Re: Source of Debian wisdom
Mark Neidorff <mark@neidorff.com>:
>
> Recently I've set up a Debian Etch box which I'm nearly ready to
> bring up full time (currently using a different distribution...been
> a linux user for over 10 years).
Fourteen here. :-)
> Here's an example of what this message is about: I've been reading
> the debian-user list for a bit, and I've noticed that suggestions
> given are to use the apt-* suite or aptitude to managing packages.
> While setting things up (and installing packages) I came across
> synaptic in the KDE menus. Tried it, and liked using it. So now
> I'm wondering according to Debian Wisdom (no disrespect intended to
> anyone) which is the preferred way of installing software?
All of them work; dselect, apt-get, aptitude, and synaptic. I prefer
not to use something which expects X to be there (synaptic) and
dselect is just pretty damned old and has a difficult interface (but
if you're willing to spend the time to learn it, it works).
apt-get and aptitude, at the command line, are very similar. aptitude
provides a ((n)curses) GUI-ish interface if you want that.
aptitude logs what it does and (arguably) handles dependencies better.
> More generally, is there a document/web page that explains what are
> the preferred packages and what is the "Debian Way" of doing
> things.
For current stable/Etch, aptitude is recommended, but many still stick
with apt-get.
The biggest problem I've noticed is "aptitude remove blah" where
"blah" is some KDE or Gnome app, tends to want to blow away
*everything* that's even remotely related to KDE or Gnome. I use
neither KDE or Gnome, so that's not a problem here.
There are tricks you can use to avoid this sort of thing, but I've not
bothered to learn what they are. Perhaps others can help.
I'd go with aptitude (or perhaps apt-get), but you probably need to
pore over the documentation before deciding.
--
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