SEUL: Debian versus RedHat and DPKG versus RPM

[jfm2@club-internet.fr]

The choice of DPKG versus RPM will mostly be dictated by what
distribution will be our base.  That is because using DPKG if our base
distrib uses RPM (or vice versa) will neeed a lot of additional work.

If we choose Debian then it is DPKG, every other distribution except
Slackware uses RPM.

I have tried Debian two times: one with 1.0 and one with 1.2.  Both
times I found major distribution errors: in 1.0 NFS install was
impossible due to module and kernelmismatch, in 1.2 TeX did not
install due to wrong dependencies.  (To be honest RedHat 4.0 had a lot
of problems, 4.1 was good).  I liked the concept of configured and
unconfigured packeges.  But DSELECT was the worst Linux installer I
have seen (and I have seen a lot of them), Debian has no
administrative tools and most packages are delivered raw: you get a
minimal X desktop, an unusable Emacs (too big screen) and everything
like that.  Debian's implied assumption is than YOU will customize
your software.  So IMHO for a beginner Debian 1.0 and 1.2 were,
despite a few good points like DPKG, still harder to use than
Slackware.

I sent to this list reviews about RPM, RedHAt and LST (the minor
distribution Caldera choose to based upon.  With good reasons).  I did
not want to review Debian because I don't have 1.3 and it would have
been unfair to judge Debian basing on 1.2.  Because I think we must
know the whole range of Linux distributions to decide which one will
be our base I have repeatedly asked for reviews of distributions.
Besides they are a lot of good ideas to pick.  So far, nobody has
bothered to spend an afternoon in writing a review.  Debian users have
been very vocal to say we will have to use Debian but none wrote a
review to say why he thinks his brother/sister (the one who has
problems with W95) will be able to survive to Debian 1.3 better than
to other distributions.


Now, remember than the more user hostile is the distribution we will
base upon the more work we will have to do, the later SEUL will be
issued and the less features it will have because we will have spent
our time in fixing easiness problems instead of making progress.

So if you like Debian so much write a complete review and when writing
don't forget than the question is not how good it is for you but how
good it is for your brother/sister.

-- 
			Jean Francois Martinez

==================== The Linux.  Use the Linux, Luke! =======================

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