On Wed, Feb 09, 2011 at 04:48:58PM -0500, Roy wrote:
> Debian just released Debian 6 a day or so ago. It has the proprietary blobs
> removed, but they allow users to download and install the missing bits. Not
> sure how that works since they were removed from the kernel.
I didn't need firmware for my systems (I learned long ago to buy
BSD/Linux friendly hardware), but as far as the nonfree stuff goes, as
far as I could tell, one just adds a couple of words to a line in
/etc/apt/sources.lst. (Had to google it--no doubt, if I used Debian a
great deal, it would have been something I already knew.)
However, it is
> good that they are providing some relief because it would have been a real
> hardship without it because many network cards and graphics cards are
> proprietary and there are no open source solutions. Good thinking to include
> it, but it is awkward to say the least to remove something on principle and
> then make it available. However, Debian has never been known to compromise
> so I still have hope for them.
Heh, they're not that bad. Some of them are, of course, but I suspect
that many of them want the durn thing to work, too.
>
> I agree about apt and Synaptic being great package management. I have used
> alien, but a long time ago (years). Once Red Hat packages were the preferred
> format of third party developers, but that is no longer the case. Ubuntu is
> the preferred format and it is RPM users who must convert.
In the user/desktop/google-code field, that is my general impression as
well. Debian has always, if I remember correctly had more packages
available though. (I remember some wikipedia figure like 23000 vs 6000,
but I suspect that might have been based only on RH enterprise, which
would have a relatively limited number of packages.
I've used alien from time to time for something that Debian/Ubuntu
makes, or still makes, that RH/Fedora no longer/never does/did. Ok,
enough /'s. :) One minor example is xbuffy, a mailwatcher, very handy
for mutt users while running X.
When you factor
> in PPAs there is not much that you cannot get pre-compiled for Ubuntu/ Mint
> which is another reason why it would be foolish for Mint to switch to
> Debian. Admitedly, they will likely look as a better alternative compared to
> Debian than Ubuntu, but it is Ubuntu that is driving change and Debian is
> still playing catch up. Mint has been in Ubuntu's shadow, but it has
> benefitted from some of the decisions that Canonical has made and it could
> continue to do so.
I'm not sure of that. Not sure it's wrong either, but there is no
question that Debian is still one of the leading producers/innovators.
I really think that were their politics different, and had they been
more business oriented, they could have gotten the server market owned
by RH. RH is really more of a desktop twisted into server shape in many
ways--heavy interdependence on Gnome, things like a very good
configuration tool being deprecated in favor of its X version, more
bloat in general, turning on services automatically after installation,
and the like. Debian is really better suited than RH to being a
server, IMHO.
>
> Unetbootin is no panacea, but it works well with most distributions. I find
> it works better than Ubuntu's Startup Disk Creator, but SDC has persistence,
> if you can get it to work. Unetbootin is cross platform which is a plus if
> you use Windows at all and it can download the latest ISO for you if you
> have not already done so.
It's close to a panacea--RH based distros, however, have trouble with
it. This is probably an anaconda weakness. Ironically, Debian had
trouble with it for awhile, there was an option that had to be added to
the boot line or it wouldn't see the USB.
>
> As I understand the situation Mint 11 will be based on Ubuntu 11.04, but it
> will likely use the current GNOME and not either Unity or GNOME Shell. Mint
> is playing it cool and taking a wait and see approach about Canonical's
> aggressive changes. However, Mint Fluxbox is going to be based on Debian and
> become a rolling release. The developer prefers Ubuntu, but it comes down to
> practical use of resources. He also produces PeppermintOS so has his hands
> full.
Ah, I had no idea that those were the same group. Both are nice--my
preference is actually for fluxbox and openbox (preference changing
every few months) rather than the more convenient, but resource
intensive, desktop environments such as Gnome and KDE. Even LXDE, which
uses openbox as window manager (though it can easily be made to use
fluxbox) is less convenient for me, after many years of habit.
--
Scott Robbins
PGP keyID EB3467D6
( 1B48 077D 66F6 9DB0 FDC2 A409 FA54 EB34 67D6 )
gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys EB3467D6
Wesley: Wait for Faith.
Buffy: That could be hours. The girl makes Godot look punctual.
No comments:
Post a Comment