My personal Debian 4.0 review

[clue]

To make it clear: This is not a “why i left Fedora” thread. It is just what the title says – a personal review.

Due to Fedora updates, which sometimes tend to break things, i was looking for a good productivity distribution. Because i love Red-Hat products i tried CentOS 5.0. But i didn't find too many packages for it at that time, and my yum update process failed (scriplet failure). That's why i gave Debian a chance. I heard a lot of people saying it was really stable (nearly unbreakable) and comes with a vast host of packages. So i downloaded the first DVD-image, installed it and was truly amazed. Here are some of the strengths of Debian:

- nearly every package, which i required, was on the first DVD
- mp3 and (most) multimedia ran out of the box
- some multimedia packages (like libdvdcss, etc.) needed to be installed from debian-multimedia.org (much like our rpm.livna.org)
- with dpkg -i it is as easy to install packages manually as it is with rpm -ivh
- Synaptic (graphical front end for apt-get) is so much convenient, because it doesn't need every time an internet connection just to search the database for dependencies. It is sufficient to load it once, which is very convenient for 56K users (like myself). If updates are available you can refresh database with one click.
- another awesome feature is, that Synaptic allows smallband users with one click to generate a wget-downloadlist, which can be transferred to a friend with a fast internetconnection.
- UPDATES DO NOT BREAK THINGS
- SElinux is disabled by default, but can be activated easily
- some package versions are newer than some from RHEL5/CentOS5, for instance KDE 3.5.5a, while RHEL5 is shipped with KDE 3.4
- other great packages are Xorg7.1 Kernel 2.6.18-4, etc
- supports encrypted root partitions out of the box (can be selected in the installer)
- even power failure doesn't mess encrypted file system up (tried it A LOT of times, before migrating to Debian with all my personal, important data)
- due to usage of LUKS up to 8 different passphrases (per partition/container) are supported. They can be removed or added on the fly (no need for reboot, or complete reencryption)
- mounting and unmounting cd/dvd works like it was intended to: If i push the cdrom eject button it really comes out. In case somebody else (for instance root) is occupying it, kiomounthelper prompts the processes and their ownership which prevent the cd/dvd from ejection – just as it was meant to be
- every program which i could think of is provided for Debian (about 18.000 packages right now)
- with ALIEN it is even possible to translate .rpm's into .deb's (important for my canon)
- the installer puts only gnome on disc, but after installation it is a peace of cake to install kde via synaptic: just select the kde metapackage and you're good to go
- Debian runs absolutely stable
- great look and feel
- easy to handle, easy to keep updated (thanks to security.debian.org)

A word of warning: Though Debian is extremely userfriendly, it took me some hours to learn the differences between my loved Fedora and my even more loved Debian. For example: To install a package manually in Fedora we use rpm -ivh, while in Debian we use dpkg -i. Sounds trivial, but if one didn't know ... And i miss some of the Red-Hat tools like System-config-users (there are replacements – of course, but i have become used to it).

BOTTOM LINE: It was definitely the best distro choice, i ever made. Debian is a mature product, which is very well documented and has a huge, active community. Because it does NOT depend on a company it is a really free and community driven project (as far as i know, there aren't any usage restrictions to any countries at all).


Why i still plan to keep Fedora as a secondary system:

- always the latest and the greatest stuff (i am eager to see KDE 4.0/4.1)
- great look and feel
- great community
- i like the Red-Hat tools (like System-config-security)
- ideal to play around with the future technologies (Beryl & Co.)

[leigh123linux]

You can have synaptic in fedora

yum install synaptic

[Dan]

OK. Fair enough.

Thanks for the peek at your experiences with it!


Dan

[into_311]

Yeah, synaptic is great. Execept yum is slow and buggy. Apt-get is fast and flawless. Sorry guys..had to add my opinion in there. I completely agree with what he said earlier where synaptic doesn't try and check for updates to packages everytime you load it and check for dependencies and everything. Only when you tell it to.

It's also, in my opinion, much faster for installing packages. If you have ever tried pclinuxos, its an RPM based system, but still uses apt-get and synaptic for its package management.

[JN4OldSchool]

It is amusing to watch Leigh go back to Fedora Leigh is the reason why I use debian etch as my backup OS and why I tried it again after 4-5 bad debian experiences through the years. Clue, I couldnt have said it any better. Debian has won me also. But Fedora is still my prime OS because I like the Fedora way. I like to play, I enjoy challenges when things break, I like RPM and Yum and I think there is just something special and different in a finely tuned Fedora computer. But yeah, Fedora has problems. Debian is as perfect as linux gets. This isnt saying it is the best linux, just that it is the most perfected. It is mainstream, it is the definition of linux. As vanilla and plain jane as you can possibly get.

[bob]

You'll find plenty of Debian fans here, for all the reasons you mention. If there's any failing, it's that Debian becomes a bit boring when so much just 'works' and never needs fixing.

As to yum/apt both operate at about the same speed with Fedora. If my memory was better, I could give you the reasons why. You can google the reasons or check older threads for the details, but it isn't the package manager that's at fault.

[leigh123linux]

Originally Posted by bob

You'll find plenty of Debian fans here, for all the reasons you mention. If there's any failing, it's that Debian becomes a bit boring when so much just 'works' and never needs fixing.

.

This is the only flaw with Debian .

F7 is nearly as stable as Debian for me ( if F7 remains this stable it will suffer the same fate as debian )

[rappermas]

Yes, I agree. Debian is well thought out and great distro. Digg uses it exclusively for their servers.

The real problem that Debian has isn't with the software--it's the community. They are way too disorganized and slow--"we'll get it done when we get it done." Still, a great distro.

But for the server, I still always prefer FreeBSD

[Jman]

Whenever you have problems, please file a bug. Even if you plan to move to another operating system, every reported bug can make things better.

yum 3.2 on F7+ is much faster than previous versions, mostly doing to not having to parse all the xml data on certain repositories.

I tend to prefer how Fedora does things, but to each their own. Fortunately, there is a lot more community packager involvement, even with things like EPEL so I do hope Fedora catches up in the packaging competition.

[offcenter77]

I haven't played with Debian, but I have tried PCLinuxOS, which is probably the simplest Linux I've tried.

If you could put Debian up against PCLinuxOS, which one would you say is eaiser / better / simpler for new Linux users? (I'm trying to convert my wife, and Fedora's not the place to start.)

[leigh123linux]

Originally Posted by offcenter77

I haven't played with Debian, but I have tried PCLinuxOS, which is probably the simplest Linux I've tried.

If you could put Debian up against PCLinuxOS, which one would you say is eaiser / better / simpler for new Linux users? (I'm trying to convert my wife, and Fedora's not the place to start.)

Debian Etch + automatix ( I don't think it can get any easier )

http://www.getautomatix.com/

Debian 4.0 (Etch i386)

Before installing Automatix2, make sure that the non-free and contrib directories in your primary debian repository in /etc/apt/sources.list are enabled. Automatix2 depends on one or more packages from these directories. Your primary debian repository should look like something as follows:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main non-free contrib

http://www.getautomatix.com/apt/dists/etch/main/binary-i386/automatix2_1.1-4.3-4.0r0etch_i386.deb