Hello ALL! First, I apologize for sending question that spill-out from the scope of this list. However, you might be essentially the best informants. In brief, I am thinking to give second shot to the Debian. Currently I am using Ubuntu 9.04, but Debian still teases me, so to say. I used to use Debian testing (Lenny at that time), but when Lenny became stable, things became very shaky in testing camp. I need Linux/GNU for work. And R is one of my main tools. In brief, my question is: Should I stay, or should I go?!? And then: to which release? I like Ubuntu, polished and pretty stable, but Debian is its mother-ship and I was very happy with it until that period of various problems (lost graphical functionality, wireless, mic crashed and even sound in some point, etc.). Only if I could reach constant stability and flawless work. Thanks! Best, PM
I am currently running R in a Debian-based distro (Antix) and I have been very pleased with the performance. I tried many other distros, including Ubuntu (where I started my linux adventure) but I found that Antix is very fast, very flexible and suited to my needs. There are other fine Debian distros out there, so I think it would be worth exploring other options to Ubuntu. Currently, I have the option to keep my system rock solid using only stable repos or open it to stable and testing (which introduces some risk). However, in a well-supported distro with a good forum where instability issues are discussed, this is not so much of an issue. You will have to determine your comfort level with the risk. All in all, I would recommend staying with Debian and testing out other distros to see which one suits you. The advantage of linux is precisely the choices available. Best of luck. Pedro ________________________________________ From: r-sig-debian-bounces at r-project.org [r-sig-debian-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Petar Milin [pmilin at ff.uns.ac.rs] Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 6:42 AM To: R-SIG-DEBIAN Subject: [R-sig-Debian] Very general question about Debian... Hello ALL! First, I apologize for sending question that spill-out from the scope of this list. However, you might be essentially the best informants. In brief, I am thinking to give second shot to the Debian. Currently I am using Ubuntu 9.04, but Debian still teases me, so to say. I used to use Debian testing (Lenny at that time), but when Lenny became stable, things became very shaky in testing camp. I need Linux/GNU for work. And R is one of my main tools. In brief, my question is: Should I stay, or should I go?!? And then: to which release? I like Ubuntu, polished and pretty stable, but Debian is its mother-ship and I was very happy with it until that period of various problems (lost graphical functionality, wireless, mic crashed and even sound in some point, etc.). Only if I could reach constant stability and flawless work. Thanks! Best, PM _______________________________________________ R-SIG-Debian mailing list R-SIG-Debian at r-project.org https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-debian
Vera, Pedro L. wrote:> I am currently running R in a Debian-based distro (Antix) and I have been very pleased with the performance. I tried many other distros, > including Ubuntu (where I started my linux adventure) but I found that Antix is very fast, very flexible and suited to my needs. > There are other fine Debian distros out there, so I think it would be worth exploring other options to Ubuntu.Yes. Concept that i liked so much in Debian testing is that there is no need to bother with upgrading, like with Ubuntu every six months, or with Debian stable. And upgrading is a risky business I think. On the other side, Ubuntu IS Debian with some corporative support, targeting end-user, hence, so polished. And that is good, specially for beginners.> Currently, I have the option to keep my system rock solid using only stable repos or open it to stable and testing (which introduces some risk). > However, in a well-supported distro with a good forum where instability issues are discussed, this is not so much of an issue. > You will have to determine your comfort level with the risk.I tried, shortly, SuSE and Mandriva. Also, Fedora. All of those, in my opinion are behind Debian and Ubuntu. Fedora is too edgy, almost experimental. SuSe has ridiculous control system and is Microsoft infected. Mandriva might be somewhat better then the other two for end user.> All in all, I would recommend staying with Debian and testing out other distros to see which one suits you. > The advantage of linux is precisely the choices available.So, then, my question would be: stable or testing Debian? How do they respond to changes in R? Is testing much more responsive? Best, PM
There are lots of people on this list that will know better than me, but I think that Debian vs Ubuntu is not as important a question as testing vs stable, or in Ubuntu terminology: Administration/Software Sources/Updates/Release upgrade/ Normal vs Long term. That is, whether you want frequent small upgrades or less frequent but more painful upgrades. If you have a desktop and new hardware then my guess would be you want Ubuntu Normal. If you are running a server on well known (old) hardware then you might prefer stable. There is a lot of gray area in between. Paul Petar Milin wrote:> Hello ALL! > First, I apologize for sending question that spill-out from the scope > of this list. However, you might be essentially the best informants. > > In brief, I am thinking to give second shot to the Debian. Currently I > am using Ubuntu 9.04, but Debian still teases me, so to say. I used to > use Debian testing (Lenny at that time), but when Lenny became stable, > things became very shaky in testing camp. I need Linux/GNU for work. > And R is one of my main tools. > > In brief, my question is: Should I stay, or should I go?!? And then: > to which release? > > I like Ubuntu, polished and pretty stable, but Debian is its > mother-ship and I was very happy with it until that period of various > problems (lost graphical functionality, wireless, mic crashed and even > sound in some point, etc.). Only if I could reach constant stability > and flawless work. > > Thanks! Best, > PM > > _______________________________________________ > R-SIG-Debian mailing list > R-SIG-Debian at r-project.org > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-debian=================================================================================== La version fran?aise suit le texte anglais. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This email may contain privileged and/or confidential in...{{dropped:26}}
On 9/15/09, Petar Milin <pmilin at ff.uns.ac.rs> wrote:> In brief, my question is: Should I stay, or should I go?!? And then: to > which release? >Currently one big advantage of Debian to R users is cran2deb binaries, which are intended to testing. I've just switched to Debian, and I still have some glitches in my system that I didn't yet address properly. Thus, I couldn't comment on Debian stability. But so far looks acceptably nice; when I upgrade all packages to current testing, I would expect it to be fine. Liviu
Hi, * Petar Milin <pmilin at ff.uns.ac.rs> [090915 16:10]:> > > Vera, Pedro L. wrote: >> I am currently running R in a Debian-based distro (Antix) and I have been very pleased with the performance. I tried many other distros, >> including Ubuntu (where I started my linux adventure) but I found that Antix is very fast, very flexible and suited to my needs. >> There are other fine Debian distros out there, so I think it would be worth exploring other options to Ubuntu. > > Yes. Concept that i liked so much in Debian testing is that there is no > need to bother with upgrading, like with Ubuntu every six months, or > with Debian stable. And upgrading is a risky business I think. > On the other side, Ubuntu IS Debian with some corporative support, > targeting end-user, hence, so polished. And that is good, specially for > beginners. > >> Currently, I have the option to keep my system rock solid using only stable repos or open it to stable and testing (which introduces some risk). >> However, in a well-supported distro with a good forum where instability issues are discussed, this is not so much of an issue. >> You will have to determine your comfort level with the risk. > > I tried, shortly, SuSE and Mandriva. Also, Fedora. All of those, in my > opinion are behind Debian and Ubuntu. Fedora is too edgy, almost > experimental. SuSe has ridiculous control system and is Microsoft > infected. Mandriva might be somewhat better then the other two for end > user. > >> All in all, I would recommend staying with Debian and testing out other distros to see which one suits you. >> The advantage of linux is precisely the choices available. > > So, then, my question would be: stable or testing Debian? How do they > respond to changes in R? Is testing much more responsive?I am running Debian stable and am backporting new versions of R to Debian stable. On average, new versions of R should be available (on CRAN) much earlier than they migrate from unstable to testing. Kind regards, Johannes Ranke> > Best, > PM > > _______________________________________________ > R-SIG-Debian mailing list > R-SIG-Debian at r-project.org > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-debian-- Dr. Johannes Ranke jranke at uni-bremen.de