Re: [tlug] Long-term Stability Distros (was: Flash and Firexfox 2)

["Daniel A. Ramaley" <daniel.ramaley@example.com>]

On 2009-03-12 at 19:22:24, Jim Breen wrote:
>I'd sort-of decided to become a Debian person next time I changed, and
>my experience with the EeePc and its etch-based Xandros has been
>pretty positive in terms of the "apt-get update" and "apt-get install
>yaddayadda" experience.

I changed to Debian for exactly the same reasons you are describing. 
Well, that and dependency Hell. I've heard that dependency Hell doesn't 
happen anymore on Red Hat based distros, but i've not had a compelling 
reason to switch back to find out if the rumors are true. I wish all 
systems had a package manager as good as Debian's "aptitude".

If i recall correctly, i migrated from Red Hat 6.2 (prior to the version 
number reset) to Debian 3.1. I started playing with Debian when 3.0 was 
stable, but waited for 3.1 to use it on my desktop machine. My RH 
installation at the time was rather old, but i didn't want to upgrade 
to a new RH that would just have to be reinstalled in a few years. I 
dislike reinstalling and having to reconfigure everything, but with 
Debian i don't have to. I have a web server that was installed with 
Debian 3.1, upgraded to 4.0, and recently to 5.0. All without 
reinstalling, and with very minimal downtime (just reboots to get new 
kernels loaded). My current desktop machines have newer hardware and 
were installed with 4.0, and upgraded to 5.0. Starting with Debian 3.1 
the "stable" branch has been current enough to run on desktop machines, 
but i run my work machine on Stable and my home machine on Testing, so 
i can see how both branches are doing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Ramaley                            Dial Center 118, Drake University
Network Programmer/Analyst             2407 Carpenter Ave
+1 515 271-4540                        Des Moines IA 50311 USA