all the prerequisites for a
          packages.  Just "apt-get install package" and you'llbe asked
          if there are missing dependencies.
        * The division between stable, testing and unstable gives a very
          useful choice between several versions of the same package.
          With a bit of skill in pinning it is very easy to have mixed
          installs.  Personally I use mostly woody with a touch of sid.
        * Day to day maintenance is a breeze.  I have a weekly cronjob
          that does a "apt-get update; apt-get -s dist-upgrade" so I get
          a report of what's new every week.  The actual upgrade is just
          "apt-get dist-upgrade" which I do by hand.
        * The upgrade path is incredibly smooth.  With Slackware I
          normally kept two root file systems, and I installed
          alternately on one or the other, so I could always return to a
          working system if the install went wrong.  Afterwards there
          was a period where I would move configuration files from the
          old system to the new.  There was no safe way of moving from
          one major release to the next less of reinstalling.  With
          Debian it is little more than changing the sources.list and
          doing an "apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade".  I have
          noticed that an upgrade from potato to woody could require an
          "apt-get install apt dpkg dpkg-utils" before the dist-upgrade,
          because there had been some changes in functionality in apt
          and dpkg, but this is a minor issue compared to a complete
          reinstall.
        * Debian packaging is much more complicated than Slackware's,
          but also much more powerful.  There is a rather steep learning
          curve, but once apprehended, almost everything can be achieved
          with just the three programs apt-get(8), apt-cache(8) and
          dpkg(8) from a commandline.  Building you own packages is a
          bit complicated, but it can be learned in a day if necessary.

Besides these practical things you get a community of devoted
maintainers, a centralised bugtracking system, a social contract,
written policies with a steadfast dedication to free software, 
numerous fora for user to user communication (email and web-based), ...

Debian is free software incarnate.



-- 
René Seindal (rene@seindal.dk)              http://www.seindal.dk/rene/
 


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