ZephyrQ said: > --ability to recover when occasional problems happen (without having to > reinstall to recover my X desktop)
can you give an example of such a problem? I am not aware of any time I had to reinstall a linux system due to a problem(well to be honest one time on suse 8 I reinstalled to fix yast online update but only reinstalled since the system was 1 hour old) > > --gnome friendly (SuSE is increasingly marginalizing gnome in favor of > KDE) yes this is true, debian however still uses gnome 1.4. It will probably be 1.5 to 2 years before gnome 2 shows up(the next "stable" release). if your feeling daring you can try testing and/or unstable but I have read problems of the gnome2 in debian unstable(or is it experimental) so it probably isn't very stable. Debian seems to be very window manager independent. I have not noticed anything that ties the distro to any particular set of libraries or window manager. there is no official debian "version" of YaST, no real central confinguration tool. > > --decent community to help out with problems (which is why many > suggested you guys, and why I subscribed to the list...) debian-user(provided you can handle the volume) is among the best mailing lists out there for support. you do have to be sure to ask precise questions and provide as much detail as possible if you are to get a good response(if any response). > --ability to install software easily (I don't mind the > configure/make/make install dance except that SuSE sometimes puts stuff in > weird places--difficult for me to find) I'm betting you've heard of apt-get. If you are not in the crowd of needing the latest & greatest immediately, most programs are available in the debian archives, making installation painless, integration painless, upgrading painless, and in some cases configuration painless. > --more control over boot process and graphical logins (I hate it) My experience with Suse puts debian at about the same point. Suse allows you(via Yast2) to alter what programs start at boot, and you can change the runlevel in suse to prevent the display manager from loading at boot. Debian is similar. > --and the ability to *easily* control many of my tweaks. When SuSE > went exclusively to yast2, I lost the ability to change many things (like > the graphical login...) and changes I *did* make get changed back after > the next re-boot. There is Debconf, which can overwrite changes done to config files but I have never heard of this happening on boot. It usually only happens when the package is reconfigured(or reinstalled, upgraded). I have yet to run a package that I could not override it's debconf configuration to suit my needs(usually it just requires removing a few lines of text from the config file that tells debconf it is supposed to manage it) > --documentation for me to read to help me figure stuff out. each package comes with some documentation, much like in SuSE, I am not certain what exact kind of documentation your looking for. > I originally went to linux from OS/2 (after IBM practically killed it) > and don't mind getting my hands dirty; I actually prefer it to the slick > installs. I guess there is a slim line I am walking here as I have never > re-compiled a kernel and I'm not sure I want to (don't have time) but I > still like to control my system when I need to. debian does not have a slick install. It is very easy to install and configure provided your using supported hardware(this is the single biggest obstacle to debian I believe is the supported hardware). You will have to get your hands dirty while you learn about debian. It takes time. I still learn things now and then about it and I've been using it for more then 4 years. Having used Debian, and SuSE, and Redhat, and slackware and a dozen other Linux/BSD/Unix variants I always find myself wanting debian the most over anything else. I came up with a list of the things I like about debian in this message: http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2002/debian-user-200207/msg03338.html You may want to browse through the thread to see what people said, its quite lengthy: http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2002/debian-user-200207/thrd7.html#03149 nate -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
