Why I use Debian. Was Re: [plug] Mandrake - printing

[Greg Mildenhall]

On Mon, 21 Feb 2000, William Kenworthy wrote:
> My impression of debian is thats its both harder to get going and be
> productive, more fiddling etc.  Can someone put a perspective on redhat
> & clones and debian as to why they chose debian?

In the end, I think most people use Debian for the reasons people use Free
Software. It was produced by the people using it, and it shows:

* Debian is extremely reliable, first and foremost. It will have all of
  the latest bells and whistles when they have been properly tested, not
  when management decides to ship them. You might find the bells and
  whistles in "unstable", but they won't necssarily work right or be
  well-supported.
* Debian does one thing and one thing well, and that is package
  management. Installation and the micromanagement of your configuration
  are seen as seperate issues, not necessarily best dealt with by Debian.
* Debian doesn't care how you got your system into a state the package
  management can deal with. It does provide tools such as installation
  disks to get into that state, but it doesn't demand that you use them,
  and they provide a great deal of flexibility because they are merely
  tools.
* Debian doesn't care how you configure your system, except the initial
  configuration to get each package into a functional, secure and
  interoperable state. Debian packages config tools written by third
  parties, but contains no Debian-specific tools.
* Debian is not, in general, newbie-friendly, or Windows-user-friendly. It
  is maintained by and for people who know Unix and Linux, and is made
  user-friendly in the sense that it is very easy to use it effectively
  once you know how - this is different to being easy to learn.
* Debian assumes it will be installed in a production environment, and so
  emphasises working smoothly at the expense of fancy run-time gizmos.
  It expects to be put away in a broom-cupboard and left to run - it
  considers that the average box needs package management and
  configuration only rarely, so it concentrates on working between times.
* Debian encourages orthogonal development to add configuration tools,
  installation tools, and helpful default settings, either by those
  creating the software being packaged, or third parties such as Corel,
  Storm and Ian Murdoch's new company whose name I do not recall.
* Debian will never get in your way, even at the expense of making you do
  things yourself that you might not want to.
* Debian has a package to do everything under the sun, because there are
  Debian users who wish to do each of these things.
* Debian has very detailed guidelines for the way things should work and
  sticks to them, because many people must cooperate to make it work.
* Debian adheres to all standards as closely as possible because of this.

I am sure a lot more could be added to this list, but in general, all of
the characteristics of Debian stem from it being an open, free, community
collaboration, and can be approximated by the difference between Free
Software and the equivalent commercial software.

I hope this is of some use to those unfamiliar with Debian, and that those
who are experienced can add to it for us.

-Greg Mildenhall