[OT] The coolest (literally) desktop machine I've ever had

[Russel Winder via Digitalmars-d]

On Sat, 2016-08-13 at 16:24 +0000, deadalnix via Digitalmars-d wrote:
[…]
> 
> Mint is based on ubuntu, which is based on debian. Both ubuntu 
> and mint prefers having the latest and fanciest thing, while 
> debian favor stability and security.

Not a good characterization in my opinion. I'd suggest Debian is a
continuous update system (Sid, latest and greatest mostly) with
releases every so often that are outdated long before being released.
Ubuntu snapshots Debian Sid every six months and then adds Canonical
stuff. Mint snapshots Ubuntu and adds their own desktop system. All of
them can connect to specialist repositories for even more up-to-date
(or not allowed due to licence issues) stuff, cf. d-apt.

> I assume if this machine has a good mint support, it is probably 
> going to work great on ubuntu and debian, so you may want to try.

The danger would be proprietary device drivers; Mint and Ubuntu
sometimes have drivers that Debian will not package. 

> Also, some tip on install, so blasting the system on't screw 
> everything up:
>   - Have a root partition for the system and system packages.
>   - Have a separate partition for /home
>   - Now the only thing on your system partition that isn't 
> salvageable easily is /etc . Use etckeeper to keep track of it: 
> https://packages.debian.org/jessie/etckeeper
> 
> Variations of this setup has served me well for close to a decade 
> now.

Even more important for dual boot set ups (as I have). I confirm having
a 40GB partition for / and having /home as a separate partition is,
effectively, de rigueur, and, indeed, absolutely essential.

I capture /etc nightly as part of my generational backup system on
server and workstation. I shall investigate etckeeper for the laptops.

-- 
Russel.
=============================================================================
Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder at ekiga.net
41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077   xmpp: russel at winder.org.uk
London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk  skype: russel_winder
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