Debian: My favourite OS
Debian gnu/linux OS is by far my faviourite operating system. What do i like *most* in debian? Like everyone else, it has to be its package manager - apt. I just install the base system with the installation dvd and then mount the two Debian dvds that i have on a local web share directory and add this location to apt sources.list file. that's it. whatever package i want to install, its just one 'apt-get install' away! if a package is not present in the DVDs then Debian would isntall it from the internet from one of its mirrors. No dependency hassles.
The other positives are : stability and security. Security may not be a big concern for me on a desktop machine, but stability sure is. Debian stable versions are released roughly once per 3 years!! Only FreeBSD can compete with Debian in both stability and security. The tradeoff here is that you don't get the latest packages, those which are in their alpha and beta stages. if you want the latest versions of everything, you can use the 'test' version of Debian(which still is very robust) or go for Ubuntu or Gentoo(If you don't have a fast internet connection, then Gentoo or Ubuntu may not be the best choices - you may have to fall back on Mandriva or Suse).
Anything i miss in the OS? Debian is very reluctant to support nonfree software. you can still install such software but its not always straightforward. take the example of Sun's Java technology. simple 'apt-get install' won't work with Java and you have to manually download it from Sun's website(the .bin version, not the .rpm.bin version) and convert it to .deb package and then install it using dpkg. very un-debian way. same with software like flash player, real player etc.
Finally, what applications do i use most on Debian? the usual ones: Epiphany Browser(Firefox is not installed by default in Debian Sarge!), XChat IRC Client, Gaim IM, Mozilla Thunderbird, Beep Media Player, OpenOffice.org, Emacs, KDevelop.
More info:
http://www.debian.org
http://www.debian-administration.orgIRC Network - FreeNode, Channel - debian
The other positives are : stability and security. Security may not be a big concern for me on a desktop machine, but stability sure is. Debian stable versions are released roughly once per 3 years!! Only FreeBSD can compete with Debian in both stability and security. The tradeoff here is that you don't get the latest packages, those which are in their alpha and beta stages. if you want the latest versions of everything, you can use the 'test' version of Debian(which still is very robust) or go for Ubuntu or Gentoo(If you don't have a fast internet connection, then Gentoo or Ubuntu may not be the best choices - you may have to fall back on Mandriva or Suse).
Anything i miss in the OS? Debian is very reluctant to support nonfree software. you can still install such software but its not always straightforward. take the example of Sun's Java technology. simple 'apt-get install' won't work with Java and you have to manually download it from Sun's website(the .bin version, not the .rpm.bin version) and convert it to .deb package and then install it using dpkg. very un-debian way. same with software like flash player, real player etc.
Finally, what applications do i use most on Debian? the usual ones: Epiphany Browser(Firefox is not installed by default in Debian Sarge!), XChat IRC Client, Gaim IM, Mozilla Thunderbird, Beep Media Player, OpenOffice.org, Emacs, KDevelop.
More info:
http://www.debian.org
http://www.debian-administration.orgIRC Network - FreeNode, Channel - debian
posted by sami at 10/29/2005 11:11:00 AM
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