Re: The Real Problem With Debian
On Tue, 1 Oct 2002, Rick wrote:
> Debian is supposedly a great OS, it is configurable, custimizable, and
> powerful, but Debian is ultimately misleading for many people. Debian is an
> OS that may be used on a server, or a developer's computer, so he can really
> feel the balls in his system, but it should not have been used on my
> computer, or a couple of my friend's computers.
>
Sure. You can't be all things to everyone.
> The Real Problem With Debian is that it is MANUAL. Everything must be done
> manually, now although there may be a script or two to ease things along,
> these often DON'T WORK. I have spent two weeks fighting slackware, trying to
> get it to work with my printer, and sound card. Then I spent two weeks
> fighting Debian, trying to get it to work with my mouse, printer, network
> card, and sound card. After installing Mandrake, everything worked
> instantaneously, sound, card, network, printer, EVERYTHING. It ran faster
> too, I don't know why, but it did, and it had newer programs, like KDE3.xx.
> Which distro do you think I stuck with?
>
That's great. Use whatever works for you. That's the power of Linux.
although I obviously like Debian the best, I run Mandrake, Red Hat, and
Slackware too. (Mostly under VMware nowadays.)
> This is not an attempt to convert any Debian users on this list, but it is a
> statement. I spent a month fighting Slackware and Debian, and 45 minutes
> fighting Mandrake. Full balls is nice, but how about having a system that is
> full balls, but ALSO is as easy to configure as mandrake?
>
It's funny you should say that because my recent upgrade from Mandrake 8.2
to 9.0 is the first one that *didn't* go horribly wrong or need a
reinstall. In contrast I've been regularly updating my home debian box
for about five years now without a reinstall. Different strokes for
different folks I guess.
Well there was one thing. In 9.0 they forgot a symlink to cpp which
prevented me from logging in to KDE. (which is a pretty huge blunder I
think.) All the GUI tools in the world can't help with this. I had to
get in there and fix it myself, manually just as I would have with Debian.
(Assuming debian ever did anything that silly :) At least thanks to
Debian I knew what to do. Someone who relied exclusively on pointy clicky
stuff would have been lost.
> People on IRC tell me that my hardware is flaky, yet it works perfectly with
> Mandrake. People on IRC were rude, and even elitist, and made fun of me more
> often then helping me. A stark contrast to the helpfullness of the folks on
> the mailing list, odd.
>
> The ironic thing is that my computer was so stock, it was Lynksis NC100 card
> (tulip module) with a ESS1969 Solo card, a s3ViRGE 4mb video card, and a
> Logitech USB wheel mouse. This should not have taken me two weeks to
> configure on ANY distro. The point is that Debian is flaky, it is too stark,
> some call configuration tools "bloat", and call guis "evil", but
> configuration tools are the way of the future, and guis have been around for
> 20 years. The problem is that these are the same people that work on Debian,
Well I work on Debian and I maintain webmin which is a bloated GUI
configuration tool. :) So don't tar everyone with the same brush.
> it is too bad some of the corporate "customer comes first" mentality didn't
> get into Debian. I donated $4 to Debian, more then many can claim, I guess I
> got EXACTLY what I paid for. Good luck to all of you, and thanks again.
>
I like to say Debian is your second Linux distribution. So go and enjoy
Mandrake and get used to the system. I have a feeling you'll be back
sooner or later.
--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar@debian.org>
It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/
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