[plug] The Debian Experience

[I am the LinuxAlien]

>  * Dselect still sucks. (-:
Don't use it myself, never got the hang of it.
>  * I can see why Deb-heads like network installs so much, because
>    installing from CDs sucks; for example, the setup script makes you
>    feed in each CD that you want to install from so that it can spend
>    time reading index files from it - a better plan would be to collate
>    copies of the index files for a set onto a single CD (maybe the
>    last in the set?) - all before you even begin to install `real'
>    packages. Apt-get doesn't remember which CD is in, nor does it sniff
>    and see if the CD is one of those it needs before it asks for a
>    particular CD to be inserted, please press Enter.
That would be nice, but if the cd is mounted then it does know what cd is 
in, it would be a bit much mounting it on a slow cddrive just to find out 
its not the right one and then apt-get has to unmount it again.
>  * It is *much* better at cutting the crap than any of the RPM-based
>    distros that I've tried (Mandrake, RedHat, SuSE, Caldera) - a full
>    gateway machine with all of the server fruit, bells and whistles
>    that I wanted came out at roughly 140MB, on Mandrake this would be
>    600-700MB. In today's world of 40GB on up hard disks, it seems
>    ludicrously parsimonious [-: polysyallabic paradise there :-].
I agree to this point 100% I'm sick of having to get a second disk for the 
other distros for my home space, the biggest disk I ever had/have is a 4gb 
and with RH or Mandrake installed i was a bit limited on disk space, thats 
because i had to install so much just to get the stuff i wanted.
>  * The full set of 7 CDs is awe-inspiring, even asking for relatively
>    obscure stuff like x2x and lbxproxy never took me past the 3rd CD
>    which makes me curious about the mysterious depths of esoterica
>    encysted on CD #7...
I have used it a few times already, does that mean I'm odd? Can't remember 
what for though. 3 times i think. a few lib packages as well.  I've used 
just about all the disks, no... have used all the disks. I must be odd!
>  * The graphics etc useage of the installer is very light; I could
>    imagine running it on a 386/33 and still having hair when I
>    finished installing.
Sick of graphics installs that crash before installing the boot loader but 
after installing the packages. what a waste of an hour!
>  * Apt-get does some handy things like semi-automatically tossing exim
>    over its shoulder to make room for postfix.
I still have probs were it can't decide, only when trying to install 
packages with wioldcards.
>  * It prefers PostgreSQL to MySQL. (-: Cue DB religious wars :-)
I don't care my self, still don't use them. What R they for?
>  * While said questions could be tres confusing for a newbie, the
>    configuration steps ask many intelligent questions which give an
>    experienced user a fairly good depth of control.

I saw it installed once and installed woody myself. I only started on RH 
and Mandrake in feb, DOS skills help though. No X used for a while, except 
gnomecd which i was trying to use to rip.
Debian ROCKS!
Tim

LinuxAlien
Riverton, Perth, WA

Australian Linux Technical Conference, Perth 2003 http://linux.conf.au
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