[CLUE-Talk] Mandrake to Debian

[Dave Price]

On Mon, Sep 23, 2002 at 08:49:47AM -0700, Keith Christian wrote:
> 
> Could you share what you like about Debian vs. Mandrake?  Mandrake is pretty
> easy to install as you know and have said.
> 

Keith,

Number One: debian rocks!!!

That said; the debian install is not the easiest, and the file system
and startup scripts are a bit different from rehat and clones.

Debian's package manager (dpkg, apt and friends) is very robust, and
staying current with updates and security patches is trivial;

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

Once you learn the 'debian way' of doing things, debian is very robust,
and easy to manage.  

Debian is committed to gnu-only; you will not find anything but
gnu/open source packages on official debian mirrors, although there are
packages for things like opera ready to go on the vendors' sites.

I got started with debian as a server platform, because as linux(es) /
(linuxi ??) go, it has a great reputation for being very secure if
maintained.  I now use it as a desktop, just to be consistent.  

But linux is linux, as long as a distro has a good package manager, good
listserv and irc support (debian does in spades), and access to the
packages and patches (latest kernels, etc) that you want, they are all
the same.  I use debian because it suits my needs - mandrake and suse
are great too.  If you want to try debian woody, get a copy of knoppix,
that will give you an idea of the level of hardware compatibility you
can expect from debian woody.

Most of all: Have a lot of fun!

aloha,
dave