[RULE] Distro thoughts

[DervishD]

    Hi James, again ;)

 * James Miller <jamtat at mailsnare.net> dixit:
> First, I'd just like to observe that Debian seems to me a much better
> choice than RH on which to develop a sub-distro friendly to older
> hardware.

    For me it is, too, but probably for different reasons.

> If I may, let me just offer a few of my reasons/observations for
> thinking Debian a better base.  First and foremost is the package
> management system apt-get.

    I think that my reasons are not too different from yours ;)

> In closing, I'll just remark that, though things like Gentoo's portage
> system (or the scripts Raul mentioned, which sound similar) look about as
> attractive as apt-get, I see them as unadvisable for a couple of reasons.

    You're right here. You can make a distro for a low-end machine,
but probably you need a hi-end one for that.

> I would also add that, for my own fairly mundane (and probably
> pretty average) computing needs, having to set compile flags and
> those sorts of advanced system tweaks are not worth the trouble.

    And you're right again. Most of the users are not hackers ;) and
anyway even the hackers sometimes have computer needs that can
fulfilled by any distro. Tweaking is a very good thing if you have
the resources (including spare time), the interest and/or the need.
Otherwise is a plain waste of valuable time. That's what distros are
for: not needing to fight for installing.

> My comments and insights are probably pretty uneducated and
> limited: please assume ignorance above all else.

    You don't like limited nor ignorant ;) In fact I've seen very
good points above.

> Please offer your feedback on my thoughts, proposals, mistakes and
> presumptions.

    The only points against Debian I can think of are:

    - Some software can be considered obsolete by a few. But IMHO the
fact is that Debian maintainers doesn't upgrade software gratuitously,
and they fix bugs in current versions, so most of the time upgrading
is not necessary at all.

    - For some people, philosophy cannot be the 'ruler' of their
system. But Debian also includes non-free software, outside its
official distribution. For me philosophy is almost the most important
point, but a distro must offer a choice.

    But, I can see these pros:

    - You have Debian for other architectures. Don't know if RH
offers that (I'm away from distros since a few years, and I only mess
with Debian nowadays, when I need to), but it is important if you
want to offer RULE for more archs than just x86.

    - Software is very well tested before it get into the stable
release. That does not necessary mean you have a reliable system, but
IMHO is a good point to start with.

    As James said, my intention is not to start a distro war, nor a
flame war. In fact, I don't consider that I have enough distro
experience to recommend one over another, but I've lately installed
some Debian's and some RH and... well, I prefer Debian. I'm not
wanting RULE change it's distro, of course; there's a lot of work put
into the current RULE, and this must be considered, too. I just want
to give my 0.02 euros ;))

    I've been in this list only for a few days, but I'm starting to
like it, really. It seems that good people can be found here.

    Raúl Núñez de Arenas Coronado

-- 
Linux Registered User 88736
http://www.pleyades.net & http://raul.pleyades.net/


_______________________________________________
Original home page of the RULE project: www.rule-project.org
Original Rule Development Site http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/rule/
Original RULE mailing list: Rule-list at nongnu.org, hosted at http://mail.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/rule-list