[CLUE-Tech] Fedora vs Debain

[Collins]

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 22:13:05 +0000 (UTC)
Angelo Bertolli <angelo at freeshell.org> wrote:

[ snips ]
 
> This kind of sums up the main idea behind why it's taken me until now
> to even try Debian:  it's never been cutting edge.  Sarge features the
> all brand-speanking new kernel 2.4! Wow!  

> Another annoying thing is that Sarge by default installs the i386
> kernel instead of the i686 kernel.  

> I had been wondering why on earth it was so much slower than my
> previous RH installation until I noticed this.  I never knew that the
> kernel architecture could make such a difference

> Luckily they're not as slow as the HURD group ;)
> 

<on the soapbox>

Angelo provides a good summary of the reasons why I have never been impressed with Debian. When you combine the incredible arrogance (we know what is best for you; your opinion seldom counts; don't even mention commercial products: they are evil) with an ancient version of everything, well ... it's clear to me that I'll never be a Debian fan.

I prefer Gentoo. The Social Contract is similar to Debian without the arrogance. You are provided with the tools to choose what you need - so called bleeding edge (not really true because Gentoo does a good job weeding out the noxious new packages) or stable (but still light years ahead of Debian). Sure, Gentoo prefers GPL'd software, but they even make available easy installs for non-GPL or proprietary stuff where it is legal and practical to do so. Example: RealPlayer. You need to sign up and download via the RealPlayer site, but Genoo provides a standard ebuild to integrate the software properly into your system.

Somebody mentioned that the Debian installer would be much better if there were only more volunteers.  There would be more volunteers if it were not for the stifling, stodgy atmosphere. Gentoo attracts hundreds of volunteers from around the world. So why didn't these volunteers gravitate towards Debian? Maybe it's because they would be embarrassed to offer a two-generations-old version of KDE and a kernel that is getting long in the tooth.

A final note: Debian is certainly not the only distro with adequate (even copious) docuentation. 

I've been running the so called bleeding edge version of Gentoo for 6 months now (total time with Gentoo 3+ years), and I've actually encountered fewer problems than I did with the stable version. A big part of this is the install-from-source approach which eliminates the problem: your binary wasn't compiled with the same glibc, gcc, etc. that I'm running.

</on the soapbox>

Enjoy,


-- 
 /\/\
( CR ) Collins Richey
 \/\/