Becoming a Debiant
The Social Architecture of Linux Distributions
In the beginning was Slackware. And those who used it were Slackers. This was in the time when there were fewer than a thousand users and the kernel hadn't reached level 1.0. The system was still pretty much an adaptation of Minix, many of the computers had only the smallest of hard drives and the 3.5 inch floppy drive was brand new. The first Slackware systems were installed from a series of floppy disks. Even when CD-ROMs became available, Slackers would copy their install files to floppies to install.
Everybody who used Linux was a hobbiest then. Many of them used it for the sheer wonder of having a free operating system somewhat comparable to UNIX for which free software was being made available.
Then a company appeared, Red Hat, with a newer, better distribution of Linux. It had the latest kernel, the same one that Slackware and a few others were using, and it used the same free software that was becoming available, but it was organized and had new software written especially to make it more useful to businesses. Their plan was to make money selling what had started as a free hobbiest system, so they had to make it more useful to those willing to part with money to get the features they could provide. And, eventually, after a few years, they started to make money.
Many hobbiests have become Red Hatters, users of Red Hat. But, while easier to use than Slackware was, Red Hat wasn't known for being really user friendly. They advanced the art of Linux and helped make it a force in the business world, but many wished Red Hat had become something slightly different.
Along came Mandrake, which started by simplifying and taming a Red Hat distribution. They were going to be everything Red Hat was but also friendly and more useful. I've been a Mandraker for several years now and can say that they are very strong on hype while the penny pinching Frenchmen who run the company have completely missed the point about selling free software. Now that they've reached the point of begging for additional funds to stave off bankruptcy, I'm ready to find a new distribution.
There is one other distribution I'd like to mention first: SuSe. I think they're run by a German concern but they might as well be Swiss for the multi-purpose approach they take. Their distributions are enormous and probably contain every program ever written that will run on Linux systems. They seem to have included everything but a way to keep track of what you have, assuming you can load it all on your system. You will test your hard drive capacity with them.
There have been other distributions. Some still exist, others don't. I haven't mentioned special purpose distributions such as for Apple computers or for small or obsolete machines or embedded systems. I've had no reason to test any of them.
Which brings me to Debian, whose users call themselves Debianistas or Debianutantes but who I've always thought of as Debiants (now I are one). Debian is the one pure distribution, the one distribution that uses no commercial applications. Everything included in a Debian release is Open Source software, developed with the purest of motives for the free use of anyone who wants it.
Debian is also one of the best tested distributions. Nothing is released as Stable until it is demonstrated to be bulletproof. A Debian Stable release may not be as up-to-date as some other available releases, but people get it because they want something guaranteed to be rock solid. Debiants may choose to go to releases that are less than stable, including the Testing release, frequently quite unstable, but they can always upgrade (or downgrade) back to Stable.
And, at any given level of stability, a Debian system will update itself automatically as long as the computer is on line and the user has given the system permission to update. A Stable system will update infrequently, a Testing system will be updating almost constantly.
Now I must make a shameful admission. Not only am I a Debiant, I became one by getting Lindows.
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Comments (2)
Shame on you.
I may have to check Debian out. My office insisted on getting Red Hat (because that's what that other department uses) instead of following my advice and getting a more robust and stabler platform like BSD. Of course, since I am the only computer guy, I've had to pay the price for their decision.