Re: [tlug] Enterprise Linux Support

[Scott <scottro@example.com>]

On Fri, Feb 13, 2004 at 12:30:54PM +0900, Alain Hoang wrote:
> On Feb 12, 2004, at 4:04 PM, Jonathan Byrne wrote:
> 
> >Debian users probably come from another distro and that most who do
> >not are probably coming from some other flavor of *nix.  This means 
> >that
> >
> 
> 	On reflecting on this observation that seems about right.   I had 
> started
> using Redhat but quickly switched to Debian (and FreeBSD) when I
> started.  But that's only me talking :-)
> 
> >The way I think the Linux market will shake out is
> >that Debian will be dominant among binary-based distros,


The only contender that I've seen--and not sure it could be considered
one--is Arch Linux. Althoug still new, and with growing pains
(especially since a recent favorable review on distrowatch.com) its
binary package management--usually with excellent dependency
management--is reminiscent of a bleeding edge Debian--the creator made
it for fun, but it's becoming popular. Oddly enough, often compared to
Gentoo rather than Deb, though I consider it far more Debian-esque to
coin a phrase.  

Anyway, as for binary distros, those two seem to be the best at handling
it.  Debian of course, has probably thousands more packages, and its
reputation for stability is well-earned. 


> 	Although, from my experience of running Debian for awhile
> you really need a decent net connection to really take advantage of
> what Debian offers.   One of these days I'll bother to burn a whole CD
> set from Debian and try living with just the CDs for awhile.

True for Arch as well, but even more for the source based ones--I can't
imagine doing FreeBSD the way I do (bare minimum install, then building
everything) on a dialup.

> 
> >Gentoo will
> >be dominant among source-based distros,
> 
> 	Is there even any competition with Gentooi the source-based distros
> for Linux?  I don't think I've really heard of many other source-based 
> distros
> except Gentoo.   Then again I stop trying to pay any attention to new 
> distro
> announcements until about a year after the announcement to see if it's
> still even alive these days.

There's still the original one (or probably the original one) sorcery
and a couple of its offshoots.  Gentoo, I think, reached its position of
dominance due as much to its superb documentation as anything else.
They made it easy for the newcomer to feel like a guru because they gave
nice step by step instructions. Do a, then b, then c, with code
examples.   

It was interesting to watch the documentation progress--where the early
docs, when only a few experienced folks were playing with it, the docs
would give an example /etc/fstab with things like /dev/ROOT
dev/SWAP etc.  After it began getting popular, they had to add in
(replace ROOT with your partition, such as hda1)




I think Gentoo taught folks a great deal, then they have the knowledge
to venture off into other distributions.  Many Arch users say they came
to Arch because they got tired of the 3 day Gentoo install, and found
little or no speed difference (Arch is optimized for the 686).



Additionally

<BLATENT SPAM>


Arch now has my buffy quotes as a package for fortune modules.  :)  
(pacman -Sy fortune-mod-buffy) 


</BLATENT SPAM> 


which peversely gives me more pride than the fact that I contributed
mutt-devel, rxvt_ja, fluxbox with Mr. Kita's rootmenu patch and splitvt
to their packages.   
 

I don't think it's only RH's commercial venture.  I think that Debian is
getting that increase due to the fact that apt simply does a far better
job of package management than does RPM.

Was it always RH that was getting replaced by Deb?


As for source based, there is of course, the BSD's.  :) Takes less time
to install than Gentoo does, too.  


-- 

Scott Robbins

PGP keyID EB3467D6
( 1B48 077D 66F6 9DB0 FDC2 A409 FA54 D575 EB34 67D6 )
gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys EB3467D6

Anya: This isn't a relationship. You don't need me.  All
you care about is lots of orgasms.
Xander: Okay, remember how we talked about private conversations?
How they're less private when they're in front of my friends?
Spike: Oh we're not your friends. Go on.
Giles: Please don't

Attachment: pgp00035.pgp
Description: PGP signature