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Re: What linux distro is recommended


From: Dirk Eddelbuettel
Subject: Re: What linux distro is recommended
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2003 18:08:49 -0500
User-agent: Mutt/1.3.28i

On Sat, Oct 25, 2003 at 08:36:55PM +0200, Christoph Dalitz wrote:
> > On Sat, Oct 25, 2003 at 10:22:02AM -0600, Quentin Spencer wrote:
> > > Obed Sands wrote:
> >
> > > [...] I believe there are several 
> > > users on this list who would recommend Debian. The advantage of Debian 
> > > is you can use apt-get to install the latest version without compiling 
> > > anything yourself.
> > 
> This only holds if you are ready to possibly corrupt your Debian system by
> switching to unstable (it is not called "unstable" out of fun). Just 
> installing
> the newest Debian binary does not work due to the Linux libc incompatibility
> insanity.

This is flamebait.

People who know Debian better understand the fundamental difference between
"stable" (which can get stale, but will be, well, stable -- no new software
added), "testing" (which is a stabilizing version of our cutting packages)
and "unstable".

And many, many people, myself included, are happily using a hybrid approach
for their main workstations: "testing" plus the odd, controlled, sprinkle of
"unstable". E.g. for the newest Octave or whatever your main point of
interest is. 

The other important point is that many, many people have successfully
upgraded from very old Debian releases of maybe five, six or more years back
--- by going incrementally to the next release.  Our package management
system allows that, and our releases get tested that way. 

Plus, you can always start with 'stable' and upgrade your way to testing.

And, as said in the other thread, Knoppix helps.  These days, I mostly don't
bother trying to figure out new hardware for graphics, sounds, ... but pop
in Knoppix and try to copy the configuration it auto-generates upon boot.
Worked well when I needed it.

Cheers, Dirk

-- 
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
                                                -- Groucho Marx



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