On Fri, Mar 01, 2002 at 09:20:50AM +0200, Johan van der Walt wrote: > My question then is: what makes Debian GNU/Linux different so that I > should use it rather than any of the other distributions? Is Linux not > just Linux? From a scientific point of view I use IRAF and that comes > with Debian which is something I like. However, that certainly cannot > be the only reason for using Debian.
As a non-technical user, I find the package management and dependency checking one of the best features of Debian. It suits my politics and this list is the best source of information you will ever find. I used Red Hat (six months) and Slackware (one year) before switching to Debian and I don't see any reason to change. For some time there was a complaint by new users that there was insufficient user-friendly documentation but with Bill McCarty's book on basics, and Paul Sheer's book for slightly more experienced users, that plaint is no longer valid. Check http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/debian/chapter/index.html and http://rute.sourceforge.net for the books mentioned above. Sam -- Sam Varghese http://www.gnubies.com Linux and all free software is not about the smell of money but the improvement of community