[TriLUG] Debian question

[Kevin - The Alchemist - Sonney]

On Fri, 2002-02-22 at 09:10, M. Mueller (bhu5nji) wrote:
> Is Debian falling behind the other main distros (RH, Mandrake, SUSE)?  I pick 
> up hints that this is the case in things that I read and overhear.  Several 
> months ago I had some mysterious mainboard problems usings Debian Potato that 
> did not exist with RH6.1 (straight out of the box).  That experience put the 
> question into my head.  Then I just read Mr. Chen's post that the ext3 stuff 
> is unofficially in the Debian.

As both a debian (on my personal alpha box) and a RHL (on my intel
boxen) user, I find myself in a position to answer you without getting
into 'my distro is better than yours" arguments *grin*

> Are the "for profit" distros able to apply more resources to staying current?

In all honesty? No. The goals of the two types of distros are completely
different. *ONE* of the primary focuses of debian is stability and
security, across a broad range of platforms. This means that while they
may not support the latest 2.5.6-pre kernel, or support the newest SMP
motherboard, you can be reasonably sure that if it's a supported box, it
will *WORK* with little or no trouble. And it will stay up for a long,
long time. 

Debian uses a lot of volunteer and contributor resources, and, much like
the building of the email server here at TriLUG, it can take a while to
get all of the resources in order, tested, and ready. This means that
the "stable" (and even the "testing") distro isn't always up to date
with today's hardware support, kernel, or XFree servers.

Additionally, debian has a very strong GLP/Free Software belief.
Hard-core, almost, to the point where there is a semi-regular discussion
on the debian lists about dropping the "non-free" package tree (that can
get as heated as recent conversations here).

The commercial distros, with fewer human resources, are a little more
streamlined in the process. This means that they are better able to
support the latest and greatest hardware, kernel and whatnot. However,
since they're all "off-the-shelf" sales, it's also expected that they
support that new ATI gfx card sitting next to it at best Buy. So the
"for-pay" distros spend a lot of cycles testing against new hardware,
and optimizing for the current consumer. One example of this is the
decision made by mandrake to only support for x586 and higher
processors. Sure, it's optimized for Pentium+ machines, but if you like
'drake and happen to have a 486, you're SOL. 

Additionally, the commercial distros aren't always bound by the 'Live
Free or Die" credo, so they sometimes include non-GPL/non-OS software in
their final builds. One example is Netscape 4.x, which is included in
RHL and most RHL derivatives, but is part of the non-free tree in
debian.

Anyway, different focuses. If I need a backup DNS built from an old
Alpha multia, I'll use debian stable or testing, because I can be
reasonably sure it'll be rock solid. If I need a high-end server or game
machine, I'll use RHL or 'Drake, because they're more likely to support
today's new hardware, and are optimized for this sort of thing. 

Hope this helps...

-- 
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--      Kevin "The Alchemist" Sonney      --
--  ICQ: 4855069            AIM: ksonney  --
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"I will rule you all with an Iron Fist! You! Obey the fist!" - Zim
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