Re: I wish to advocate linux
On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 03:19:17PM -0500, frank ernest wrote:
> I wish to advocate linux and I have one small problem. If I were (theoretically speaking,) to go up to Miss Jones and say "Why not try linux?" she would respond "Which distro should I try for there are many?" "What are the differences?" and I would respon that "They have different package types and..." and that would be the end of the disscution. I mean a linux system is a linux system they all use the same kernel, the same shells, etc. So I seek to understand the differneces so as to represent the various distros properly. Of cousre I like so many, many, many, many others could just say "Well the distro I use is the best." or "There all great." The first may not be correct exept from my point of view. The second is true enough but it's very inspecific.
If you are going to be providing support, Miss Jones should use whatever
you use (or at least what you are very familiar with). If you convince
someone to try Linux, they *will* ask you for help before they look for
help on a mailing list or forum.
> I have decided to use the various distros and seek out differences but this is an imperfect way of going about this so I am additionaly asking you.
Debian Stable Pros:
1) Not many bugs, in my experience
2) There aren't tons and tons of daily updates required
3) It's widely used and I expect it to be around for a while
4) Software freedom is a primary goal
5) No malicious features that I'm aware of (these are creeping into
Ubuntu lately, although not on a Microsoft level)
6) Lots of packaged software available
Debian Stable Cons:
1) Software versions tend to not be the most current available
(although more current versions are sometimes available in the backports
repository)
2) Support lists do not specifically cater to newbies (but they're not
hostile to newbies, either)
3) Installing non-free software requires you to jump through some minor
hoops (things like wifi drivers, flash player, etc)
4) Administering Debian arguably requires a little more under-the-hood
knowledge than some other distros, such as Ubuntu (see the note about
non-free software)
-Rob
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