[TriLUG] Debian vs. Fedora start-up

[Brian Henning]

Hiya gang.

For the longest time, I thought "SysV"-style init specifically meant the 
sort of init that looked like this (like on RH-based distros):

Starting some_odd_service                   [  OK  ]
Starting doomed_to_fail_server              [FAILED]

..and that Debian's init was "something else" (I didn't know a name):

Starting mail agent: exim4
Starting something else: somethingelsed

But just now, I read something that called Debian's initscripts "...a 
clean implementation of SysV boot scripts..." so now I'm not so sure.

Would someone mind eplaining the difference?  Furthermore, is it hard 
(or possible) to put the former [  OK  ]/[FAILED] -style init on a 
Debian installation?  Either that, or is there an aptitude for RPM-based 
distributions?  For me, that's the major battle between a .deb-based 
distro vs. an RPM-based one.  Aptitude beats yum hands-down, IMHO, but I 
like the [  OK  ] sort of init much better; it's cleaner to my eye.

So, if anyone can point me in the right direction to getting the best of 
both worlds, I'll be eternally in your debt (or at least will buy you a 
$drink). :-)

~Brian

-- 
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Brian A. Henning
strutmasters.com
336.597.2397x238
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