the best Linux distro is the freest
Written: Feb 06 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: free as in "speech" and "beer"
Cons: it helps to have some previous experience with Linux
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| holgate's Full Review: Debian GNU |
A programmer once told me that he recommended RedHat to his colleagues, and Debian to his friends. Which reminded me of Emperor Charles V, who spoke Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men -- and German to his horse.
Debian isn't -- and perhaps shouldn't be -- a first choice for beginners to Linux. The commercial vendors have done a great job of making installation and initial setup straightforward; a Debian install still has the capacity to frighten newbies. But once you've set up a Debian system, and got to grips with the slightly daunting "dselect" package manager, it's a delight to maintain. DEB packages include scripts to ease their installation, configuration and removal; there are some wonderful touches, such as the menu system which ensures that newly-installed applications appear on the menu-bars of your chosen window-manager. And you can run weekly (or even daily) updates through the "apt-get" command, which consults FTP or Web sites for new versions of packages.
Linux is solid by nature, but Debian is probably the solidest of the main distributions. Because there's less reliance on "contrib" packages, you're less likely to install something which breaks the system: that's why I made the switch from RedHat. From bootup to shutdown, things simply hang together better than the other Linuxes I've used. If you're content to stick to the "stable" package base, things won't break; and even if you're a bleeding-edge follower of the "unstable" distribution, there are plenty of safeguards to ensure that you don't inflict terminal damage on your system.
There are good ethical reasons to go with Debian, too, if you subscribe to the free software mentality which accompanies Linux. As the name suggests, it's based around the GNU set of utilities; to become part of the distribution, packages must be released with an acceptable open-source licence such as the GNU GPL or similar. It's maintained by a group of committed volunteers who take responsibility for keeping groups of packages up to date, and do so without a thought of stock tickers. The bug database is second-to-none; Debian is often the first distribution to see bugs reported, and fixes implemented.
I chose Linux because Windows failed on me. I chose Debian because RedHat failed on me. Debian hasn't failed on me yet.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
holgate
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Member: Nick Sweeney
Location: Middlesbrough, England
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 10 members
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