Re: Upgrading from slackware to debian

[David Pfitzner <dwp@mso.anu.edu.au>]

> > What is the difference between Red-Hat, Debian and Slackware?
> 
> Slackware:  One of the oldest distributions, and is showing its age.
> Created as a "bugfixed" version of SLS (Softlanding Linux System).
> Maintained by one person (Patrick Volkerding); home site: Walnut Creek
> CD-ROM (www.cdrom.com).  No package tool available.  Very slow to get
> updated; no interim upgrades.  Considered by many "old-timers" to have
> "lost it" with the latest version (3.1), as most of the new parts are
> added "flash", with most known security problems left untouched.

I don't intend to promote Slackware on a Debian mailing list (I'm in
the process of `upgrading' from Slackware to Debian), but there are
some mistakes in the above.
Slackware _does_ have a package tool (called, I believe, pkgtool :-)
albeit simpler (less sophisticated, less capable) than those of
Debian or Redhat. 
Also Slackware _does_ have interim upgrades, both for new software 
versions and to fix security holes.  However with more limited packaging
and versioning etc, these are much less convenient than, say, Debian. 

-- 
David Pfitzner     dwp@mso.anu.edu.au