Linux Distributions

[Mike Bilow]

James R. Van Zandt wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:

 JRVZ> The Red Hat packaging system is a lot easier to learn than
 JRVZ> the one for Debian.  Red Hat will allow anyone to upload
 JRVZ> packages for their "contrib" section, and a lot of RPMs are
 JRVZ> available from sites other than Red Hat and their mirrors. 
 JRVZ> (This could be considered a security concern.)

 JRVZ> The Debian main, contrib, and non-free sections differ only
 JRVZ> in their licenses.  Packages in all three sections are
 JRVZ> prepared only by "Debian developers", and some care is taken
 JRVZ> to check people out before accepting their packages. 
 JRVZ> However, by now there are over 300 of us. 

This is all true, but no one is restricted from posting a Debian package of
their own making outside the official Debian distribution sites.  As with Red
Hat, anyone can create and maintain a package.  The only issue is whether you
are allowed to post to the official Debian sites, in which case you are obliged
to maintain some standards of quality, answer inquiries, participate in the bug
tracking system, and so forth.

 JRVZ> However, you can't build this kind of configuration into an 
 JRVZ> ordinary RPM.)  A Red Hat installation is a lot smoother than a 
 JRVZ> Debian installation.  However, I am skeptical about how 
 JRVZ> complete it really is.  

This is a really serious problem in Red Hat.  For example, I had the challenge
of installing the Neologic chipset XFree86 drivers on a laptop.  There is a Red
Hat rpm for them, but no Debian package.  The rpm put all the files in the
right places, but I was left to modify the links and then edit XF86config by
hand with vi.  I don't consider this a reasonable expectation of an end user.
 
-- Mike


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