On Thu, 22 Oct 1998, Randy Edwards wrote:
> 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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>
I agree fully...Debian is probably more suited to advanced users, but, in
my opinion, everything that you have described is on the nose, at least
with my experience...BUT the only thing I don't agree with you on, is
dselect, which has to be the biggest piece of crap for installing
software, known to man! Sure, it's superior in ways to RedHat, but when
they released it for 1.3, it was so buggy, I couldn't get it to install
right...and the thing about all this is, is that Debian admitted that it
was to boot...BUT overall, I would still choose Debian over RedHat,
although I use RedHat and probably always will....but then again, thats
just because I've used it the most and am comfortable with it...why
change? :)
Regards,
Woody Hughes, MCP
Security Administrator
Computer Technician
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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