Re: A lot of choice is not always good
Dr Nick Jacobs wrote:
> I wanted to install an ftp server. So I started
> dselect and searched for names containing "ftpd".
>
> How many ftp daemons do you think there are on
> the Woody distribution CDs? 2? 3? 4 maybe?
>
> There are TEN. bsd-ftpd, twoftpd, wu-ftpd,
> proftpd, lukemftpd, muddleftpd, vsftpd, ftpd,
> an ftp daemon written in Perl, and one written
> in Python. That's EXCLUDING tftp daemons.
Well, if performance is a concern you can probably forget about the ones
written in Perl or Python.
> Having 10 ftp daemons on the CDs is a lot
> less useful than having the best 2 or 3. I
> don't want to spend half an hour researching
> which ones are the best. I just want to install
> a good ftp daemon.
So don't spend half an hour -- just read the package descriptions and
see how far that gets you:
ftpd: This is the "netkit" FTP daemon, which I gather basically means
that it's a fairly generic one. The description specifically recommends
that you use something else, such as wu-ftpd or proftpd.
bsd-ftpd: This is the OpenBSD FTP daemon, believed to be quite secure.
Also supports IPv6 if that's a concern (probably not).
twoftpd: A new FTP server designed to be secure. None of its commands
execute externel programs, and it runs user sessions in a chroot jail.
wu-ftpd: The Washington University (St. Louis) FTP daemon. Supports
extensive logging, on-the-fly compression, restricted guest accounts,
filename filters, virtual host support, etc.
proftpd: Intended as a replacement for wu-ftpd; similar basic feature
set, but sounds like it might be easier to use.
lukemftpd: This is the NetBSD FTP daemon.
muddleftpd: An FTP daemon that doesn't mind not being run as root.
vsftpd: A lightweight FTP daemon.
Based on all this, I'd limit my attentions to bsd-ftpd, twoftpd, and
maybe proftp or vsftpd.
> How many other programs on the
> CDs are unnecessary duplicates of each other?
> Suddenly, Debian's proud boast of including
> far more apps than the other distros looks
> very dubious.
They're not duplicates. They're totally different programs that happen
to do the same things.
> Before somebody flames me for "not understanding"
> that Debian is driven by volunteers and that what
> goes on the distribution is whatever volunteers
> choose to put there, I'd like to point out
> that "volunteer" does not simply mean someone
> who works for no money. That's only part of it.
> A volunteer is someone who is motivated by
> the desire to serve the goals of the organisation
> he or she works for.
No, in this case a "volunteer" is more likely someone who really likes
the ftp daemon in question, and decided to package it for Debian as a
service to others who might like to run it too.
Craig
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