RE: (no subject)
I'll leave the originating text below unaltered...
1. I'm relatively new to linux and was new to Debian until 5 or 6 weeks ago
now and I got it going. Sure I had a problem with X, but with a bit of
reading (and a minute amount of help from a friend on irc) I got it going.
No big deal.
2. I don't like the gui install for redhat. It sucks. Since I have used
redhat to some extent and can quite firmly comment on this point. I also
used expert install (text mode). It's quicker, and makes more sense to my
eyes. That is a personal preference.
3. What's wrong with bsd? OK, so it doesn't come giftwrapped like redhat
or mandrake. Big deal. An old saying: "all that glitters is not gold".
Think about it.
4. Koffice (I think I understood you right here, your writing style was a
bit hard to comprehend at that point [i'm not having a slight at you here]
is part of the KDE desktop. If you install kde you will get koffice. Don't
believe me? Check out mandrake 9 or Redhat 8. I bet they have koffice
installed along with kde. If in real doubt check out the kde website.
5. Don't knock apt. Or dpkg. They both shit on rpm. I've used both, so I
feel I am able to make a valid statement there. End of story.
6. Debian itself isn't hard to use. Setting it up is more difficult than
say, Redhat, or Mandrake. Yes linux in general could be easier to use in
some aspects - I have no argument with that comment, i've stated it
previously many times. As i've found out, and so, it seems, many other
happy Debian users, the vast majority of linux users end up at some point of
time or other, making Debian home. I will NOT change to another
distribution. Debian feels right, it feels like home. The users lists are
absolutely fantastic. Even when I make an ass of myself sometimes (ok heaps
of times lol).
7. Snazzy? mmm. This isn't a beauty contest. I don't give a rats arse
how snazzy it looks - as long as it works, is reliable and consistent.
Debian meets those requirements hands down. I think everyone here will
agree with me on that point. Looks mean nothing. Again that adage, "all
that glitters, is not gold" springs to mind. Do you want a fancy gui that
*ucks up consistently? Or something more robust that works. As it should.
8. Debian. Why did I end up choosing it as home? mmm. I wanted to learn
more about linux. OK, I don't need to know the working innards absolutely
back to front (and nor do I wish to), but I will guaranteed learn more.
Redhat held my hand so tightly I couldn't really learn. I've learnt more
from Debian in 6 weeks than Redhat on and off since (non serious usage I
might add) since Redhat 5.2.
9. Idiot proof? Well, i'm an idiot and i'm doing ok with it. Sure I need
some help from time to time, but i'm managing ok. If I can handle Debian
then anyone can.
10. I apologise to the other users subscribed to this list for my rant ;-)
Dave
-----Original Message-----
From: RavynNiteshade@aol.com [mailto:RavynNiteshade@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 16 October 2002 2:59 PM
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org; David Pastern
Subject: (no subject)
Not to start any flames or ask any specific questions,I would just
like to post an experience I had with debian (my first and only one).
I usually use a redhat based product,not redhat anymore,as they seem
to have money driven issues,so now mostly mandrake.But some people I know
said,hey try debian,its better,faster and it rocks.Well this went on for a
good long while,and one day while having some issues with my mandrake and
its
lack of wanting to upgrade the distro online,I said screw it and pointed the
old browser at linux central and picked up the latest debian release
(woody).
First off the text install was pretty retro,compared to what Im used
to,but I said hey,a no frills kind of deal,lets see how it turns out.Got it
installed,luckily Ive done a number of linux based installs,because its not
very newbie friendly.Rebooted,and first thing I noticed is that it went to
the old lilo text boot: prompt.Well that wont do,but seems easy enough to
fix,hit enter and watched the boot info scroll by.Thought to myself ,wow it
looks like some BSD just crapped across the screen...okay,fix that
later..started checking out the packages I installed and noticed that some
of
the dependencies were connected by convienience,rather than true
dependencies,e.g. KDE in no way depends on koffice,how that got in,I have no
clue,built kde from source without it,installed kde from rpm without it,etc.
Oh,well,lets remove that problem...read much much much documentation
on dpkg and apt-get, okay remove packages not needed.Hey
look,linuxlogo...maybe that'll spruce up the boot process...wait a minute,I
now need to run apt-get -f because these packages I removed wont let me
progess with my new package installs.Damn.
Link lilo boot.b to boot-menu.b,run lilo -v ,reboot.Now have updating logo
scrolling amongst the bsd-looking boot process,ewww. and so on and so on...
Long story short,I spent two days trying to get debian to boot and
look the way I wanted to,when I finally sat back and said to myself,I just
spent the time it takes for disks to get to my house to get debian to look
like something with a little polish,and over those two days succeeding very
little.So I ordered the new release of mandrake.
My whole point may sound like the rambling of the insane,or some redhat
based
enthusiast(of which Im not),but its often pointed out that the face you put
forth first is often the one people remember longest,and while this may be
trivial to the developers and programmers who use debian,the end-user such
as
myself with little knowledge of how to easily correct these problems will
probably steer clear of this distro.
On the up side though,debian seem to run faster and cleaner than
anything Ive used so far,and perhaps when the polish is applied and it looks
a little snazzier out of the box,I'll come back,but until then I'll have to
just say no thanks.Maybe some people out there will take this as the
constructive criticism its meant as and point it in the right direction,and
more likely some people will take this as an attack that its not.
All Im saying is that until its more idiot firendly,Ill have to take
a
pass,because IMO the bad outwieghs the good.
Thanks for your time,
C
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