Kirk, http://www.linuxdoc.org/ is your documentation friend! There are very explicit howtos out there for hardware and various software. Debian also follows the Sys V. init style. The thing I find most helpful about Debian is that the apt-get installation program manages software dependentcies for you very nicely. If you upgrade gcc for example, apt-get will also upgrade the appropriate libraries. Gene >Personally, the biggest thing that I believe is important on a >distribution is good documentation on where files are placed. Having said >that, I think it is past time for the distributions to discuss this and >commit to following a standard (or two). Certainly there will be >differences in such things as init scripts. After all Slackware uses a BSD >style init (more or less) while RedHat uses a SystemV ini (more or less). > >There are advantages to both of them, and that isn't the point. The thing >is that RedHat does place some config files in strange places. If there >was one place to put a given file it would make Linux overall >stronger. There could still be room for each to do its thing for >improvement. (For instance once you say that all init scripts will reside >in rc.d you can choose to follow the redhat method of a directory for each >run level and one for the actual scripts. Or you could decide to place >them all in the /etc/rc.d dir.) > >Actually, documentation is the biggest weakness I see in Linux. The fact >is that much of the documentation is great if you already know what your >doing. Some of it is great, and some is lousy. Sometimes knowing whre to >look though can be a major task in the first place. One master document >giving direction on where to look for all network functions would be >nice. One covering all disk subsystems would also go a long way. > >-- >Kirk Wood >Cpt.Kirk at 1tree.net >------------------ > >Seek simplicity -- and distrust it. > Alfred North Whitehead > > > >_______________________________________________ >Speakup mailing list >Speakup at braille.uwo.ca >http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
