Is Debian worth it?

[sid]

I am using dell latitude d531 laptop(amd64) with debian 4.0 etch on
it. The 4 DVD's I downloaded contained outdated softwares. Even the
linux kernel shipped by debian was not able to support most of my
hardware so I had to recompile it to the new kernel(2.6.25.9).
The touchpad had problems too, so I had to follow some instructions
about installing synaptics driver. etc...

Now the problem is that I still cannot install many softwares. And
even the synaptics package manager is out of date and does not even
connect through a proxy.

Also the official repositories are not available. And searching on the
internet made me get the view that installing from unofficial
repositories would make my debian system break down as some file would
surely be overwritten by a new one and break the software chain.
Please tell me whether it is true or not. and If not i'll really
appreciate if someone can direct me to such stable repositories.

I am fond of debian a lot, but the problems I am facing is making me
want to ship to another distribution and I cannot stop thinking why
people want to use debian if there are so many problems one has to
overcome before making it usable.

[Chris Miller]

Debian itself is targeted more towards servers. It's much older
software, but it's rock-solid stable. If you get it on the right
hardware, it's nigh impossible to crash. For web and email servers,
that's an indispensable feature. If you're a desktop user, you're
probably best off sticking with Ubuntu, which is less stable, but more
up-to-date.

Sorry you wasted those CDs, but hopefully you learned something from
it (I usually do, which helps me rationalize the CDs to myself).

Registered Linux Addict #431495
http://profile.xfire.com/mrstalinman | John 3:16!
http://www.fsdev.net/ | http://lordsauron.wordpress.com/

[Cavan Mejias]

2008/8/31 Chris Miller <lordsauro...@gmail.com>

or debian testing?

[Chris Miller]

Cavan Mejias wrote:
>
>
> 2008/8/31 Chris Miller <lordsauro...@gmail.com
> <mailto:lordsauro...@gmail.com>>

>
>
>
> On Aug 30, 2008, at 10:54 PM, sid wrote:
>
> >
> > I am using dell latitude d531 laptop(amd64) with debian 4.0 etch on
> > it. The 4 DVD's I downloaded contained outdated softwares. Even the
> > linux kernel shipped by debian was not able to support most of my
> > hardware so I had to recompile it to the new kernel(2.6.25.9

> <http://2.6.25.9>).

Debian is not built for casual users of the computer. Debian testing
might give you a working system, but it'll require you to have a larger
degree of savvy about what you do with the system, whereas Ubuntu will
be more forgiving if you're not fully aware of what you're doing.

Debian is "more stable" in the sense that a correctly configured and
maintained system is not subject to as many crashes and bugs as a
similarly maintained system of another distro is. Ubuntu is less
stable, so it doesn't necessarily have more bugs, but it undergoes less
testing to discover bugs before the software is sent out to the users.
So a expertly-maintained system running Ubuntu is potentially subject to
more bugs that haven't been weeded out by the much more stringent Debian
practices.

Ultimately it's up to you, but if you're not interested in using Linux
as an IT professional or as a dedicated hobbyist, then I'd suggest
Ubuntu, which will be more reliable for a desktop user because that's
the kind of workload it's designed to work best with.

In an attempt to simplify things, Debian is built to be stable compared
to other software, and Ubuntu is built to be stable when used by a
human. Different distros for different purposes. I don't know your
purpose in using Linux, so I might be incorrect in suggesting Ubuntu
instead, but it's ultimately up to you.

--

[Bryan Smith]

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Well I don't know ANYONE who is a Debian user that downloads 4 DVD's.
Why would you do that when you can just download the net-install, which
varies from 40-180 MB's. If you were willing to download over 16GB of
data why not do a netinstall in the first place? I just pick the
packages I need and that is all I get.

Secondly, if you are using Debian for a desktop you should be using sid
if you want the latest releases to just be there in the repo.

Third...you didn't add additional Debian repo's to your sources.list? If
you use Debian then you should know you will have to spend some time
building software.

Its worth it and very fast if you just use the net-install image OR...dl
~ the images ONCE and do install over ftp within your own network. Keep
those images and look into installing from ftp/http...very fast and
saves you a lot of trouble.

Lastly Try Sidux...based on Debian unstable

Bryanstein

- --
A healthy diet includes Linux, Linux and more Linux.
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[Yee.Chuang]

Debian is not so suitable for common users, it's too stable and
static. Most of the software can run quite very well in the stable
edition. But if you would like to try new ones, I recommend you use
ubuntu, it's much nicer to new hardware and new software. you can keep
on date with just one command like Debian:
sudo apt-get upgrade.

[Robert Citek]

On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 7:16 AM, Yee.Chuang <mcdr...@gmail.com> wrote:
>... you can keep

> on date with just one command like Debian:
> sudo apt-get upgrade.

For new users it will probably be easier with

Sytem > Administration > Update Manager.

Regards,
- Robert