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The Importance of Being Debian

Posted by michael on from the join-the-collective dept.

Orre writes "This is an interesting article on why we should be interested in this non-commercial linux distribution. Some of the points: No lies, Suit-Free Zone, Apt-get. And by the way, Hewlett-Packard has chosen Debian to be their standard linux distribution."

2 of 397 comments (clear)

  1. Good article by mfos.org · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've been using Debian for almost a year now, and I couldn't be happier. As for the article making it seem that you can't get the latest goodies from Debian, that may have been misleading.

    The Debian team maintains 3 branches, Stable, Testing, and Unstable. While Stable uses Kernel 2.2 and XFree86 3, Testing gives you kernel 2.4.16, XFree86 4, and other, up-to-date goodies.

    My only complaint about Debain is that the install can be painful, especially to those used to more graphical oriented tools. But the fact that you can burn a 30meg CD and do an install over the internet is very nice (netinst), and once you get used to apt-get, you'll wonder how you got by without it.

  2. Re:Benefits by wfrp01 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apt-get makes upgrades/installations much easier.

    I love it. But I was curious to see Ian Jackson, dpkg developer, say in this interview that he didn't think apt was so hot. Clearly Ian has a better perspective than I do. Can someone explain Ian's perspective? I don't really understand his objections very well.

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    --Lawrence Lessig for Congress!