W. Chris Shank on 19 Aug 2004 01:53:03 -0000 |
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 > Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug -- 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 General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
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