Debian Desktop? Back to Ubuntu for me

Recently, my Ubuntu install felt the need to corrupt its own package install database and refuse to start up. Having good backups and little patience, I decided to go for a clean install.

I thought I'd try Debian for a change. Ubuntu is Debian-based so I figured they'd be similar, and I use Debian for my server so I thought I'd be able to handle any differences easily.

The first warning signs were when I wanted to install the video drivers. Ubuntu makes that so very easy. Debian makes you take a few steps through. Not ideal, but not arduous either.

Installing compiz-fusion was more of a pain, but still manageable. Again, this is a piece of cake on Ubuntu.

More similar niggles followed, but I figured I was just being soft.

Then I tried installing wine and Sketchup and I quickly became enraged. I had managed this task on Ubuntu with only a little hacking, and no undue fuss.

Here's the breakdown of the process under Debian:
1: Install wine and Sketchup and realise it doesn't work.
2: Find out I need the latest version of wine, not the standard one (I was remembering this from Ubuntu)
3: Find the WineHQ page and thence to the Debian packages
4: Realise that this supposedly helpful guy has not provided a repository for the packages. (Ubuntu has a repository)
5: Realise that he's given a reason for not providing a repository.
6: Try downloading and installing the separate packages as he recommends. FAIL.
7: Try downloading the source and installing from that. FAIL.
8: Realise that his reason for not providing a repository is COMPLETE BS and he's an utter POMPOUS CUSSHEAD.
9: Spew impotent rage to my internet audience of none.

I quote the guy Kai Wasserbäch: "As I get quite a few e-mails about this: no I won't set up an APT repository for these packages, because I don't want to encourage people to install binary packages from third parties without thinking about what they're doing."

Okay, so the extended process of installing is supposed to make me think more about what I'm doing?

So...What am I doing? I'm trying to install Wine so I can run some Windows software on my Linux box. That software is obviously not open source, otherwise I wouldn't need Wine. So I am already trusting my PC to some unknown third party, because I want to use their software.

Does installing from the individually-downloaded packages via dpkg make me think about what I'm doing? No - It only stops me from installing them unless I already know what I'm doing.

Does installing from source make me think about what I'm doing? No - it only stop me from installing unless I already know what I'm doing.

So does this guy's policy work? No. He's set up a page which purports to be helpful, while sticking his pompous little cuss of a nose in the air at anyone who can't do for themselves everything he's done anyway.

The upshot of his snobbery? I'm running Sketchup on Windows. A nice win for Debian there then.

Next time I install Linux on my desktop it sure won't be Debian. I would prefer to use software people actually want me to use.










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