input needed on Debian

[Gary]

On Fri, Dec 19, 2003 at 09:55:54PM -0800 or thereabouts, Ken Moffat wrote:
> Gary wrote:
> >I spent a lot of time with RH, and switched back to SUSE about 8 months
> >ago, It is fine, excellent distro. I was thinking about moving some
> >personal desktops, and maybe a mail/dns server or two over to Debian.
> >Don't want Fedora as an offering, not a test bed for RH's enterprise, for
> >me, plus poor life cycle. So, I was thinking about Debian..
> >
> >Woody is the stable version, Sarge their testing v.. It seems to me that
> >one of the disadvantages of Debian is that Woody uses older versions of
> >programs. If I use the newer Sarge, from what I understand, Deb does not
> >support security updates on Sarge, only Woody... Is this true?
> >
> >Any input / thoughts appreciated.

> I'd recommend woody for a server. The app versions are older but rock 
> solid and there are frequent security updates.

Good point. I have a few mail/dns servers which I admin remotely, hence
my interest in the ease of apt-get updates. My only 'history' with Debian
was with Progeny, while it was alive. This was the fastest, most
responsive distro I have ever used. I was very impressed with it. 
 
> As for testing, it's very stable also. Programs are frequently updated, 
> so security updates go with the routine program updates.

I did not know that, makes sense. 

> I run Libranet, a Debian based distro, which is a mix of the testing and 
> unstable branches. Nice install and good admin utility.

I will check this out. I have heard of it, but have not looked at it. Will
do, thanks.

> Personally, for Debian desktops, I'd give unstable a try for the 
> personal machines. It's quite up to date and not really unstable, no 
> matter what it's called.

Good call, thanks. 

> You might give Slackware a look also, at least for the server, if not 
> for everything. They have a couple of "apt-get" like utilities if 
> upgrading is a hassle for you. There are up to date packages available 
> for slack, it installs very lean, making it very responsive.

Have not checked out Slackware either.. Yes, I was interested in the ease
of use of upgrading as above. I previously had my servers running RH, and
used apt-get for upgrading, which was a breeze. I moved a few over to
FreeBSD, and that has worked well. I was impressed with their TCP/IP
stacks, and memory management. It seems to integrate well to a mixed M$
LAN, with Netware, etc.. I have one server running SUSE, and use it for my
main desktop too on my home LAN. It's hard to describe, but I think I am
in need of a change, and the Debian based distro may be the answer.. Maybe
I just have an 'itch.'

Thank you Ken for your great info. 


-- 
Gary