[plug] re opening linuxconf

[Christian]

On Sun, May 06, 2001 at 11:20:01PM +0800, Beau Kuiper wrote:
 
> But I admin that using tarballs is harder than a package system. But you
> ussually have to read the docs to use it anyway, and INSTALL in most
> programs is just the standard GNU stuff. Virtually all programs compile
> and install cleanly out of the tarball.

I've come across plenty that don't.  With packages this obviously isn't
an issue.

> I suppose I really like using tarballs because it helps give me an insight
> into how the programs and give me a chance to modify the source code when
> I need to.

And using binary packages prevents you from getting access to the source
how exactly?

> And the package system database gets to such a stage where it is useless
> because all packages are force installed.

I don't know any Debian user who forces packages to install.  Under
Debian I think what you describe just doesn't happen.  It's never
happened to me and I don't ever recall hearing that it has happened to
anyone else either.

 
> are debian able to check that changes to a minor, yet common library (for
> example the curses library) don't break any of the thousands of programs
> that may rely on it. There are no garrentees, even with packages.

Umm.. Yes.  Obviously.  But this applies much more so to compiling your
own packages from source and managing all the dependencies by hand.
And, yes, there are *no* guarantees that everything will work for you
but with Debian (stable) you do have a guarantee that thousands of
people have installed these packages and tested them for months and that
thousands of programs *haven't* broken.

Just out of curiousity: have you thought about maybe trying Debian and
using source packages? 

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