As previously noted, we've been having some hardware difficulties hereabouts. The demise of my main hard drive took the OS down with it, so after the replacement drive was in it was time to install the system anew. But I didn't just want to reinstate what I had before, I wanted shiny new powers — support for a wireless network adapter and the new digital camera. It seemed reasonable to install the most recent release of God's own operating system[1], as surely it would support my surely-not-too-ambitious needs...? Alas, it was not to be – several fruitless days later, my desired new hardware support almost worked, but not quite; the kernel stubbornly refused to acknowledge the existence of my wireless card, and gphoto snubbed my camera, refusing to see the device, even though it was right there. Recompilations, kernel tweaks – nothing helped.
With regret, I turned my back on FreeBSD, and rejoined the fold of Linux users. M. and I learned that SuSE[2] 10 was now available, and we decided that there would be administrative advantages to both of us using the same OS, so here we are on SuSE, along with other members of the internet's cognitive elite. (Jim – it's a chameleon, not a gecko.)
The one thing lacking in SuSE (and most[3] other Linux systems), from this ex-BSDer's standpoint, is decent package management. RPMs are better than a pile of tarballs, but still, the dependency checking is pitifully weak compared to the BSDs' port system, and in the past, what initially seemed like simple additions or upgrades to M.'s SuSE system turned into multi-day epics of hacker-fu[4]. I've started recompiling all the RPMs on my own system with extra dependency information to (hopefully) simplify future upgrades, but that's just a band-aid solution (and an excuse to write scripts). And what's with the lack of mplayer?
[1] Certain OSes seem to attract specific personality types. It's impossible to quantify (and may in fact be entirely in my head), but I've found I can often pick out Mac vs. Windows vs. Linux vs. BSD users after just a few minutes of interaction. FreeBSD was my perfect OS – UNIX-like without the unnecessary distractions of Linux.
[2] Regarding "SuSE" vs. "SUSE": "The name "S.u.S.E.", later shortened to just "SuSE", was originally an acronym for the German phrase "Software- und System-Entwicklung" ("Software and system development"). The company's name was changed to SUSE Linux after Novell's purchase and "SUSE" does not officially stand for anything any more." — Wikipedia. It was SuSE when I started using it and damned if I'm going to change now.
[3] Debian and Gentoo are exceptions. But people who use those distributions are just weird. (See footnote 1.)
[4]Possibly, the Yellow Dog Updater may help alleviate this problem. I haven't looked into it yet.
RPMs suck, but Debian based systems have good package management. With debian unstable, you type `apt-get install ` and it almost always just works (when you do a massive upgrade of 800 or so packages, 2 or 3 of them may have problems, to give you an idea). With Debian stable, it *always* (at least in my experience), just works, although you have to put up with less than bleeding edge software. I don't have any experience with FreeBSD, because it choked on my hardware, but I can't imagine that it's much better. Unless I'm totally blind, I just don't see much room for improvement.
Bottom line is, comparing RPM to apt is like comparing Michael Jordan to the Star Wars kid.
(and yes, Debian users are often assholes. Nothing's perfect in life.)
Posted by: rps on January 14, 2006 01:56 PM
David - Thanks for the correction. I've updated the post. Myabe I should have paid more attention to those Geico insurance commercials.
Posted by: Jim Miller on January 15, 2006 07:53 AM
Jim - no problem. Rps - I did think about Debian, but I figured for my hardware support I needed something close to bleeding edge. (Maybe that's an inherent drawback of better package management — the lag time needed to completely incorporate changes can be considerable.)
Just this morning I've already had my first RPM D'oh! moment: trying to install R, I get:
grond:/home/dcf # rpm -i R-base-2.2.0-0.i586.rpm
error: Failed dependencies:
libblas.so.3 is needed by R-base-2.2.0-0
libgfortran.so.0 is needed by R-base-2.2.0-0
Posted by: David Fleck on January 15, 2006 08:50 AM
I like the tarballs. I don't like my computer to do things without me knowing it. Else we might as well switch to Windows and have the computer tell you, "You need the latest release of BloatSpySoft so that UselessOp can run 0.0001% faster. I'm going to get it now, so you just sit there until I'm done. Oh, and if you could squeal like a pig, that would help."
Do you have a 32-bit or a 64-bit machine? My foray into the wonderful world of 64-bit computing is chronicled here.
One of the reasons I was excited about getting a new computer is that it would come with all kinds of snazzy multimedia players. And it does. And none of them work.
By the way, I'm typing this on my old computer. Why? I have no idea.
Posted by: Angie Schultz on January 15, 2006 10:47 AM
One of the reasons I was excited about getting a new computer is that it would come with all kinds of snazzy multimedia players. And it does. And none of them work.
Yeah, Suse excels here. You got yer kaffeine, you got yer xanim, you got yer noatun, yadda yadda yadda, and they deliver...bupkis! (In earlier, pre-Novell Suse versions, mplayer did actually work nicely...And the CDs no longer come with Kstars - gotta go fetch.)
Posted by: Moira on January 16, 2006 04:20 PM