On Tue, 1 Oct 2002, Rick wrote: > Debian is supposedly a great OS, it is configurable, custimizable, and > powerful, but Debian is ultimately misleading for many people. Debian is an > OS that may be used on a server, or a developer's computer, so he can really > feel the balls in his system, but it should not have been used on my > computer, or a couple of my friend's computers. >
Sure. You can't be all things to everyone. > The Real Problem With Debian is that it is MANUAL. Everything must be done > manually, now although there may be a script or two to ease things along, > these often DON'T WORK. I have spent two weeks fighting slackware, trying to > get it to work with my printer, and sound card. Then I spent two weeks > fighting Debian, trying to get it to work with my mouse, printer, network > card, and sound card. After installing Mandrake, everything worked > instantaneously, sound, card, network, printer, EVERYTHING. It ran faster > too, I don't know why, but it did, and it had newer programs, like KDE3.xx. > Which distro do you think I stuck with? > That's great. Use whatever works for you. That's the power of Linux. although I obviously like Debian the best, I run Mandrake, Red Hat, and Slackware too. (Mostly under VMware nowadays.) > This is not an attempt to convert any Debian users on this list, but it is a > statement. I spent a month fighting Slackware and Debian, and 45 minutes > fighting Mandrake. Full balls is nice, but how about having a system that is > full balls, but ALSO is as easy to configure as mandrake? > It's funny you should say that because my recent upgrade from Mandrake 8.2 to 9.0 is the first one that *didn't* go horribly wrong or need a reinstall. In contrast I've been regularly updating my home debian box for about five years now without a reinstall. Different strokes for different folks I guess. Well there was one thing. In 9.0 they forgot a symlink to cpp which prevented me from logging in to KDE. (which is a pretty huge blunder I think.) All the GUI tools in the world can't help with this. I had to get in there and fix it myself, manually just as I would have with Debian. (Assuming debian ever did anything that silly :) At least thanks to Debian I knew what to do. Someone who relied exclusively on pointy clicky stuff would have been lost. > People on IRC tell me that my hardware is flaky, yet it works perfectly with > Mandrake. People on IRC were rude, and even elitist, and made fun of me more > often then helping me. A stark contrast to the helpfullness of the folks on > the mailing list, odd. > > The ironic thing is that my computer was so stock, it was Lynksis NC100 card > (tulip module) with a ESS1969 Solo card, a s3ViRGE 4mb video card, and a > Logitech USB wheel mouse. This should not have taken me two weeks to > configure on ANY distro. The point is that Debian is flaky, it is too stark, > some call configuration tools "bloat", and call guis "evil", but > configuration tools are the way of the future, and guis have been around for > 20 years. The problem is that these are the same people that work on Debian, Well I work on Debian and I maintain webmin which is a bloated GUI configuration tool. :) So don't tar everyone with the same brush. > it is too bad some of the corporate "customer comes first" mentality didn't > get into Debian. I donated $4 to Debian, more then many can claim, I guess I > got EXACTLY what I paid for. Good luck to all of you, and thanks again. > I like to say Debian is your second Linux distribution. So go and enjoy Mandrake and get used to the system. I have a feeling you'll be back sooner or later. -- Jaldhar H. Vyas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
