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On 20/12/12 16:28, Simon Avery wrote: > Everyone who's adminned debian has got caught in dependancy hell > sooner or later. They've also complained that software is old, it's > unfriendly and configuring a desktop (used to be) hugely difficult. > > Also; Once set up and running in a server role, debian continues day > after day after day. Some packages have quirks (backuppc and > pre-configured local backup permissions, root enabled by default in > sshd's config, zoneminder and shared memory - I'm sure there are > more). It's not for everyone and if you are irritated by Debian, well, > there's plenty of choice. Debian doesn't care, it's not going anywhere > - it's part of linux's history and backbone and will be around > forever. > > But here's the thing: Every sysadmin I know who has used debian in > production, still uses debian. > Everything Simon says, and I'd go further than that as well: Debian is the best operating system in the world. Now that is a major claim, so here is my reasoning. For a start, it's open source and free in both senses of the word. That will always elevate it over any proprietary system in existence because although it may not have all the bells, whistles and features of zOS, AIX, Mac OS or Windows, you will always be able to get it and use it for nothing. And anyone can add the features themselves: it may not be particularly easy, but I assure you that writing things like LPAR functionality on Power boxes wasn't 'easy' either. If you're a fortune 500 company and you must have some hardcore enterprise functionality, there's nothing stopping you paying a crack team of C gurus to write it for you and deploy it on Debian, rather than Solaris or HPUX. The source code will always be free and available to everyone, not just channel partners with deep pockets. You or anyone else can always fork it and make it your own at any moment and Debian won't care. If you're a Stallman-esque free as in freedom advocate, stock Debian by default qualifies as "Free". But if you want linux-firmware, proprietary blobs for wifi and graphics hardware, it's all in the clearly labelled non-free repos. Debian has excellent ports to multiple platforms, from lowly ARM devices to multi-million dollar s390 big iron and everything in between. Debian stable is indeed very conservative in package choice, but that's why they have Testing for more current packages and Sid for the absolute bleeding edge - again, something for everyone. Choice is a good thing. If even Sid isn't new enough for you, then like me you can "apt-get source" from mentors.debian.net and build it yourself. Debian documentation is thoroughly excellent, bug tracking is top-notch and developers (generally, there are always a few...) won't give you the OpenBSD-style tough love if you dare to contact them directly with issues. Finally, there is a huge Debian community to pester online for help and google will return literally millions of hits for almost any query you can come up with. There are countless forums and dedicated sites for users and admins to pool resources. And of course, the new poster boys of the linux world, Ubuntu and Mint, amongst many others, wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for Debian. I use, or have used, most operating systems in existence, and some of them I really like and actually prefer to use for certain tasks (I wouldn't use Debian for a network-edge router for example, although I *could*) so I'm not a fanatic advocating Debian for everything and nothing else - I actually use RedHat or derivatives more often in the day job and my laptop is currently running Arch. I've got a windows install for occasional gaming. But I'm just pointing out that we maybe don't appreciate good old boring Debian quite as much as we should do. And that's why I think Debian is the best OS in the world. Cheers PS: almost 20 years in, and except on Sid, I've NEVER had dependency hell on Debian. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq