Re: Upgrading from slackware to debian
On Wed, 19 Mar 1997, Paul Christenson [N3EOP] 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.
>
>
I would like to add that the software it's self is Linux (whatever
version) the different distributions are just different configurations of
the same software, basically. There are some added scripts and special
binaries that are package specific but there purpose is generally only to
aid in the installation or configuration of the software. The different
distributions may package different binaries of extra goodies as they see
fit but it's purpose is to put it all together for the normal ppl. Anyone
could D/L everything seperately and call it his own without being a
particular distribution.
It's like buying an office suite (package) of 3 or 4 programs at the
store. You could get them seperately but they've been "packaged".
--Rick
rickya@siservices.net
Reply to: