[plug] did anyone manage to record the channel 10 linux article?

[Christian]

On Wed, 20 Jan 1999, Rob Hall wrote:

> 
> > ObRedhatVsDebian: Debian by miles! :).
> >
> 
> You all keep saying how good Debian is, but don't tell us what is good about
> it!  Someone please tell me WHY debian is better.

Well, I've used both and from my own experiences Red Hat was very, very
flaky.  It actually crashed on me several times - more in one week of use
than my previous Slackware system had in over a year.  However this was
Red Hat 5.0 which most people will tell you wasn't exactly entirely stable
and for which there have been numerous updates.  And I guess that's
probably one of the biggest differences - Debian's developers take A LOT
of time testing and debugging their distribution while Red Hat's, being
commercial, are more tied to deadlines and release dates - of course there
are advantages to both methods however, from my own experience, this makes
Debian a lot more stable. (if sometimes delayed!)

Another difference is the number of security updates and errata.  There
are many, many more for Red Hat than there are for Debian.  I believe Red
Hat did a lot of really DUMB things in 5.1 (mostly fixed in 5.2), mainly
to do with linuxconf, whereas a lot of time and effort is spent on
*designing* Debian to reduce and minimise potential risks.  If you're
running Red Hat on a workstation these aren't as important but a lot of
people aren't. 

Debian also has a slightly better package management system I believe
although the differences are not huge (see
http://kitenet.net/~joey/pkg-comp.html for a comparison).  Probably the
biggest difference, so I've heard, is that the Debian developers make
better use of the various opportunities to script the installation -
possibly another example of why Debian is a better designed distribution
with more effort put into it.

I'm not a passionate Red Hater - unlike some I think Red Hat is probably
easier to install than Debian for a near-complete beginner although, for
someone with some experience, the differences are probably negligible. 
I'll often recommend Red Hat to a newbie who's going to install it on
his/her home computer but, for anyone who's prepared to take a little
extra time to read the manual (sadly, few people), Debian is the better
designed distribution in my opinion. 

This email was not designed as an attack on Red Hat (which is one company
I quite like and a distribution I certainly respect) but is simply a
description of my experiences (and things I've heard oft repeated)
regarding the two distribution.  It's not intended as flame bait so please
don't bother flaming me.

Christian.

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