Re: pilot-link in Sid and Sarge: Much bigger question
David Krider said:
> Unfortunately, pilot-link in Woody is unable to talk to my Tungsten.
> Firstly, it can't do USB. Secondly, it can't sync over serial unless I
not sure if you mean pilot-link can't do USB to your Tungsten or USB
in general. For my 2 visors, pilot-link talks perfectly fine over USB
to both of them(on woody).
> can't tell me that I need this; I only find out when I try to do a
> `dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot'. Am I doing something wrong there?)
so, apt-get install python2.2(it's available in woody)
>
> as far as I know, the bitmapped fonts under KDE in Sid are still messed
> up, and that's a show stopper for me.
I haven't used KDE since 1999 but I too run woody on my machines I have
no need for the software in unstable or even testing at the moment.
my windowmanager of choice is afterstep 1.6
> Debian, or at least its viability on the desktop. Perhaps the maintainers
> don't care about this. I'm new to Debian; I just don't know.
that much is certain :) You don't understand debian's release policy.
Something new does not get into debian NO MATTER WHAT during a stable
release. that means ever since woody was frozen(which I'm guessing here
was probably in late 2001), until the next release. Well there are
exceptions, if something is completely and totally broken for some
reason maybe it gets upgraded as long as it doesn't break anything
else(otherwise it probably just gets outright removed instead).
This policy isn't exactly written on the front page of the website
so newcommers don't understand why such "old" software is still in
debian stable. For some(like me) this policy is a good thing, less
headaches(probably none) in the long run. for others it's a bad
thing. It is a tradeoff, and I'm not aware of any other distro
that has a similar rule which is probably the reason why I've stuck
with debian since i started using it in 1998. Despite having used
redhat, suse, mandrake, corel and a few other distros not to
mention free/open bsd etc..
> same upstream source as the rest of the world. If KDE 3.x is good enough
> for SuSE, Red Hat, Mandrake, etc., why does this lag so far behind in
> Debian?
you forget one very important point. Debian runs on something like
11 different architechtures. Perhaps some of the release bugs with
the newer KDE is that it may not completely compile properly on one
or more of those platforms. If a package does not run on a platform
it's considered a bug. This can introduce significant delays with
some kinds of software(esp xfree86), since the debian folk are often
the only ones that are willing to fix such problems. I do agree with
this policy it keeps all software in sync, I can install a program
on x86 or sparc or ppc or whatever and its the same program, same
version, same behavior. No other distro does this to my knowledge
(e.g. Suse's last sparc release was v7.2 I think ??). To others
this may not be important, in that case debian may not be right
for them. keep in mind debian is not out there to compete, not
out there to make a profit, they have no shareholders, noone that
they have to report to.
I got a sharp zaurus a few weeks ago thats a pretty new PDA too,
luckily it uses USB networking, I had to patch my kernel to get the
usbdnet driver loaded but it works fine.
if you like debian and want newer software perhaps your better
off with one of the commercial distros that is based offa debian
Xandros, lindows ..are the only I can think of at the moment.
I too think suse 8.1(haven't tried 8.2) is a fine desktop, 2 of
my friends who have been using macs forever installed it last week
and several times have told me everyone in the world should be
using it, its so easy and fast. I do have 8.1 installed on my
laptop for dual boot but haven't booted suse since january. I
do have it on my sister's computer in the other room but can't
use it for too long, I miss my debian :) Oh and my 2 mac head friends
one of them was absolutely disgusted with OS X, he sold his
dual G4/1GB system with OS X and moved back to OS 9 on his old
G3, and decided if he's gonna learn a new OS it's gonna be linux.
he just needs a modem for the system he has running SuSE. The
other isn't too fond of OS X either, and seems to be pretty
impressed with SuSE sofar. Kind of unusual given all the
positive feedback I have seen from some OS X users :/
(and these guys have been running a mac consulting business
for many years so it's not like they are mac newbies)
nate
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