Re: Migrate from RedHat to Debian
> Hi List,
> How long are Debian-releases supported (okay, with 'open' software you
> can compile/write your own upgrades but that's not an option)?
http://www.debian.org/releases/
Debian only has one version, stable... sort of...
Think of Debian as one version that is periodically rolling from
unstable->testing->stable
stable comes less than once a year from my limited experience. But I
think you can still get packages from some very old releases. But I do
not know if they are actually maintained for security updates and such (I
suspect not).
> I know
> they use an equivalent system to the rpm-system. How long are releases
> supported through these deb-packages. And before some-one states the
> obvious...yes I do install the kernel and the 'main' daemons from
> source (like Apache, Postfix, Squid, DJBDNS, Iptables,Snort) but I
> prefer to upgrade 'minor' things trough the concept of packages from
> the distro.
>
You can, but you can also install Apache, Postfix, Squid from packages
supplied as Debian ".deb" files (similar to .rpm). There is an option to
install packages precompiled or from source files (as a .deb package).
If you insist on the very bleeding edge versions all the time, you
probably won't find them in the stable version of deb-src files.
> What are the experiences other people have with migrating from RedHat
> to Debian. Are there any other options as a distro (I'm looking for a
> distro with security written in bold)?
>
I've found Debian to be pretty darn good for security.
----
Now, about my own experiences overall.
I came from Slackware...
But Debian does things differently than many of the others. The Debian
Policy dictates that files be in certain places and be called certain
things. Not everyone who makes code agrees with these policies, but once
you familiarize yourself with these Debian-specific features/peculiarities
you will find that getting around and configuring stuff gets pretty second
nature.
They both use the same format for rc.files (Sys V?)
They use very different tools for configuring X, Network and others.
RedHat (when I used it back when) does a lot of configurations for you
with GUI's. Debian allows a lot more flexibility and it typically command
line oriented tools. Very sweet for managing servers through SSH.
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