On Sat, 1 Aug 2009, Sven Joachim wrote:
On 2009-08-01 12:33 +0200, Bret Busby wrote:Actually, in today reconsidering upgrading to Debian 5.0, and, reading the information on the Debian web site, and, in checking using the package search facility on the Debian web site, I have found that Debian 5.0 excludes Iceape and Seamonkey, and does not include any Mozilla applications, so, with the elimination of Iceape/Seamonkey, Debian 5.0 is simply not as functional, or, as useful to me, as Debian 4.0.It is true that Iceape/Seamonkey are not included, but that does not hold for other Mozilla applications. And running the Iceape version in Debian 4.0 is a _big_ security problem, so that is no reason to stay at 4.0 (it may be a reason to switch to another distribution instead). If you want to have that particular application, your best bet is to download either Seamonkey 1.17 or 2.0b1 directly from http://www.seamonkey-project.org/. Both versions should run out of the box on Debian 5.0. Sven
When I searched for mozilla applications, using the package search engine on the Debian web site, the result returned, was not found.
The problem with downloading the applications from seamonkey, is that they are .tar.gz files, rather than .deb packages, and my experience with using .tar.gz files for installing software, rather than .deb packages, is that the .tar.gz files are messy to install, and the effects horrendous.
Perhaps, it would be better, as you advise, to switch to another distribution.
I also found that, from what I understand, Debian 5.0 requires java, in much the same way as (and with far greater system vulnerability than)
MS Windows has been requiring Internet Explorer.I guess that Debian is no longer the solid, reliable OS, that it used to be.
On my laptop, I primarily run Ubuntu 8.04 (when I installed it, it dealt with the laptop, better than Debian 4.0), and I have even managed to get rid of the yukky brown background colour, and replace it with a much nicer, pale blue background.
But, Ubuntu has two significant failings - its uses its awful lack of system security, where it gives users superuser privilege, and does not automatically incorporate a separate root account, to which superuser privilege is limited, and, it uses an unwieldy means of identifying partitions, making modifying the fstab and mounting partitions, somewhat traumatic, instead of simply using the hda<x> or /dev identifier, which would make system administration, much more efficient.
I guess that sometime soon, I will just have to "bite the bullet", and switch to FreeBSD, once I can come to terms with the slicing up the hard drive, rather than using partitions. The difficulty and complexity of using slices, rather than partitions, is unfortunate, as I have a partition into which I could install another operating system, such as BSD, on my laptop, to evaluate it, but the slicing up the hard drive, makes it a bit too complicated, at present, and, prevents me from using my free partition, to install FreeBSD.
In the meantime, I just have to continue using Ubuntu 8.04 on my laptop, and, Debian 4.0 on my desktop, and reboot into Ubuntu 8.04 on my desktop system, when I need to print documents from the desktop system.
-- Bret Busby Armadale West Australia .............. "So once you do know what the question actually is, you'll know what the answer means." - Deep Thought, Chapter 28 of Book 1 of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy In Four Parts", written by Douglas Adams, published by Pan Books, 1992 ....................................................