> My $0.10, where's me $0.08 change? It seems there are a significant number of debian devotees fervently convinced of its superiority to other distros. Mention of debian in comparison to other distributions seems to invariably provoke much commentary regarding apt-get. Does this single application alone ensure debian's supremacy? I like ISOs. They are good. No amount of blather about apt-get will convince me that I don't want ISOs. In pre-debian days, when ancient Slackwares and RedHats roamed the land, it was possible to install linux via ftp using only a few floppies. So what. That being said, I find many aspects of debian interesting and appealing. Here is my (perhaps limited) list of debian's advantages: 1. Stability: avoids reliance on bleeding edge "unstable" software. 2. Security: serious effort is made to deliver a secure system and to repair security holes. 3. Ease of administration: apt-get. 4. Convenience: Easy to install a "bare-bones" system, using minimal hard drive space. Some of the disadvantages I've encountered with debian in the past are 1. Inconvenience: Typically slow to adopt nifty new features, such as kernel 2.2, available in other distros. 2. Inconvenience: Debian ISOs I've tried in the past have been missing essential "non-free" software such as Netscape. 3. Inconvenience: Able to install full distro, including a journaling file system such as ReiserFS, on a non-networked laptop computer? It would appear that, for me, the primary disadvantage of using debian has revolved around inconvenience. Is it really necessary to roll your own ISO in order to get all of the "unstable" or "non-free" features you want? Are user friendly tools available for creating customized ISOs? Debian is among the least marketed linux distributions. Its main advocates appear to be grass-roots supporters. I, for one, would be interested in having someone try to "sell" me on debian. Does debian offer advantages I'm unaware of? Can my objections be answered? (Might this be a good topic for some future TCLUG presentation?) Joel --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: tclug-list-unsubscribe at mn-linux.org For additional commands, e-mail: tclug-list-help at mn-linux.org