On Thu, 4 Mar 1999, Bernhard Dobbels wrote: > > I would like my uni to distribute Debian in stead of RedHat and for > this, i would like some people to give reasons for this. It is a > potential of 30.000 users, so i find this quite important. I wil bundle > the answers and send them to the chairman of the linux-commitee. > > Am i right if i say that the uni can just rsync the cd-images, write > them and sell them to the students for the price of writing the disks?
Correct. Here is my list of reasons to use Debian: - Package system manages dependencies and upgrades without breaking anything. Single command line downloads and installs any package, or upgrades to latest security fixes, or upgrades to latest Debian. - Nearly all software is packaged "offcicially"and quality controlled. Most RPMs are broken or incorrectly packaged or designed for a distribution other than the one you have; it's easy to break your system with these. Even the official Red hat RPMs don't have the quality of Debian packages; consider that Debian maintainers usually use the software themselves. - Mailing list help is better - Distribution is more stable in general than any other. - All the software in the 'main' section is guaranteed to be distributable and usable for any purpose; no other distribution makes this guarantee. That means you have to read the license for every package and be sure you can include it on your CD. With Debian, just use the official CD and you're safe. - Small touches: backspace/delete work right in most apps, for example. There are tons of little things like this that Debian gets right. Havoc