[lug] Re: Primer on Linux Distros

[Bernard Johnston]

  A couple of rather negative reviews of Debian 3.0 turned up yesterday.

http://www.debianplanet.org/node.php?id=831

http://linuxwatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=7

>FWIW, I found gentoo easier to install and configure than debian, and it=20
>didn't take any longer either.  I had gentoo running on my workstation, but
>have switched to debian.
>
>I liked gentoo's optimization and package management system.  I think it is
>outstanding.  What I didn't like was their single tree.  I think they would=
>=20
>benefit from having at least another, like 'stable' and 'testing'.  The sin=
>gle
>tree is updated daily, it is almost like working out of CVS.
>
>With gentoo, you have to update your copy of the package tree quite frequen=
>tly
>if you plan on installing new (or updating existing) packages.  It can resu=
>lt
>in situations like this:
>
>I want to install APP_A, which depends of LIB_X.  I already have LIB_X, bec=
>ause
>APP_D depends on it too.  However, when I installed (i.e. compiled) APP_D i=
>t's
>genetoo ebuild script required LIB_X v.1.6-2.  Now (2-months later), when I=
> go
>to build APP_A it requires a newer version of LIB_X.  This is fine, and the=
>=20
>gentoo emerge system takes care of it, but you end up with two versions of=
>=20
>LIB_X.  The other option would be to upgrade APP_A to use the newer version=
> of=20
>LIB_X.  If you were to build a system with everything you need at one time,
>and were not adding apps later (i.e. a server) you shouldn't have situations
>like that.
>
>I never had a situation where this created a real problem, but I did wind up
>with several versions of many libraries, which consumed a lot of disk.  I d=
>id
>upgrade an older app in a case like this, and regretted it because the newer
>version had bugs.  Rolling back to the older version was not an option, at=
>=20
>least not via gentoo's emerge system, because the old ebuild scripts were n=
>ot
>available.  I could have just un-emerged the app and grabed vanilla sources=
> or
>a binary distro, but I didn't want to risk mixing in non-gentoo problems.
>
>As far as debian goes...I like it so far.  The initial install was slow, bu=
>t=20
>maybe that is because I only installed a minimal base from CD and then=20
>everything else over the net via apt-get.  I do have DSL, but the night I=
>=20
>did my install the debian mirrors were really slow.
>
>--=20
>Allons Rouler!
>       =20
>Rand
>