W. Chris Shank on 19 Aug 2004 01:53:03 -0000


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Re: [PLUG] devfs, scsi, & 2.6


I tried gentoo about 2 years ago. it took about 3 days to download,
compile and install everything. I wasn't impressed, sorry. maybe i'll
try it again.

Re turntide: Fuckin'- A! good for you!

On Tue, 2004-08-17 at 20:49, Tobias DiPasquale wrote:
> On Aug 17, 2004, at 7:50 PM, W. Chris Shank wrote:
> > I'm actually a fairly recent convert to debian and am really liking it.
> 
> Yeah, APT is enamoring when you first get to know it, that's for sure 
> ;-)
> 
> > This is my first attempt at a pure debian desktop - but we have been
> > really satisfied with it for our servers.
> 
> IMO, Debian is a server-only distro. I suffered under a Debian 
> (stable!) desktop for about a year, and that was the most hacked-up, 
> non-standard desktop you ever saw because I couldn't get a package from 
> the mirror that was more recent than 1995. After a while, I sat back 
> and wondered "what the hell am I doing running 10-year old software on 
> a desktop???" That kind of stability is great for a server, but anethma 
> for a desktop.
> 
> > Whereas with debian, if we want our standard server to have something
> > that's deviated from the main deb branch - we create our own custom
> > package. That way - if/when the main branch has it we can use that
> > package instead.
> 
> I find that to be sometimes the case, and sometimes not. I've had to 
> make not a few custom packages for software the Debian doesn't have and 
> when they do come out with a package finally, it tends to not look 
> anything like the package that you made. Sometimes its a smooth 
> upgrade, but most of the time I stick with my own package.
> 
> > It's been very easy. I never had this type of luck with RedHat or
> > SuSE - unless I wanted to stick strictly to what the vendor gave me.
> 
> To be fair, that is exactly what those distros are designed for: using 
> the stock distro without very much modification for many, many desktops 
> and servers by medium to large organizations with a staff that are 
> generally not Linux gurus.
> 
> dpkg is simpler than RPM, once you get the hang of it. However, Gentoo 
> ebuilds are a 20-30 line build solution that, if your software doesn't 
> change that much between versions, practically ensures smooth updates 
> for new releases (if you're familiar with BSD ports, you know the idea 
> behind Gentoo's Portage system). Plus, you don't really need to make as 
> many ebuilds, due to the good availability of software on Gentoo. As 
> well, they don't generally manage configuration files, which means that 
> once you set them up how you like them, they won't get blown away 
> during an upgrade because some developer forgot to put them in 
> debian/conffiles (WARNING: sometimes APT will overwrite your config 
> files even if they DO appear in debian/conffiles; APT is smart like 
> tractor; you've been warned).
> 
> > Not to start a flame war or anything. Redhat has it's place. Just not 
> > on
> > our servers.
> 
> I've had a lot of experience with Debian and also with Gentoo and as 
> far as package availability goes, Gentoo kicks Debian's ass up and down 
> the street. More recent versions are available much more quickly than 
> Debian will ever have. The trick with Gentoo is making sure you hold 
> packages _back_ from newer, unstable versions. This is opposite of 
> Debian: having to make custom packages for versions or software that 
> Debian has and is too old, or just plain doesn't have (availability of 
> non-GPL software under Debian is not the greatest).
> 
> Gentoo is very similar to and reminiscent of *BSD but more performant 
> and recent, whereas I liken Debian to an '76 Buick: old, 
> underperforming, steers real slow but has a fanatical following.
> 
> At the end of the day, its up to you, but I'd grab some crap box and 
> install Gentoo on it just to check it out and see if you see something 
> that you like. It doesn't take long for the afterglow of Debian to wear 
> off. ;-)
> 
> > BTW: Toby, I hope you did well on that squelcher thing. I heard about 
> > it
> > from george. You'll have to tell me the scoop sometime.
> 
> Scoop: we were recently acquired by Symantec for $28 million less than 
> 6 months after becoming TurnTide. Plus, I still have the same job as 
> before (Senior Software Engineer), which is good, considering the fact 
> that my wife is about to have our first child any day now. Yeah, I'd 
> say we did pretty damn well ;-) Thanks!
> 
> --
> Tobias DiPasquale
> 
> ___________________________________________________________________________
> Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
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-- 
W. Chris Shank
ACE Technology Group, LLC
http://www.acetechgroup.com
(866) 229-1543 x10

___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
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