[LUAU] Fedora or Debian

R. Scott Belford scott at belford.net
Sun May 23 12:01:00 PDT 2004


Richard wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'd like to hear some technical advice on the
> comparison of Fedora and Debian. If I want to mainly
> run network applications, what package should I use?
> GUI is not critical to me.
> 

Both are community developed projects.  Each embodies the same 
philosophy of Open Source Development.  Comparing the two distributions 
requires the consideration of their respective release schedules.

Debian produces a stable distribution.  To get a package to stable, it 
must first work its way through the unstable branch, then the testing 
branch, then stable.  The last stable release came out two years ago. 
This can be a misnomer, though.  The "testing" and "unstable" branches 
of Debian have many of the same packages as a Fedora release, but the 
Debian developers do not consider them mature or tested enough for a 
Stable, Production Quality Distribution.

Fedora produces an evolving distribution.  Its bi-annual releases 
integrate the most stable form of the newest packages available.  It is 
a bit of a testing platform through which RedHat can best evaluate which 
packages are ready for its Enterprise release.  Once upon a time, RedHat 
released numbered versions, often several times a year.  Deciding which 
release was stable or appropriate for you or your business was 
difficult, and the life of respective releases was undetermined.

You should ask yourself what you want to do with your server.  You will 
find a great set of tools and features in Fedora that are available 
through the command line or a GUI.  You will find that the non-gui 
install of debian, while simple, can intimidate some.  Getting X11 to 
work with debian stable can be a challenge for some.

I run Debian stable on my home servers, and I install it for POS 
customers for running their proprietary POS apps like Counterpoint. 
Rock solid, headless, and uptimes are ended only by prolonged power 
outages.  I run Debian testing on my iBooks.  I want the "newer" stuff, 
like KDE 3.x, so I go with testing for these less demanding installations.

Many people on this list run Fedora.  It is fun, it is new, it was 
inspired by a local student, Warren Togami, and it creates some Hawaiian 
pride for everyone.  For a hobbyist or an open source enthusiast, it is 
fun and exciting to use, it seems, for most.

The primary criticism of Debian Stable is that the packages are old. 
Most of these critics are incapable of stating the technical merits of 
the "newer" packages they profess to crave.  I prefer, for stability and 
reliability, to go with the least common denominator, so to speak.

Hopefully this helps without fanning the ideaological flames of our more 
dogmatic users.  You have a lot of choices, and hopefully others will 
share their own opinions on the matter.

Perhaps you should state what Network Apps you intend to run in order to 
shape the discussion along the lines of each distribution's version of 
the Apps you want.

> Thanks,
> R

my pleasure

--scott



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