Distro discusion

[Gene Collins]

Kirk, http://www.linuxdoc.org/ is your documentation friend!  There are
very explicit howtos out there for hardware and various software. 
Debian also follows the Sys V. init style.  The thing I find most
helpful about Debian is that the apt-get installation program manages
software dependentcies for you very nicely.  If you upgrade gcc for
example, apt-get will also upgrade the appropriate libraries.

Gene

>Personally, the biggest thing that I believe is important on a
>distribution is good documentation on where files are placed. Having said
>that, I think it is past time for the distributions to discuss this and
>commit to following a standard (or two). Certainly there will be
>differences in such things as init scripts. After all Slackware uses a BSD
>style init (more or less) while RedHat uses a SystemV ini (more or less).
>
>There are advantages to both of them, and that isn't the point. The thing
>is that RedHat does place some config files in strange places. If there
>was one place to put a given file it would make Linux overall
>stronger. There could still be room for each to do its thing for
>improvement. (For instance once you say that all init scripts will reside
>in rc.d you can choose to follow the redhat method of a directory for each
>run level and one for the actual scripts. Or you could decide to place
>them all in the /etc/rc.d dir.)
>
>Actually, documentation is the biggest weakness I see in Linux. The fact
>is that much of the documentation is great if you already know what your
>doing. Some of it is great, and some is lousy. Sometimes knowing whre to
>look though can be a major task in the first place. One master document
>giving direction on where to look for all network functions would be
>nice. One covering all disk subsystems would also go a long way.
>
>-- 
>Kirk Wood
>Cpt.Kirk at 1tree.net
>------------------
>
>Seek simplicity -- and distrust it.
>		Alfred North Whitehead
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Speakup mailing list
>Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
>http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup