Debian is my distribution of choice. I ran Debian stable for about a year, and have added testing and unstable packages to my install in the past 3 months. Debian's strengths include: apt-get method of installing software, the huge software library, stability, and community.
Debian forces you to understand your system and software. It can be hard to configure, especially the first few times you try to install things like sound, printing, and SAMBA. However, the base system that gets installed is fully useable (though the installation is still one of the harder ones). Furthermore, I believe that many of these issues will be remedied by the next release (which we are due for). The 2.6 kernel should make some things (eg sound setup, usb support) easier, as will the new installer. Debian will may never be the Gnu/Linux distribution to introduce to your average Windows user. Right now, Debian can be your first Gnu/Linux if you are willing to learn a lot of things over a long time (sometimes the hard way) and be very persistant. I expect the next release to vastly improve this situation.
Apt-get is a beautiful thing. Once you have your sources file set up properly, you simply apt-get install SoftwareX. Wait while it is downloaded, installed, and configured. Answer a question or two about how you would like the software to behave. Then it's installed. Easy. Dselect is even better; it shows you conflicts and suggested extras with your desired software. Apt is so good, it has been ported to rpm based systems (redhat, fedora, etc) and reimplemented on Gentoo. Finally, the default software library contains thousands and thousands of applications and utilities. Independent resources increase that number. All supported by the Debian community.
With Debian, you get to choose how close to the bleeding edge you want to be. If you are building a server and you need a rock-solid stable system, install the vanilla stable system. apt-get upgrade after you have the base system installed, and all available security updates to all your software will be installed. Nice server. If you want to be closer to the bleeding edge, without bleeding to death, the testing version is for you. No security updates, but this software is much more current, and therefore ought to be more secure itself. Finally, Debian also maintains unstable sources, which is the newest of the new. This will keep you current with many software releases.
Last, a parting shot. Knoppix is based on Debian, so you see some of the potential for this distribution. It can go as far as the community is willing to take it.
How To Set (Or Reset) Initial Terminal Colors?
How To Set the Time Zone?
See our index for more reviews
Write a review and win an Apple Ipod
