Debian 1.3 has shadow support built in, last I heard. It's just gone into testing. I agree you have to install a few packages to make it work in 1.2, but this is not a big deal.
One thing you should consider is how much "systems" work you do on Linux. For example, if you are building a lot of free software packages you might consider packaging them for Debian and leveraging your own work into a contribution that benefits lots of people. Thanks Bruce From: Leslie Mikesell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I'd say the more immediate problem has to do with ease of initial > installation and security issues. I'm still undecided as to which > of RedHat or Debian to use on several machines currently running > a hand-updated Slackware and I'm holding off because the filesystem > layout, ndbm differences, etc. will make it difficult to switch > later. There are several things I don't like about RedHat, but > the install is a breeze and shadow password support happens with > a single command (and most sites running INN had their non-shadowed > password files mailed off to an attacker not long ago). So far I > haven't gotten dselect to complete an install command over NFS > without giving up with too many errors (but perhaps something is > wrong with my mirrored copy) and I can't tell what you have to do to > get shadow support built into everything that needs it. If I get > past these problems and it isn't harder than maintaining Slackware > by hand I can probably deal with anything else. -- Bruce Perens K6BP [EMAIL PROTECTED] 510-215-3502 Finger [EMAIL PROTECTED] for PGP public key. PGP fingerprint = 88 6A 15 D0 65 D4 A3 A6 1F 89 6A 76 95 24 87 B3