Re: Why did you chose Debian over CentOS?

[Stephan <geek@wickedclips.net>]

Joe McDonagh wrote:

2. The disarray of configuration files vs centralized system config dir In RH you have /etc/sysconfig. Almost every single system configuration file is under here. In Debian, anything goes.

And I think this is where preference comes in; generally, if I've installed program 'bumpersticker', I can bet that it's configuration files will be under /etc/bumpersticker/bumpersticker.conf  .  On the off chance that it's not, I can 'dpkg -L bumpersticker' and it's location is revealed.

3. RPM vs DPKG query subsystem.

No, not yum vs. apt-get or aptitude or aptsomethingelse. To find information with dpkg seems difficult and unwieldy. Example: Say you want to find what package a specific file belongs to. With dpkg you should a dpkg-query -s to search the cache. I don't like that. I just want to know what package a given file on the filesystem belongs to. rpm -qf $FILE, done. The query system is general in rpm is simple yet robust. dpkg-query just doesn't do it for me. And I also don't like how there are a bunch of dpkg-* files that split up various functions of the dpkg system.

apt-cache search FILE.

I just now took a look at my system , and saw a file /sbin/mii-tool and thought "hrm, what the heck does that do?"
"apt-cache search mii-tool"  output: "net-tools - The NET-3 networking toolkit"

No muss, no fuss.  Of course, you could always try the following command

Google- mii-tool Debian

The first hit listed "Debian -- Details of package net-tools in lenny"

I've found many unfamiliar package descriptions to be as cryptic as the file names themselves, so I figure if I'm going to have to hit the search engine anyway I'll cut out the middle man.  And there's the most effective search here:  http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages#search_contents

Before all of Debian users pass a brick, this is mostly preference, except #1 is pretty hard to deny that RH makes your life a *lot* easier in that dept.

Better verses worse debates are often ugly.  Comparing any Linux distro is like comparing fuji apples to golden delicious.  I'm just pointing out that a system always gets easier to use when you become more familiar with how it works.

Stephan