[PLUG] Need opinions/advice on which release to use

Chris Jantzen chris at maybe.net
Sat Aug 7 14:16:02 UTC 2004


On Sat, Aug 07, 2004 at 10:18:42AM -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
>   They are all good; each has strengths and weaknesses. Make a list of
> what's important to you then compare the various distributions based on
> specific attributes. That's what I did when I decided to switch from Red Hat
> to Slackware. Others have different criteria and make different decisions.
> 
>   Should we also help you pick a car, house, wife or job offer? :-) Only you
> know what's important to you. You'll need to make your own decision and
> accept the results without the ability to blame others. Regardless, you
> won't go wrong.


I think this is the most level-headed and clear-thinking response I've
seen to a (probably unintentional) prelude to a distro-war. I echo
these sentiments heartily, and only offer the following as my own
perspective -- and my own perspective is largely radically different
from your[1] stated needs. But, perhaps, this will help you develop a
broad perspective of the "pantheon" of distributions.

My own personal progression of distro's has been Slackware 2.0 ->
RedHat 4.2 -> Mandrake ... something -> RedHat 6.2 -> Debian. (Note
from the versions that this wasn't willy-nilly hopping back and forth:
at each stage, I spent good and serious amounts of time trying to
really use the strengths of each distribution.) And I've been on
Debian for a very long time now.

It's not terribly relevant to your needs, but the reason I ended up
with Debian was that it just "did things right"[2]. As a systems
administrator, I found that all along and up to the last version of
RedHat I was using, that I was constantly digging up src.rpm's and
building my own copies of software with the changes I wanted and
needed -- turning on options, adding patches, removing patches, making
changes in configurations. I find that more often than not, Debian
makes the same decisions I would make -- which, along with apt, means
that I end up doing less myself.

I do use Debian on my laptop in a desktop environment. I'm far too
removed from being a "normal user" to be able to offer judgement on
whether it would be suitable.

[1] Not Rich, hilsy.

[2] Upon proofreading, this statement, if taken out of context, sounds
patently absurd. Blend it together with the next sentence somehow.  I
mean, of course it's relevant to your needs that a distribution do
things right. :-)


-- 
chris kb7rnl =->
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