Re: Debian vs. Fedora on Laptops
On Sat, Dec 25, 2004 at 09:10:11PM -0500, Ryan D'Baisse wrote:
> 1. I am still a Linux newbie. Most of the install issues, both with
> the OS and with applications, have been taken care of for me with the
> slick install wizard and the RPM-based installations. How much of a
> learning curve would one be faced with from Fedora to Debian?
The new debian-installer for sarge is very good. You shouldn't have any
trouble setting up the base system. After than, aptitude will make life
easier than it's ever been installing the rest of the system. The
"difficult" things, such as configuring servers, etc, will remain the
same on both distros. The simple things, such as installing packages,
will be different, but once you learn how it works, I think you'll find
the Debian way is much easier and better.
When you get stuck, there is good support available here in the
debian-user list (and the list archives).
> 2. I have been reading two books, "Linux Pocket Guide," by O'Reilly,
> and "Beginning Linux Programming," by Wrox. Both tend to stress Red
> Hat and Fedora. Will these books still be of use to me on Debian?
Probably. I haven't read those books. In the past, Red Hat has been
more popular among the general public than Debian, mainly because of
marketing. I anticipate that Ubuntu - which is derived from and
cooperates with Debian - is going to become the most popular
distribution due to its quality and unusual marketing techniques (!),
and that some people will drift to Debian from Ubuntu when they become
more experienced.
Linux distributions have far more in common than differences.
> 3. My primary machine is a laptop (Toshiba 5005-S507). Most of the
> info I can find on Google, pertaining to laptops, is for Fedora or
> Mandrake. How well does Debian handle laptops? Any URLs would be
> GREATLY appreciated.
Debian will work with all the same hardware as the other distributions
do. Hardware autodetection is quite good now. If it fails to detect
some of your hardware, it won't be too hard to sort out.
> 4. My second biggest problem on Fedora was/is wireless support. I am
> currently using FC2 with Linuxant's DriverLoader software on my
> Linksys WPC54G PCMCIA NIC. Be honest; am I going to be crying if I
> try to set this up?
no idea. But people discuss wireless setup issues on the list and seem
to get the help they need.
As far as I know, Debian works fine with apci.
> Thanks, in advance, to anyone who chooses to respond. Again, I have
> tried looking, but keep coming up with tons of info for Fedora and
> Mandrake. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I recently went to a linux users meeting in Melbourne, and a guy who
works for or supports red hat asked for a show of hands - who uses which
distribution. The balance was _overwhelmingly_ in favor of Debian,
which I thought was amusing. This was a sample of experienced people,
not a sample of the entire linux-using population.
If you want to find debian-specific info, try searching google with:
site:www.debian.org
and:
site:lists.debian.org
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