Re: [TCLUG:8424] Debian (was Re: [TCLUG:8408] local Mandrake mirror)

[Yaron <jethro@yaron.org>]

  Hi,

Cool! A discussion about different distributions that's not turning into a
flame war! 

On Mon, 20 Sep 1999, Kevin Bullock wrote:

> > I like Enlightenment as an idea, but it is SO bloated.
> Agreed, but I still like using it :) Gnome+E does better than KDE
> performance-wise on my K6-3/450. And I even have a crappy video card :)

The real reason I don't use E is I'm too damn lazy. A couple of years back
I used fvwm and customized the hell out of it, then switched to
WindowMaker because... wel, I don't remember why, but I customized the
hell out of it, too. 

I don't have the time or talenmt to fully customize E. I'd always feel bad
using a theme someone else made... so I keep saying, when I get the time,
I'll look at it again... (;

> > I'm wondering if there's a "Fast Install" option.
> Yes, there is: get/burn a CD set. This gives you (at least) 3 booting
> options:

Well, this was at work, specifically testing my new
Slowaris/Linux/Whatever else Intall Server. I was installing on a laptop
with no CDROM drive. Since I've been repeatedly screwing up the OS on the
laptop, I do't mind giving debian another shot (;

> o Boot from a 2-floppy boot set (only one of which you actually have to
> use if i remember correctly, i haven't done this in a while) and install
> the base system and everything off the CD.

That's what I was doing. It needed the second floppy for the pcmcia
modules. 

I think I did get as far as the Base System being installed, but getting
there took me too long. I wanted to try out debian because I heard it was
the most customizable and most tweakale distribution out-of-the-box. It
is, but that makes the installation process incredibly longer. I can do a
Red Hat/Mandrake install with 5 minutes interaction, total (less if I made
a kickstart disk), and that is pretty useful at work. 

Still, I'm never opposed to knowing more (and the laptop's pcmcia
subsystem seems to have died...), so I'll try debian again
tomorrow. 

> Debian has its annoyances, like anything else. But the install process
> shouldn't be that painful (anymore -- I'm very glad I had Scott's help
> (dieman@ringworld.org) on my first install of Debian 1.1 ;p ).


It's not exactly painful, or at least no more than the first time you do
something vaguely familiar which you know you could do faster if you
didn't try this way (: It was just too long. Getting a bit set in my ways
I guess. I bet I'll hate Red Hat 6.1's gtk+ installer (:

> (Note: not intended as biting of not-intended-as-flamebait. Intended only
> as a different, more cheery view of Debian, since I've had very good
> experience with it.)

That's one reason I'll try it, and one of the main reasons I switched from
Slackware All Those Years Ago. People talk about it without flaming.


-Yaron

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