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

[Barbara Robson]

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?

I am currently running Redhat on my work box and Debian on my 
computer at home.  I chose Redhat at work because it is better
supported here, because rpm packages are more widely available 
than deb packages (and while tarballs are fine, there are definite
advantages to using a package manager wherever possible) and because 
I have a high-end PC for which Redhat's defaults are appropriate.  
I chose Debian at home because:

 - Debian seems more readily scalable to suit the available resources 
(this is important because I have an old 486 with 16MB RAM at home).

 - Debian leaves more decisions (such as choice of window manager) up to
the discretion of the user (not that you can't change whatever you
like on your Redhat box, but it's more hassle); and

 - Debian is entirely non-commercial (and has the advantages, both in
practical terms of proven stability and flexibility and in admittedly
idealogical terms, of user/developer-driven free software).

I also find Debian's package management more intuitive and easier to
use than Redhat's system, but that may come down to personal taste.

Barbara
--
Beware of programmers carrying screwdrivers.