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I hate Debian
Apr. 22nd, 2005 12:29 pmAs I deal with a Debian box more and more, I find more and more things that are *)!@*(# with the distribution itself.
First, the header files for libraries are split away from the libraries themselves. For those who have experience compiling from source, this is not kosher. Debian seems to take this to the extreeme and split various programs away and into their own package. I mean, you need to keep Cyrus-IMAP together, not split it into five different packages!!! ( On the other hand, splitting KDE up in fifty different packages is a good idea. Going very fine grained isn't. )
Second, some of the headers are in the wrong place. Most libraries register with "pkgconfig" or have their own "lib/program-config" script. Most programs using GNU's autoconfig can search for all this mess in a configure script. Find one that you need to edit Makefiles, and prepare to tear your hair (or headfur) out trying to find out where Debian put anything.
Third, guess where the documentation (not man pages) is for each package. No, it's not in /usr/doc. There's little stuff on /usr/share/doc. Guess what, it's not on the server itself! I've had to pull source code just to get the docs I needed.
And fourth, the programs they do provide are )*!@#( OLD! Cyrus-imapd is at 1.5.10 there while the latest stable release is 2.2.x! I also hear that MPlayer keeps getting patched and broken in Debian. Damnit, Debian, I don't want geriatric code when I need something in a new release!
I'm glad Slackware and Gentoo keeps things up to date.
First, the header files for libraries are split away from the libraries themselves. For those who have experience compiling from source, this is not kosher. Debian seems to take this to the extreeme and split various programs away and into their own package. I mean, you need to keep Cyrus-IMAP together, not split it into five different packages!!! ( On the other hand, splitting KDE up in fifty different packages is a good idea. Going very fine grained isn't. )
Second, some of the headers are in the wrong place. Most libraries register with "pkgconfig" or have their own "lib/program-config" script. Most programs using GNU's autoconfig can search for all this mess in a configure script. Find one that you need to edit Makefiles, and prepare to tear your hair (or headfur) out trying to find out where Debian put anything.
Third, guess where the documentation (not man pages) is for each package. No, it's not in /usr/doc. There's little stuff on /usr/share/doc. Guess what, it's not on the server itself! I've had to pull source code just to get the docs I needed.
And fourth, the programs they do provide are )*!@#( OLD! Cyrus-imapd is at 1.5.10 there while the latest stable release is 2.2.x! I also hear that MPlayer keeps getting patched and broken in Debian. Damnit, Debian, I don't want geriatric code when I need something in a new release!
I'm glad Slackware and Gentoo keeps things up to date.
