OT: Linux Distrobutions?

[Robert Waldner]

On Mon, 03 Nov 2003 15:13:08 EST, Bob Jones writes:
>>  * Very very long installation process
>>    (lots of screen to read and decisions to make, some are not obvious)

>The install process for Debian can be a bit tricky.  What you need to
>realize (and I'm not sure if it's documented) is that you need to skip
>all the package selecting at install, especially with the ugly beasts
>they give you to do so.  Just say not to using the 2 methods they offer
>of selecting packages and you'll end up with a basic install of just
>what's needed.

Actually, tasksel isn't so bad a tool. Selecting "DNS-server" and/or 
 "C-development" and/or "mailserver" is actually more newbie-friendly 
 than I would've made it.

>>  * Only ext2 file-system support (no JFS or EXT3 support from what I saw)

>If you install the stable distro, and just do the basic install, this is
>correct because it installs a 2.2 kernel (once a distro of debian is
>locked, they don't change except for security updates which are
>back-ported).  There is an install option (I believe bf24 maybe?) that
>installs a 2.4 kernel and thus gives you the newer filesystems.

bf24 it is, yes. And ext3 goes along with it.

>>  * Old versions of packages

>And I noted this in my description of stable.  This is why I said stable
>was just for servers IMO because you need newer tools for a desktop.
>But for a server, you get packages which are well integrated,
>applications that don't crash, and the easiest distro to manage on the
>planet.  If you need newer packages for a server than is on stable, go
>with testing, which is probably just as stable, but hasn't completed the
>rigorous testing Debian distros go through.  Unlike a lot of distros,
>Debian just doesn't throw it's new stuff out there, it tests them
>first... a lot.

And then there are a lot of backports to stable should you need just 
 those 3 apps newer than what's in the official distro. MailScanner and 
 SpamAssassin being prime examples ;)
 http://www.apt-get.org/ helps you locate them.

Of course, as always, there's a tradeoff between stable&secure and 
 shiny&new. Noone can (or should attempt to) make that decision for you.

And then there's always OpenBSD... "Only one remote hole in the default
 install, in more than 7 years!".

cheers,
&rw
-- 
-- Which brings us to the question, if an NT server crashes in
-- the serverroom, and there is no one to log it, did it have
-- downtime?                                        Fan Li Tai


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