Debian must be fantastic as a server OS (though I've never had trouble in three and a half years with SuSE for httpd, ftp, mail, so far) but it seems too rough on the desktop, lacking in polish and with the Debian system of commands in many ways more complicated than the rpm and YaST-based stuff on SuSE (which can also now be set up for the apt system).
I don't think this is the case any longer. Just yesterday I installed Debian on my Dell laptop using the bootable ISO for Woody. Compared to the last time I did a similar install (2+ years ago) using floppies it was a large improvement. I didn't have to configure sound, it worked. Didn't have to configure the dock's network card, that worked too. Didn't have to configure X, pretty much everything there was autodetected. In fact I screwed it up by presuming the autodetection wouldn't work and only got it functional when I just let it autodetect. Those were the three major hurdles from times past.
I blew away a Win2k installation to install Debian on this machine. That Win2k installation wasn't really any easier than Debian this time around.
As for usability it came up with gdm, gnome+kde (I prefer KDE but gdm is good in its own right) and the only applications I installed were Firefox and Thunderbird though I could have jused used Mozilla versions of those that were installed and be done with it. First order of business was to check my mail and open a document someone had sent me. Open Office was installed and already configured, Thunderbird knew where to hand it off. In short I went from install to productive with only 3 package installs in between and no configuration. That isn't polished how?
Finally the system commands, no matter which distribution, are cryptic. Maybe it is just my *mumble*too-many*mumble* years using Debian but when confronted with a Red-Hat machine I often want to bang my head against the desk because things don't just work like they do in Debian. If pressed I would call RPM based systems far more complicated.
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Steve C. Lamb | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
PGP Key: 8B6E99C5 | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
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