Re: current Redhat user evaluates Debian
I am a very happy convert from Red Hat via SuSE to Debian. I will give
you
two disadvantages that spawn others. The release dates are infrequent.
Also, IMHO, the current religious war over the meaning of Free is not
serving the user base. It is apparently serving some of the more devout
developers. The most recent instance in which I felt a disadvantage was
when I had to log into a MS server over a ppp connection. The MS server
required an encrypted password before I could even start exchanging the
standard PPP information. It turns out that Red Hat has something called
ms-chat that would allow me to do this using Linux. I will really need
this tool soon so I hope that debian can refocus more on the distribution
and less on policy.
Now the good things. Probably the best thing about Debian is the set of
installation and upgrade tools. Also dbian package installation is, IMO,
much better than the rpm method. For installation, if you have a
reasonable web connection, you simply down-load five floppy images and use
them to start the process. After kernel installation, you attach to the
web and finishc the process. A utility called apt-get makes all upgrades
effortless. You simply issue the commands apt-get update and apt-get
dist-upgrade and the utility will rebuild your entire system on the fly.
Aterwards, you can upgrade the kernel. apt-get can also install individual
new packages from debian ftp-sites. It is nice because it checks
dependencies and brings down everything you need to install the package.
My final comment is about the installation itself. I prefer debian's less
automatic but more flexible installation. It makes many fewer assumptions
for you.
This, of course, is one users perspective.
Arthur H. Edwards
712 Valencia Dr. NE
Abq. NM 87108
(505) 256-0834
On Fri, 28 Jul 2000, John L. Fjellstad wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm a current RedHat user (started with Linux on RedHat because
> it was available at Fry's), and I'm currently evaluating
> Debian for a possible switch.
>
> Can anyone come up with a list of advantages of using Debian
> Linux over Redhat Linux?
> I would also love to hear any the weaknesses Debian has compared
> RedHat.
>
> Thanks,
> --
> John______________________________________________________________________
> email: john@fjellstad.org Quis custodiet ipsos custodes
> icq: thales @ 17755648
>
>
> --
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>
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