LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: branko@senet.com.au
  To  : Paul Dabrowski <pdabrows@maths.adelaide.edu.au>
  Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 20:42:37 +0930 (CST)

Re: Debian Distribution

You wrote (by email but I'm posting my response to the list):
>I noticed your response to another query about installing Debian Linux.
>I have been giving strong consideration to trying the Debian 2.1
>distribution, but I have been unable to find anyone who currently uses
>it. Most other Linux users I know have RedHat because it is easy to
>install and they find it incredulous that anyone would consider any
>other distribution.
>
>I presumed from your posting that you have some experience with Debian
>and I would welcome any comments concerning its installation and
>usage in general.

Hello Paul,

First, sorry for not responding sooner, I hadn't logged on for a few
days.

I will respond in two parts: why I chose Debian and why I'm still
sticking with it.

When LinuxSA had its first install-fest, I attempted to install RH5.0
on my old '386, previously I had installed Slackware using the pile of
floppies method.  The exercise was a disaster! The RH boot disk
contained a cut down kernel that did not go well with my hardware. I
ended up with a partly reformatted hard disk.  I attempted to go back
to slackware to create a bootable partition - optional practice for
slackware at the time was to make temporary use of swap partition.
Then I attempted to gather a RH system off the net using the pile of
floppies method ('386 has no CD ROM), I spent about 2 weeks of
downloading rpms at work and bringing them home.  When I finally put 
my minimal set of RPMs in place and invoked package manager, it took
one look at my efforts and declared "something is missing" and just
stopped.  Out of frustration, I downloaded the Debian 1.3 base set,
which consisted of five floppies, installed them in a breeze, then 
incrementally installed *.deb packages again thanks to downloads
through my place of work.  On subsequent releases of Debian, the '386
produced more problems which were fixed thanks to Debian's alternative
boot disks.  In conclusion: the installation options for difficult
hardware are much better under Debian.  Red Hat is strictly CD-ROM, no
option to manually pick and choose a minimal or customised system.

PS, I now have a K6 and the '386 is networked to it as an internet
gateway.

Part 2...

Working with a Debian system has both good and bad points, but overall
it matches my afinity for taking control of my machine and doing
certain things by hand, and other things by default.

The Debian distribution has been created by 100's of contributors and
as such it resembles the Linux/GNU ideals better than the rpm based
distributions.  Just about anyone can package a software item and
submit it, as a result, Debian CDs provide many more choices for every
requirement.

As a consequence of many contributors, Debian is set up so that
individual packages can be installed or removed without impacting on
anything else.  Furthermore, the package builders' guide makes
provision for control files to be jointly upgradable by package
managers, system administrators or end users (within reason).  This
maked it perfect for hackers like me who like to configure things but
not loose upgrade path.

Although I have yet to take advantage of it, its possible for a user
to find something not to their liking, fix it, submit the fix to the
maintainer and expect it to appear on the next CD ROM.  Taking this
further, when I used Slackware, I often compiled something off the net
then wished that it would appear in the next release.  I think that
others must have felt the same way because I never got to exercise
that option with Debian - but I know its there.  I'm currently working
on an open source product that I have uploaded to sunsite for people to
Alpha test.  When its a bit more mature I fully intend to contribute a
.deb file.  I'm not sure if this is possible under RH, although there
is a contrib site, I don't believe that all of it appears on CDs.

Now for the down side.  The package manager is a _dog_ to use!  Internet
connectivity is not as easy to get going as it is with RedHat's X based 
tools.  Some packages do not integrate properly (although there is
a bug reporting system).  Every now and then I see reference to a huge
war of words in the maintainer community over policy issues.  Most of
all, the Debian user base is small by comparison to RH so help and
moral support are harder to come by.

PS, there is a new package manager in development but its not on the
latest 2.1 release.

I've read Debian described as a system for advanced users.  Not sure
if that means that you need to be advanced to put up with its
complexity or that its wide coverage will make you a better user.  A
bit of both maybe, still, its gratifying to feel associated with such a
group!

Enough said, I hope this helps..
-- 
Branko Bratkovic
branko@senet.com.au

-- 
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