Re: Upgrading from slackware to debian
I would like to supplement Paul's excellent summary in respect to
Red Hat. Red Hat is heavily oriented towards Xwindows. The
installation program configures X very early, and the balance of the
installation uses Xwindow interface. They have several X-based
administration tools that they think should be used. If, for
instance, you load the fstab file in an editor, you are warned that
you should be using "control panel" (or whatever it's called.)
Of course, you can refuse to configure X in the installation, and
do administration in the usual manner, without using the X-based
tools. If you want Linux in order to get multi-tasking without a GUI,
you shouldn't even look at Red Hat. If, on the other hand, you like
using a GUI, Red Hat should be one of the options you consider.
Bob
On Wed, 19 Mar 1997 17:02:29 -0800 (PST), Paul Christenson
<paull@c109522-a.frmt1.sfba.home.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 18 Mar 1997, Leandro Asnaghi-Nicastro wrote:
>
> > 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.
>
> Red Hat: Available in two versions; shareware and commercial. Most of
> the software is the same; the commercial version used to have a commercial
> X server included. Maintained by several paid people; home site: Red Hat
> Software (www.redhat.com). Package tool available. Reasonably quick in
> bugfixes, sometimes slow in major updates (one of the last to have a
> version with a 2.x kernel). Versions available for DEC Alpha and SPARC.
> Rumored to be one of the easiest to set up (it and I simply don't get
> along). Was the base for the original Caldera Network Desktop (a
> commercial version of Linux, with many interesting additions).
>
> Debian: Maintained by over a hundred volunteers, each maintaining one (or
> several) package. Package tool available; able to use Red Hat packages.
> Hosted by CrossLink; home page (www.debian.org). Overall, one of the
> fastest with updates and bugfixes; in many cases, the program author is
> the package maintainer. Initial installation has had its share of
> "gotchas", mainly dealing with dependencies. (Don't install everything at
> once; install the recommended packages on the initial installation, then
> install a few packages at a time afterward.)
>
> Hope this helps.
>
>
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