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

[freyley at gmx.net]

On Sat, 2004-08-07 at 14:15, Chris Jantzen wrote:
> 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 am absolutely of the same opinion, especially for servers, and
anything you want to muck around with in depth. Another cool thing about
Debian is the beginning of debian-based distros which do not diverge
from Debian. Skolelinux is a good example of it: it's proof of the
utility of Debian as a meta-distribution, while making it easy to
install and generally making good default choices for you that Debian as
an entity is unwilling to make. There are rumors of a new Progeny too,
Progeny being a once-upon-a-time user-friendly version of Debian started
by the Murdocks.

That said, I've heard nothing but good things about the 9.1/9.2
Mandrake, primarily from an end-user, desktop-usage, less-command-line
perspective.

Good luck,

Jeff