Re: Why choose Debian?
Hi,
"Steve R. Hastings" <steve@hastings.org> wrote:
>I am interested in why people prefer Debian to other Linux
>distributions. Please explain the top few reasons why you chose Debian
>rather than something else.
It started with my Atari TT. When I first logged in via 28.8k modem and
VT100 terminal to the computing centre of Cologne University, I was
already aware that different OS do exist, but besides some foggy
knowledge about MacOS and Windows (sometimes you have to start programs
not running on your most favourite computer by performing double clicks
on some icons ... ;-) ), I was never confronted with a CLI before. I
overcame my cultural shock quite fast, the idea of remote working with a
Unix (reported to be guru-only) on one of these cupboard-sized computers
fascinated me. When I realized by reading internet traffic, that
something unixoid called Linux existed and was available for
m68k-machines as well, I wanted to try this, too. My first attempt with
the ALD (Atari Linux Distribution, with the already completely outdated
kernel 0.9) didn´t work out. Somehow I got in contact with Roman Hodek
and he helped me to install Debian 2.0 on my TT (on a 270 MB
exchangeable SyQuest drive). At that time, it was still unstable, the
base-packages belonged to Debian 1.3, but the rest was already 2.0. So
first thing to do after base install was to upgrade from libc5 to libc6
and it worked out. To run X11-things the TT was a little bit too slow,
so I stayed stuck predominantly to command line stuff. It was more
experimenting with it, with Magic still as a "working" OS parallel to
Linux. Later, I got my Alpha workstation. Since SuSE was not yet
available for the Alpha platform, it came preinstalled with RedHat 5.2
updated with a 2.1x hacker kernel (the people from the shop didn´t offer
Debian). I fiddled around with it for while, but did not feel very
secure, since I hadn´t installed it by myself and liked the Debian
packages system better than the rpm. As soon as Debian 2.2 was declared
stable, I put in a second harddisk and installed Debian on it. Now that
all important things are setup, I skipped RedHat completely, and my
Alpha is my main working computer. My reliable Atari TT is still
standing side by side with my Alpha and connected with it via ethernet.
It is now supplied with an external 1 GB harddisk for Linux.
Regards,
Kerstin
--
kerstin.hoef-emden@uni-koeln.de
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