Actually you can come pretty close to installing all. I once did it for the heck of it and have saved the selctions (if you are interested). Besides I think it would be a good test of debians excellent package management system to see if a novice users selected all packages , would dpkg be able to make a sensible default resolution of the dependency conflicts.
b thomas On Wed, Jun 13, 2001 at 04:17:02PM +1000, Ian Perry wrote: > You said: "Listen to the voices of experience." > > A few years ago I actually did what this person wanted to do... tried > installing them all. > After several weeks of tooling around and getting nowhere with an extremely > unstable system, I ended up getting out my setup disks, killed the > partitions and started from scratch. I then did exactly as you suggested... > trialled a few and came up with a regime of packages I liked, and ended up > with a rock solid stable system which never gives any problems > > Ian > > > -----Original Message----- > From: kmself@ix.netcom.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 4:02 PM > To: debian-user@lists.debian.org > Subject: Re: All packages ... again. > > > on Tue, Jun 05, 2001 at 11:02:00PM -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > > Hi ... > > > > Ok ... so, I was used to the fact that, my system just have one > > program for the main tasks. If debian has more than one option, I'd > > like to ask again, a couple of things: > > > > a) If I'm not wrong, the programs can conflict each other, just in the > > case of simultaneous usage. For example, they can compete for the > > same directory, the same TCP port, etc. But what could be wrong, if > > I install all the programs for the same tasks, and just "activate" > > one of them by configuration. (and maybe, also configure the > > others to desactivate them). > > You can do this. It's more work than the alternative: installing a > package you're interested in trialling for a period of time, then > reverting to another package if it doesn't work out. > > > b) Aprox., How much disk space will be requiered to install ALL the > > packages??? > > A friend of mine, Rick Moen, maintains a Debian archive mirror, on about > 10 GB of storage. This represents the compressed format of most > packages, expect a full install to increase this requirement by 50-100%, > possibly more. > > > I want to install all the packages, just because I like having the > > program already installed, in the moment I need them ... maybe I > > install some programs that never will be used, but it doesn´t matter > > for me, I prefer that to loose some time downloading, maybe compiling > > and installing the program. > > Your concerns are sorely misguided. You'll spend far more time > attempting this task than you will by installing the packages you need > and testing the ones you're interested in on an as needed basis. This > will allow you to resolve issues when they arise, rather than fighting > them all at once. > > Most debian packages weigh in at a few hundred KB -- even on a 56 K > dialup line (my only current access), you can download and install a > package in a matter of a few minutes, often less. Some large packages > take longer -- I figure a MB every five minutes or so, do the math. But > large packages tend to be end-user software which doesn't conflict with > other stuff. It's mostly the server space that does -- having multiple > webservers, ftp servers, print services, etc., installed, simply doesn't > work. Debian is designed to identify both dependencies and conflicts. > Your request is guaranteed to raise conflicts. If you have a high-speed > connection, or are accessing the distribution from CDROMs or a locally > hosted mirror, you'll be able to install packages in seconds. It would > literally take longer to read the package list from disk, in many cases, > than to download a package from a remote site, when I had a high-speed > Internet connection. > > The simple fact is that you'll spend more time trying to force your > system into doing something it's designed to prevent, and it will take > you longer to test various packages out, than if you just use Debian the > way it's designed. A friend of mine who does technical reviews of > GNU/Linux software for a major tech journal sees Debian as the *only* > way he can do his job. Because Debian takes so much of the pain out of > trying out new software, it's the best way for him to do his > evaluations. > > Listen to the voices of experience. > > -- > Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/ > What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? There is no K5 cabal > http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ http://www.kuro5hin.org > Disclaimer: http://www.goldmark.org/jeff/stupid-disclaimers/ > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -- ================================================================== ///, //// \ /, / >. Balbir Thomas \ /, _/ /. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> \_ /_/ /. Dept. of Mathematics, MW250 \__/_ < Ohio State University, /<<< \_\_ Columbus, Ohio 43201 /,)^>>_._ \ Tel-614-424-6817 (/ \\ /\\\ // ```` =======((`========================================================
