> Hi
>
> I don't know that to install on my Dell Laptop, Debian or Mandrake.
> Mandrake claims to have something like apt-get, do you know if it
> works as good as you apt-get (I have heard a lot of positive things
> about Debain apt-get).
>
> Well... Give me some buzzwords, why should I prefer Debian?
The thread is getting quite interesting and I want to reply to that,
but first, I want to try to answer your question -as presented-.
The Linux Gazette Answer Gang did a group answer a few issues ago entitled
"Best Distro for a Newbie". Folks have their favorites but the decision
process of picking any distro at all was discussed at length.
Meanwhile you are only comparing two :)
Ease of Install
Mandrake: GUI. If GUI does not work (perhaps it misdetects
your video card? worse, your monitor settings?) then
I dunno if they have a text mode installer. They DO help
you with resizing for dual boot though.
Make sure you get a really current disc though. They had
a nasty bug in that dual boot matter, that had to be fixed.
Debian: a text mode menu that leads you through the suggested
next step (sometimes offering alternates). At all times
the full menu of actions can be reached by cursor keys,
so if you need to breifly wander off the beaten track
(e.g load PCMCIA modules please, I need them to see my
CDROM) it is easy to do, and to come back.
Stormix had a GUI. Corel had a GUI. You can install
one of them from an old disk, and then upgrade it to
current packages if you must. I dunno if Progeny's
installer is a GUI. Libranet's was a textmenu when I
last used it, but I haven't looked at the current one.
Corel helped dual boot folks repartition. I wouldn't
trust it on WinME or w2k though, it's an old rev of
Partition Magic.
Choice of packages
Either is equally onerous to pick through the available packages
list. For Debian my recommendation is to install a reasonable
minimum, then on your first boot, login as root and install
either console-apt or aptitude. Either of those menu systems is
friendlier than the installer's selector.
We have a gazillion* programs available - many are split into two
or three packages so libraries can be seperated and shared when
handy, and fatso docs can be left off of slim disk space. Most RPM
based packages can do that, but you need to explicitly tell RPM not
to unpack the docs... and then you lose the man pages too! Eeek!
I don't believe I've seen an RPM menu offer the option either, so
if you need it that way, you've got to do it all on your own. Yuck.
* that's a technical term ;P
I believe more programs are available in the debian mirrors than
as Mandrake RPMs, but different styles of package splitting make
this hard to estimate, and the statistic is tweaked the other way
by RPMs of the Redhat variety being more popular as package types
from commercial sources. It used to be, and I think might still
be the case, that a Mandrake setup would take Redhat RPMs without
complaint. SuSE, Turbolinux, Connectiva, and other "non RH" distros
which use RPMs, cannot say the same.
Dependency Hell aka Upgrading by hand, by menu, or ...
dpkg is the analog to rpm - the actual app/libraries that deal with
the packages themselves, and maintain the database of what is or
is not installed. If you use dpkg at a commandline you are working
at the most "raw" level revealed to ordinary users.
What makes a distro, though, is the dependency database. Debian's
policies from the very beginning force official maintainers to
adher to Debian Policy about packages, and that includes things
like how to declare the dependency information so it's less hellish
for apt. apt is our library, the part which actually does dependency
detangling, downloads, and tells dpkg what to do.
Debian's packaging notes also cover some things that are not strictly
dependency, like advising the system that you moved something
(because you went and got a newer version from its author's page, or
you are working on your own version for a special purpose, etc).
We have a much bigger crew maintaining our dependency details than
Mandrake does.
The result is that upgrades even from fairly old Debian boxes work
quite well. (if REALLY old, it takes some care picking which mirrors
to use, but CAN be done.) And, it's waaaaay easy to just upgrade a
few parts here and there when you feel like it, knowing the system
will get other parts only if it needs them.
Of course you would use apt-get (commandline) or aptitude (textmenu)
or console-apt (deity in Testing/Unstable; textmenu) probably, but
I think stormpkg is available as a GUI. (There are others, but
not very usable yet).
Also it is fairly easy to fake up entries for locally added programs,
if you like to see them mentioned in the package system. Eg Adding
an entry for a commercial (web/mailserver/etc) with a Provides:
for that flavor of virtual package, so that things that need
(httpd|mail-transport|etc) will install without complaint.
Whatever mandrake is calling their new toy, can you use it from
the commandline? And how well does it handle upgrading from major
revisions before the most recent? How easy does it make marking
things as present/sacrosanct because they've been built locally?
Mirror availability
I don't know if rpmfind is quite up to the flexibility of apt;
besides if it goes only to rpmfind.net, that's definitely more of
a bottleneck, you can tell apt to use any debian mirrors you want to.
Both distros are mirrored in a number of popular places that like
to keep all distros. Duh :)
Each also has mirrors of their own of course. I think we use ours
more efficiently than they do theirs. Among other things, the
Pseudo-Image Kit (a means of putting together the CD from loose
bits fetched via the mirrors) is a little bit of work, but sooooo
much better than trying to figure out how to download a 650 MB
disc safely...
And...
we sort our stuff by whether it's free, according to our guidelines;
so if you're working in a sitch where that's a concern, we make that
easy to stick with.
I hope that helps!
* Heather Stern * star@ many places...
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