On Tuesday 11 January 2022 11:20:22 am Andrew M.A. Cater wrote: > > I've run nothing but linux since 1999, starting with Slackware 4.0, and > > upgrading to newer versions from time to time. Early on I had no sound > > card in the machine that I was using, and did not implement a GUI to start > > with either. Adding those manually was a real interesting exercise, one > > that I'm happy to not have to repeat with newer hardware and software. > > Debian came a little later, only in the past few years, and in many > > respects I'm still getting to know it. > > > > I still would like to know why the one instance of pulseaudio works and the > > other one doesn't. And why some things seem to be included in what gets > > started up that I don't see any need for -- things like exim, bluetooth > > stuff (there is _no_ bluetooth hardware on this machine), and some other > > stuff. Any recommendations as to where I might poke at this to clean > > things up would be appreciated also. > > > > Exim: because "something" needs to deliver mail locally for cron jobs etc. > Maybe not the best - others remove exim and install another MTA - but its > a start.
I don't see the need for this. Deliver mail locally where? And to who? > "Remove stuff" - start with a bare install of Debian text mode - standard > packages only - then remove the stuff you want to. Don't be surprised if > there may be a metapackage or two which appears to remove more than you > think. I've been surprised at that more than once already. I suggest to synaptic that I might want to remove something, and it comes back with a *huge* list of stuff that's going to be removed, if I do. I can't quite make sense out of that. > The idea of a distribution is to make it relatively easy to install a > subset of common packages that people want: that doesn't mean that everybody > gets exactly what they want first time, but Debian's fairly flexible to > allow you to change elements. Still working on that... > If you think that the distribution is entirely wrong - that's a different > matter, I think. Not necessarily wrong, but definitely different. I like the management of dependencies, one of the reasons I chose it. Some of the other stuff I'm not so sure about, though. > If you started with Slackware 4.0 and that was your first > Linux, then you may well find Debian different enough that it's bothersome > because it "isn't Slackware" - but there's any amount of individual > customisation you can do. Oh, it's different all right. Bothersome? Sometimes. I've been dealing with it for some years now, and haven't given up on it yet. -- Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters" - Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin
