[olug] Redhat Versus Debian

[Dave Burchell]

Jason Ferguson says:

> Okay, as I mentioned yesterday, Redhat has gotten on my last nerve with
> 7.0 (my fault for upgrading, I spose).

Avoiding upgrade hassles is one good reason to use Debian.  They put a
lot of thought into making upgrades go smoothly.  I upgraded my home
box from 2.1 -> 2.2 without much trouble.  (I certainly expected more
trouble, at least.)

> Two questions.

> One: How much of a shock am I in for when I switch?

Not too much.  All the hype aside, all Linux distros (and all Unixes)
are mostly the same.  (But the devil is in the details, so people still
get bit all the time by the small differences.)

> Two: Are there any GOOD DETAILED guides out there?  Last time I tried, I
> couldnt figure out dpkg.

dpkg is the expert-friendly "back-end" to package management.  dselect is
the end-user (end administrator?) interface.

dpkg is sane and simple enough if you are willing to read the docs and
spend some time, IMHO.  dselect is a train wreck -- the INTERCAL of
user interface design.  I've used Debian for years, and dselect resists
improvement like a cat resists a leash.

There are a bunch of Debian books.  Check out
<http://www.debian.org/distrib/books>.  I always see what O'Reilly
offers first, so I'd check <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/debian/> if
I wanted a getting-started-with-Debian book.

> Thanks everyone.

> Jason

If you want an easy distribution, don't pick Debian; it's not what you
want.  Sure, it is a lot easier than, say, Slackware or Windows NT, but
Debian is the distribution of doing it right even if it hurts.  Using
dselect hurts every time.  But once you have learned it, and dpkg, and
apt, it's all good and worth the pain; you'll never want to go back.

If you want easy, try Storm Linux:  <http://www.stormix.com/>.  They
are a Debian2.2-based distro with a sweet GUI installer and a
cute-as-a-button package management front-end.  You can add Debian
packages to your Stomix system.  I only went through the install of an
earlier version, so I can't tell you about all the latest features, but
some of the eye candy had me drooling, and I'm a glass tty kind of guy.

-- 
Dave Burchell                                          40.49'N, 96.41'W
Free your mind and your software will follow.              402-467-1619
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/burchell/                  burchell at acm.org     

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