Some thoughts on SEUL

[Gregory Bell <Althiom@worldnet.att.net>]

I have recently purchased a copy of RedHat Linux 5.0 and Debian 1.3 and
here are a few thoughts on them (I leave Slackware out because that is
my
main Linux installation).

DEBIAN:
The list has been promulgating the benifits of Debian dselect.  My own
personnel observation on it is that it is a mish-mash.  The user
interface
suffers from lack of user friendliness.  For those that don't have
Debian's
dselect it basically presents you with a screen that lists all available

programs (also called packages) on the CD-Rom.
The interface, as mentioned above gives a listing of all the packages
available on the CD, but at least to me, in a vary strange manner.  When

attempting to install a package after the basic install all uninstalled
packages
are listed last, by major grouping (which also seems to be the
directories
on the CD-ROM).  This was somewhat of an annoyance to me because
I found it difficult to find what I wanted to install.
Next point, the vaulted dependencies.  I don't understand this at all.
I had
assumed that once you installed a program it would work, alas this is
not
the case.  For example, after doing a basic install that included X, I
couldn't
get X started.  Don't know why, but there you go.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
After messing around with Debian for a few days I decided to replace it
with ...................
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
REDHAT:
After my problems with dselect I was kind of dreading installing REDHAT
5.0
but the installation went without a hitch (well alright one small
hitch.  Redhat
includes a fdisk replacement program which got me totally confussed,
even
with the correct inputs it still insisted on using drive C (or /dev/hda
for all you
*NIX hardcore).  Don't know why, it just did.
Anyhow after that one hitch it installed exceptionally easily.  Hit
return a few
time, make a few choices and it was done. Total time was about 25
minutes (I know
this because the installation program has a little countdown timer on it
{nice touch}).
Redhat Unlike Debian dumps you right into X so it appears that the
dependencies
work better in Redhat than they do in Debian.
I next attempted to add a program and was informed by the package
manager that
my  cdrom did not exist.  Not quite as good as Debian which at least got
my cdrom
drive (which by the way is an ATAPI drive).  So a small change to
/etc/fstab and I
had a cdrom drive again.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
OVERALL INSTALLATION IMPRESSIONS
Redhat beats out Debian hands down.  Where Debian requires that you have
up to
8 3.5 disks set aside Redhat lets you install from the CD-ROM (through
the use
of scripts that last of which runs loadlin).  This is a good idea (TM)
and should be
incorporated into SEUL.  Once the basic installation(s) has been
completed Debian
dumps you on the command line (a small gripe here, both Debian and
Redhat do not
use the colorize version of LS which is a bummer) whereas Redhat dumps
you into
X.
I don't know if I installed Debian correctly or not but the plain fact
is that it just dumped
me on the command line with no indication of what to do next.  If this
were the first time
that I had installed Linux I would have been somewhat disappointed and
in all probability
gotten rid of the whole thing and gone back to windows.

These are just some of my impressions on Debian (rating 6.5) and Redhat
(rating 8)

        Greg