[vox-tech] YAST equivalent on Debian?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bob Scofield (rscofield at afes.com):

> I've just been wondering about Jay's question for the last two days.  For the 
> heck of it, I just typed "aptitude install webmin" to see what would happen.  
> I was told that apache would be installed.  I'm just a desktop user with no 
> need for apache.

Webmin is a plugin-extensible framework for administering... anything
on the system for which someone has written a webmin module.  Access is
mediated via a Web server.  You use it to administer your machine from a
Web browser.

> Is webmin really very much like YAST?  Is it worth getting?

YaST, by comparison, is a two-headed piece of software for SUSE boxes:
During installation, it _is_ the installer program.  After installation,
it's a local program for managing services, package insertion/removal,
etc.

I can't imagine a better way to decide webmin's merits than to use it.

> Of course I do not expect much sympathy from Debian users for this type of 
> computing.

I can't imagine why.  And the needs of people wanting something like
YaST are probably best met by Debian-derived desktop distributions like
Libranet and Xandros Desktop OS.

> It is clearly economically suicidal for commercial distros to have
> apt.

Non sequitur.  For example, you can point a Debian box at Xandros's 
apt-source hosts, but that will not fetch you some key pieces provided 
only in the shrink-wrapped boxed sets of Standard Edition and Deluxe
Edition.