Possible New User - Intro
Fellow Debian Enthusiasts,
I'm teetering on the fence between Arch Linux and Debian Linux. So, I
thought I'd post an intro in hopes that someone will give me a gentle nudge
in the right direction. Forgive me if I ramble a bit.
I've been a Linux user for years. I started with Slackware in the 1.x
kernel days. I then used Makdrake for a while. For the past couple of
years I've been using Gentoo. But, a few things about Gentoo have been
getting on a couple of my nerves lately. This is further complicated due to
the fact that I used to work in food service, so I only have three nerves
left. Anyway, I've been trying various distributions under VMWare in search
of one that I like.
I had just about decided to go with Arch Linux. It's package management
system works well and it's ABS(Arch Build System) system makes it easy to
tweek existing packages and/or create new packages.
One package I use heavily is the Hercules mainframe emulator. The package
available for Arch Linux was a little outdated but it took me no time at all
to create a package via ABS with the lastest Hercules version. The process
basically amounts to:
$ abs <-- populates /var/abs with with current PKGBUILD files
copy Hercules's PKGBUILD file to another directory, such as
/var/abs/local/hercules
Edit the PKGBUILD file, update the version number and md5 checksum
$ makepkg <-- in the new directory
The package is built and a package file is created that can be installed via
the standard package manger.
I then moved on to another favorite of mine - clip, which is a Clipper/xBase
compatable compiler. The only Linux distribution I've found that has a clip
package already available for it is ALT Linux. But, the latest CD for ALT
Linux is from 2004 and the majority of the documentation available is in
Russian. So, I started creating a package for Arch Linux. And, thanks to
ABS it didn't take long before I had a usable package.
While I was working on the clip package for Arch I remembered seeing in the
clip documentation that the source came with a script that would build a
Debian package. I had tried Debian several years ago and really liked it
but ended up going with another distribution because Debian's packages were
so far behind the times. I thought that perhaps I should give Debian
another try. With a little searching I learned that the "stable" release is
still WAY behind the times(it still has Hercules 2.17.1-2, and Hercules 3.x
has been out for years) but that Etch is fairly current and stable enough
for my purposes. So, I downloaded a netinst CD and installed Debian under
VMWare.
Immediately I realized that Debian's package manager is one of the best, if
not the best, that I've tried so far. I'm also very impressed with the
amount of documentation available, and especially that most of it is
available in PDF format. Even if browsing online I prefer documentation
that at least looks like a book. With most software I don't mind being a
version or three behind the times, but I do like to stay current with
Hercules. The version in Etch is 3.03.1-1 and the latest version is 3.04.1.
I might be able to live with that. After installing the needed development
tools I was able to build a clip package thanks to the script it comes with.
Looking through the documentation it appears that creating packages for
Debian might be almost as simple as creating packages for Arch Linux. And,
even if it is a little more complicated the excellent documentation helps
with the process. So, if the latest version of Hercules doesn't appear in
Etch soon I could probably update the package for personal use myself. Does
Debian have a "version bump" request system? Now, if Debian just had
packages for vmware-server and vmware-server-console, which are now
available for free, it would be perfect. I think I've just about decided
that Debian is the way to go. I just need that gentle nudge. Well, I also
need to dump a bunch of stuff off of my hard drive before switching
distributions, but that's another story. Of course, my CD/DVD burner would
pick now to start acting flakey. I might have to break down and pick up a
spare hard drive.
Kevin
http://www.RawFedDogs.net
http://www.WacoAgilityGroup.org
Bruceville, TX
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.
Longum iter est per preaecepta, breve et efficax per exempla!!!
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