Re: BDI candidate...

[Paul <paul-at-bdiemc.fslife.co.uk>]

I am fast gaining a *real* dislike for RPM packaging in general, and Red Hat 
in particular. The principles behind RPMs are great - Having a list of 
dependencies built in, and the ability to declare the functions that are 
provided (in a meta-data header) is usefull. two things let the rpm thing 
down.
1) No standard for the required/provided dependencies, and circular 
dependecies allowed.
2) Red Hat can, and indeed has already done so, change the rpm program and 
remove compatapility with earlier versions. i.e. rpm-Ver_3 can not use 
rpm-Ver_4 generated packages.

What are the alternatives ? Debian is stable and well respected, and has 
better control over the meta-data headers. Installing is not for the faint 
hearted or the true green newbie (it even scares me).

RPM based distros such as Mandrake, Altlinux, SuSE, and others, share the 
same basic problem as Red Hat. Most of the mainstream distros have an easy to 
use GUI installer with reliable hardware detection.

Source based distros, Gentoo, Sorcerer, Arch, (LFS if you really want to be a 
masochist) all require a degree of Linux knowledge, and certainly do not 
qualify for the BDI tag.

Did try out slackware several years ago on a DOS partition. How easy it is to 
install or use noe, I can not comment.

Finally, there are the growing number of Live CD distros - Some are hand 
built from picking over the file system of a real box. Others have their 
roots in the Debian system. A great way of distributing a demo, full of 
pitfalls to maintain, and for the end user to upgrade, difficult without 
knowledge of Linux.

A final nail in future RH based BDI discs is their intent to reduce the 
"product life" of each major release (I believe, around one year), and stop 
supporting older releases shortly after. At the end of the day, RH are a 
business and need to maximize their revenue streams. Possibly the reason 
behind the plethora of EULA texts on the current CDs.

I have no desire to start an evils-of-RPM vs evils-of-Deb or source vs live 
CD debate - There will be a new BDI at NAMES, along with BDI-2.xx & TNG, and 
that is all I will say on the subject for now.

Regards, Paul.



On Thursday 27 March 2003 8:36 pm, Scott Holmes wrote:
> I know I've seen other recommendations for BDI installations, I like the
> idea of a Redhat based BDI because it's where most people seem to start
> with Linux, and it tends to scare fewer people off.

-- 

"To err is human...to really f*** things up requires the root password."
>From a collection of quotes at http://www.indigo.org/quotes.html