On Tue, 13 Feb 2001, Kurth Bemis wrote:
> my first 15 installs with debian was a total nightmare. the first 15
> times was in a week span. I couldn't get anything to work...then all of
> the sudden it worked.
Talk about damning with faint praise...
> REDHAT! it never works....ever...
Given that Red Hat remains, by far, the most popular Linux distribution in
use, and that Linux continues to gain market share, I'm going to have to
disagree.
Personally, I've done dozens and dozens of Red Hat installs, and the vast
majority of them have been very smooth. Contrast this with my experience with
Debian, the vast majority of which failed to work properly at all.
> I support debian because their the opposite of every other distro out
> there...
I support Debian as well, even if I don't use it. Their goals are noble.
Their design is well specified, and their development completely out in the
open. Their system of package maintainers provides an element of personal
responsibility that Red Hat, et. al., lack. (I was very impressed when I
learned that Debian package maintainers must submit public keys and photos
before being allowed to contribute.)
Most of all, though, I think their development model is superior. Debian
takes the principles of Open Source software development, and applies them to
distribution building and maintenance. Thus, they gain all the advantages Eric
Raymond speaks of in "The Cathedral and the Bazaar". In the long run, I think
Debian will succeed, and I eagerly await the day they take the lead in Linux
distributions. They simply have not arrived yet.
> so there's no push to get a product out the door....with no push the take
> their time and make sure that EVERYTHING works...
Here I beg to differ. Profit is the not the only thing that can motivate
people, and Debian -- just like Red Hat -- is far from perfect. Like any
non-trivial software project, Debian has bugs. That is why there have been
two more revisions of 2.2 since the original release. Furthermore,
"everything works", even theoretically, only applies to the features included.
When you talk about things that just plain do not exist in Debian (such as
hardware detection), the picture changes rather significantly.
> unlike some distros that like to package beta compilers with a .0 release
I don't think Red Hat's "GCC 2.96" even qualified as "Beta". :-(
--
Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Net Technologies, Inc. <http://www.ntisys.com>
Voice: (800)905-3049 x18 Fax: (978)499-7839
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