Re: [tlug] Mandrake vs. Red Hat

[Matt Gushee <mgushee@example.com>]

On Thu, Jun 06, 2002 at 01:50:13PM +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> >>>>> "Matt" == Matt Gushee <mgushee@example.com> writes:
> 
>     Matt> The others, as I recall, were that Debian seems to take much
>     Matt> more care to ensure that the software actually works before
>     Matt> calling it ready to release,
> 
> I don't think this is true, unless by "release" you mean "include in
> the obsolete and of-historical-interest-only distros, testing and
> stable respectively".

If you unslant that statement a bit, yes, that's what I mean.
"Obsolete?" Jeezus. If you ask me, stuff that works is not obsolete.
My dad still uses WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS. Well, he's a Professor
Emeritus, so he doesn't need to produce glossy 4-color reports. But
the point is, what's all the bloody rush to fix what probably isn't
broken? The pernicious idea of "obsolescence" used to emanate most
strongly from places like Detroit and Redmond. Now it seems to have
taken over the free software world too.  <scowl/>

One of the reasons I started using Linux in the first place was that 
it held the promise of being able to upgrade my stuff when I felt 
the need, not when XYZ Corporation decided it was time to raid my 
wallet again. Well, so much for that idea (except, of course, for 
the wallet part).

> But the means that "ready to release" is often
> a synonym for "no longer usable" for a personal workstation.

Unusable for compulsive upgraders, you mean? Or if not, just what do
you mean? I'm sitting here at a computer running XFree86 3.3.6. Looks
like a windowing system to me ... it even has colors and stuff. But
I guess it's too old, and I suppose you have a duty to turn me in to
the Obsolesence Police.

> Red Hat's real weakness in this regard, I suspect, is that it is
> enterprise-oriented.  If you can afford an enterprise-class system,
> Red Hat will work for you.  ;-)

Your logic escapes me, maestro. Enterprise-oriented? Is that why RedHat
went to glibc before it was ready for prime time? Why they put out half-
assed configuration tools like XConfigurator? Why they have a long
history of shipping XEmacs packages that really sucked? 

In-a-more-luddistic-mood-than-usually yours,
Matt

-- 
Matt Gushee
Englewood, Colorado, USA
mgushee@example.com
http://www.havenrock.com/