> > Does anyone have any comments on the merits or otherwise of each
> > distribution?
Well, since others have covered Slackware and RedHat, let me put in my $.02
for Debian GNU/Linux.
Debian has a great distribution of solid software packages -- presently, far
more packages (~1800) than *any* other Linux distribution. If you find it's not
enough software (?!) then Debian can seamlessly import packages from Slackware
or RedHat.
Debian's package manager, dselect, is simply superior to any other system.
It does have an unusual interface, but once you learn it you'll wonder how you
ever got along without it (for those that don't like the interface, Debian is
developing a new combo text/GUI package manager interface). First, dselect is
text-based, which means you can do remote package management. RedHat, for
example, can't do this since it's GUI-based.
Dselect also handles conflicting packages. RedHat claims to do this, but it
just "tells" you of a conflict; Debian will tell you about the conflicting
packages and give you a menu of options to install/uninstall what you want to;
heck, it even gives suggestions about what to do and default install/uninstall
options.
A great point is that Debian handles entire system upgrades via the net.
With RedHat you can install packages via ftp, but it's not even in the same
league as Debian's dselect ftp upgrade. With Debian, I just point dselect at
multiple ftp sites (ftp.debian.org for the main stuff, ftp.non-us.debian.org for
packages that would violate US export rules (e.g. secure shell)). Once I do
that dselect downloads databases for the various subdirectories of a Debian
installation and then I can choose to upgrade various individual packages, or,
if I want, I can smack ENTER and have dselect automagically compare all of the
software packages installed on my system to the versions on the ftp sites, and
have dselect download any software packages which are newer/have been upgraded
and install them after the download. This feature is so slick I wonder why
others haven't copied it.
Another strong point for Debian is that quality control is a key issue.
RedHat has relatively few packages that are "official" RedHat -- the rest of the
packages are made up by anyone and can be of widely varying quality. To get
into a Debian distribution packages have to meet standards and are checked out
-- nice.
The strongest point about Debian is that it is 100% free -- and damn militant
about being a free distribution.
Produced by a non-profit corporation Debian is not only free, but 100% wide
open about bugs, security issues, and other similar concerns. This contrasts
with commercial distributions which may have in their commercial interest a
reason not to publicize a particular problem. Since Debian is constructed by
hundreds of volunteer developers who *aren't* getting paid, there's nothing at
risk except egos -- and someone's ego would usually rather fix a bug than to
ignore it.
IMHO, there's only four real choices of Linux distributions: Debian, RedHat,
Slackware, and Suse. Of these, well, you can probably guess which one won hands
down in my comparisons of them. ;-)
--
Regards, | Debian GNU/ __ o http://www.debian.org
. | / / _ _ _ _ _ __ __
Randy | / /__ / / / \// //_// \ \/ /
([EMAIL PROTECTED]) | /____/ /_/ /_/\/ /___/ /_/\_\
http://www.golgotha.net | because lockups should only be for convicts.
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