Debian Problems (was Re: [plug] ComputerBank meeting Tues 24th 7:45pm)

[Trevor Phillips]

Peter Wright wrote:
> 
> As far as I recall, I think the Redhat install uses colour liberally,
> whereas the Debian install doesn't (seriously, I think this does make
> a difference, even if it's only psychological). I think the Debian
> install also requires you to manually select the kernel modules you
> want to use, whereas the Redhat install doesn't.

Debian is colour, after you answer the "Do you have a colour screen" question.
Debian DOES have a kernel module question phase near the start, but on a
standard system you don't have to bother. They're mostly for strange things...
^_^

> Oh, and yes, dselect is a steaming pile of painful poo.

Agreed.

> Nowadays, I find Debian wonderful (I use it at home), as apt-get and
> now the new apt-find make life soooooo much easier. At work (ie. right

apt-find is now called console-apt (unless they renamed it BACK to apt-find
without telling me. ^_^)

I think dselect IS a big problem, but I think a bigger problem is some of the
niceish stuff in setup, there's no easy way to redo it once the system is
installed!
A case in point is the networking; setup nicely prompts so someone with some
TCP/IP knowledge can set it all up. However, if you want to change it, there's
no way to re-run setup or other nice-ish app; you have to manually edit
/etc/init.d/network.
Ok, so maybe there IS a tool, but sure has heck haven't found it in the years
I've been using Debian. I was floundering for a while till I cottoned on to
the dpkg -L command and /var/lib/dpkg info files.

I think this situation is improving, with many packages including nice
configuration scripts which can be run again at a later date to reconfigure a
package. It's getting there ...

BTW: I missed the earlier bit of the thread so don't know if this has been
mentioned, but has everyone checked out Corel's upcoming Linux?
(http://linux.corel.com/) It's based on Debian (so has Debian's stability &
excellent package base), but they've redone a LOT of the UI, and it's
supposedly one of the easiest Linux's to install and maintain for the
Non-Guru. Included are some great enhancements to KDE which will/may be
returned to the KDE developers for integration.

-- 
. Trevor Phillips             -           http://jurai.murdoch.edu.au/ . 
: CWIS Technical Officer         -           T.Phillips at murdoch.edu.au : 
| IT Services                       -               Murdoch University | 
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