Re: why debian
On 14 Nov 2004, Steve Lamb wrote:
> Mark Crean wrote:
> >Debian must be fantastic as a server OS (though I've never had trouble
> >in three and a half years with SuSE for httpd, ftp, mail, so far) but it
> >seems too rough on the desktop, lacking in polish and with the Debian
> >system of commands in many ways more complicated than the rpm and
> >YaST-based stuff on SuSE (which can also now be set up for the apt
> >system).
>
> I don't think this is the case any longer. Just yesterday I installed
> Debian on my Dell laptop using the bootable ISO for Woody. Compared to the
> last time I did a similar install (2+ years ago) using floppies it was a
> large improvement. I didn't have to configure sound, it worked. Didn't
> have to configure the dock's network card, that worked too. Didn't have to
> configure X, pretty much everything there was autodetected. In fact I
> screwed it up by presuming the autodetection wouldn't work and only got it
> functional when I just let it autodetect. Those were the three major
> hurdles from times past.
>
[snip]
I'd echo this. I installed Sarge on my IBM Thinkpad R40e last week,
using the Debian-installer ISO. Everything has worked out of the box,
including X, wireless link to router, and sound. I then used apt-get to
install aptitude and carried on from there to fetch whatever else I
need.
I don't use KDE or Gnome but I've no reason to suppose that they
wouldn't have worked equally well.
The whole thing was almost painless and I don't see how the
installation could have been much easier.
Anthony
--
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