Open Discussion - RedHat vs Debian

[M. David Minnigerode]

On Thu, 2002-04-04 at 18:18, tengel wrote:
> Ok, I don't tend to join many "mine is bigger than yours" discussions, but somehow I'm feeling like responding.  I'll probably regret it.  But anyways, here goes:
> 
> On Thu, Apr 04, 2002 at 01:08:35PM -0800, Caleb Clark wrote:
> > 
> > 1.	Install - less cooky, to me debian was much smoother
> 
> I would tend to disagree, and this is a matter of choice -- the debian install asks too many questions, wants too many answers, and requires too much attention for my personal taste.
> 
> I consider myself rather experienced -- I've built dozens of redhat boxes, so this leads into a non-trivial discussion of "well, how do you know what tool is doing what?" and so on.  Simply, I know what everything I need does by default, and know what I have to change post-install.
> 
> With a RH72 install, I can rip through the initial setup (text based), select/deselect all the packages I want, and have it on it's way in 15mins.  I can then walk away and do something else without worrying if it's going to pause and ask me inane questions like "how do you want to configure exim?". Please.
> 
> Post install, it's trivial to finish that stuff up (more below).
> 
>
I would have to agree with Troy  about the install... This thread got me
itching to try debian again. I pulled out some 2.2r3 disks i had around
and gave it a try.  A couple of big issues for me were:

Debian: cfdisk  vs. Redhat: diskdruid

diskdruid does the partitioning, assignment of mounts, and will even let
you set up software raids.  No contest for me.  Some pointing and
drooling and I've got things the way i want them very quickly.


Hardware detection:

This IS linux so i don't really expect too much here.  But it's a big
deal for me that debian doesn't automatically pick up the ethernet
cards.  RedHat finds them and gives me one screen to fill interface
info.  Most of which is autofilled as I type. This saves a ton of
headaches if you have a lot of machines with an assortment of network
cards.

Also, I >like< that the boot process includes a search for new/removed
hardware.  Get a new device. slap it into the machine. poweron and get
it configed with very little effort.


As far as post install configuration goes using kickstart files can save
a lot of time.  Kickstart files are config files that the RH installer
uses to select the packages it will install. The kickstart files can
also include user written scripts for post install configuration.

Getting a consistant install is as simple as booting off the rh cd and
at the lilo prompt doing:

linux ks=nfs:<server>:/<path>/intranet-server-ks.cfg 

Then walking away.



I would be supprised if there is not something similar to kickstart in
Debian land.  But so far the promise of apt-get hasn't got me past these
types of installer issues. Perhaps r5 improves  these things?



dave


-- 
---------------------------------
M. David Minnigerode
Gemteq Software Inc.
minniger at gemteq.com
415/899-8111
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