First off, no distribution is for everybody. We have so many distributions
because people like choice. Not everybody can use Debian and not everybody
would want to. The Debian installer is poor compared to other installers.
Debian works on the most architectures which is a strength. The file
download is small which is also a strength. However things quickly fall to
pieces after that for many newbies who come to Linux wanting something that
just works OTB. There are too many decisions to be made for people who know
little or nothing. Debian Squeeze just came out and it has a new installer
and it has a DVD which I have not tried yet. As I said it was just released.
The best case scenario is that Debian would finally have caught up with the
rest of them. Based on past performance I doubt it. They routinely are
behind other distributions in terms of usability and that is partly by
choice on the part of Debian and partly because of the slowness in which
Debian does anything.
There are many reasons why someone would not want to use Debian. I could
write that about any distribution BTW. However, the reasons themselves are
peculiar to Debian. I will write a few. First off I calll Debian stable,
Debian stale. The kernel is old. The packages are old. Do not expect up to
date anything from debian stable. By Ubuntu standards it is at least two
years behind. So when you are running Debian stable it is like using
Intrepid instead of Maverick. Some people may like that, but most do not. My
Wacom tablet works OTB with Ubuntu's newer kernel, but in Debian I had to do
it old school style and still it would not work half as well. There are
newer versions of Debian (sid, etc.), but if you run them you frequently get
no help when you ask for it as you are told that you should be running the
stale version. So after getting the run around where your problem is blamed
on you, you may encounter somebody helpful, but this cycle repeats itself
endlessly for every problem. I switched to aptosid where they actually were
helpful.
Another reason to not choose Debian is the ideology is tiresome. Ask for
help to install Firefox. First you will be told that Ice Weasel is FF (it is
not FF but a fork of FF). Then you will be lectured on the evils of Mozilla.
If you persist in wanting to install it then you will be called nasty names
and be treated like a pariah. Don't tell me that it does not exist. I have
experienced it and witnessed it countless times. Using Debian seems to imbue
its users with the right to be rude and tireless crusaders for their cause.
In my blog I routinely get hate responses from Debian users for calling it
Linux. I have been told given the reasons ad nauseum and I have given my
reasons for disliking that name. I have been called an idiot and much worse,
frequently laced with obscenities. Their first response is to say they will
not read what I write till I shape up. Then the rest follows. That would be
bad enough if it only happened once, but it repeats itself for other things.
It is to be called free software and not open source. You cannot say
anything against RMS and he loves controversy so that is hard. I have
witnessed in the responses to other bloggers and writers. I have witnessed
it in forums. This bad behaviour does not come from other distributions. It
seems as if Debian does not have or does no enforce any code of behaviour
for its users.
Ubuntu does have a code of conduct BTW which is one of the reasons why
Ubuntu welcomes new users. Debian is not welcoming. They may say that they
are, but they are not. It is about doing it one way. For so called freedom
lovers that is a contradiction. Freedom ceases to be free when there can
only be one way. It starts with RMS and FSF which expound this philosophy
daily. Their vision is not freedom, but a world where everybody does it one
way, which is strangely enough the way expounded by them. Loss of choice is
loss of freedom any way you slice it.
On the subject of Ubuntu. Debian users are particularly nasty. Because
Ubuntu has taken Debian and made it into its opposite, a user friendly
distribution, and been successful they have a special place reserved for it
and if you post anythign positive about Ubuntu then you can predict they
Debian users/ Ubuntu haters will respond. I can even predict with almost
certainty the responses. That's how bad it is.
I stick by everything that I wrote. I judge Debian based not on what it
*says*, but by what it *does*. You can say whatever you like in press
releases or in statements but they ring hollow when you look at Debian's
behaviour and that of its users. I think that Debian could be excellent, but
it is a failure in many ways. That is why they resent Ubuntu. It has
succeeded while Debian is losing users.
Debian has three problems to resolve and I see no movement on any of them.
They need to become more progressive/ relevant. Maybe Debian 6 is a big
improvement (better is not the same as good), but by the time Debian 7 comes
out it will have been leapfrogged by other distributions. Debian development
is so slow that it cannot keep up. They have made themselves irrelevant by
taking an extreme position and being inflexible. Removing proprietary blobs
from the kerenl is an example. They do it for ideology, but it will hurt end
users. They put their philosophy ahead of users. Linus Torvalds is not
adding them to the kernel because he wants to make Linux proprietary but
because he wants to make hardware work. Secondly, they need to actually
believe in what they say. If you embrace freedom then you need to allow
people to make choices that you do not agree with. Finally, they need to
reign in their users who are quite frankly a blight on the Linux community
at large. You can disagree with someone but you need to respect them and
their right to take a contrary position.
And no I did not get dropped on my head as a child. I am quite sane.
Roy
Using Kubuntu 10.10, 64-bit
Location: Canada
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
No comments:
Post a Comment