[clue-tech] Distro musings

[Matt Gushee]

David L. Anselmi wrote:

>> ... but I guess you've made up your mind, so I won't say anything 
>> about Arch Linux, with which I've had very good experiences over the 
>> past 2 years.
> 
> pacman -Rs package_name
> 
> Cool.  Passes my first litmus test.  I'm still waiting for someone to 
> tell me how to do that with RPM.

I actually had to look that up--I don't remove packages very often. It 
is certainly cool.

> But you just like it because the logo looks like a Star Trek badge, 
> don't you.  Yeah, I thought so. :-)

Yeah, and I live for Star Trek conventions, too.

> Looks to me like Arch is great for developers or personal use.  From a 
> sysadmin point of view I'd say that other distros (Debian especially) 
> add plenty of value.

Okay, I'll bite. What is it about Debian that you think is especially 
sysadmin-friendly? After three years or so of using Debian, I came to 
think the configuration tools, packaging standards, etc. were just too 
bloody complex.

To effectively manage a Debian system--at least, if you need any 
customization at all--you really have to learn The Debian Way, which, 
last time I checked, wasn't particularly well-documented. There were a 
bunch of different manuals with vague titles and overlapping content, 
and those that were complete were mostly out of date.

And if you've ever tried Googling for a Linux problem that has been 
reported in the Debian issue tracker, you've undoubtedly seen it: dozens 
of hits from Debian sites reporting the problem, and no answers.

Not that I think The Debian Way is worthless. It seems to be based on 
sound principles; it just seems to me too multi-layered and 
all-encompassing to be well-implemented *and* well-documented by the 
available volunteers.

Well, I think I'm rehashing points I've raised in the past, so I'll cut 
short my rant there. I'm just wondering what you gain by learning to do 
Debian, other than being able to do Debian. It wasn't worth the effort 
for me, but maybe it is for others.

-- 
Matt Gushee
: Bantam - lightweight file manager : matt.gushee.net/software/bantam/ :
: RASCL's A Simple Configuration Language :     matt.gushee.net/rascl/ :