InstallFest decisions

Enter Red Hat:

Speaking from experience (as a newbie) I lurked this list for some time
before choosing a distro. From this list, I decided that Red Hat was one of
the (if not the) most newbie friendly (with MS background) distro available.
Given the fact that I installed Red Hat from CD with no one holding my hand
(as in InstallFest), I feel I made the right choice.

Actually, I got to install RH several times (learning curve) as some early
choices proved less than wise. Living in newbie land, not knowing how to
fix my errors, I just blew the whole thing away and re-installed with
partition, format and all.

Therefore, for a stand alone (little of no help) I am comfortable
recommending RH.

However, Every now and again, one of RH's functions just seems to decide to
do nothing (no error messages). The most recent if the Red Hat Network
(up2date). As of yesterday, I get an email telling me that I should update.
When I go to that menu selection "Start" (the Red Hat) - "System Tools" -
Red Hat Network" the system does nothing. Granted, it does nothing very
quickly but none the less it does nothing.

Enter Debian:

If I were at an InstallFest (as in the next one), where a Debian type will
help with (as in do) the install, I would eagerly accept Debian as my distro
choice. In fact, I plan to arrive at the next InstallFest with boxen in
hand seeking Debian.

Conclusion:

If we are going to hand out CD sets (to newbies) with a document (check
list) covering the decision points (I have just such a check list for RH
8.0), I vote for Red Hat.

If we are going to install (for the newbie) and teach how to update (apt-get
I think), I vote for Debian. BTW, a presentation on how to update under
Debian might make a good presentation.

Do we get to vote on this???

YMMV

George

-----Original Message-----
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 00:44:55 -0700 (MST)
From: "der.hans" <PLUGd@LuftHans.com>
Subject: Re: InstallFest decisions

Am 11. Sep, 2003 schw=E4tzte Alan Dayley so:

> Well, not having used Debian I may be blowing hot air here, but it
> doesn't have the reputation for a newbie distro. Nor can I usually walk

This is for the install, which is why they're showing up to the InstallFest=
=2E
Once installed debian, I believe, has the best features for what newbies
need.

Maybe having apt-get and similar packages for Red Hat ( or other distros )
will tip the scale.

Features I think the distro needs, in no particular order:

1. security only feed
2. easy to use upgrade device that works and automagically gets dependencie=
s
3. stable
4. a good desktop environment

1 is important. newbies should only worry about security updates until
they're a little more familiar with GNU/Linux. It would be best if we could
have a way to automagically get and install security updates. Maybe do it
via a big red button on their desktop.

2 is important for 1 and is important as they transition to mediumbies or
find new packages they want/need.

3 is obviously important :).

4 is also obviously important for newbies.

I think it's also good if the distro has a good upgrade path and a track
record of that working.

The apps not being as stale as the c-rations is also a good thing :).

ciao,

der.hans