Debian: A Brief Retrospective

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Debian: A Brief Retrospective

Posted by Hemos on Monday August 18, 2003 @07:09AM from the looking-back-in-the-past dept.

IanMurdock writes "This weekend, Debian turned 10. To mark the occasion, I've written a retrospective, published at LinuxPlanet. There's also a very nice piece, based in part on my early writings about Debian as well as the retrospective, at internetnews.com."

22 of 258 comments (clear)

Woohoo! by JoeLinux · 2003-08-18 07:11 · Score: 5, Funny

So, when do we throw a Debian party, have cake and ice cream, and play pin the tail on Bill Gates?
1. Re:Woohoo! by Penguinshit · 2003-08-18 07:19 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  The "Celebration" package is currently in the Planning tree undergoing development. Following some enhancements and critical bug fixes it will be released to the Decorating tree while the community decides on a proper color for the paper bunting, and whether to tape, tack, or nail it to the wall or ceiling. Only then will it be released to the Party tree.
  
  It should be ready some time in 2008, at which point the "Ano-15" package will be in the Planning tree.
  
  (and yes, I'm a die-hard Debian user)
  
  --
  I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
2. Re:Woohoo! by sharkey · 2003-08-18 07:36 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Actually, in a break from SOP, the "Celebration" package is starting out in Debian-stable. As the alcohol_imbibed patches are applied, it will be moved into the Debian-unstable, which is as it should be for a good party.
  
  --
  
  --
  "Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
3. Re:Woohoo! by Anonymous Coward · 2003-08-18 07:55 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  Even the most obscure bugs are shallow to the thousands eyes watching over the code.
apt get retrospective by Picass0 · 2003-08-18 07:11 · Score: 4, Funny

I love apt get. It's always so much easier than reading the article.
Here's looking at you, kid by flicken · 2003-08-18 07:13 · Score: 5, Funny

Thanks to the Debian team of programmers for a job well done. I've been using Debian for the past 4 years, and have found it to be an extremely easy to use distribution.
My hat is off to you, Ian Murdock.

--
20 mil and I will! Learn Esperanto with 20M others.
Watch out for those teen years by Anonymous Coward · 2003-08-18 07:14 · Score: 5, Funny

Pretty soon, Debian is going to want to drive, and of course, it'll want it's own car. Curfew? Good luck with that. And then, just when things seem to calm down, bam, you have to pay for college, or it knocks some girl up. It never ends.
1. Re:Watch out for those teen years by Anonymous Coward · 2003-08-18 07:17 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Right... but Debian's female and only your daughter in law. So, pretty soon she's wearin' those tiny little micro ATX cases, a little bit of Mo/Bo hanging out the bottom, a couple BIG fans up front blowin' 24/7 that you cant stop thinking about . Damn...
2. Re:Watch out for those teen years by Anonymous Coward · 2003-08-18 07:26 · Score: 0, Funny
  
  AS long as he doesn't knock up that bitch SCO...
Re:My favorite Debian moment by Anonymous Coward · 2003-08-18 07:18 · Score: 5, Funny

Getting through the installer, I realized that Emacs was taking up too much of my diskspace. So hey, Debian has a great package manager right? So I try to remove the emacs package and see that half of debian seemed to depend on emacs. It wasn't long after that I switched to Red Hat.
You know: "Emacs? It's a nice OS, but i lacks a good text-editor!"? Anyway, Debian is just great. But I guess I don't have to tell you that - You hate it our you love it.
Me, me, me! by tundog · 2003-08-18 07:22 · Score: 5, Funny

This weekend, Debian turned 10. To mark the occasion, I've written a retrospective, published at LinuxPlanet. There's also a very nice piece, based in part on my early writings about Debian as well as the retrospective, at internetnews.com."

Today I wrote a comment on Slashdot about the retrospective on Debian on LinuxPlanet.There's also a very nice comment, based in part on my early ideasfrom another slashdot story, it is, as well, retrospective.

--
All your base are belong to us!
Yeah, but.... by devphaeton · 2003-08-18 07:22 · Score: 4, Funny

This weekend I celebrated my birthday, and i had a white-frosted carrot cake with a red Debian Swirl on it.

39 candles.

29 for me, 10 for Debian.

w00h00!!

--

do() || do_not(); // try();
Re:My favorite Debian moment by Anonymous Coward · 2003-08-18 07:30 · Score: 1, Funny

Clearly a troll, Have you ever tried to uninstall Emacs on RH? YOu get the same thing!!!
After ten years... by 1s44c · 2003-08-18 07:55 · Score: 1, Funny

After ten years the installer still sucks.
I don't get it. by MyHair · 2003-08-18 08:12 · Score: 2, Funny

+5 Funny? I don't get it.
Fake! by Anonymous Coward · 2003-08-18 08:13 · Score: 5, Funny

Come on, everyone can see that it's a fake capture. Here's the real one:

kirk@pooh:~$ apt-cache show emacs21 | grep Priority Priority: optional kirk@pooh:~$ sudo apt-get remove emacs21 Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done The following packages will be REMOVED: apel auctex bbdb eldav emacs21 gnus hyperlatex preview-latex psgml python-elisp tdtd tramp w3m-el 0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 13 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 22.8GB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n Abort. kirk@pooh:~$
1. Re:Fake! by Just+Some+Guy · 2003-08-18 08:22 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  After unpacking 22.8GB disk space will be freed.
  Subtle, yet funny. :)
  
  --
  Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Me neither by flicken · 2003-08-18 08:38 · Score: 3, Funny

But, here's my apt-get upgrade log from this morning, just in case...
# apt-get upgrade Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done The following packages will be upgraded slashdot.org 1 packages to upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded Need to get 15kiB of archives After unpacking 10kiB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y Get:1 ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main slashdot.org 2.2.6-2 [15kB] Fetched 15kB in 0s (100kB/s) (Reading database ... 117894 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking slashdot.org (from .../slashdot.org_2.2.6-2_all.deb) ... Setting up slashdot.org (2.2.6-2) ... Unpacking moderation module...done. Unpacking plus5funny module...done.

--
20 mil and I will! Learn Esperanto with 20M others.
Re:Debian is rapidly becoming obsolete by drunk_as_in_beer · 2003-08-18 08:41 · Score: 2, Funny

The flames come when someone disses on Debian. It usually goes like this:

newb: "Debian fucking sucks, it can't do X. And its very hard to do Y."

debian-user: "Why didn't you just use apt-get for Y? And it can do X, you just have to edit some files in /etc."

newb: "How the fuck am I suppose to know all that you elitist prick?"

debian-user: "Next time you have a question, go RTFM or do a Google search before you come in here claiming Debian sucks and flaming people."

newb: "Fuck you you fucking ass!!@#$@"

*** newb has been kicked from the channel

--
--Drunk as in Beer
Re:Debian is rapidly becoming obsolete by ttrafford · 2003-08-18 08:46 · Score: 2, Funny

Well, be careful. I have seen newbies with legitimate questions get RTFMs there; just not in that form. Rather, they're typically delivered in a less mean-spirited way. For example, someone posting "I got this error message: _______. What does it mean? What do I do?" might get a response of "Google is your friend for this sort of thing. I googled on that error message and got this webpage (________), which has an explanation and a solution." Sometimes a link to Eric Raymond's "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" will be provided, as well. Much kinder than an RTFM, but in the same vein.
User to #debian: "Just give me that fish and stop babbling about rods and reels!"
Re:Liar. by Darth · 2003-08-18 09:41 · Score: 2, Funny

After unpacking 22.8MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n

You should have hit Y.

Your disk space wants to be free.

--
Darth --
Nil Mortifi, Sine Lucre
Re:Debian isn't the most GNU distribution. by GammaTau · 2003-08-18 09:42 · Score: 3, Funny

Well, just to be fair, I'll quote the "GNU/LinEx Technical Specs":

GNU/LinEx is based on GNU/Debian, a Linux distribution that, thanks to its design, makes it easy to create other distributions that can inherit its advantages and get rid of some of its faults [...]

In other words, GNU/LinEx is a modified version of the Debian GNU/Linux operating system. No, I don't even want to think what the proper name of the system should be if the GNU concept of proper credit is followed.