Debian World Domination Plan

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Posted by timothy on Wednesday January 14, 2004 @01:30AM from the subtle dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Guillem Jover announced his plans to take over the non-Debian world and released a tool which converts in runtime any distribution to Debian. It does not convert in the sense of mapping all previous installed packages to the Debian counterparts, but installs a base system or tarball and cleans traces from the previous distribution."

16 of 547 comments (clear)

You will serve us! by kzinti · 2004-01-14 01:33 · Score: 5, Funny

Red Hat is irrelevant... Mandrake is irrelevant... RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!
Version 2.0... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-14 01:33 · Score: 5, Funny

... will upgrade Windows XP to Debian 4.0.
1. Re:Version 2.0... by swordboy · 2004-01-14 02:23 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  ... will upgrade Windows XP to Debian 4.0.
  
  I'm not sure why this is funny...
  
  Unfortunately, I see a lot of perfectly good PCs get tossed because the owner has hosed Windows with some sort of adware/spyware/Kazaa. Most of these PCs have WinME or 98 on them. As long as they have 128 megs of RAM (256 better) and a ~500Mhz processor, they are good machines. Unfortuately, WinME an 98 are unacceptable operating systems and XP is prohibitive in cost when you can buy a new PC for $350. Why bother?
  
  If someone made a distro to displace ME and 98, then there would be a huge market out there. And I'm not talking about some bootable thing. We need a distro that will back up the current hard drive, install Linux and then bring down some of the known backup (like Favorites, My Docs, etc).
  
  I'm thinking of starting a PC recycling business because most trashed PCs these days are still acceptable performers. I'll take all these PCs, install Linux and then donate them to churches and schools. Brilliant!
  
  --
  
  Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Send a CD to SCO by MountainMan101 · 2004-01-14 01:34 · Score: 5, Funny

Someone's bound to install it! Resistance is futile.....
Nothing! by leo_llew · 2004-01-14 01:37 · Score: 5, Informative

From the code:

[...]
if [ -e /etc/debian_version ]
then
if [ "$DISTRO" = unknown ]; then
error 1 "You already have a Debian system"

[...]
Sounds more like vandalism to me... by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · 2004-01-14 01:37 · Score: 5, Insightful

It does not convert ... installed packages to the Debian counterparts, but installs a base system ... and cleans traces from the previous distribution."

Debian's a fine distribution, but I doubt many people would take kindly to having this tool applied to a system that has been configured and running for any amount of time. If it's just going to install a base system, I'll just install a NEW system with Debian.

Show me a tool that converts portage or rpm data and creates a working Debian equivalent and I'll be impressed.

This doesnt accomplish anything more than wiping and starting over...

--
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
1. Re:Sounds more like vandalism to me... by torpor · 2004-01-14 01:49 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Point:
  
  a) You wouldn't run this script unless you wanted it to. Your comment is like saying, of a crowbar, that "people who have been living in a house for so long wouldn't want this crowbar used to demolish their house" ... well no, thats true ... "unless they wanted to demolish their house".
  
  b) Wiping and starting over, on a system that you've been running for a long time, doesn't help. Duh.
  
  This script is useful if:
  
  i) You have a running system, and don't want to change your system services setup (Apache config, for example), and
  ii) You -want- to, for some reason, convert to using Debian packages and management tools on your system, without interrupting too many of your existing running services.
  
  Yup, I can think of cases where I'd want to use this tool. I've got Server A which has stuff running on it, and I want to move to debians' pkg tools and libraries for managing the system... cool.
  
  --
  ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Interesting, but not much to see by Sklivvz · 2004-01-14 01:42 · Score: 5, Informative

Well, it's a simple 12KiB shell script, nothing much to see there. It's well written and it's a nice idea, though.
I would wait a couple releases before using it in a real environment though... hotswapping releases is a very tricky matter, and can screw up majorly your computer, expecially if it's done via a script.

--
My Stack Overflow user
Obligatory by Durin_Deathless · 2004-01-14 01:44 · Score: 5, Funny

We are apt of borg. RPM is futile. You will be dpkg'ed.

--
You should use AdiumX on your Mac.
Re:Pfft by hypnotik · 2004-01-14 01:46 · Score: 5, Informative

Speaking as a debian user for many years:

They do have a stable, modern distribution. It's called "testing". The not-so modern "stable" distribution is a dream tho.. You could drive a 15 ton tank through it and it'd still stay up. I've been running it on server (in the wild) for more than 2 years now with nary a problem. It's easy to maintain and has everything I need no more than an apt-get away. No recompilation, no searching for dependencies.. unlike some other distributions I've used.

I wish everything was that easy.

--
(I was only an egg, but then I cracked)
WARNING: Don't apply on production systems! by I+Be+Hatin' · 2004-01-14 02:04 · Score: 5, Funny

I work for a small community bank in upstate NY. I just tried this on our main transaction logging server (RH7.2), and it totally hosed the system. Now it doesn't look like any of our transactions are going to be stored...
Oh well, let's just hope that I can make it through the day without anyone noticing. Then I'll be basking on the beach in So.Cal for a week. :)

--
I know god exists. I read it on the internet, so it must be true.
Re:Stupid. by grumbel · 2004-01-14 02:05 · Score: 5, Interesting

I think the KDE problems have already been dropped years ago. What they need to drop to get to the desktop is:

1) there installer, it simply requires far too much manual tweaking to get from a first install to a useable system, other distro are far better here. If Knoppix takes a minute to boot and be useable and Debian multiple hours up to days, something is seriously wrong.

2) there 'stable' concept, it just doesn't make sense to have all stuff crunched into one gigantic package and call it 'stable'. Stability isn't a gloabl issue, but very often a per package one, ie a new KDE or Gimp can often be way more stable than the stuff that you find in a Debian stable, but it will never get included in there, since stable dosn't get any updates at all beside security fixes. This often leads to having packages in stable that are far less stable than what you can get from unstable. 'stable' should mean having a stable system, not being stuck with the same programm versions for multiple years.
Re:Stupid. by leonscape · 2004-01-14 02:21 · Score: 5, Interesting

In the latest poll amonst KDE developers Debian was the favoured distro. 25% total.

--

If a first you don't succeed, your a programmer...
Re:How about a simple firewall instead by argent · 2004-01-14 02:44 · Score: 5, Insightful

How exactly is a box that has no ports listening for connections going to be attacked? Osmosis?
Bias update time. by Balinares · 2004-01-14 02:47 · Score: 5, Insightful

Debian used to snub KDE, alright. Thing is, they no longer do. So cut them some slack, who cares what they used to do and say as long as they've changed and improved. Don't blame the current distro for how it used to be managed.

In fact, if Debian keeps improving that way, it may very well become a strong contender for the desktop, which would be a Really Good Thing. While we may be a much of geeks here on /., I found that as you mature, you eventually reach a point where you're tired of fiddling with stuff all day long, and end up only using stuff that Just Works the way YOU want. In that regard, Debian+KDE is pretty much a killer combo.

(NB: Nope, I don't currently use Deb on my desktops, but if it keeps its current trend I may well switch eventually.)

--

-- B.
This sig does in fact not have the property it claims not to have.
BUD LIGHT PRESENTS: REAL AMERICAN HEROES by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-14 03:09 · Score: 5, Funny

Today, we salute you, Mister Production-Random-Shell-Script-Runner...

(Mister Production-Random-Shell-Script-Runneeeerrrrrr...

Your ineptitude with your daily systems administration tasks means that we have plenty of server downtime and lost data...

(OohoOOoho data all gooonneee...)

Don't take it personally, we all know that you'd be out on your ass in a minute, if you weren't the boss's son...

(WOOohooOhhoHh kickbacks from the big maaannnn...)

So crack open an ice-cold Bud Light, Mister Production-Random-Shell-Script-Runner...*ksschtt!* because you've earned it.

(Reeeeaall American heeerroooooessss...)