Hi Emmanuel, I don't think I've done a good job expressing my suggestion. > Yes debian has a good and working apt-get system. > Yes, the number of .deb is very large. > Yes, the have good ideas (menu and others) > But we can't witch to deb package: > -> We have to repackage all rpm
Well, initially, I might suggest most of the packages would be based on Debian unstable and woody. I would then fork from Debian proper and port Mandrake specific stuff over (most likely not that hard). RPM's could be repackages, or when possible converted using alien. > -> debian is very badly i18n! Hmm, I can't comment about this, but it wouldn't matter, IMO, since Mandrake stuff would take care of the interface. > -> install system is a big pain for beginner That's the beauty of "Mandrake Debian." I'm not suggesting that Mandrake become Debian, on the contrary, I'm suggesting moving things like Mandrake's excellent installer and provide a better system. Remember using a Debian base and being Debian are two different things. As you know Corel, Stormix, and Progeny all had nice GUI installers, and most likely Xandros will too (oh, not to mention Libranet). The key here is, just like Mandrake wasn't forced to use everything RedHat used, "Mandrake Debian" would not be forced to stick with hard to use Debian utilities. > -> If we use the preexistent stable packages, we are going back to MDK-5.2! I wouldn't suggest that. I would suggest basing such a system on Debian woody (what I think most people use), and where necessary Debian unstable. That gives you a system roughly equivelent to Mandrake 8.2 Beta 3. > Only one thing who can be changer in mdk for the moment, is urpmi. > it is to slow, compared to apt-get, and hdlists are too large. (synthesis > doesn't permit to search for files) Right. That is why, IMO, it'd be easier to move to a better pre-existant system than write a new one. As many open source developers like to say - "don't re-invent the wheel." Debian has good, solid CLI tools, Mandrake has good, solid GUI tools - together they would make a very slick distro. > For the desktop, I only install mdk -> easy of use for end users who don't > know a lot about hacking. Well, I don't think Corel Linux was hard to use, but it was poorly done. But none the less, it proves Debian doesn't have to be hard if the distro company chooses not to make it that way. -Tim -- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Timothy R. Butler [EMAIL PROTECTED] Universal Networks http://www.uninet.info Christian Portal and Search Tool: http://www.faithtree.com Open Source Migration Guide: http://www.ofb.biz ============= "Christian Web Services Since 1996" ==============
