i choose debian because.. - it seems to have the largest number of developers - it has BY FAR the most binary packages (2000+ in slink 4000+ in potato) - it is well respected as being a stable and secure linux
i have not, do not, and will not choose redhat because .. - many software products are designed for it and don't support other distributions, not just software(applications) but drivers too. examples would be drivers for DPT raid controllers and 3com network adapters(the ones from 3com) come in binary form and depend on you using the kernel that comes with redhat. while this is not(probably) redhat's direct fault i can't help but feel some negative stuff towards them. while at other times software companies may refuse to work with you on support issues if your not using redhat, doesn't matter if the distribution your running is 101% compadible, if its not what they said you should run you're screwed. - they jump too quickly into adopting new software. i was kinda pissed when they adopted glibc before most everyone else, most people started developing stuff for glibc (and the early glibcs had MAJOR problems i saw people talking about adding hundreds of megs of updates to get redhat's glibc stuff working right) and would not run(binaries at least) and sometimes wouldn't compile on libc5 (at the time i was using slackware). they've done the same with glibc2.1 now. i think they were the first to adopt glibc2.1 on the x86 platform ?? so..chances are if u d/l a binary for redhat 6 ..you can't run it on glibc2.0 ..i also have read that when they first adopted GNOME it was still quite buggy and crashed often. i hear mandrake is good though, some have said mandrake is 'redhat done right' ..(somewhere along those lines) i think redhat is doing good things for the communitity, and although there are some side effects to their efforts to commercialize linux, they do good things, they want what's best..what's best isnt always possible for them(i.e. they gotta support intel more now that intel's invested in them, same for VA Linux systems, you see them selling AMD servers? or PowerPC? or Alpha?), which is what is great about linux, you HAVE a choice :) just my opinion. nate ----------------------------------------[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ]-- Vice President Network Operations http://www.firetrail.com/ Firetrail Internet Services Limited http://www.aphroland.org/ Everett, WA 425-348-7336 http://www.linuxpowered.net/ Powered By: http://comedy.aphroland.org/ Debian 2.1 Linux 2.0.36 SMP http://yahoo.aphroland.org/ -----------------------------------------[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ]-- On Tue, 26 Oct 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I've used both Debian (at home) and Redhat (at work). > Both have reasonable tools for managing software (dpkg for Debian, rpm for > Redhat). > > I've also done upgrades for both Debian and Redhat. > The upgrade I did for Debian took several nights and a few e-mails. > The upgrade for Redhat took about 20 minutes (no joke). > > What is Debian's thrust? Why is it better than Redhat? > [I'm just curious and not taking sides.] > > Charlie > >
