On Fri, Sep 17, 1999 at 08:47:19PM -0500, Fredrick Schmitt wrote: > Is the setup text based or graphial? What are the extra features this > opperating system has over my RH6 box? What system would be the > cheeziest I could run it on?
Oh boy, you have hit a nerve. You will get quite a lot of responses here.
First of all, you can run debian 2.1 (slink) and potato on something as
small as a 386 if you wanted a minimal install.
What debian offers over redhat is the following (from my point of view)
1. More secure. Debian has a lot more security bug fixes, and is arguable
the most secure linux.
2. Internet upgrades work. Apt-get utility makes upgrading over the internet
a dream come true. Simply type 'apt-get update' and 'apt-get dist-upgrade'
and all updated packages will be downloaded and installed.
3. Dependencies resolved. You will not get error messages that rpm gives
you when a dependency is not met. Instead the apt-get utility will
resolve all dependencies and download an install in the order of
dependencies. For example, 'apt-get install navigator-smotif-451'
will download libc5, xlib4g, and all the other debian packages that
netscape requires. It doesn't get any better than that. If there
is a missing dependency; which does happen, usually 'apt-get -f install'
and 'dpkg --configure -a' will download missing dependencies and
configure the unconfigured software.
4. Menu integration. When ever you install an X app dpkg will update
your menus in all you window managers. Whether you use KDE, GNOME,
icewm or fvwm your menus will always reflect the packages you have
installed. No hand editing of menu scripts needed.
5. Fully scriptable. Just like slack or BSD or RH, Debian does not take
the config files away from you. If you want to manually edit
config files, there is no problem.
6. Real install scripts. Debian packages are the highest quality, when you
install, say, squid, the install script will prompt you to enter
basic settings so that it will work right after the install.
7. No distribution mangling. When you want to get rid of something
'apt-get remove package' will remove the package and the dependencies
that are no longer in use by another prog. It's much harder to
break your system.
--
NatePuri ("natedawg")
Certified Law Student
McGeorge School of Law
Sacramento, CA
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