Keith G. Murphy wrote:
> 
> Kenneth Scharf wrote:
> > Actually it's not that Debian is built to be hard to use.
> >  It's just that many of the 'pretty' system control and configure
> > applications supplied by RH are not in Debian. (Besides they only work
> > in X)
> As someone who has recently come to use Debian from a year or two of
> RedHat experience, I can say that the non-X-based nature of dselect can
> be a distinct advantage when you're trying to configure a server machine
> (damn thing sure doesn't need X).  I mean, I just telnetted into it and
> did everything from my (Win95!) client.
> 
> And what about installation on an old machine that doesn't have a
> CDROM?  dselect was quite FTP-friendly; I couldn't get a RedHat
> installation to work at all on this old machine that had only 8M and
> antiquated hardware.  There are more Debian floppies but, guess what?
> Debian saw all my hardware right first try.
> 
> I think a lot of those folks that love RedHat only use it on their home
> machine with the latest and greatest nifty hardware, sitting at its
> console.  But that may well not be the most useful application of
> Linux...
> 
> And another thing: a lot of those X-based configuration things don't
> work that well.  I know that for sure...  ;-)
> 
> And the way dselect goes ahead and invokes configuration scripts: rpm
> definitely does *not* do that; so if the package really requires
> configuration beyond the defaults, you need to figure out how to do it.
> Not to mention the way you can load packages down from the web really
> easily.  I mean, hell, it even tells you when there's an updated
> package!
> 
> So far, Debian seems to me like a workhorse: it may not be flashy, but
> everything just *works*.  That beats flash every time in my book.
> 
> And another thing: the transparency with which Debian is managed.  What
> the hell do I mean?  You can see the whole bug-tracking process.  Try
> that with RedHat.  Right...  And the way they segregate the non-free
> stuff.  It's not that you can't use it; you just know what you're
> getting.  That's not ideology for me; that's just knowing what's going
> on my system: it's damn *useful* to know what's GNU-licensed and what's
> STING (Stuff That Is Not GNU).  It *is* a sting when it doesn't work
> right and you want to change it...
> 
> And is it just me, or is everybody and his mother putting out RPMs these
> days, some of very shoddy quality?  I have the impression, if it's a deb
> and it's on Debian's site, it's gonna at least install properly and do
> *something* without crapping out...
> 
> Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.  Especially hearing folks
> bitch about dselect.  I just hope apt is as good.  (It's not X-based, is
> it?  Say it's not...)
> 
> Hope the new logo is good.  I kind of like the little bird...
> [cut]
> 
> --
> Unsubscribe?  mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null

-- 
Mauro Mazzieri  -  http://gulliver.unian.it/~mazzieri/
finger [EMAIL PROTECTED] for PGP key and geek code

I PC hanno il tasto `reset' perché sono progettati per i sistemi
operativi
Microsoft
Keith G. Murphy wrote:
> 
> Kenneth Scharf wrote:
> > Actually it's not that Debian is built to be hard to use.
> >  It's just that many of the 'pretty' system control and configure
> > applications supplied by RH are not in Debian. (Besides they only work
> > in X)
> As someone who has recently come to use Debian from a year or two of
> RedHat experience, I can say that the non-X-based nature of dselect can
> be a distinct advantage when you're trying to configure a server machine
> (damn thing sure doesn't need X).  I mean, I just telnetted into it and
> did everything from my (Win95!) client.
> 
> And what about installation on an old machine that doesn't have a
> CDROM?  dselect was quite FTP-friendly; I couldn't get a RedHat
> installation to work at all on this old machine that had only 8M and
> antiquated hardware.  There are more Debian floppies but, guess what?
> Debian saw all my hardware right first try.
> 
> I think a lot of those folks that love RedHat only use it on their home
> machine with the latest and greatest nifty hardware, sitting at its
> console.  But that may well not be the most useful application of
> Linux...
> 
> And another thing: a lot of those X-based configuration things don't
> work that well.  I know that for sure...  ;-)
> 
> And the way dselect goes ahead and invokes configuration scripts: rpm
> definitely does *not* do that; so if the package really requires
> configuration beyond the defaults, you need to figure out how to do it.
> Not to mention the way you can load packages down from the web really
> easily.  I mean, hell, it even tells you when there's an updated
> package!
> 
> So far, Debian seems to me like a workhorse: it may not be flashy, but
> everything just *works*.  That beats flash every time in my book.
> 
> And another thing: the transparency with which Debian is managed.  What
> the hell do I mean?  You can see the whole bug-tracking process.  Try
> that with RedHat.  Right...  And the way they segregate the non-free
> stuff.  It's not that you can't use it; you just know what you're
> getting.  That's not ideology for me; that's just knowing what's going
> on my system: it's damn *useful* to know what's GNU-licensed and what's
> STING (Stuff That Is Not GNU).  It *is* a sting when it doesn't work
> right and you want to change it...
> 
> And is it just me, or is everybody and his mother putting out RPMs these
> days, some of very shoddy quality?  I have the impression, if it's a deb
> and it's on Debian's site, it's gonna at least install properly and do
> *something* without crapping out...
> 
> Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.  Especially hearing folks
> bitch about dselect.  I just hope apt is as good.  (It's not X-based, is
> it?  Say it's not...)
> 
> Hope the new logo is good.  I kind of like the little bird...
> [cut]
> 
> --
> Unsubscribe?  mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null

-- 
Mauro Mazzieri  -  http://gulliver.unian.it/~mazzieri/
finger [EMAIL PROTECTED] for PGP key and geek code

I PC hanno il tasto `reset' perché sono progettati per i sistemi
operativi
Microsoft
[PC's have reset key 'cause thy're made fro MS OS'es]

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