debian is way ahead

**garyng** · 11-23-2004, 07:28 PM

I have the need to try out a fedora core(to install sybase ASE) and have a chance to play with its package management system(both apt and yum), there is no comparison. It is slow, it is fragile(the dependency stuff) and searching for packages is a mess.

No wonder there are so many debian based distro as being a commuity based development, there is an implicit requirement that a debian package must sort out all kinds of weird way it may be installed.

Will try out gentoo soon and see how it scores.

BTW, anyone with a need to dual boot windows/linux should really give colinux a try. It is a perfect VM engine for linux if you must run windows. I have fedora 1, woody, sarge all running at the same time under XP. A great way to test out various flavor of *nix. The limitations are that don't expect games to run and it cannot access any hardware except network and HD.

One of the creative use of it is to have the powerful firewall of linux running under XP, if you don't have a dedicated router/firewall.

**cintra** · 11-24-2004, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by garyng

Will try out gentoo soon and see how it scores.

And I bet you won't leave it garyng..

..for me, half the fun is with the forum - never had so many laughs
and Portage is a package installers dream!

But, put aside ample time to read the handbook(s) thoroughly.

Enjoy

Development-sources kernel 2.6.10-rc2
KDE 3.3.1, Nvidia 1.0.6629, Udev-045, etc

**probono** · 11-24-2004, 11:41 AM

Doesn't gentoo mean you have to compile most packages yourself? For me, compiling usually means:
- getting errors about unmet -dev dependencies (cryptic)
- downloading tons of -dev packages (no flatrate!)
- waiting for hours
- seeing cryptic messages
Or isn't that the case with gentoo?

**shah** · 11-24-2004, 01:56 PM

Agree with probono.
I've tried Gentoo before, and didn't suit me....I guess I don't have enough patience to wait for anything to compile everytime I want to install programs.
It's a good distro if you have enough time on your hands.

**champagnemojo** · 11-24-2004, 08:52 PM

I've been trying out Yoper the past few days after hearing a few people sing its praises...no real need to, just got bored. :P It's rpm-based, but they have a ported version of apt. It's great as long as all the programs you want are in their repositories (doubtful), but once you want something else you hit dependency problems. I quickly realized that I can't live without dpkg.

I've thought about trying Gentoo too...again, just for the heck of it if I get bored. I don't really see me ever leaving debian-based distros anytime soon.

**garyng** · 11-24-2004, 09:33 PM

Originally Posted by champagnemojo

I've been trying out Yoper the past few days after hearing a few people sing its praises...no real need to, just got bored. :P It's rpm-based, but they have a ported version of apt. It's great as long as all the programs you want are in their repositories (doubtful), but once you want something else you hit dependency problems. I quickly realized that I can't live without dpkg.

I've thought about trying Gentoo too...again, just for the heck of it if I get bored. I don't really see me ever leaving debian-based distros anytime soon.

Even if everything is in their repository, the dependency rules obviously is not as well polished as debian. I tried to install it one way and it didn't work. Install it another way, it worked. This never happens to me on debian(may be unstable/testing but not stable branch).

**Markus** · 11-24-2004, 10:03 PM

Haven't used gentoo myself but a friend likes it. Last time he installed he spent > 2 days compiling basically the base system.
Here and on kanotix people seem to complain when the install isn't over in 10 minutes flat

The main reason why he prefers gentoo is that when you compile everything specifically for your hardware you get a fast system.
I seriously doubt if I'm ever going to stray far from a debian based distro. Well, ever and ever, who knows what we'll use in 10 years.

**firebyrd10** · 11-24-2004, 11:24 PM

Right, the binaries are made specialy for your system.

But I don't mind a slightly slower peice of software if I can get it on apt-get.

Of course sometimes you have to compile, good thing is knoppix has alot of the most used and libaries so you can usually compile without any real problems.

**champagnemojo** · 11-25-2004, 04:36 AM

Originally Posted by garyng

Even if everything is in their repository, the dependency rules obviously is not as well polished as debian. I tried to install it one way and it didn't work. Install it another way, it worked. This never happens to me on debian(may be unstable/testing but not stable branch).

Are you talking about Yoper? It won't seem to install grub correctly...which sucks. Otherwise the installer seemed fine. Most of the packages in their repositories install ok...but you're right, there are still issues with a few of them. And without dpkg you can't fix it even if it's just needing to overwrite a file or something.

**garyng** · 11-25-2004, 07:04 AM

Originally Posted by champagnemojo

Originally Posted by garyng

Even if everything is in their repository, the dependency rules obviously is not as well polished as debian. I tried to install it one way and it didn't work. Install it another way, it worked. This never happens to me on debian(may be unstable/testing but not stable branch).

Are you talking about Yoper? It won't seem to install grub correctly...which sucks. Otherwise the installer seemed fine. Most of the packages in their repositories install ok...but you're right, there are still issues with a few of them. And without dpkg you can't fix it even if it's just needing to overwrite a file or something.

I only have yum and apt-get on fedora 1. In fact, yum seems to be ok, but apt-get(for the rpm) has problems.