> on Fri, Jan 12, 2001 at 05:54:27PM -0500, James W. Lindenschmidt ([EMAIL
> PROTECTED]) wrote:
> > > I am interested in why people prefer Debian to other Linux
> > > distributions. Please explain the top few reasons why you chose Debian
> > > rather than something else.
> >
All these replies are making me feel my age. I started on an IBM 704;
you put in your cards (?!), the preprocessor made an input tape; this
was run on the 704, which made an output tape; this output tape printed
the results on a 14" line printer... Then migrated to a Univac 1108
(64K memory!!!), an SDS (later XDS) 940 (timesharing over those
ear-splitting teletypes), then a Univac 1110 (multiprogramming OS!),
then CDC 6700,... Two turnarounds a day made you a careful debugger...
Languages - Algol-60, FORTRAN, Snobol,... And if you wanted plots, you
had to program the pen movements on a Calcomp plotter yourself.
The PC revolution - had an HP85, HP9825 or something, original IBM 16K
PC (DOS 1.0!!), PC/XT (10MB HD!), PC/AT, RS/6000, Sun... Languages -
FORTRAN (always!), Basic, SAS, Splus, Matlab, R... (should give an idea
of the kind of work).
My path to Debian seems to be the same as most: Slack, RH, Stampede
(still want to try that again some day), Debian. Don't use or like those
GUIs; I still use (gasp!) OpenLook (olwm). I'm still looking for a WM I
can live with (I always kinda liked the WM on SGI's - does anyone know
of a Linux one which looks like that?) Why Debian? Well, it's easy to
maintain and upgrade over my '56K' link, and the configuration files
seem to be where I would expect them to be. And it's easy to grab a new
program when you want (altho' not necessarily the _most_ recent one),
and be informed about what must be installed with it and what could be
installed if you'd like. And when you want to uninstall, what might
break. In a word - control. You are told everything
- if you choose to ignore it, that's OK too (but watch out!).
Well, these geezer reminscences have probably put everyone to sleep; now
back to your usual programming...
--
Martin Hillyer
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
QOTD:
Machines certainly can solve problems, store information, correlate,
and play games -- but not with pleasure.
-- Leo Rosten
