Am I making Debian harder than it actually is?

[bmbeeman]

from what I have installed on my computer, it looks like Debian came with a lot of out-of-date packages and it didn't come with a battery power indicator like some other distros I've tried (is it easy to install one?) I'm begining to think it's going to be hard to maintain a Debian system, am I justified?

[chopin1810]

Well, I don't like Debian very well. But that's just opinion. Realize that the Debian stable release is notorious for having lots of out of date packages. If new packages mean more to you than stability then you should try the unstable release. As for ease of use, I hope you're not using Woody. Debian is really much easier to maintain than it used to be, and much easier than Slackware for sure. Setup is easier than Windows XP's because even Windows will confuse the user with partition jargon.

[bidi]

Debian Sarge doesn't come with any up-to-date packages. It's Debian's stable tree and will usually have the most stable software. To get a little bit more up-to-date packages you will need to switch to the testing tree. It's not hard at all. You'll need to edit "/etc/apt/source.list". I can't remember what it looks like, but everywhere it says "stable", you just replace with "testing". There should be some intructions on the Debian website.

EDIT: Don't try the unstable tree unless you absolutely know what you're doing. Testing is your best bet if you want decent stability with up-to-date packages.

[chopin1810]

Though even the testing release has been criticized for out of date packages. Maybe the Debian development team is just too stability minded.
I haven't had great experiance with Debian. I've got some pretty easy to detect hardware that Debian just got stumped on. So if the stable release doesn't work for you, chances are that the entire Debian project won't work for you: stable has out of date packages, and unstable is, well, just plain unstable.

[junkman4547]

Adding to what Bidi said, if you want more up-to-date packages

add this to your /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free

after adding this line, run

#apt-get update

[Vergil83]

it depends on what desktop environment you are using (for the battery power light)

all you will need to do is

apt-get install program_name

[jjmac]

bmbeeman

>>
from what I have installed on my computer, it looks like Debian came with a lot of out-of-date packages and it didn't come with a battery power indicator like some other distros I've tried (is it easy to install one?) I'm begining to think it's going to be hard to maintain a Debian system, am I justified?
>>

No, not really ... you just havn't got a handle on deb as yet. It isn't really a distro, it's a proof of concept that provides a distribution as being the expression of that concept. Have a read over the documentation on www.debian.org -=- they can explain it best.

With deb, you just install any image you can access the read up on apt and eventually ...

apt-get update
apt-get install package
or
apt-get upgrade

depends on your time/bandwidth.

Comparisions to the comercial distros don't weight bcause of the sharp philosophical differences involved. Though it is very common for people to do that.

>>
I'm begining to think it's going to be hard to maintain a Debian system
>>

apt-get will make it easy, but again -=- you need to read over the associated documentation, and set up your /etc/apt/sources.list file correctly.

chopin1810 -=-=-

Out of date can be a deceptive term. Some "up-to-date" packages, sw suites can be quite buggy, so stability does take time.

Good to hear someone that actually states that it's their opinion. After all, all suggestions/advice often just boil down to that. Good on ya

>>
I've got some pretty easy to detect hardware that Debian just got stumped on
>>

Notice that your using Nvidia, deb dosen't support nvidia as it breaks licencing policy. Maybe that was were it failed. A hassel to be sure -=- but part of what deb is about. Not sure how a person would fix that. The drivers are available but would need installing seperatly.


bidl -=-=-

>>
Debian Sarge doesn't come with any up-to-date packages.
>>

Not quite, out of 2 dvd 14 cdroms of sw, you will find some that are.


jm

[psic]

I consider Debian one of the best distros out there as far as productivity is concerned. I'm using Gentoo right now and loving it, but Debian is a really great OS. Sure, the packages are not the newest, but with the stable branch you know they will work. For years on end if need be. Debian stable is still much newer than windows XP

Maintaining debian is... well, very simple to say the least. Apt-get is awsome. If you prefer point-and-click over the command line just "apt-get install synaptic", which will install Synaptic, a great front end to apt.

[farslayer]

I run Debian unstable on my desktop and It's been anything but unstable.. a package occasionally breaks after an update, or a dependancy isn't fullfilled occasionally so it holds a package back. since it's just my desktop I wait a day or 2 and apt-get update && apt-get upgrade again and it's usually fixed. this has only happened a couple times.

you didn't mention what type of laptop you have, there is a special package for the Dell inspiron 8000 series other than that I would recommend you check out gkrellm. This app can monitor your CPU, temp, laptop battery, network, and much much more.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/...m/gkrellm.html

apt-get update
apt-get install gkrellm gkrellm-ibam

apt-cache search gkrellm to see the list of plugin modules available for gkrellm (such as the dell laptop plugin I mentioned earlier)

[bmbeeman]

I run Debian unstable on my desktop and It's been anything but unstable.. a package occasionally breaks after an update, or a dependancy isn't fullfilled occasionally so it holds a package back. since it's just my desktop I wait a day or 2 and apt-get update && apt-get upgrade again and it's usually fixed. this has only happened a couple times.

you didn't mention what type of laptop you have, there is a special package for the Dell inspiron 8000 series other than that I would recommend you check out gkrellm. This app can monitor your CPU, temp, laptop battery, network, and much much more.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/...m/gkrellm.html

apt-get update
apt-get install gkrellm gkrellm-ibam

apt-cache search gkrellm to see the list of plugin modules available for gkrellm (such as the dell laptop plugin I mentioned earlier)

I'm running Debian on an old iBook
http://www.lowendmac.com/pb2/ibook-se2.shtml

Hope this link helps, I really don't know where to look for a package that wil help my problem.