progeny.com · Domains · Slashdot Mirror

You hear me! Use the beta version of the PGI ISO, the graphical user-friendly autohardware detecting installer for Woody. Check out the website here, and the ISOs are at the first link (only 100MB download for the entire ISO).

Debian truely is the one true Linux distro. Its non-commercial, and developed by an open free internet community. Not only that, but Debian is superior to every other Linux distro. It is stable, easy to maintain, and it runs on any useful piece of computer hardware - no matter what platform that hardware is. Support Debian by simply spending the time to install and use it for your main Linux installation.

PGI by steveha · 2002-07-18 08:33 · Score: 2 · on The Importance of Being Debian

My only complaint about Debain is that the install can be painful, especially to those used to more graphical oriented tools.

I am happy to be able to tell you about the Progeny Graphical Installer. Graphical and friendly, and even has an ncurses mode for those times when you have an oddball graphics card and you can't get the graphical install to work. It's very nice!

As a bonus, it leverages the XFree86 project. When XFree86 adds support for a new card, PGI inherits the support. Compare with the Corel installer, which had its own graphics code... it could choke on new cards (such as a GeForce) and since it didn't even have a fallback text install, Corel Linux was uninstallable with certain graphics cards!

Anyway, the ISO file for burning a CD is about 94MB. It installs a working base system and then can use the net to install up-to-date packages.

http://hackers.progeny.com/pgi/

steveha

Re:Coolness by Scooby+Snacks · 2002-07-18 07:45 · Score: 1 · on The Importance of Being Debian

I don't use it on any of my machines. The reason for this is the Debian Installer. It is a pain the butt to get the thing installed. And the benefits for doing so don't outweigh the horrors of getting it installed.

Try PGI(download), the installer which Progeny donated. I hear they'll be moving to this in the next release or two. In the mean time, it works beatifully. It auto-detected my hardware and wrote a sane X configuration. Anyway, I happen to disagree; once it's installed, you never have to reinstall it on that machine ever again. But there are things like PGI for you so that you don't have to deal with it.

Re:Coolness by Scooby+Snacks · 2002-07-18 07:45 · Score: 1 · on The Importance of Being Debian

I don't use it on any of my machines. The reason for this is the Debian Installer. It is a pain the butt to get the thing installed. And the benefits for doing so don't outweigh the horrors of getting it installed.

Try PGI(download), the installer which Progeny donated. I hear they'll be moving to this in the next release or two. In the mean time, it works beatifully. It auto-detected my hardware and wrote a sane X configuration. Anyway, I happen to disagree; once it's installed, you never have to reinstall it on that machine ever again. But there are things like PGI for you so that you don't have to deal with it.

Re:The importance of offering support . . . by benjj · 2002-07-18 04:36 · Score: 1 · on The Importance of Being Debian

And don't forget these guys.

Runs Great!!! Fonts Look better in Win32 X by krakrjak · 2002-07-07 01:01 · Score: 3, Informative · on Cygwin's XFree86 4.2.0 on Windows XP

I love it and have been running it for a while. I use blackbox as my WM since I only run programs over the network it doesn't get in the way and leaves a tiny footprint.

I get by day to day with Kmail, GnuCash, Red-Carpet and a few other miscellaneous apps that I run over the in-house LAN.

As the subject says I noticed that programs use the same fonts whether I run the program on the Mandrake box locally or over the network, however when I run the progs over the network to the Windows machine all the fonts look nice....??!?!? Is that a feature? I think most the programs just plain look nicer in the Win32 port... maybe I'm delusional...... anything's possible.

Mirrors for Gnome2 by Anonymous Coward · 2002-06-26 07:39 · Score: 1, Informative · on GNOME 2.0 Released

GNOME FTP Sites

GNOME FTP Sites This site is mirrored at:

Get To Those Mirrors! by Anonymous Coward · 2002-06-26 06:24 · Score: 5, Informative · on GNOME 2.0 Released

GNOME FTP Sites This site is mirrored at:

Last updated Wed Jun 26 03:18:01 2002 from our mirror database (webmaster@gnome.org).

Re:Debian Graphical Installer by NewbieSpaz · 2002-06-24 08:26 · Score: 1 · on Ransom Love's Answers About UnitedLinux

ISO Images of the beta installer:
http://archive.progeny.com/progeny/pgi/

Enjoy...

Re:Mirrors by Anonymous Coward · 2002-06-22 21:16 · Score: -1, Troll · on Gnome 2.0 RC2 Asks For Abuse

Karma whore alert! Please mod down, and mod this anonymous post up!

archive.progeny.com (US or Canada)
ftp.twoguys.org (US or Canada)
ftp3.sourceforge.net (US or Canada)
ftp.rpmfind.net (US or Canada)
ftp.sourceforge.net (US or Canada)
ftp.cse.buffalo.edu (US or Canada)
ftp.yggdrasil.com (US or Canada)
planetmirror.com (Australia)
ftp.sunet.se (Europe)
ftp.dataplus.se (Europe)
ftp.easynet.nl (Europe)
ftp.unina.it (Europe)
ftp.belnet.be (Europe)
ftp.codefactory.se (Europe)
ftp.tr.gnome.org (Europe)
fr.rpmfind.net (Europe)
ftp.acc.umu.se (Europe)
ftp.no.gnome.org (Europe)
ftp.dit.upm.es (Europe)
fr2.rpmfind.net (Europe)
linux.cem.itesm.mx (South America)

Mirrors by neo8750 · 2002-06-22 20:54 · Score: 4, Informative · on Gnome 2.0 RC2 Asks For Abuse

archive.progeny.com (US or Canada)
ftp.twoguys.org (US or Canada)
ftp3.sourceforge.net (US or Canada)
ftp.rpmfind.net (US or Canada)
ftp.sourceforge.net (US or Canada)
ftp.cse.buffalo.edu (US or Canada)
ftp.yggdrasil.com (US or Canada)
planetmirror.com (Australia)
ftp.sunet.se (Europe)
ftp.dataplus.se (Europe)
ftp.easynet.nl (Europe)
ftp.unina.it (Europe)
ftp.belnet.be (Europe)
ftp.codefactory.se (Europe)
ftp.tr.gnome.org (Europe)
fr.rpmfind.net (Europe)
ftp.acc.umu.se (Europe)
ftp.no.gnome.org (Europe)
ftp.dit.upm.es (Europe)
fr2.rpmfind.net (Europe)
linux.cem.itesm.mx (South America)

One US mirror already has it by pngwen · 2002-06-05 07:24 · Score: 2, Informative · on Mozilla 1.0 Officially Here

one US mirror has mozilla-1.0 on it site and is currently giving me the maximum download my IDSL line's bandwidth will allow.
&nbsp
The mirror is:
&nbsp
ftp://archive.progeny.com/mozilla/releases/mozilla 1.0/
&nbsp
This seems to be the only one that has it at the time of this posting.
&nbsp

fast mirror site by Anonymous Coward · 2002-06-05 06:16 · Score: 0 · on Mozilla 1.0 Officially Here

ftp://archive.progeny.com/mozilla/releases/mozilla 1.0/
http://archive.progeny.com/mozilla/releases/mozill a1.0/
rsync://archive.progeny.com/mozilla/releases/mozil la1.0/

fast mirror site by Anonymous Coward · 2002-06-05 06:16 · Score: 0 · on Mozilla 1.0 Officially Here

ftp://archive.progeny.com/mozilla/releases/mozilla 1.0/
http://archive.progeny.com/mozilla/releases/mozill a1.0/
rsync://archive.progeny.com/mozilla/releases/mozil la1.0/

Graphical Debian Installer (here now!!!) by Jagasian · 2002-04-06 22:02 · Score: 2 · on Debian 3.0 (Woody) May 1?

If you are interested in trying Debian out, but are afraid of installing it, then try out PGI, the graphical autohardware detection Debian installer. Make sure to check out the screenshots.

In my opinion, once the default Debian installer becomes idiot-proof, Debian will take over as the lead Linux distro.

Graphical Debian Installer (here now!!!) by Jagasian · 2002-04-06 22:02 · Score: 2 · on Debian 3.0 (Woody) May 1?

If you are interested in trying Debian out, but are afraid of installing it, then try out PGI, the graphical autohardware detection Debian installer. Make sure to check out the screenshots.

In my opinion, once the default Debian installer becomes idiot-proof, Debian will take over as the lead Linux distro.

Re:There is one - PGI by Overfiend · 2002-04-02 05:43 · Score: 3, Informative · on A Better Installer for Debian?

Yea h - PGI is an excellent installer, but why wasn't I given the option to run it when I boot the ISO?

I don't understand what you mean. ISOs that the pgi-build command creates are, in fact, bootable. Are you using an IA-64 system? In our experience we have to tell the EFI shell to boot from the CD-ROM manually, but conceptually this isn't too different from changing the boot device order in an i386's BIOS.

If you're having problems getting PGI ISOs to boot, please consult the users' manual and/or file a bug report. We'd like to know what we can do to make PGI more reliable.

Thanks for trying PGI out! With help from the community we can reach 1.0 sooner; we're currently at version 0.9.6.

-- Branden Robinson, PGI Project Lead

Re:New versions by castlan · 2002-02-22 17:14 · Score: 1 · on Debian Woody Nearing Release

Perhaps you are correct. In this case, "Debian" is not so much an entity, as an umbrella for the maintainers who volunteer their time. If this is a problem, then the answer is to report the bug, so that the maintainer is aware of it. If the maintainer is unresponsive after a reasonable amount of time, then one can always package the newer version which fixes the bug, as per the directions in the Debian developers section. This fixes your immediate problem. To help the Debian comunity, raise the issue via the appropriate Debian mailing list, and volunteer your updated dpkg as a candidtate for a Non-Maintainer Upload (NMU).

I still feel that for packages I am aware of, bugfixes are considered important, and are usually timely, if not subject to "fix in 24 hrs or your money back!" If you disagree, there are always options. If you need such guarantees, you can always pay for Debian support. One such company is Progeny Linux who used to distribute a very useable GNOME centric distribution called Progeny Debian. I believe they still maintain it somewhat, though it never made it past the "Newton" release, and they recommend that users upgrade to the current "Woody" release of debian 3.0. *sigh*

Re:*Cough*apt*cough* by SpookComix · 2001-12-19 08:31 · Score: 2 · on Ximian Adds Subscription

Thanks for the suggestion, but I've actually already tried that. It wasn't too bad. I've even got their instructions printed out on top of my "test computer" from when I did it last time. There are a few "tricks" you have to do, according to them, to make it work. The full article is here.

I've got ISOs for both Progeny and Debian 2.2r4, so I think I'll give it another shot, and do it all locally this time to save some speed.

I'm pretty convinced that Debian is the best thing out there right now, but the frustration of the install and configuration was becoming a barrier to learning more about Linux itself, so I abandoned it a while until I learned more.

--SC

Re:*Cough*apt*cough* by Jagasian · 2001-12-19 06:35 · Score: 2 · on Ximian Adds Subscription

Just install Progeny 1.0, which is a commercial version of Debian, and then dist-upgrade to Woody. The Progeny installer is easy, user-friendly, and fully automatic. dist-upgrading to Woody is almost completely automatic, with the exception that you need to change the URLs in the /etc/apt/sources.list to point to the standard Debian server and the Woody distribution. So yes, you have to use your mouse AND keyboard, but the amount of keyboard usage required is extremely minimal. Its as difficult as typing a URL into your web browser's "Address" textfield. If you can do that, you can install Debian.

Because Progeny stopped making a commercial version of Debian, you will have to buy the operating system from a store that still has a copy, or you will have to find a Linux site that still offers the ISO for free download.

progeny installer? by Anonymous Coward · 2001-12-10 13:17 · Score: 0 · on APT - With Your Favorite Distribution

As someone considering moving to debian, this is the biggest sticking point for me.
One of the big selling points of progeny was a good installer (and commercial support).
Now that progeny is no longer making their own distribution, has their installer made it back into debian (i.e. will it be in woody)?

The Real Reason by Anonymous Coward · 2001-11-21 02:23 · Score: 0 · on Steven Schafer On The Future of Progeny

The real reason is that Progeny sales were low. What is left of tech support have almost nothing to do. Nobody bought the product, no need for paid support. Meanwhile, management killed NOW because putting all their eggs into the Progeny Debian basket -- NOW is what was supposed to drive the company anyway. By shifting resources away from NOW and to Progeny Debian and dead-end ideas, the company was clearly not going to pull through even in a good economy. Different targets every 3 months means a lack of vision that is hard to escape from.

Progeny listed under the debian logo? by Anonymous Coward · 2001-11-20 13:44 · Score: 0 · on Steven Schafer On The Future of Progeny

I know progeny is based on debian. But they have their own logo. We don't see SuSe and Mandrake listed under the RedHat logo.

Project NOW by DeadPrez · 2001-10-15 06:07 · Score: 5, Interesting · on Progeny Debian Is No More

The most intresting thing coming out of Progeny was Project NOW which earlier this year was cancelled. IMO, this was the killer app linux definately needed to stand head and shoulders above competitors, rather than continuing to compete based on (IMHO rather) trivial benchmark tests. I hope this some how allows Progeny to get back to working on NOW, which is the future for any corporate network OS, Linux, MS or otherwise.

The Progeny distribution, while having a nicer install for Debian wasn't really impressive enough to ever catch on. I suppose some people will miss it but I am pretty sure all involved (Debian Project, Progeny, and end users) will all benefit from decision to end the Progeny distro and have all efforts be put directly into Debian.

Re:A setup program by Jagasian · 2001-09-28 11:56 · Score: 2 · on Microsoft Du Jour - Talks, Upgrades, Salaries

Ok, you say that you are aware of Debian's apt-get, but then you never say why it isn't enough? There are plenty of user-friendly GUI frontends for apt-get, which run on GNOME or KDE. Installing software is as simple as typing in key words for the app you want to install. Then you click on the correct result from the search list. apt-get then begins to automatically and transparently search (on the net and your drives) for all necessary libraries and the correct order to install and configure them... then it automatically installs them. HOW MUCH EASIER CAN YOU MAKE IT?!?

Under your "Installshield" scheme, you would be redundently distributing out-of-date libraries with your software, in addition to the overhead of the Installshield wrapper. Its simply not efficient. In fact, it is very wasteful compared to the apt-get way of doing things.

Apt-get helps you find the software you want AND it helps you efficiently obtain and install it. Your purposed solution does NOT help you find the software you want, and your solution is less efficient. Now, I ask you again, do you really know anything about apt-get? Have you ever used it? Have you ever used one of the slick user-friendly GUI frontends for apt-get? If not, you should check out Progeny Linux. You can freely download a bootable ISO of Progeny. Progeny is easy to install (just keep clicking "next"). So install it, and see for yourself, the power of apt-get with a user-friendly GUI. See for yourself why Installshield like installations are inferior to a true package management system. See for yourself why Redhat and Slackware based Linux distros are not the best way to run Linux.

Yeah, but not all that much... by raulmazda · 2001-08-31 02:26 · Score: 4, Informative · on Progeny Debian Halts The NOW Project

When most of the developers were moved off of the project the only real code that was in a state that it was done was nullfs. The design of the rest of things had been done, and John Hartman had a rapid prototype of the token system done in tcl, but very little other coding was accomplished.

I don't think that the code that exists is interesting enough (or substantial enough) for a hobbyist to pick it up and run with it.

I'm not sure if Progeny will release the design docs...

Though I may have a negative outlook on things... I ended up being reassigned to doing Web Monkey stuff instead of working on NOW (which was the whole reason why I left my prior job and went to work at Progeny).

Re:I still say IBM should do a Linux distro by Dwonis · 2001-08-17 16:59 · Score: 2 · on IBM's Purple Book and Open Source

I think maybe Progeny or some other Debian-based distro would be more likely. Debian is more integrated and has better quality-control mechanisms than most other distributions. It operates more like a single operating system than a bunch of software bundled together.

<rant>In short, it all boils down to RPM is a dirty hack that works well enough but still sucks. And no, apt for RPM does not make RPM as good as dpkg. If only I had the time to streamline dpkg a little better...</rant>At least, that's what my experience has been.

Debian (Was: Mirrrors list) by Illume · 2001-08-15 04:51 · Score: 1 · on KDE 2.2 Released

IIRC Murdock worked for an university and is now the CEO of Progeny.
www.progeny.com (Progeny Debian 1.0 looks promising, btw)

I suppose Bruce Perens is the connection between Debian and Pixar.
He is a former debian project leader and he worked twelve years at pixar.
www.perens.com/Articles/Bio.html

Speaking as a newbie . . . by Selanit · 2001-08-12 17:20 · Score: 1 · on What's A Good Starter Linux distro?

. . . who has been playing with Linux for two months, I like Mandrake. I have tried Debian, Red Hat, Progeny Debian, and Mandrake.

Progeny Debian was my first test case. I like the principles behind Debian, but was intimidated by accounts I'd heard of the horrible installer. So when Progeny said "We're like Debian, but with a better installer and auto-magic hardware detection," I said "Great!"

That didn't work. For some bizarre reason, it couldn't see my PS/2 ports in XFree86. I could use my keyboard fine at the command line, and my USB mouse worked quite nicely. But.

if ($NoKeyboardinX){ delete($Progeny); }

So next I went straight on to plain old Debian (2.2r3). And the installer was not as bad as I heard. It got the job done well enough. So it's not pretty -- so what?

The apt-get command makes maintenance really easy. When I'm in Debian, my sound card only works if I'm logged in as root, which probably has something to do with device permissions. It's a good distro, but not for the faint of heart. I spent four days trying to install accelerated drivers for my nVidia TNT2 M64. It involved recompiling my kernel 6 times and STILL not getting it right (unresolved symbols in my modules). Eventually, all the mistakes I made rendered my system inoperable. I had to format the hd, buy a new one, and give Windoze and Linux separate living quarters.

Red Hat installed fine. I liked the option to do a "partitionless install" although I didn't use it. That might be a powerful recommendation to a total newbie who wants to play with Linux without a) giving up Windoze, or b) repartitioning. On the other hand, Red Hat uses Gnome by default. It's okay, but KDE is so much more polished.

The Mandrake installer was really cool. Not only that, it detected my TV card and had drivers for it, something which none of the other distros did. It uses KDE, and the selection of games that comes with it rocks. Pingus rules! Furthermore, it gave me the option to use an accelerated driver for my graphics card right there in the installer -- no mucking about with kernel recompilation in this distro!

Based on these experiences, I would recommend Mandrake. One caveat: when selecting partitions to format, the yellow star means that the partition is selected. There was no indication which color meant selected and which not -- choices were purple and yellow. I guessed wrong and formatted the Windoze HD by mistake. No data loss (backups are key!) but reinstalling and configuring is a pain. I mean, a checkbox would have done as well. Or perhaps the stars could have been green or red.

Anyway, I currently have Debian, Red Hat, and Mandrake on my second hard drive. I'm still evaluating them -- I haven't picked my favorite yet. But just based on the experiences, I'd say try Mandrake first. Oh, and if you have multiple distros on one disk, a boot partition for your kernels and loader helps a lost!

Oh, I almost forgot. Several months ago, I briefly flirted with DragonLinux , a customized version of Slackware which lives inside a giant file on a regular Windows partition. Avoid it. I couldn't even get X to run in that thing, never mind anything else.

Selanit

Ian Murdock by neilsly · 2001-07-16 08:40 · Score: 1 · on Slashback: Debianism, Nukes, Discretion

no where do I see ian... or any representation of his company. Considering he's the founder of debain.. that's kind of odd.

-neil

"Now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb."

What does this do for Progeny, then? by TrentC · 2001-07-01 09:37 · Score: 2 · on Debian Freeze Process Begins

I thought Progeny Linux was based upon the current release of Potato.

Are they just going to be quietly rev their version when Debian 3.0 comes out, or will we get a new box out of the deal?

Jay (=

GNU/Debian is the answer! by JayKey · 2001-06-14 16:18 · Score: 1 · on Linux Descending into DLL Hell?

... with a little better installation interface... but check out Progeny Linux, they're working on that.. RPM sucks :-)

Progeny missing. by Snowfox · 2001-05-25 21:45 · Score: 3 · on Linux Distribution Round-Up

Progeny isn't in the list. Progeny is a commercial distribution by Ian Murdock, based on the Debian distribution. It has a graphical installer that's even simpler than those of the distributions in the beginner level, and a rapidly evolving set of support options. All of this while maintaining Debian's trump card of apt.

Re:Why don't we tell them how to spend their money by Dwonis · 2001-05-23 09:20 · Score: 2 · on Grab A Piece Of Big Blue's Big Iron

What about Progeny? It's got a flashy GUI and it's Debian-based-and-compatible.
------

Progeny Debian does this by Lord+Ender · 2001-05-10 04:36 · Score: 3 · on Red Hat: Who Needs Netscape?

They aren't the first to ship mozilla as the main browser. Progeny Debian comes with Mozilla is the default web browser. Netscpe 4 is also there, as is konq, but Mozilla is the default. And it works well. Really well. If you haven't tried Progeny, check it out.

Re:Hardware configuration utilities by Lord+Ender · 2001-04-24 05:42 · Score: 2 · on Ximian Gnome 1.4 released

Progeny Debian does this!

If you have never checked it out, download it!. It is just one ISO that can be easily be burnt to a CD. Easiest install ever. And in their config, you can set up X resolutions, color depths and stuff from the same gui config tool that does sounds, window managers, and stuff like that. Check it out!

Re:Vs. Debian? by Wolfstar · 2001-04-20 12:37 · Score: 3 · on Stormix Technologies Shut Down

I've tried Stormix, as well as Debian Slink and Potato at various times (I do some light to moderate work on the Linux Router Project over at leaf.sourceforge.net, which is based on Debian Slink, so I need a copy of it around.) None of the above are my full-time distro - I use SuSE - but I try and install and tinker with every distro I come across.

Stormix crashed and burned on my system the three times I tried installing it, and I didn't have anything too obscure in there either. Potato and Slink are both fairly awkward to install, but you can usually get to a shell prompt easily enough.

However, I personally take a wee bit of umbrage at the "easy way to install Debian" bit in the main article, because it is most definitely NOT the only way to do it. And Slashdot is what put me onto the alternative in the first place.

In my opinion, the Holy Grail of Linux Distros, the one that does what even Mandrake (7.2, I haven't been able to get 8.0 yet) can't do for ease of install, is Progeny Debian GNU/Linux.

Note that I don't use this on a day-to-day basis, mostly because of the blood-sweat-and-tears I've put into my SuSE boxen, but this is THE single easiest-to-install distribution out there that I've come across. It pegged ALL of my hardware - even my Logitech Cordless trackball, which SuSE's quite excellent SaX and SaX2 programs could not - first go around, and was easier to install than Windows.

Yes. Easier to install than Windows. Not for us, the average geek, but for them, the average Windows user.

Now, there are a few problems/bugs with the Progeny that I played with - namely, minor bugs in the installs package selection program that causes things to go wonky if you unselect a package in Expert Install - but overall, it's smooth as hell. One of my friends at work tried it after I suggested it to him; he installed in in about half an hour, got it up and running, and grabbed Ximian Gnome, and he's happier than hell. It's based off of a snapshot of Woody, so whether the installer is Woody's or Progeny's I don't know. What I do know is, if I ever need to do a system reinstall, SuSE will only remain on my server, and Progeny will be my desktop. SuSE's been good to me, but Progeny is unbelievable.

Before you wonder, no, I don't work for Progeny. But there's quite a few Debian notables that do.

Try Progeny Debian by aat · 2001-04-20 06:08 · Score: 5 · on Stormix Technologies Shut Down

If you're looking for another easy to install and use Debian based distro, try Progeny, mentioned here less than two weeks ago.
You can download ISO's and also read the instructions for upgrading from Potato (Debian r2.2) here.
Disclaimer: I haven't tried it yet (due to a lack of time).

Try Progeny Debian by aat · 2001-04-20 06:08 · Score: 5 · on Stormix Technologies Shut Down

If you're looking for another easy to install and use Debian based distro, try Progeny, mentioned here less than two weeks ago.
You can download ISO's and also read the instructions for upgrading from Potato (Debian r2.2) here.
Disclaimer: I haven't tried it yet (due to a lack of time).

stupid quote by IanA · 2001-04-20 06:08 · Score: 1 · on Stormix Technologies Shut Down

Some of the FTP sites are still carrying Stormix ISO's, so if you're looking for an easy way to install Debian on a machine, better get them while you can.

Why would you install a dead linux distro ? So that updates would cease to be available along with support ? If you want an easy way to install Debian on a machine, the distribution for that is progeny

Mirrors, navigation design by mrBlond · 2001-04-15 19:35 · Score: 1 · on Progeny Debian 1.0 Released

From their home page click on Download on that ugly yellow bar at the top, then on the left bar click on mirrors.

I don't understand why more sites don't use Yahoo!'s navigation interface design. If only Progeny and User friendly would read some Alertbox...
--
mrBlond

Re:Watching the Slashdot effect in action by mrBlond · 2001-04-09 18:24 · Score: 1 · on Progeny Debian 1.0 Released

From their site: Purdue, Sourceforge, CMU, Sunsite.dk. Purdue and dk's fast, CMU dead - YKMV.
--
mrBlond

Re:Anyone change to Debian from something else? by steveha · 2001-03-29 04:15 · Score: 2 · on New Debian Project Leader

It is often said that the many Linux distributions is a strength. I'll believe it if it is possible to move between systems.

The various distros set up the system in slightly different ways. It would be a lot of work to write a tool that would scan through a Red Hat install, extract all the config info, and magically configure and install Debian for you. Worse, the tool would have to understand different versions of Red Hat, and Mandrake, and etc.

The Debian installer gets the job done, but it isn't newbie-friendly. The good part is that you have complete control over everything it is doing. The bad part is it is constantly asking you for input about things a newbie might not understand. (But if you choose the defaults you can perhaps get through an install without full understanding of what is going on.)

The very good thing about Debian is that you only install it once. After you have your Debian system up, you just keep running apt-get and upgrading things. When Debian comes out with a new release, you can even use apt-get to upgrade to that. (The command is "apt-get dist-upgrade".)

By the way, if you want to try Debian and you are not looking forward to the installer, you might want to check out Progeny Debian. Progeny Debian is a version of Debian that has an improved installer. Unlike what Corel did with Debian, Progeny is sharing all the improvements with the Debian community so that future versions of Debian can have a cool installer too.

steveha

Re:Nice elections by Foochar · 2001-03-28 22:55 · Score: 1 · on New Debian Project Leader

Well one reward that I can think of is being made the maintainer of a high prestige package, or being given various other positions within the Debian project. These positions can result in experience and name recognition which can lead to a better job. I know of atleast one company, Progeny Linux Systems, that is looking to hire Debian developers.

Punishment could include things like not getting a maintership that you are the best person for, or having benificial patches rejected by the maintainer because of who you voted for.

Both rewards and punishment based on the way people voted will in the long run be detrimental to the Debian Project as a whole. Thats why I hope everyone just ignores the information about who voted for what and it can fade into obscurity.

Re:Nice elections by Foochar · 2001-03-28 22:55 · Score: 1 · on New Debian Project Leader

Well one reward that I can think of is being made the maintainer of a high prestige package, or being given various other positions within the Debian project. These positions can result in experience and name recognition which can lead to a better job. I know of atleast one company, Progeny Linux Systems, that is looking to hire Debian developers.

Punishment could include things like not getting a maintership that you are the best person for, or having benificial patches rejected by the maintainer because of who you voted for.

Both rewards and punishment based on the way people voted will in the long run be detrimental to the Debian Project as a whole. Thats why I hope everyone just ignores the information about who voted for what and it can fade into obscurity.

Re:Absurd by Fluffy+the+Cat · 2001-02-25 21:35 · Score: 2 · on Petreley on apt-get vs. RPM

Also, RPM is clearly much easier to use and seems more stable, at least to me.

apt-get install foobar3
apt-get remove frotz12-dev

What could make it easier? I've also never had apt, dpkg or dselect crash on me or behave in strange fashion. The same is true of RPM. What sort of instability are we talking about here?

As for Debian become a standard, I hope the auther is kidding! Debian may not be the worst distrobution, but RedHat trumps it in every catagory...featurs, stability and price.

Features are somewhat in the eye of the beholder, but I'll happily admit that Red Hat's hardware detection and install are much better than anything in Debian. Progeny have a Debian-based dist that solves that one nicely. Other than that, what features do you feel are present in Red Hat that aren't adequately available in Debian? In terms of stability, both are based on the same kernel and use the same XFree. I've had pure Debian systems running for over a year without crashing. Again, what stability issues do you feel exist with Debian? Stability is certainly not something that I'd bae a choice of Linux distribution on, mainly because they're all pretty much identical in this regard. As for price - Debian is free. Completely and utterly. You can find people who will sell you official CDs for the price of duplication, and you'll get the complete distribution. How much cheaper do you want it?

Re:Automatic hardware detection! by Fluffy+the+Cat · 2001-02-16 21:19 · Score: 3 · on Debian Lays Out Freeze Plans For Woody

Progeny already have a Debian based system with a very nice hardware autodetection system. The beta versions have been able to pick up everything on the various pieces of hardware I've tested it on. They also have a very cool tool for installing multiple systems with the same setup without having to do each one by hand - install on one, set up a DHCP server or a file containing MAC addresses and networking information, create floppies for every other machine, boot them all, come back and find that they've installed everything and configured themselves in the same way as the first machine.

Commercial Debian Forks, why they fail... by runswithd6s · 2001-02-15 02:01 · Score: 2 · on Wichert Akkerman, Last Interview as Debian Project Leader

There are a number of problems that arise when a commercial entity tries to sell a free distribution such as Debian.

Selling what you could otherwise get for free..

What do you think is going through the mind of a Stormix or Corel customer? "Why am I paying Corel for Debian when I can simply install and maintain it for free by going directly to Debian?"

Commercial distributions (forks) often break packages

We saw this with Corel. They worked to create a commercial version of Debian, making custom packages that often break dependencies with packages from Debian proper. This makes it difficult to maintain an machine with packages that have cross-dependencies between the commercial entity and Debian proper. The helix-gnome packages are another example of this.

The thing these entities do not realize is that if they feel a package must be "updated", simply providing a Non-Maintainer Update or patch is often the fastest and easiest way to update Debian, rather than forking the distribution and trying to maintain compatibility between them.

The Debian Project has different goals than a commercial entity

When the roadmap that the commercial entity requires its product to be at a certain stage at a certain time, having a product that it does not maintain internally becomes largely problematic. A company may be willing to become an integral member of the Debian community, contributing its time, money, and resources to improving Debian proper. Yet, when the community does not agree or comply with the desires of the company, it's often a hard pill to swallow. What do you tell your customers and investors when you fail to move Debian in the direction you would like to go?

This symbiotic relationship requires a very open mind by the commercial entity. It has to be willing to accept the ebb and flow of Debian proper, and disregard what the company may traditionally view as a loss of time and resources. Instead they have to look at the glass as half-full, not half-empty, and make the best of the situation. Most companies are not willing to do that, and most investors do not like to see their money "squandered".

What commercial model "works" with Debian?

That's the million-dollar question, isn't it? Perhaps taking queues from Progeny Linux would help in answering this question. Perhaps look at LinuxCare's support models. IMHO, Debian should be viewed as a centerpiece tool for support models rather than a focus for a product model. It simply will not integrate well as the latter, but can work quite well in the former. "Our Developers work as members of the Debian Project and the Open Source community to bring you the most reliable, stable, and useable distribution of Linux available. When we find problems or bugs, we will not only provide you with timely fixes, we will give these fixes back to Debian in that same prompt manner."

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KDE Installer, upgrader? by mrdlinux · 2001-02-14 08:56 · Score: 2 · on KDE Installer Project

Why, isn't that
apt-get install task-kde
and
apt-get upgrade
need I say more? :)

And unlike a 'KDE installer' or a 'Ximian installer' this functionality isn't limited to one piece of software. Check out Debian or Progeny.

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