Chris Baker wrote:
> I don't know what your level of expertise is. Please accept my apology if
> you already know this.
>
> The two particular distributions you mentioned are pretty different. Debian
> basically started as its own branch of distribtuion, and other distributions
> like Ubuntu and Mepis are derived from it. CentOS is derivative of RedHat.
>   

To clarify, CentOS is not just a derivative of RedHat, but a binary 
compatible clone, with different trademarks.

> Most disributions come from one of these two branches.
>   

Heh.  If you don't count Suse, Mandriva, Slackware, Arch...  Perhaps I'm 
just being argumentative.  If so, I apologize.

> For me, the top virtue of Debian is that it gives you a very basic install.
> You get the command line and a few packages. Then, you have to add
> everything else. What this means is that the latest version of Debian will
> actually work pretty well on a machine that has only 512 MB of memory.
>
> Package managers are different on both. CentOS uses the RPM (Redhat Package
> Manager), while Debian uses APT. I think APT works much better. Debian
> definitely resolves dependencies much better than others.
>   

CentOS uses YUM (Yellowdog Updater, Modified) for package management.  
Saying CentOS uses RPM is like saying Debian uses dpkg.  While I would 
certainly agree that APT is a better package manager than RPM, I prefer 
YUM to APT.  Your mileage may vary.

> One other person mentioned Gentoo. It's got a very good reputation for being
> lean and efficient. Gentoo users love Gentoo. The downside is that the
> install compiles from source and take a long time. I don't have personal
> experience with Gentoo. If you are an experienced Linux user, go ahead and
> try Gentoo. If you are a beginning Linux user, I don't recommend it.
>
> More and more, it seems like trying on Linux distributions is like trying on
> new suits. Some fit for some people, others fit for other people.
>
> Chris Baker -- cbaker AT intera DOT com
> systems administrator
> INTERA -- 512-425-2006

Chris


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