[Amd64Boy]

Is Suse Linux Debian Based? If so can I install normal linux packages or do I need to install Debian based packages

[horndude]

Yes Suse is debian based, debian packages should work, so should compiling from source code provided youve installed GCC, Suse personal doesnt come with GCC.

Not sure for how much longer though, debian is having release problems, Suse may split from them entirely at some point.

[jnev_89]

suse is based on debian??? i never knew that in all the time i used suse. does apt-get work with suse then?

[horndude]

I believe it does, try it.

There's only like 4 major distro's, the rest are ALL based on someone else's work.

Slackware,debian,redhat(now fedora), mandrake, and you could probably argue gentoo, but thats more like an automated linux from scratch type deal

packaging systems:
rpm
deb
slackware's pkg format in tgz

the rest are just modified versions of the above

[Amd64Boy]

thanks

[Sevoma]

I didn't know that SuSE was based on debian. What do you mean debian has been having release problems?

[horndude]

Debian is on the verge of being forked, the powers that be that control its development are having issues keeping on track and continuing its development.Its been around for like what, 6 or 7 years, theyve released 3 versions, thats it.Slackware started with like version 3.0, its now at 10.1.

[charles@pcfix]

I don't think that Debian will be going away soon. they are currently working with the GNU/Hurd project which I think is very cool.
Also Ian and team have a company called Progeny. They build customized systems for production. And much more. Check it out at. http://www.progeny.com


Also the ever popular knoppix is a Debian based distro.

[horndude]

True, but the core debian development is kinda stalled, like I said 3 releases so far in many years.Firefox and mozilla are having same issues, its quite common actually.Redhat had the same thing happen, they forked into an enterprise pay version and a cutting edge experimental version.

I think at some point many of these will merge, they will have to, so many offshoots right now its mind boggling, none of them really have anything new to offer that cant be done with one of the others,cept maybe gentoo.

[charles@pcfix]

Maybe some truth in what you say, but bottom line is RedHat has stepped all over the people who made it what it is today.

Maybe Debian's take on it is "if it ain't broke don't fix it"

The future of open source is very bright in my opinion. Look at Sun for example ,, Solaris 10 is going open source.

There are hundreds of Linux projects out there for all types of systems. I would hope that a large merge within an open source community never happens.

Just my opinion.