Re: slashdot poll
Subject: RE: slashdot poll
Date: Wed, Feb 10, 1999 at 12:13:30AM +0000
In reply to:M.C. Vernon
Quoting M.C. Vernon(mcv21@cus.cam.ac.uk):
>
>
> > > Debian's harder to install. One guy mentionned he could install Red Hat in
> > > less than 15 minutes. Hard to have something fully up at that speed with
> > > Debian.
> > >
> > Right. I've recently tried Redhat and SuSE on a separate partition
> > and Debian's installation is still pure stone age. Well, i guess
> > there's still Slackware...
>
> What do people like about RH? Is it worth trying to nick parts of their
> install? I found it a pain - It wouldn't let me just install individual
> packages, though I wonder whether some of the modconf stuff could be left
> out for the initial install.....
I got into linux 3 -4 years ago. The only distributions that I
got to work at all were Debian and slackware. Redhat & Caldera drove
me nuts. I couldn't get the printer working on either one. I stayed
with debian for about a year. Then, while trying to update using IIRC
dselect ftp, it trashed the system. I could still log on but that was
about it. Deselect was just a slight bit better then glint ( or
whatever they called it). I went back to slackware, which I still
use.
I then tried Suse. Yast was nice and I feel it lets a user get
packages with less confusion then deselect does but it has its own
confusing parts. It (YAST) is IMHO much better then the tool that
I had used with Redhat. The problem I had with Suse was they had
taken a different path (SysV) then Slackware and I found that weird.
Things weren't as stright forward as they were in Slackware. A slight
problem was that a lot of the docs I needed to read to understand the
differences were in German. I couldn't get the info I needed, so
dropped Suse.
I watched the newsgroups and various ML over the years and saw that
more people were having problems with RH then they were with any other
dist (Release new version & a week later release tons of fixes).
Debian didn't have that problem. Security on RH seemed to be a common
problem, while Debian was on top of the security issue. The number of
packages in Debian keep increasing and seems to cover a broad enough
spectrum that should interest just about anyone.
Now 3 years later I am again using Debian. Why? Well I have watched
this distribution mature. The problems that I had before have been
addressed and fixed. The addition of apt and now the GREAT gnome-apt
will contribute to the popularity of Debian. Hopefully deselect will
be replaces by a more understandable console program for the non-x
crowd. As of now I have no interest at all in RH or Suse. I have
Slackware still installed but also Hamm, Slink and Potato. I still
have clients using Slackware but am just about ready to start the
switch to Debian. It, IMHO, is the distribution of choice. Gnome-apt
will allow my clients to do more admin on their own, and that is good!
> How about suggesting some improvements, rather than "I don't like the
> Debian install"?
>
I find deselect as the only problem with debian. The update section
really needs work. Cdrom and apt are handled fine but the others
should have some type of a config file to make the options easier to
use. I have tried the ftp option a few times and find it is easier to
get out of deselect and go get the packages myself. Now I remember,
it asks for a directory at the site you selected and if you haven't
been there before (or are really into the structure of the site) it
doesn't do what you want. A config file would allow anyone to
navigate that pitfall.
Thats my only suggestion. I can get around that problem (by not
using it) but newbies would get discouraged very fast not knowing how
else to get and install the files.
I would like to thank the army of developers who have taken Debian
to the high level it is currently at. I am bewildered my the poll
that has Debian as #2. I guess that it just takes a little higher
IQ to use Debian then it does RH. Thats fine by me, I like the
company.
Wayne
--
You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on
the continuing viability of FORTRAN.
-- Alan Perlis
_______________________________________________________
Wayne T. Topa <wtopa@ix.netcom.com>
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