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On 08/04/11 20:09, Rob Beard wrote: > On 08/04/11 19:02, Simon Waters wrote: >> On 08/04/11 17:01, Neil Winchurst wrote: >>> >>> Mint Xfce which is based on Debian. >> >> Aren't most distros are based on Debian these days? >> > > Nope, there are distros based on Gentoo, some on CentOS (which in turn > is based on RedHat Enterprise Linux), some on Slackware (interestingly > it seems that originally SuSE was based on Slackware, I thought it was > based on RedHat). I know all that I just assumed from what I'd seen in terms of numbers that Debian derivatives had proliferated to the ends of the earth. Seems I underestimated the number of people prepared to rebrand Redhat Enterprise Linux as their own :) > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions > > (It's actually an interesting list) Very interesting, although some of the derivations look a little strained. I was probably remembering this article... http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3926941/Linux-Leaders-Debian-and-Ubuntu-Derivative-Distros.htm >> There was a Debian Pure Blends project, which I can seem a good idea to >> me, I was involved in something similar at one point before Pure Blends >> (which didn't get very far alas). > > Interesting, never heard of that one. Debian are also creating a Derivatives team to try and get more stuff back into the core. http://wiki.debian.org/Derivatives >> I don't quite get the idea of derivatives of Debian which are free >> software, I can kind of understand Debian plus multimedia drivers or >> Debian plus Adobe and Java type distros. In many cases I think the >> effort would be better spent improving Debian, forking is sometimes >> helpful but most of the time it just means more time and effort spent >> duplicating what already exists (bug trackers, mailing lists, etc). That >> said some of the "forked" distros are little more than Debian plus a >> small repository and that kind of makes sense in a Debian doesn't do >> what I need way. >> > > You mean like gNewsense? Isn't that based on Ubuntu but completely free? I mean like gNewsense, Ubuntu, Mint, ..... I don't see much value add in another general purpose or desktop distro. I appreciate businesses need some branding and apparent value add. gNewsense 3 is planned to be based on Debian because Debian marks its free software better (basically it is trivial to do a completely free Squeeze install). gNewsense had at least an ethical imperative "be free", although they complain about a Debian bug fixed 2 year ago and a few other things (all fixed). I can't help thinking perhaps that could have been done inside Debian with less duplicated effort. > At first I think it might have been ease of use, ease of installation > etc... I think ease of installation was big, and Ubuntu did do better hardware detection but that edge didn't last long, but probably for Ubuntu free CD shipping helped enormously in the early days. In my opinion the single hardest task on Debian installs with Sarge and Etch was burning yourself an install CD, and the documentation was terrible (Debian have basically fixed these things now, although it could probably be better still). It wasn't that the steps themselves were hard it was that the documentation and steps in getting from "I'd like to try Debian" to "I have a bootable CD for my PC" were just rather arcane and long winded. Of course if you knew someone who'd done it before, or who could explain the basics, or who'd ship you a CD, it was easy. > But now, well with all the changes going on with Unity I've pretty much > turned my back on Ubuntu and use Mint. I've had some real show stopping > issues with Ubuntu in the past, it just seemed like they wanted to rush > it out the door. There's been a few times I've found Ubuntu just didn't > work out of the box on hardware, but other times worked fine. Usually > it was on an obscure mix of hardware, and usually when I was installing > it for a newbie! We'll always hit that when installing OS on random hardware - try hard not to do it! I've had similar issues with Microsoft Windows and painful driver installs. If the drivers aren't there or aren't reasonably tested you are going to have a battle. Probably why embedded linux devices like Android do so well.... -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq