Distribution to use

[tlang@freeway.apana.org.au (Tony Langdon)]

It's 29 Dec 98  13:05:45,
We'll return to arma@seul.org and All's
discussion of Distribution to use

 ar> * Any distrib you pick will do what you want, if you tweak it.
 ar> * Redhat is better than any other distrib at recognizing and working
 ar> with weird hardware.
 ar> * BUT you will be doing a lot of the installs yourselves (?), so this
 ar> is a much smaller issue than if the end-users were doing the
 ar> installs on arbitrary hardware.

True...

 ar> It boils down to:
 ar> Pick the distrib that you have the most good workers for. They'll know
 ar> the most about it and be happiest with it.

Good point. :-)

 ar> Of course, it's not that simple. If you don't pick Redhat or Debian,
 ar> eventually you'll get to the point where none of your new volunteers
 ar> have heard of the distrib you chose. (Not to mention the fact that a
 ar> package manager is fundamentally a good idea. Both rpm and dpkg are
 ar> fine.) If you pick Debian, you might get more help from the volunteer
 ar> sector (Debian people like to help people use their distrib, whereas
 ar> Redhat likes it when people use their distrib. Kind of a difference..)

 ar> I guess my overall point is that for the most part, you shouldn't base
 ar> your decision on technical considerations.

Well, my choices based on different criteria are:

Familiarity - Red Hat (I use some form or another of Red Hat every day)
Technical merit (take your pick, they all work :) ).
Managebility - Red Hat or Debian (IOW, a package management system is a
                                  good idea)
"Warm fuzzies" - Debian, as its maintainers are from the "grass roots"
                 Linux community.

The odd point of note:

Red Hat sometimes puts things in wierd places, though an experienced
admin/installer can tidy things up with a few symbolic links and enforce
the accepted Linux "standards" that way.  Similarly, Red Hat's configs
tend to be more X oriented.  Again, no hurdle for the experienced
installer who can locate and hand edit (or hack up a scipt or text based
utility) the relevant files.

Slackware tends to install in very confined spaces and uses a lot less
RAM than Red Hat.

Debian - Well, I haven't had the chance to play with a copy of it yet.
:-(

.. You ignorant aliens!!! Keep your spaceship off my vegetable patch!!
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