Re: OT, but still relevant

[ABrady <kcsmart kc rr com>]

On Thu, 4 Oct 2001 22:33:49 -0400 "Green, Aaron" <JAGREEN GAPAC com>
imparted to us:

> Could anyone here tell me why Slackware/Debian is better?  I mean, I
know the installers are different, but besides that.  I have no idea why
Red Hat would be a weak OS compared to Slackware, when they are
basically the same thing, Red Hat just comes with more icing on the
cake.  I haven't seen a competent answer to this yet.  I have several
people advising me to more to a more powerful Linux distro like
Slackware or Debian, and I'm wondering why?  
> 
> I'd just like some straight answers.  

Straight answer to a straight question ( and the only question out of
the above that both matters to me and that I know the answer to).

They aren't better unless they meet your needs more than another
distribution. End of answer.

The following is what I know WAS the state of things not too awful long
ago and may not quite apply now. But, I haven't seen anything to show me
that things are different. Still treat the rest of this as opinion only.

As for why some would say change, there could be some reasons they
believe in it. Slackware, in particullar, requires you to do _MUCH_ more
just to get a system up and running. The upside is that you'll know your
system better than you do now, and you'll know much more about it by the
time it's running than you'll likely know when installing Redhat and
running it for an equivalent period of time. The downside is, it will
take you a long time to have anything going to speak of. Even then,
you'll spend a longer time getting the system to any semblance useful.

I've heard of the supposed superiority of dpackage (or dpkg or whatever
it's called). I can't compare because I tried several times on 2
different releases of Debian just to get it installed. In the end I gave
up because I couldn't get past the beginning screens where I had to load
the module for my SCSI card so the installer could read the CD. It
failed on installing the module, the install couldn't proceed. And a
very standard module at that (aha152x). I'll also add that if dpkg is
superior and therefore should be ported to everyone, why do large
numbers of new distros choose rpm, and why hasn't Debian become the
distribution of choice (i.e. largest installed base)? Not trying to
start any arguments, but I haven't heard an answer that fits the
equation, and not even an attempt at one. My mind is open for something
substantive.

-- 
Sometimes you have to stride boldly up to life,
look it straight in the eye, and say "huh?"