[wellylug] Microsoft At WellyLUG last night.

[Cliff Pratt]

Jethro Carr wrote:
> 
>>And it does try to lock people in.
> 
> please give me an example - I'm not aware of any, but
 > you may be able to tell me of one.
> 
Just to explain.. and I don't really want to continue this 
topic...

RedHat tie you in by providing you with a package format 
(.rpm) and an update method (used to be 'up2date') as well 
as structure of dependencies and corequisites that make it 
difficult to mix and match. You can't install a useful .deb 
for example (or maybe you can with some sort of 'alien' 
program). You may even have trouble installing a Mandriva 
package on RedHat. 'up2date' is a nice tool to get all 
updates and patches, but if you install an alien package, it 
can get confused. If, as I do, you try to keep to software 
installed via a package as much as is feasible, you are 
locked into that distro. Same applies for SuSe and Mandriva. 
On the other hand, the various Debian distros all work 
nicely together, packagewise and a Debian package from any 
source will slot in OK. That's my experience and opinion.

Cheers,

Cliff