Re: How to pick a distro?

Yawar Amin
2005-04-09T08:32:17Z

Hi Ray,

On Apr 8, 2005 12:52 AM, Ray Olszewski <ray@comarre.com> wrote:
[...]
> I don't know what "Debian-based" distros use, since I've not used any of
> them ... I've never even heard of MEPIS ... so I can neither encourage nor
> discourage their use. I just note that "Debian-based" != "Debian".

Of course you're right -- the MEPIS distributors do take Debian,
change it in an unspecified number of ways, and release it as MEPIS.
But I do want to qualify that, so far as package management is
concerned, at least, MEPIS _is_ the same as Debian, because MEPIS uses
dpkg, dselect and apt.

> Finally, due to the detection and correction of security-related problems,
> I'd suggest that nobody ... at least nobody running a system that has any
> sort of Internet connection ... can escape the need to do regular updates
> of his or her system. In practice, I find "full upgrades" easier to do than
> security upgrades of specific packages ... but the need, and the attendant
> risks of compatibility problems, is present in EVERY distro.

Totally agree with this. But I would also, having learned my lesson,
first install all packages I might like to use -- especially the
development packages -- before doing full upgrades.

Regards,

--
Yawar