RE: changing to Debian from Mandrake

[Kris Huber <khuber@sorensontech.com>]

> Apt + dselect seem very powerful... Have the
> people who wrote these systems outlined their correct usage in a
> FAQ/manpage/etc.?
I'm less familiar with Linux than you, but I can tell you based on recent
Debian experience that there's a How-To document for apt at
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/.  In Chapter 3 it talks about
managing packages and says you can use a file /etc/apt/preferences (I'm not
sure if apt_preferences is newer or simply a typo) to do such things as
gracefully back out of a dist-upgrade to unstable all or selected packages.
The version of apt that has this feature is *ironically* not in the stable
distrubution, however!
-Kris 

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Kaminsky [mailto:kaminsky@lcs.mit.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 11:50 AM
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Subject: changing to Debian from Mandrake


I'm been using Mandrake for the past couple of years, and now I'm
considering switching to Debian; but, I have some concerns.  I
consider myself a fairly experienced Linux user and use Linux for all
my computing needs (devel, digital camera stuff, laptop stuff ,text
processing, networking, etc.).  I would like input on the following:

 * One reason I moved to Mandrake from Redhat (from Slackware) is that
   the packages are extremely up-to-date.  Even the unstable version of
   Debian seems sorely lacking.  Mandrake seems to put out RPMs within
   1-2 days of the upstream developers.  There are still no Debian
   packages for software I use regularly that's been out for > 1 month
   (according to the debian web page package search form).  
   Example: gnucash.

   Also, in some cases the package I want is up-to-date, but not
   all of its dependencies.  Example: gnumeric.  Version 0.72 requires 
   a version of guppi for which there is no Debian package.

*  Apt + dselect seem very powerful, efficient if you use them together
   correctly.  From the mailing lists, though, "correctly" seems to be
   a matter of confusion (or perhaps just preference).  RPMs don't cut
   it for bleeding edge multiple-dependency upgrades (as you all know
   well).  This reason is key to my wanting to change over.  Have the
   people who wrote these systems outlined their correct usage in a
   FAQ/manpage/etc.?

   Also, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to upgrade to testing or 
   unstable once you install.  From the mailing lists, it seems like
   magic one-line commands such as "apt-get dist-upgrade" leave much
   manually fixing left to do.  Apparently one can live mostly in
   testing but grab select packages from unstable by configuring
   "pins" in an apt_preferences file.  Are there simple instructions
   for doing so?  Again, people on the mailing lists seem confused
   and/or have varied opinions on how the mechanism is supposed to
   work.

*  Mandrake has very decent system configuration tools.  I spent many
   years editing scripts and config files to setup up Linux machines, 
   but it just takes longer when it comes to simple, basic tasks
   (adding a network interface, changing the runlevel configuration
   for daemons, etc.).  Does Debian provide such tools (even if
   clearly they don't work for all situations)?

I apologize for the length; any advice/comments would be appreciated.  

Thanks,

Michael


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