Yet another excellent question: just who the heck *are* these people who swear by Debian, anyway? Actually, I think Debian is used entirely by it's own developer base. If anybody asks for business support, they say, "We're free software only." If anybody tries to install it on a home machine for personal use, they say, "It's not for home use." If you try to use it for a desktop, you hear, "It's mainly aimed at the server market." If you try to use it for a server, somebody asks, "Who ever heard of a 14-disk server distribution?" Are the disks still good for frisbees and coasters?
I am one of these people who swear by Debian. I started out with Red Hat, Mandrake, SUSE, Gentoo and others but ended up using Debian or Debian based distros for everything.
I advise anyone to try Debian for home or work.
I sometimes cheat and use Knoppix for CD boot or Libranet for desktops because they are still Debian, just preconfigured to use the way I like it.
You should use what you feel comfortable with and not care what everyone else is using. Until you try a distro, you should not knock it.
After all, if we truly cared about the critics or what was popular instead of what works for us, we might be using M$. I want to try everything and use my own judgement.
Debian is easy to install from one mini CD disk if you have Internet. (I recommend CD-RW or mini CD-RW using the net install iso), but you can probably use the same burned disk for 3-5 years.
You only need the 14 disks if you don't have an Internet connection and want to be able to install almost any of the programs available to Linux. No downloading rpms, src or debs as they are ALL on the disks.
I disagree. Anti-virus software is probably the one product that should be Open as the larger the number of eyes, the easier they are to spot and eliminate. None of the commercial anti-viruses would work without users complaints and suggestions. The lists are made primarily from users either automatically or manually volunteering.
By the way; RAV antivirus was bought by M$ a couple years ago and absorbed. Resistance is futile...unless you start with a free and open licence. That takes some of the greed out of it.
I have yet to be infected in 5 years and around fifty linux boxes. I realize that a relatively small number of infections do really exist, but can be limited by being careful with how you set up and use your Unix/Linux machine.
Clamav antivirus and a wwww + nntp filter with reasonable firewall has virtually stopped our 150 Windows boxes from virus/trojan/adware/spyware. Squid Proxy actually speeds connections and cuts wasted bandwidth. All done and more with a couple old boxes that couldn't run Windows fast enough. Software cost was zero and legal.
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I am one of these people who swear by Debian. I started out with Red Hat, Mandrake, SUSE, Gentoo and others but ended up using Debian or Debian based distros for everything.
I advise anyone to try Debian for home or work. I sometimes cheat and use Knoppix for CD boot or Libranet for desktops because they are still Debian, just preconfigured to use the way I like it.
You should use what you feel comfortable with and not care what everyone else is using. Until you try a distro, you should not knock it.
After all, if we truly cared about the critics or what was popular instead of what works for us, we might be using M$. I want to try everything and use my own judgement.
Debian is easy to install from one mini CD disk if you have Internet. (I recommend CD-RW or mini CD-RW using the net install iso), but you can probably use the same burned disk for 3-5 years. You only need the 14 disks if you don't have an Internet connection and want to be able to install almost any of the programs available to Linux. No downloading rpms, src or debs as they are ALL on the disks.
I disagree.
Anti-virus software is probably the one product that should be Open as the larger the number of eyes, the easier they are to spot and eliminate.
None of the commercial anti-viruses would work without users complaints and suggestions. The lists are made primarily from users either automatically or manually volunteering.
By the way;
RAV antivirus was bought by M$ a couple years ago and absorbed. Resistance is futile...unless you start with a free and open licence.
That takes some of the greed out of it.
I have yet to be infected in 5 years and around fifty linux boxes. I realize that a relatively small number of infections do really exist, but can be limited by being careful with how you set up and use your Unix/Linux machine.
Clamav antivirus and a wwww + nntp filter with reasonable firewall has virtually stopped our 150 Windows boxes from virus/trojan/adware/spyware.
Squid Proxy actually speeds connections and cuts wasted bandwidth. All done and more with a couple old boxes that couldn't run Windows fast enough. Software cost was zero and legal.