DaemonForums  

Go Back   DaemonForums > Other Operating Systems > Other BSD and UNIX/UNIX-like

Other BSD and UNIX/UNIX-like Any other flavour of BSD or UNIX that does not have a section of its own.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1   (View Single Post)  
Old 17th February 2009
ephemera's Avatar
ephemera ephemera is offline
Knuth's homeboy
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 537
Default Debian 5.0 released

Is anyone still excited about Debian?

There was a time when I would check distrowatch.com/debian every day eagerly waiting for the next release.
The software is usually hopelessly out of date especially near the end of a release cycle.
But it looks like Debian has made some progress in the last few years by packaging more recent kernels and newer versions of the bundled software.

I think I will give Debian 5 a try sometime this weekend.
If anyone has already tried it please share your experience.
Reply With Quote
  #2   (View Single Post)  
Old 17th February 2009
vermaden's Avatar
vermaden vermaden is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: pl_PL.lodz
Posts: 1,056
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ephemera View Post
Is anyone still excited about Debian?
Not really, new Arch release [1] is more interesting for me, the only thing I like about Debian is "continue installation remotely ..." all the rest is just typical fragmented Linux distro.

[1] http://www.archlinux.org/news/434/
__________________
religions, worst damnation of mankind
"If 386BSD had been available when I started on Linux, Linux would probably never had happened." Linus Torvalds

Linux is not UNIX! Face it! It is not an insult. It is fact: GNU is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not UNIX”.
vermaden's: links resources deviantart spreadbsd
Reply With Quote
  #3   (View Single Post)  
Old 17th February 2009
nihonto nihonto is offline
Fdisk Soldier
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 65
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ephemera View Post
Is anyone still excited about Debian?
Yes, me!

It's still my favourite OS - it's stable, the packages are new enough for my demands and up to now I haven't found a package management system that deals better with my needs than Apt (which of course might be different for different users).

Quote:
Originally Posted by ephemera View Post
The software is usually hopelessly out of date especially near the end of a release cycle.
But it looks like Debian has made some progress in the last few years by packaging more recent kernels and newer versions of the bundled software.
Please keep in mind: Debian -stable is not ment to be cutting edge, it is ment to be - stable.
If the applications are to old for your needs, you can give -testing or even -sid a try (the two other Debian "flavours"). I have run -sid for several years on my desktop. And if one is a little bit cautious, it will (almost) work without problems.
Reply With Quote
  #4   (View Single Post)  
Old 17th February 2009
phoenix's Avatar
phoenix phoenix is offline
Risen from the ashes
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 696
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ephemera View Post
Is anyone still excited about Debian?
Very much so! That's what we run on 95% of our servers, and 100% of our Linux desktops. And we have a lot of Linux desktops in this school district. All of our elementary school labs (~50) are running diskless Debian, 6 of our secondary schools are diskless Debian everywhere (including admin stations), the other 3 secondary are slated for switching this summer, and the rest of the elem stations are in the process of being switched over. So we follow Debian quite closely.

We'll be considering migrating our diskless servers over to Lenny this summer.

Quote:
I think I will give Debian 5 a try sometime this weekend.
If anyone has already tried it please share your experience.
Linux is Linux is Linux. There's very little to differentiate between the distros, especially on the desktop side of things.

What would be nice, is if a distro came out that clearly separated the "base" OS from the "applications", in such a way that you can install new apps without installing a new OS release (and no, "backports" repos don't cut it). There's no reason I should have to upgrade my kernel and core software in order to run KDE 4.2.
__________________
Freddie

Help for FreeBSD: Handbook, FAQ, man pages, mailing lists.
Reply With Quote
  #5   (View Single Post)  
Old 19th February 2009
TerryP's Avatar
TerryP TerryP is offline
Arp Constable
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: USofA
Posts: 1,547
Default

Phoenix, I think they call that the Free Berkely Software Distrubtion (FreeBSD), but it's not a Linux distro :-)
__________________
My Journal

Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all arrays), for surely where thou typest ``foo'' someone someday shall type ``supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''.
Reply With Quote
  #6   (View Single Post)  
Old 19th February 2009
phoenix's Avatar
phoenix phoenix is offline
Risen from the ashes
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 696
Default

Yes, I know, I would really like a more FreeBSD-like Linux distro to arise and take over the Linux world. Actually, I'd prefer it if FreeBSD took over the Linux world, but that's a pipe dream.
__________________
Freddie

Help for FreeBSD: Handbook, FAQ, man pages, mailing lists.
Reply With Quote
  #7   (View Single Post)  
Old 21st February 2009
Oliver_H's Avatar
Oliver_H Oliver_H is offline
Real Name: Oliver Herold
UNIX lover
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Germany
Posts: 427
Default

>I would really like a more FreeBSD-like Linux distro to arise and take over the Linux world.

Slack & Arch, but the latter lacks the quality (compared to *BSD) and Slack the comfort of the ports (well there is pkgsrc but who cares ;-)). Ubuntu will take over the Linux world, but ... okay no flame
__________________
use UNIX or die :-)
Reply With Quote
  #8   (View Single Post)  
Old 21st February 2009
ephemera's Avatar
ephemera ephemera is offline
Knuth's homeboy
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 537
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by phoenix View Post
Linux is Linux is Linux. There's very little to differentiate between the distros, especially on the desktop side of things.
True. When I installed XUbuntu 8.04 LTS I made a mental note not to change to a different distro or fall for the "shiny new release" trap (LTS is supported for 3 years). I think I will stick with Ubuntu and install Debian 5 in a VM instead for use in MS Windows.

> What would be nice, is if a distro came out that clearly separated the "base" OS from the "applications", in such a way that you can install new apps without installing a new OS release (and no, "backports" repos don't cut it).

Sounds like FreeBSD with a Linux kernel.

[/offtopic]I enjoy reading the stories from your work (school).

Last edited by ephemera; 21st February 2009 at 12:41 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #9   (View Single Post)  
Old 21st February 2009
ephemera's Avatar
ephemera ephemera is offline
Knuth's homeboy
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 537
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by nihonto View Post
If the applications are to old for your needs, you can give -testing or even -sid a try (the two other Debian "flavours"). I have run -sid for several years on my desktop. And if one is a little bit cautious, it will (almost) work without problems.
I did try Debian Testing once, but I found it to be a little too bleeding edge for me. I would get wierd dependency issues for which I had neither the patience nor expertise to resolve. When Wireshark broke I finally gave up on Testing.
Reply With Quote
Old 21st February 2009
ephemera's Avatar
ephemera ephemera is offline
Knuth's homeboy
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 537
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by vermaden View Post
Not really, new Arch release [1] is more interesting for me, the only thing I like about Debian is "continue installation remotely ..." all the rest is just typical fragmented Linux distro.

[1] http://www.archlinux.org/news/434/
I have to say I am intrigued by Arch and Slackware but am not very keen on learning a completely new distro...it's too much work.
Reply With Quote
Old 21st February 2009
Oko's Avatar
Oko Oko is offline
Rc.conf Instructor
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Kosovo, Serbia
Posts: 1,102
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Oliver_H View Post
>I would really like a more FreeBSD-like Linux distro to arise and take over the Linux world.

Slack & Arch, but the latter lacks the quality (compared to *BSD) and Slack the comfort of the ports (well there is pkgsrc but who cares ;-)). Ubuntu will take over the Linux world, but ... okay no flame
I could never get pkgsrc to work reliably with anything else except NetBSD and DragonFly? Maybe it is going to change now when NetBSD switches to XOrg. Does it work well on Slack?

What about SluckBuilds? That seems like a very primitive ports infrastructure. Could it be fixed into full blown ports system? I honestly thing that without proper packaging system Slack with all its qualities is just a hobbyist system.

The number of various Linux distros without any serious goals despite the fact that there are only couple real distros (CentOS, Debian, Slackware) is so repulsive. Even distros like CentOS and Debian are trying to cater
everything to everybody. CentOS is probably the best since in my understanding is focused on server market supporting only couple architectures. That looks serious at least.

I am a firm believer that all applications should be run natively. It
is a sad reality that there are far more commercial
applications for Linux than for any flavor of BSD. So I guess that
one sometimes can not avoid using Linux but man I wish there were
little bit more commercial applications for BSD.
Reply With Quote
Old 21st February 2009
nihonto nihonto is offline
Fdisk Soldier
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 65
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ephemera View Post
> What would be nice, is if a distro came out that clearly separated the "base" OS from the "applications", in such a way that you can install new apps without installing a new OS release (and no, "backports" repos don't cut it).

Sounds like FreeBSD with a Linux kernel.
... well, the other way round it exists:

Debian GNU/kFreeBSD

or:

Debian GNU/NetBSD

Reply With Quote
Old 21st February 2009
Oko's Avatar
Oko Oko is offline
Rc.conf Instructor
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Kosovo, Serbia
Posts: 1,102
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by nihonto View Post
... well, the other way round it exists:

Debian GNU/kFreeBSD

or:

Debian GNU/NetBSD

No, it does NOT. Those people would be well advised to take their web-sites
down as you can not just take a peace of BSD licensed software and
release it as GPL. Both projects were officially halted couple years ago
but it seems that some people will not learn their lesson until somebody takes them to court.

Last edited by Oko; 22nd February 2009 at 06:09 AM.
Reply With Quote
Old 22nd February 2009
TerryP's Avatar
TerryP TerryP is offline
Arp Constable
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: USofA
Posts: 1,547
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Oko View Post
honestly think that without proper packaging system Slack with all its qualities is just a hobbyist system.
Do remember Oko, in the early days of Linux people had to build their own OS out of bits and pieces and hex edit their boot blocks in some cases just to get a Linux system working off their hard disks.

Slackware is probably the oldest remaining distro, if anything else is close, I would have to guess it is Debian or RHEL. Slack comes from a early point in the distro-hell compared to most of the newer ones. From way back when there were few serious distro around -- and not pissing off the hobbyist was probably the most important factor. Or should I say, very very very very very very far from what Ubuntu is today, and probably from a time period where running GNU/Linux would've made running 2.9BSD or 4.2BSD on a VAX, look a quick lunch instead of a weekend project ;-)
__________________
My Journal

Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all arrays), for surely where thou typest ``foo'' someone someday shall type ``supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''.
Reply With Quote
Old 24th February 2009
joekiser joekiser is offline
The World is Yours.
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 51
Default

Debian 5.0 was nice, but kept getting a kernel panic. Something about apt-get firmware-iwlwifi causes a kernel panic on the Intel 4965. Spent a few hours trying to get a fix, but it required a kernel upgrade and downgrading firmware to a 2007 version....just garbage. I'm back on SLAMD64 for now.
Reply With Quote
Old 9th March 2009
Mr-Biscuit Mr-Biscuit is offline
Banned
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 272
Default

Debian 5.0 has problems with Xorg and older monitors. You need to add the Modes line.
The kernel needs to be upgraded upon install of the system. Some modules won't work on the newer kernel.
I've also had to make different versions of xorg.conf. Certain IGPs are not detected as they are in other distributions: Fedora, Suse or other OS's: FreeBSD.
Besides that, the good thing about debian is you still have the modular build environment if you like.
On GNU/debian KFreeBSD: These guys have made a lot of progress, why not ask some of them to work on the Linux emulation layer?
Reply With Quote
Old 25th March 2009
ninjatux's Avatar
ninjatux ninjatux is offline
Real Name: Baqir Majlisi
Spam Deminer
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Antarctica
Posts: 293
Default

I thought you could relicense BSD software under GPL.
__________________
"UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity."
MacBook Pro (Darwin 9), iMac (Darwin 9), iPod Touch (Darwin 9), Dell Optiplex GX620 (FreeBSD 7.1-STABLE)
Reply With Quote
Old 27th March 2009
Mr-Biscuit Mr-Biscuit is offline
Banned
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 272
Default

Some BSD license revisions are compatible with older GPL versions.
Because of the GPLv3, the BSD community is moving away from using gcc in the base system.
Reply With Quote
Old 28th March 2009
Carpetsmoker's Avatar
Carpetsmoker Carpetsmoker is offline
Real Name: Martin
Tcpdump Spy
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 2,243
Default

Quote:
Because of the GPLv3, the BSD community is moving away from using gcc in the base system.
It's not just the GPLv3.
The OpenBSD GCC maintainer posted a long lists of problems (misc@ I think?), but I'm unable to find it right now ...
__________________
UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things.
Reply With Quote
Old 28th May 2009
evilunixuser evilunixuser is offline
Real Name: stan broniszewski
Port Guard
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: new jersey, usa
Posts: 12
Default takeover?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Oliver_H View Post
>I would really like a more FreeBSD-like Linux distro to arise and take over the Linux world.

Slack & Arch, but the latter lacks the quality (compared to *BSD) and Slack the comfort of the ports (well there is pkgsrc but who cares ;-)). Ubuntu will take over the Linux world, but ... okay no flame
Ubuntu conquer the Linux world? I doubt RedHat would let that happen - they are the Microsoft of Linux.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Debian GNU/kFreeBSD got release status ephemera Other BSD and UNIX/UNIX-like 24 15th December 2009 01:00 AM
NetBSD 5.0 Released! Android1 NetBSD General 8 30th April 2009 09:49 PM
DragonFly BSD 2.2.1 Released! Android1 Other BSD and UNIX/UNIX-like 0 30th April 2009 12:51 PM
Debian checkinstall style functionality for pkg_create command? sysfu OpenBSD Packages and Ports 3 29th October 2008 11:06 AM
Firefox and subpixel hinting in Debian Sonic Other BSD and UNIX/UNIX-like 0 27th May 2008 01:31 PM


All times are GMT. The time now is 11:50 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Content copyright © 2007-2010, the authors
Daemon image copyright ©1988, Marshall Kirk McKusick