Re: mc Digest, Vol 85, Issue 2

[chris glur <crglur gmail com>]

> I don't know why people bother so much about what is installed by default
> and what is not. Isn't it better to decide yourself what you want? In
> Debian, you can create preseed? file once and later use it every time you
> have to use an installer (i.e. when you buy new hardware) or create your
> own install CD using live-build (or its online frontend?  if you don't
> have access to Debian) - I'm sure other distros have similar solutions.

Has Debian really solved the dependancy problem of incremental installation,
with their 'apt' project? I've been using mostly the RedHatFamily since
my ISP told me that I'd have to buy Win95, to replace Win3.
Recently I got the full 5 DVDs of Debian [lenny] in order to have a
kernel:2.6 version, for better USB handling.

Because we NEVER allow new/unproven stuff to mess our old working systems,
I tried to do an incremental installation of Debian. And it's frustrating
that it doesn't install mc by default, when you've been using 'NC' since
[was it] the '70s. The 'aptitude' <package handler> seems a disaster.

I eventually installed Slak13, to get the USB facilities.
Even there, when I tried to do a partial install, it failed, and the old
hands wrote "if you don't know what you're doing, better install everything"
[including the japanese poetry analyser]. The TRUTH is that linux has become
so bloated, that only one 'combination of packages' can be substantially
TESTED; which is obviously the <full installation>.

One reason why I prefer Slak to Debian, is that, as an engineer, I
want amental model,
of the process, which Slak give,
 and not just pressA, pressB, pressC instuctions, and especially
I don't like to see computers say "please". The 'little man in the box who
undertands near english' paradigm, is inappropriate.

== Chris Glur.