Re: Thinking about using Debian
On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 06:35:05PM -0500, Mark Filipak wrote:
>
> I'm an electronics engineer technoweenie with over 3 decades of experience with such a wide range of mainframes/minicomputers/microcomputers it would make your head spin. If ever there was a customer for Linux, I would be it.
>
Technoweenies usually have a symbiotic relationship with distributions
like Debian.
> Linux scares the crap out of me. Windows has its problems, but they're known problems and I have decades of experience with them. I use applications, not operating systems. Linux and Mac users put Windoze down a lot, but they do a lot of lying in an attempt to hide problems with those OSes and that's what scares me... that, and the knowledge that, because it's free, people who could help, won't (or bail out at the first sign of trouble)... and because it's free, complaints and/or suggestions seem like bitching and no one likes to listen to someone bitch.
>
Well, if new things scare you then maybe you should stay with the old
things. That's a decision you'll have to make on your own.
> I have a Dell Precision M90. It's not listed as candidate hardware for Debian (http://tuxmobil.org/dell.html). But I know what hardware is in the M90. I know the video chip. I know the CPU. I know the bridge chip used.
>
Is there an operating system currently installed on that computer? If
not, install Debian and try it out -- it doesn't cost you any money. If
there is already an operating system installed, you can try a live cd or
live usb on that hardware. That means the whole system runs from the cd
(or usb) and doesn't install anything on the hard drive. It'll be a
little bit slower, especially if running from a cd, but it'll give you a
good indication of out-of-the-box support for your hardware.
> If I go to Intel or Nvidia or Ricoh and find drivers for the chips that claim to be Linux drivers, will they work for Debian?
The vendor is typically the *last* place I look for drivers. In fact, I
usually don't look anywhere. Most drivers are included in the Linux
kernel by default.
> I could just try it and see, but that could eat a lot of my time and I don't have the time to waste.
>
A live cd is a very quick way to tell if Debian or another distribution
will work on your hardware. But you will definitely need to spend some
time familiarizing yourself with a new system, as well as breaking some
of your Windows habits.
> That's why I'm lurking the Debian list ...to see what people's attitudes are. To see whether the developers are accessible.
>
Well, did we pass the test? Actually, most of us here are just
end-users rather than developers. Most here are pretty helpful, I
think. Individuals have varying tolerances for hand-holding. Some
distributions specifically cater to newbies and hand-holding, but as a
side effect there can be a lot of noise and bad information to filter
out in their support forums / mailing lists.
> I tried to get involved fixing the PAM authorization stack architecture for my server. I got absolutely nowhere because the developers of PAM didn't want to talk with anyone who wasn't willing to write and compile code. Will Debian be any different?
>
The developers of PAM probably won't treat you any differently just
because you're using Debian. The Debian package maintainer for PAM may
be more helpful (or may not), but he may not be able to help at all if
it is an upstream problem.
My experience with Debian and a couple other distros so far has been
that the developers are very responsive. I have reported a handful of
bugs and the longest they took to be fixed was something like 7 days. I
had a feature request that was implemented in 8 days. I've had some bug
reports fixed in 2 days. But I know that not all bugs are fixed this
quickly, if at all.
> Do you know of any very-experienced Debian folks who speak truths and wouldn't mind holding my hand? (and who maybe won't be put off by a little bitching?)
>
I think you need to install Debian and then ask questions. Folks here
will probably be better at answering technical questions rather than
theoretical ones about human behavior.
Good luck!
-Rob
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