On Tue, 22 Jul 1997, Rick Hawkins wrote:
> Redhat is *far* easier to install on a slow machine. After installation
> is another matter :)
Slightly faster; not necessarily easier. Since 4.0, Red Hat has been a
disaster for anyone with a CD-ROM attached to a SoundBlaster card, for
instance.
>
> Redhat's installation programs are apparently compiled rather than
> interpeted; they move directly from one screen to the next. At some
> points in debian, the wait is measured in minutes (particularly module
> installation). The installation program constantly looks to check the
> current state, which is where most of the wasted time goes.
In my experience on a 486slc2-66 (not exactly a screamer), it was more
like several tens of seconds. On a pentium it's reasonably fast.
>
> Redhat's rpm is not as advanced as dpkg (though again, it seems to be
> faster). There are some dependency issues it doesn't adress. On the
> other hand, if you try to install a package with dependency problems
> with dpkg, it informs you which other packages it directly depends on.
> rpm does this recursively (why doesn't dpkg, for that matter).
>
> rpm has a built in access method for ftp. Debian has an ftp-mode for
> dselect, which can automatically handle any updates.
>
> dselect is almost a nice package. It classifies packages by types, and
> handles dependencies. On the other hand, it is a nightmare for
> beginners if there is a missing or wrong-version package with dependency
> problems, and it is close to unusable without a pentium or better.
Upgrading Red Hat is almost as big a deal as an initial install (boot from
floppy, etc.) Upgrading with dselect is a piece of cake, requiring
patience, however.
>
> The selection of .deb files seems much richer than for .rpm files; i
> couldn't find a couple of things i regularly used when i installed
> redhat a couple of weeks ago.
That depends a lot on what you are looking for. RedHat has many thing
which Debian does not and vice-versa. That's where alien should be a big
help.
One nice thing Red Hat has is the configuration tools. However, if you
don't have X, you can't use them.
Bob
----
Bob Nielsen Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tucson, AZ AMPRnet: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
AX.25: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.primenet.com/~nielsen
--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
