Lisp Propulsion Laboratory log

Paolo Amoroso's weblog. Main interests: Lisp, astronomy (Moon), space exploration (Apollo and early manned programs)

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A farewell to Debian

Saturday, October 30, 2004

I am going to upgrade my PC from Debian Woody to Slackware Linux 10.0. If all goes well, I will be back online in a few days.

After using Debian for over a year, I think that its usage pattern is just not for me: stable versions with obsolete software every couple of years, and frequent tracking of development branches with the need of fixing possibly broken components. Yes, I have read rave reports stating that unstable is as solid as rock. But I prefer spending all my limited time actually using software rather than fixing problems.

Having only dial-up Internet access doesn't help with Debian, or other distributions, for that matter. That's why I'm also finally going to sign up for ADSL with my ISP.

Now I much prefer Slackware's usage pattern: stable versions with up to date software a couple of times per year, with patches applied when necessary or useful. Slackware 3.x -- if I recall correctly -- was my first Linux distribution in 1996, and I still have fond memories.

By the way, Bill Clementson also gets my vote for overall best Lisp weblogger.