RE: New Debian User - Totally Impressed
Hello,
I have to agree with chip. I've worked on Unix for 6 years or so and until
the last year I'd always dismissed Linux (sorry) mainly because of my
experiences with it in the early 90's. Why have I changed my mind? because
with the increase power of the internet and open source it means that
developers, users, everyone can get involved in making Linux better. In the
early days finding information on why your Linux install wasn't working was
a nightmare.
Earlier this year someone encouraged me to take another look, so I did, I
discovered Red Hat and Mandrake both had brought Linux a little closer to
what I expected from my years of working on Unix (a little more stable). But
then I found Debian (via knoppix) which allows me to install packages
without backtracking every dependency under the sun - much more like Unix.
For a laugh I thought I'd put Debian on a Small HP Unix Server and to my
astonishment it went on first time no problem, as stable as any UNIX
operating system (been up for 2 weeks now).
Can you imagine running the same operating system from your laptop to your
desktop to your Unix server to your mainframe machine. I'm now installing
applications on it and they are working like a dream.
Sorry to dribble on, but I'm totally shocked by the Debian and by the
improvements in general to Linux. I'm off now to install mysql.
-----Original Message-----
From: Chip Rose [mailto:ncrose@pinn.net]
Sent: 11 October 2002 00:41
To: Debian
Subject: New Debian User - Totally Impressed
Greetings,
I just switched to deb3.0 from Mandrake8.0. I am beyond ecstatic with
it. The install was easy (used 7cds from Linux Central), user-friendly,
the defaults were acceptable even for a total beginner. I don't know a
whole lot about Linux even after my past several years of constant use -
the Redhat/Mandrake world has fogged my brain I guess. I've installed
and used Redhat 5.0, 5.1, 6.0, Mandrake 6.0 and 8.0 over the past few
years, and have been using Linux exclusively for that whole time.
Redhat crashed often, and was a mind-numbing puzzle to update RPM's and
figure out where things installed - nothing matched the Linux info I was
reading on the web. Mandrake was more graphical and easier - I tired of
puzzling over the thing - just wanted something stable, and I knew
(thought) that Linux was more stable and powerful than M$-Windows. But
despite its graphical ease, Mandrake crashed constantly! I thought it
was my flaky hardware (not!), and I despaired of using Linux. I had
often bragged to friends about how stable Linux was, how
resource-efficient, and how Linux users rarely had to turn their
computers off or reboot because of crashes. But it was practically a
lie! I was so embarrassed when my system would crash constantly, even
when no apps were running - yaaaghh!
I've been using Debian3.0 for 3 days now - fast and stable - tons of
packages that are easy to get and install. Already I've learned how to
start ppp from the console and how to do it via scripts
(chat/provider/pon/poff) - something I could never do in Mandrake/Redhat
- I normally just rely on kppp to do the job for me, and I never learned
anything in the process! Even rebooting my computer with Mandrake would
cause a kernel panic - I had to wait 5 minutes before turning my
computer back on or else Mandrake would freeze/kernel panic during the
boot. Doing a system halt would segfault under Mandrake! I couldn't
leave my computer on at the kdm logon screen - it would freeze the
entire system. Once I spent a long hour on the web creating an online
retirement plan with a lot of details, and then my computer just FROZE
UP and I lost everything! Yaaaghhhhh!! The list just goes on and on..
I could talk your ear off with it all.
Normally I wouldn't have dared to type such a long note without first
saving it, in case Mandrake would crash and I'd lose all my wonderful
typing. Sorry for abusing bandwidth and list etiquette with this long
email - I'm just on cloud nine because I'm finally using a REAL Linux,
and I can now truthfully say:
LINUX IS UNBELIEVABLY POWERFUL AND STABLE!!!!!
Debian Linux that is!
Thanks again for listening,
Chip Rose
ncrose@pinn.net
Virginia Beach, VA
"Debian Rules"
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