[NTLUG:Discuss] Debian

[Leroy Tennison]

Peter A. Koren wrote:

>Terry, you raise a good point. I have had it with the brain dead rpm
>"dependency hell". I will be switching from Mandrake to another -- or
>other -- distribution(s). I have been trying to install SciPy, the
>Scientific Python package for Linux and have run into one roadblock
>after another. After trying to set up Mandrake's URPMI install manager
>for the 6 CD Power Pack version of 10.1 by adding each disk to be
>considered a source, the manager complained that the dependency files
>were missing from some of those disks.
>
>In any case, I will be switching to Quantian Linux, a Knoppix derivative
>-- Knoppix itself being a live CD derivative of Debian. I can also
>install Quantian to the hard drive and I intend to do that. Quantian is
>one of two distributions I know of that serves the scientific and
>engineering community with distributions having a slew of appropriate --
>scientific and engineering -- applications installed by default.
>
>The other distribution that interests me is Scientific Linux, which used
>to be Fermi Linux (Fermi Labs). They have a version with 64 bit support
>that I will install on a new box that I will build. I will be at Fry's
>today to research hardware options for that box, but I will buy online.
>Scientific Linux is a Fedora based distribution and is actually Red Hat
>Enterprise Edition with the Scientific stuff added. It is currently
>Fedora 3 based. But there is apt-get support available. apt4rpm and
>Synaptic are well supported for Fedora -- unlike Mandrake (at least I
>could not find a way to do it with Mandrake).
>
>So yes, apt-get and its front end gui, Synaptic, are critical pieces,
>but even some rpm based distributions have a way to use these tools. Red
>Hat, Fedora and I Suse have support available for apt-get and Synaptic.
>
>On Tue, 2005-06-21 at 06:21 -0500, Terry wrote:
>  
>
>>While experimenting with Ubuntu just now, I ran Ubuntu's live cd on an
>>old PC and in the process, I found some files on an old drive in that
>>PC that I wanted to retrieve and thought I'd do it via scp, BUT, alas,
>>I found that Ubuntu's live CD did NOT have sshd installed.
>>[openssh-client is installed but not openssh-server] BUT, I was able
>>to use apt-get to install openssh-server, [even though it's just a
>>live CD!].
>>My question is:   
>>Is this particular to Debian and / or Ubuntu? 
>>In other words: 
>>Have I just discovered one of the cool treasures of Debian / Ubuntu? 
>>or Did I just experience yet another Linux epiphany?
>>In other words:  
>>Is this new found capability just yet another of the added advantages
>>of using apt-get?  And, it would follow, that if any live CD from any
>>other distro included apt-get installed and configured properly, one
>>could do the same thing?
>>How about another package manager? Would another package manager be
>>able to install applications to a live CD [with one single command]?
>>or....?
>>    
>>
>
>
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>
>  
>
Now I'm curious, if there are distros that aren't RPM-based:
    What do they use for "packaging"
    How do they solve the 'dependency' problem differently?
    What are the other advantages/disadvantages?