[Gllug] Debian Matching Machines

[Russell Howe]

On Wed, Apr 06, 2005 at 06:26:06PM +0100, Peter Childs wrote:
> Russell Howe wrote:
> 
> > (though using apt in favour of dselect is wrong and evil :)
> 
>    Why so, I have been told be many that the best way to install debian 
> is to skip the dselect stage and use apt manually.

It's certainly a lot quicker (or at least seems it), but with dselect
you get advised of all the options and all the suggestions that the
package maintainers put in.

With apt, you can get the Suggests: packages if you tweak the
configuration (this might now be the default) and if you specify the -u
option (or set it in apt.conf) then you can see which packages are going
to get upgraded.

I just find dselect a really easy interface to use, you just have to
become familiar with the arcane keybindings (which, after several years
of Debian abuse, I've managed :)

I hear aptitude is the tool to be using these days, but I actually
*like* dselect :)

> >On a side note, dselect gets quite a bit nicer if you do this:
> >
> >echo expert >> /etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg

>    I always love expert options esspecially in programs where nobody 
> but experts should be using them, (Experts in there own computers anyway)

Well you really don't lose anything at all, as long as you know “?”
displays the help screen.

One less screen of information when you're perhaps only going to see 3
screens is quite an advantage from a GUI clutter point of view.

-- 
Russell Howe       | Why be just another cog in the machine,
rhowe at siksai.co.uk | when you can be the spanner in the works?
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