Re: Debian and Redhat - are most linux users missing the point?
George Bonser wrote:
>
> On Sat, 27 Feb 1999, Frankie wrote:
> > A couple of weeks ago there was a poll, which showed that redhat hat had
> > about 2 or three times as many users as debian, and that redhat was first
> > with debian was second, but far closer to the other distros than to redhat.
>
> Understandable given the amount of press they get. How much is the Debian
> PR staff paid vs. Red Hat? How many drinks, rounds of golf, or theatre
> tickets does the Debian PR staff hand out to various journalists?
>
> >
> > Now I may be wrong, but I believe that many (if not the majority) of linux
> > users are attracted to linux because its free, and because it is symbolic of
> > the backlash against the large corporation ethos of many of its competitors,
> > rather than its reliability (let alone it's ease of use :-))
>
> I would say you are wrong. I think most people use Debian because of its
> technical superiority, not for political reasons. I have brought Debian
> into our workplace because it is better. I will also dump it in a minute
> if they compromise quality in exchange for political correctness. I have a
> love/hate relationship with Debian as it is now. Their attitudes about
> certain things have nearly caused me to abandon it a few times but the
> truth is that I have found nothing better. I have wanted to develop my own
> distro based on Debian for use by us at work and may well get that done
> this year. A major devel project (commercial one) has delayed me for
> nearly 9 months.
George, I'm afraid I've got to disagree here.
First, I think a *lot* of the Debian users are using it at least
in part based on 'political' issues such as Debian being the only
non-commercial distribution (myself included). For one thing, as
another poster mentioned, a lot of the press that Debian gets
explicitly points out its noncommercial, volunteer-based status,
which means a lot of people who are sensitive to that kind of
politics, are coming to Debian.
Second, and perhaps most importantly, Debian's 'politics' have a
lot to do with its technical superiority. Debian releases only
when the dist is ready and not a day before. Deb can do this
because the developers aren't working on a management-imposed
release deadline. Deb is basically rock-solid, with a package
manager thats technically superior to RPM. These things happen
because the Deb developers picked these issues as being important
to them. As Deb becomes bigger, attracting more users, with some
of them becoming developers, Deb's weaknesses such as the install
problems will be addressed as well (am I the only one who likes
dselect? :-) ).
>
>
> [big snip]
>
--
Ed C.
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