On Thu, Jul 18, 2002 at 10:34:05AM -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Um, why is Debian easier to maintain than RedHat with apt for rpm or
> Mandrake with urpmi? It seems you have nice guis and easy install/upgrade
> of packages with the latter two, and only the easy install/upgrade of
> packages with Debian (not to mention the initial installation of the
> system that's near impossible for a newbie). Besides, you can do a full
> install of Redhat or Mandrake and already have any package you would want
> and not need to inundate a newbie with rpms or debs or apt at all at the
> start.
The advantage of Debian is that it was designed to work with apt, and
the package dependancies are for the most part very well-checked to
ensure that everything a package needs is there. There's nothing
particularly special about the .deb format, it's the package
repository and how it's managed that makes Debian so nice.
I've installed a Debian system from CDs that were a couple of versions
old, changed a couple of lines in the apt sources file, and then
performed a dist-upgrade to the latest unstable version. There were a
couple of hitches, but I was left with a nice working up-to-date system.
I can't speak from experience, so those of you who can feel free to
correct, but I've been told that most RPM-based distributions generally
require a lot more work to upgrade from one version to the next, and
most people generally backup user files and reinstall when a new version
comes out.
Debian does have its flaws, though. I don't know if it's what you want
to give to the newbies. It makes no serious attempt to be
newbie-friendly during install time or while running it. Occasionally
there's a burp in the apt system, and you have to fiddle a bit to get it
working right again. I think it's about perfect for people who are
comfortable with the command line and Unix systems in general, but who
want to have a low-hassle system that's easy to keep relatively up to
date. It just might be a turn-off to those used to the Windows way of
things.
--Levi
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