To Debian and back again… again

Every now and then I try out Debian because of its reputation of being rock solid and stable. There are many things I like about Debian, especially its release cycle. But I still end up coming back to Ubuntu.

My most recent expedition was on my Eee PC 701. I tried the specialized version of Debian that’s supposed to be fully Eee-compatible (it comes with wireless drivers and hotkeys working, etc.). The only problem is I’ve never had good luck with madwifi drivers, even though that’s supposedly the “correct” way to go. In Debian, I ran into that same problem. Oddly enough, the minimalist installer was able to retrieve and install packages over my wireless connection, but when I had actually installed Debian, I couldn’t get wireless to work, even though the madwifi drivers were installed.

So I tried, as had worked in Ubuntu, to use ndisgtk instead, but I got some fatal error about the module not being loaded. Even though Debian’s Gnome was a lot snappier than Ubuntu’s (not sure why), I just went back to what’s tried and true (if not as responsive an interface). Back on Intrepid again.

6 comments

  1. My particular personal rating for distros:

    * Ubuntu and Mandriva are the best desktops
    ** (slight preference for Mandriva)

    * Debian is the most stable
    ** (and the oldest)

    * RedHat Enterprise is the least flexible
    ** (rivaling Open Solaris)

    * OpenSuse is the worst desktop
    ** (is better than RHEL at server-side)

  2. As Mika said:
    # module-assistant prepare
    # module-assistant auto-install madwifi

    OR:

    # m-a prepare
    # m-a a-i madwifi

    This couldn’t be easier.
    Ubuntu is crappy, just a copy of Debian, based on its unstable packages and with a lame life cycle and a lot of issues

    Debian = <3

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