Comments on: Linux Just Works

By: Kenneth

Kenneth — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 22:35:58 +0000

hell yeah! debian rocks, I’m on Sarge for a production server, and it is so nice to be able to add new functionality with a simple aptitude install some-application-here…

By: Sean Conner

Sean Conner — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 22:44:30 +0000

I tend to have better luck with tarballs anyway (my only complaint there is chasing down the dependencies)—I've even had problems with the CPAN auto-install Perl modules module (it has just never worked for me).

If it's any indication, I'm still running RedHat 5.2 at home (only with the latest SMB, Perl, Apache 1.3 and 2.0, &c.). My system at home works, and if it ain't broke, I don't fix it.

By: James

James — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 13:23:41 +0000

Sean: The package managers in Fedora and Gentoo are pale imitations of the true power of the Dark Sid^W^W^WDebian (and since it’s built on Debian, Ubuntu). The real heart of Debian is not just dpkg and apt, it’s the Debian policy that ensures all packages work the same way, and the huge development community that tests all sorts of upgrades continually.

By: jm3

jm3 — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 03:14:38 +0000

btw, can u please install netatalk on mudpit? al_x needs a weird mac-friendly font-server…

By: l.m.orchard

l.m.orchard — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 21:54:24 +0000

Sean: This might be a half-benefit from Debian in particular, since they're so slow to release new versions of the distro. Debian has usually seemed pretty stable and solid to me, unless I switch over to a different branch or I build & install something by hand.

By: Sean Conner

Sean Conner — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 21:46:49 +0000

In my experience, it only works if you constantly (like say, every 90 minutes or so) do an apt-get every-damn-thing-in-the-world. We have a few older servers here, maybe a year old or so and the automatic package management is just broken. Perhaps it's a Fedora Core or Gentoo thing, but even on a moderately old system, the package management stuff just breaks (mainly because it's not OMFG-I-need-to-upgrade-every-minute up to date).

I don't upgrade just to upgrade. Things break. Things change. For instance, there's a showstopping bug in Apache 2.0 that would keep one of my sites from working properly (although it's such an obscure bug that I suspect it only affects my site) and an automatic upgrade in that instance would be devastating. So I upgrade only when absolutely required. Which means “not often.” And in the meantime, the maintainers of the package managers (apt-get, emerge and yum to name a few) break older installations.

By: Srijith

Srijith — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 11:31:54 +0000

Having used Ubuntu I would say that it is a good distro for an everyday use average user ( a big achievement) but it does fall short when it comes to developer needs.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that a typical install of Ubuntu 5.04 did not install perl-doc! Along that same line, a lot of apps are in the Universe which means they are not updated in a timely manner.

By: Carthik

Carthik — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 09:01:52 +0000

Ubuntu fits entirely on one CD. Of course, you can install other software from the "universe" and "multiverse" components of the repository with a live internet connection, but it is rather uncommon that a good OS fits on one install CD, as opposed to 5 or 12.

You should try it - I am hooked!

By: diego sevilla’s weblog » Linux just works

diego sevilla’s weblog » Linux just works — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 08:54:09 +0000

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