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Re: Switching to Debian (from Fedora)



On Tue, Aug 23, 2005 at 10:06:10AM +0200, A. Lanza wrote:
> Hi list,
> 
> i've been running Fedora linux for about 3 years now but... i wanted to
> explore Debian as well. Recently, i had to set up a mail system and i
> installed Debian Sarge on an old Pentium 3 machine with 128 MB of RAM.
> The new(?) Sarge installer is quite good and i had no problems to set my
> system up from a net-install CD. apt-get is just *great*, i usually use
> an apt-get port for Fedora as my package manager tool.
> 
> I have to tell that i've been really surprised at the global performance
> of Debian running on the machine i described above. apt-get runs faster
> than in Fedora. I've liked quite a lot the configuration utility that
> runs after installing some packages as Postfix or Postgresql.
> 
> Though, i have some general questions and observations:
> 
> * I have found Debian not very different from Fedora in the basics. I
> would like to know what are the very differences among both distros.
> 
> * kernel 2.4.27 was installed in my box. It's been a suprise since in
> Fedora i'm running kernels 2.6.x. Why this 2.4 kernel? Does Debian
> consider 2.6 kernels unstable? I'd like to upgrade my kernel; how can i
> do it using apt-get?
> 
> * There was no need for X in my mail server box, but i tried to install
> Debian Sarge on my desktop machine and found some problems. My graphics
> hardware (ATI Radeon 9250) was not supported. After looking at the XF86
> logs i decided to go to ATI site for some support and found a
> proprietary driver (fglrx), that i compiled into a kernel module. Now i
> can start X and get 1024x768 24-bit color. Seems that performance is
> acceptable, but graphics system is not stable, it hangs my whole system
> (no way to get a console) after some random time... I had some problems
> also with a Wireless desktop (keyboard+mouse) from Logitech, i had to
> change mouse configuration manually in XF86Config.
> Now, i had no problems with this hw before while installing Fedora
> (since FC1). I wonder why this? Could it be because of the 2.4 kernel?
> Maybe Fedora has better hw support than Debian?
> 
> * I noticed too that Debian runs XF86 instead of Xorg, as Fedora does.
> Why this? What are the differences between them? Is video hw support
> better in Xorg? Are there any licensing issues with Xorg?
> 
> After running Debian in my mail server for some time, i think that it
> can be a really good choice for a production server, but what about
> desktop? For the moment, i think i'll keep Fedora... or maybe not, if
> someone gives me good reasons :)
> 
> Thanks for your kind attention. I'll be waiting and will appreciate your
> answers and opinions.
> 
> Alf

I jump in rather late on this thread with two thoughts:
1. There is a lot of support here for converts to Debian. You might even be 
overwhelmed with it ;-).
2. There is a system for controlling which (stable,testing,unstable) is
the dominant distribution in your apt-get system. It is called 'apt preferences'.
If you really want to complicate your life with a mixed distribution 
installation, you really must become familiar with apt preferences. It does work,
but it is not easy to understand. I think I have figured it out, but I then 
found that having the very latest stuf wasn't worth the effort (for me). YMMV.

-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@mesanetworks.net



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