(Ken wrote me this note and I thought it might be of interest to the list, so I'm CCing it here.) > I've been thinking of trying Debian. I'm a long-time Linux user > (Slackware 2.x and SLS somedamnthing, c. '94), and the one major SLS, "Soft Landing (From DOS Bailout) Systems". Whoops, I'm dating myself.:-) > push: can you give me some reasons why I'd like Debian more than > the others? I mean, apt-get (sp?) sounds cool and all, but for what > reasons, for example, do *you* enjoy Debian? First I like the entire non-commercial attitude. This is more than just the GNU versus "Open Source"<tm> angle. Debian's non-commercial attitude means that everything is brutally public, and that technical issues are always first and foremost. There's a bit of a perfectionist attitude in the project -- Debian's stable release is rock-solid stable and the developers don't give a damn how out of date it may seem; stability is job 1. For example, I understand why Red Hat released their buggy compiler and made all of the changes they did in RH7. I'm impressed by their boldness/recklessness (take your pick). But something like that would just never fly in Debian. The compiler maintainer would have been raked over the coals by his fellow developers for wanting to do something so stupid. Commercial Linux distros are feeling the same pressure as Microsoft to pump out upgrade versions and to charge for updates, or whatever. Such pressures are simply unknown in Debian and this allows that perfectionist attitude to grow. This perfectionist idea trickles down to the individual packages. Everything in Debian has to follow the policy of what goes where -- packages do this religiously, it is just mandatory. Similarly, packages tend to be more polished than what I've seen in other distros. Since developers aren't getting paid, they're doing this to impress their peers. This results in some pretty neat packaging. Once in a while you'll run into a newbie Debian developer whose package will be rough, as a whole, Debian's packages are done well. Apt-get doesn't just sound cool, it's awesome! :-) I'm just amazed at how crude, in comparison, package management is with other distros. Debian takes the idea of GNU/Linux being "the Internet's operating system" to its next logical step. For example, I recently installed Debian on a friend's system. I knew he had a cable modem, so I went to his house with 3 floppies. He was amazed that was all that was needed; in a couple of minutes the rest of the base install was pulled down from the net. Debian does have its rough spots -- no graphical install, the X configuration is still being worked on, hardware detection routines are still crude -- but these things are being addressed. In the meantime, installing Debian means you have to note what NIC, sound, and video card you have. I don't see that as a big knock but some do. The way I look at it, I only install once -- I update and/or maintain the system daily and this is where Debian's strengths lie. But overall I think my love for Debian comes back to its attitude and goals. It sees GNU/Linux as something more than just making a buck, and it has an idealistic streak that always reminds me of why I spent $200+ to download my copy of SLS -- that "free" Unix-like operating system -- over 9600bps long distance lines... -- Regards, | Need help with Debian GNU/Linux? . | Randy | Look no further than <http://debianhelp.org> ********************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following text in the *body* (*not* the subject line) of the letter: unsubscribe gnhlug **********************************************************
