on Sun, May 19, 2002, Jamin W. Collins (jcollins@asgardsrealm.net) wrote:
> On Sun, 19 May 2002 14:33:21 +0200
> "Robert Ian Smit" <robian@wanadoo.nl> wrote:
>
> > I know Debian is more difficult to install, but I hope I will benefit by
> > learning a lot.
>
> As you've no doubt already experienced, the Debian install is text based.
> No fancy GUI. But other than that I can't say that the install was trully
> any more difficult than any of the other distros that I've tried.
Having done several Debian and RH installs in the past four months, some
curves:
- RH's installation is better at picking up specific HW
configurations, though not markedly so for resonable equipment.
With Woody and XFree86 v4, X config under Debian is pretty trivial
(dpgk-reconfigure xserver-xfree86).
- RH can largely take care of your partitioning for you. I far prefer
to manage this myself, and have documented some issues and (IMVAO)
sane starting points:
http://kmself.home.netcom.com/Linux/FAQs/partition.html
- Once you hit package selection, the advantages of Debian start to
become apparent. More so if you've been lead down the primrose path
before. Under RH, it's difficult to install anything other than the
kitchen sink, more so if you're a newbie and don't grok
dependencies. With Debian, pick what you want (or nothing at all).
Additional requirements are filled in for you. And it's (almost)
always possible to add more later (the "almost" would be exceptional
conditions such as: you're on a mission to Mars with no
connectivity, you're burning a static system on CDROM or EPROMs).
The basic console-mode installation of Debian pretty much rocks.
Biggest post install issues are:
- Networking. This is critical. Once you've got networking up,
virtually all else becomes solveable. You can download more
packages, you can browse the web for information, you can email for
help.
- Graphics. X11 configuration is *** FAR *** far better than when I
first encountered GNU/Linux is 1997. Newer hardware (cards) can
still throw curves.
- Sound. You may have to do some digging and probing to get things up
and running, but once you're there, you're golden.
Other odd'n'ends. A good set of TrueType fonts (the set that Legacy MS
Windows ships with somehow finds its way onto many GNU/Linux systems) is
pretty much a necessity. Configuration can't get much easier than this:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/TT-XFree86-2.html
> > I do have a few questions about package-management.
> >
> > Once Woody becomes stable, do the packages (even if unchanged)
> > require upgrading?
It's not a bad idea to download updates on a daily basis (you can
install them less frequently). On a 56k modem, this typically takes 20
minutes to a couple of hours for a major update. On a high-speed
connection, seconds to a few minutes.
> > Where do I go for packages that are not yet part of one of the
> > dists?
There are currently almost 9,000 packages for Debian testing/unstable.
Your odds of finding a significant software package _not_ packaged for
Debian are fairly low.
That said, Debian will also handle RPMs (via alien), which then become
managed by the package management system. Or you can grab binaries or
build sources and install under /usr/local or /opt.
The only software I currently have under /opt is OpenOffice. This is
now being packaged for Debian, though something of a work in progress.
> > Basically I want to know if it's possible to have a system that
> > respects the Debian guidelines, but is more up to date in regards to
> > desktop/application software?
Absolutely.
> > I want to avoid format disks and install again every three months,
> > but rather have a stable, open-ended system that I can adapt to my
> > needs.
>
> This too is why I came to Debian. I was a previous RH user, and found
> that keeping the RH systems up to date was too time consuming. Sure,
> there are some tools such as "up2date" and what not. However, I found
> that if I had more than 1 system (I now have nearly 20 in the house), I
> would need to pay a subscription fee to RH. I also tried several free
> tools. However, these almost all had trouble with package dependancies.
All I can say is ObAOL: MeToo.
Peace.
--
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
Moderator, Free Software Law Discussion mailing list:
http://lists.alt.org/mailman/listinfo/fsl-discuss/
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