RE: BUG

["Paul McHale" <pmchale@doubleesolutions.com>]

My experience with debian was identical.  I started with slackware beta way
back when (20 something floppies).  Then went Redhat.  Haven't used either
in a long time.  I don't think it would have mattered much.  The Debian
install is unique.  I had a working system and re-installed anyway when I
realize I could have made more ideal configuration choices during install.
I installed a ton of stuff I didn't need.  Doing a fresh install is a nice
way to have a "clean" system, whatever that means :)

-paul

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Haude [mailto:dh@insitu.physnet.uni-hamburg.de]
Sent: Monday, November 01, 1999 8:33 AM
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Subject: Re: BUG


On Sat, 30 Oct 1999, Kent West wrote:

> smoothly as it should have (for whatever reason). Although this
> next idea is a child of the Windows mentality, you might want to
> redo the install from the beginning. A more experienced person
> would fix the problem rather than reinstall, but a newbie from
> the Microsoft world might find a reinstall both educational and
> helpful.

You don't need to come from the Microsoft world to find this useful. I've
been a long-time user of a small (non-X) Slackware system and switched to
Debian a short while ago. I've now installed the system three times over,
but I now got it down and think that Debian is a great system.

The reason for this is that the Debian package management is quite non-
intuitive, but it works great once you've got it figured out. During the
package selecting/configuring phase of my first install, I missed the
significance of many package settings or interrelationships between
packages and didn't understand what dselect tried to tell me about it. So
I ended up with a buggy, non-working installation. Much of my trouble,
however, was in my case also owed to a definitely faulty hardware.

I now know what it means if they tell you: Debian is NOT for the beginner,
but also an experienced Linux user will have minor troubles. After a few
frustrating days and a few re-installs, however, you are an experienced
Debian user with an extremely well-built system where everything is to be
found in the right place. Something you can't say after the first SuSE
install which most likely runs quite smoothly. Nothing against SuSE, btw.
It's just that it doesn't _force_ you to get acquainted with it, so if you
run into trouble later, it's more difficult to get out again.

--Daniel


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