There is one more Penguin in town.
Written: Nov 01 '99 (Updated Nov 02 '99)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Slick install, well adjusted functionality. Very little useless tools.
Cons: Small install base and some distribution-dependent issues.
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| O3M's Full Review: Debian GNU |
Technically, when you look at different Linux distributions you should understand that all of them are very similar. Some of them are too similar to notice any differences. If you look at Red Hat 6.1, Mandrake 6.1 and Turbo Linux Workstation 4, you will probably see no difference at all. These three distributions are extremely commercial and are fit for the customer who is not willing to take more than an hour to have the thing working.
There are also very different distributions. You almost never see or hear about these versions of Linux because they are used mostly by geeks (Linux Gurus) who do not care if the distro is popular or not. Neither do they care how long it takes to have it working right. Two of these distributions are Slackware and Debian. Both have been on the market for a very long time, Slackware being the oldest. Usually you do not see these versions of Linux a in a computer store, people download them from the Internet and share them on home made CD’s.
While Debian’s latest version 2.1 does not sound as serious as Red Hat’s 6.1, it provides every single bit of functionality of Red Hat plus more things you do not get from Red Hat. There are currently about 300 developers who dedicate their time primarily to betterment of Debian. Like Red Hat and Slackware, Debian has its own package manager that allows the user to install binary files on the system fast and easy. Yet, I have noticed that most of people chose to download “tarballs” of software and compile it manually. Perhaps it is because the user base of Debian is more Linux-savvy than those of highly commercial distros.
As expected, Debian has been hitting some spotlight lately. VA Linux, the major Linux machine distributor uses Debian, although not exclusively, on it’s machines. Corel Linux appears to be nothing but a hacked (pretty badly) version of Debian. And now SGI is toying with an idea of running Debian aside with Red Hat on their servers. Furthermore, we will soon be seeing Debian software on store shelved due to a new project of SGI, O’Reilly, VA Linux and SCO to publish a Debian Linux retail version.
If you or your company is looking for an alternative to Red Hat, Debian should be your next logical choice. Installing Linux on your machine always remember to thank those guys who wrote this awesome software for you to use for free.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
O3M
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Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 18 members
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