I hate Debian

[strredwolf]

As 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.

Comments

[kazriko.livejournal.com]

As far as the Old part, try Ubuntu instead. The main reason Debian is old is because GPL Politics have held up the new release for a year. Ubuntu is debian without that problem. You're probably using stable (sanest course for a production server) so what you have is a release that is frozen at 3 years ago with only security updates in that time.

As far as the -dev packages. What if you're trying to build an extremely stripped down system with no GCC? My firewall was that way. In those cases you would never, ever want the -dev packages. They would be an annoyance and waste of space in fact. Debian lets you install as much or as little as you want. Yes, it's an annoyance. But basically if you're going to all the trouble of building a tarball, on slackware system you'd have to go get all of the packages it relies on and compile them too. With Debian, you just have to look at its dependency list and get the appropriate -dev packages. Gentoo is a different story, but it still would end up taking longer than Debian.

As far as cyrus splitting goes, I used Cyrus IMAPD and had no use for its pop3d...

[kazriko.livejournal.com]

(Also, on docs. There's frequently a -docs package that contains all the documentation. It's also there for the purposes of stripping down a system that doesn't need all that cruft. The MPlayer getting broken is likely happening in Unstable, where you should EXPECT things to get broken.)

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

The problem with MPlayer is that it comes with Windows binaries for some codecs. Since MPlayer needs those to run some of them, plus alot of licencing issues, Debian basically guts MPlayer and breaks it.

[kazriko.livejournal.com]

You could always look for a third party deb file from a source that is unencumbered by the need to have all their files legal for redistribution...

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

Or compile it from source. But I don't run Debian, a client of mine does.