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The Debian System Explained
An anonymous reader writes "XYZComputing has a great interview with Martin F. Krafft, the author of "The Debian System". From the article: 'Despite Debian GNU/Linux's important role in today's computing environment, it is largely misunderstood and oftentimes even discounted as being an operating system which is exclusively for professionals and elite users. In this book Krafft, explains his concept of Debian, which includes not only the operating system but also its underpinnings. Debian is not only a robust and scalable Linux distribution, but it has many other features which are worth looking into, like its open development cycle and rigorous quality control.'"
It really is too bad that Martin Krafft fails to explain how to install the SPARC port of Debian. The last time I tried this, I had dug through the relevant portion of his book, and had it open next to me.
His description went wide of the mark quite quickly, and became totally useless shortly thereafter.
The install failed, of course. The OS went in, but the system went into spin-lock upon bootup attempt. That was about the third staight install failure for Debian 3.0r1 SPARC (each one burning 10 to 15 hours of my time), and it was the one which finally snapped my patience.
The SPARC32 gear of a dozen years ago was put together quite well, even if it isn't nearly as speedy as recent Intel kit. Even after the processors have been changed out for faster aftermarket Ross Hypersparcs.
Too bad that no Linux distro has supported it for half a decade. Yeah, catcalls, mudgobs, and rotting veggies also go out to RedRat, SuSE, and Mandrake.
And it's really too bad that Debian wastes our bloody time by pretending to support SPARC hardware.
I'm waiting for the first "BSD is dead" troll to show up. I can really use the bellylaugh. Because installing OpenBSD/SPARC32 on one of those old systems is a complete slam-dunk. Stock processors or Hypersparcs, single-proc or dual.
I really miss swaret --search when I'm in ubuntu on my friends pc. It's a major pain having to know the exact name of a package.
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It's much easier task to have good quality control if you only include old versions of all software. This is like cheating to me...
Now try Ubuntu: good quality control while at the same time keeping up-to-date software in the distribution. Now _that_ is something to brag about!
Gustavo J.A.M. Carneiro
This is a difficult question. I learnt a lot of technical stuff about the Debian system, but I cannot identify "the most important thing," so I'll have to look elsewhere: the community. I definitely learnt that my initial plans to "write a book about Debian" wouldn't have worked without the countless folks who helped out.
... btw, doesn't learn/learned look weird? Shouldn't it be Lurn/Lurned?
OMFG! I don't know if I should smash the article's author's head in with a shovel or the actual author of the book for using the "word" learnt!!! It is LEARNED, as in I LEARN in school, and I use what I LEARNED in my current career choice.
flame me for spelling or grammar typos, i dont care, this is just my own rant against whoever it is who allowed the word "learnt" into such a decent article!
- You're not paranoid, they really are after you.
How is this funny? Its the truth!