Re: Why Debian?

["Eric G. Miller" <egm2@jps.net>]

On Fri, Mar 01, 2002 at 09:20:50AM +0200, Johan van der Walt wrote:
[snip]
> My question then is: what makes Debian GNU/Linux different so that I
> should use it rather than any of the other distributions? Is Linux not
> just Linux? From a scientific point of view I use IRAF and that comes
> with Debian which is something I like. However, that certainly cannot
> be the only reason for using Debian.
> 
> Someone told me the other day that Debian is the most stable
> distribution. Is that so and why? 

The most oft cited reasons are the superior dependency resolution
and testing of Debian packages.  Other distro's are reportedly
getting better at the first.  Hopefully all will become LSB
conformant, so it'll be a little easier to grab packages not
available with the distro ("alien" can already help with RPM's).

The most oft cited reasons against are the long release cycles, a
[possibly undeserved] reputation for being harder to install and for
providing few "user friendly" system management interfaces.

I switch to Debian from Red Hat 3 years ago, and haven't looked
back.  Those Debian developers must be doing something right, no?

-- 
Eric G. Miller <egm2@jps.net>