kpa said:
Debian, I won't even consider anything else. Now that I have become more familiar with FreeBSD I wish Linux would adopt the same clear distinction between the core operating system (base in FreeBSD) and 3rd party software (ports).
For me personally I've always hated having multiple update ways in BSD. I use FreeBSD and PC-BSD and I like it, but when it comes to updates and patches... Wellllll... freebsd-update is a step in the right direction, but when a Port needs to get patched because there is a security flaw in one, I can't stand it.
I have a lot of old machines because I simply can't afford to buy everything new, and all but one of my boxes, are single core Processor machines with ... Other than my new machine, and one that has 768 MBs of RAM, they all have 512 MBs or less of RAM, and only 3 are above 733 MHz Processors.
Patching security in Ports for me is generally going to take long enough that I can't most of the time. I run Debian on one machine that I use as a secondary Desktop / Workstation, which means I use it to check email with about 4 different clients (I'm picky and have a lot of stuff to check, and multiple accounts for whatever I use it for, such as personal accounts for family and friends, a few for mailing lists, and other stuff) and then some web browsing, and then I use it also to make most of my music with LMMS, and then LAME to turn that into an MP3 to upload on Myspace so people can hear it since I don't own a radio station, and then I use it for other stuff too. It has two hard drives; The 80 GB one it came with that has XP Home on it, and then the 160 GB drive I installed with Debian. Rarely boot into Windows.
My Laptop runs currently a version of Slackware that's modified, and I use it for basically whatever.
My FTP server runs Slackware 12.2, and I like that because, well, it doesn't need much, I don't use X on it, and log in mostly over SSH.
These things may not be the bottom of the line in terms of speed, but they're for sure dated. And for me to upgrade Ports, on stuff like that.... A cell phone would probably be faster most of the time, and the way Ports work, and how they are "separate" from the base system I can update with "freebsd-update" means I have to sit there for a LONG time. The last time I did a Port upgrade, it took like a week, and since I was fairly knew to it, I ended up having to reinstall because it didn't all work right.
I'd LOVE to have a tool that updated everything. In Debian, it's this:
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
Done.
In Slackware, I can do a couple of things. I've used slapt-get before, and swaret a lot, and slackpkg works fine too, and I've also just downloaded each patch by hand with wget and upgraded them by hand, which was really easy too:
upgradepkg *.tgz
Done.
The FreeBSD system, would take a LONG time. I don't set compile time options because I'm not a programmer, don't really care about that stuff, and usually leave things as is when they get installed other than Window Managers that I may configure a certain way or something. But as for compiling, well, like I said, I'm no coder by any means, and I don't really WANT to sit there telling it how I want it compiled.
When I first started using FreeBSD, I was totally confused why the Security Mailing List was telling me to compile patches and reboot, and why freebsd-update didn't update ports, and when I learned how it did, I was like WTF, why is this so time consuming? I couldn't understand why anyone would want to do that, and as I got older, I started realizing why it has a benefit to it, but at the same time, for someone like me, or the average user, there really isn't many things that would make anyone who is just using their computer for web surfing want to actually spend that long to do that.
I think once someone does a system that upgrades / patches the whole system with one tool, it will be a LOT easier getting people to use FreeBSD instead of Linux. It's hard enough getting someone using Windows to try Linux where updates can be shown in the tray, or you have a tool like Yast, Yast2, or MCC from Mandriva, and the others, like APT, that grab all your updates for you and install them while you get Coffee or something, and then maybe a reboot if you updated the Kernel, and then you're done, to want to do what it takes to upgrade Opera, or Pidgin. I would LOVE for that to happen in BSD.
I'm not aware of anything that does this, and I'm actually reading through some of the docs right now because, well, it's been a while, but as far as I know, other than the Base system, the Ports still need to be upgraded all at once, and it takes a LONG time.
