Re: [tlug] There are way too many Linux distros

[Attila Kinali <attila@example.com>]

On Sun, 22 Jun 2008 05:34:25 +0900
"Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com> wrote:

> Attila Kinali writes:
> 
>  > It isn't like BSD where there is one true distro[tm] and everyone
>  > has to use it or die in pain
> 
> Well, no, there are *four* major free BSD distros (forgot Darwin,
> didja?), a major *free* SVR4 distro (OpenSolaris), and a plethora of
> minor free BSD distros, each with their own package management system
> (Darwin has *three*, Apple's, DarwinPorts, and Fink).  NetBSD's pkgsrc
> builds on at least NetBSD, FreeBSD, Darwin (MacOSX), Debian and Gentoo
> (from personal experience), so everybody has that choice as well as
> whatever else they were using.

What i meant here was, that for any BSD variant, there is only
one distro that you can use (ok, it would be theoretically possible
to use a NetBSD kernel with a FreeBSD userland... but it would be
a major pain to get it running). And as far as i know, DarwinPorts
and Fink require a running MacOS and do not provide a complete OS
(corrections welcome). While with linux you can choose from a plethora
of distributions working on top of the same kernel.


> The thing that bothers me is that I don't know any free distro that is
> a great improvement over Microsoft Windows, the way that Mac OS X is.

Depends what you think is the scale to measure the goodnes of
a distro. I do not like either MacOS or Windows GUI scheme as
it limits me a lot on how i can work with the dozens of windows
i usualy have open on my desktop. But then again, i'm not the
average user and have quite strange opinions on how a computer
(as a system, including software) should look like and behave.

> I get the impression that there are no HCI people _at all_ working on
> these projects.  Except maybe drew.adams@example.com on Emacs.  God
> save the GNU Emacs project. :-)

And those that work on gnome are prone to make usability worse
rather than better....
 
>  > I'd like to cite Reimar Döffinger here:
>  > 
>  > "Reinventing the wheel certainly is annoying, but as long
>  > as all other wheels are square..."
> 
> Perfect example of someone who Just Doesn't Get It.  That's the
> obvious completely self-serving analogy.  But it's equally obviously
> completely wrong.  

See my other mail for a comment on this.

> The correct analogy is reinventing the (currently
> square) peg as round because it's more elegant to drill round holes,
> without a plan to retrofit the several trillion existing square holes
> (or even recognizing that it's necessary).

Do i have to tell you that MPlayer is the one application that
can play the most obscure video format out there, both in the
OSS and commercial world? 
And no, having thousands of square holes does not mean you have
to stick with it if there is something better around. Somewhen
you just have to cut of the old crap and start from scratch.


				Attila Kinali


-- 
The true CS students do not need to know how to program.
They learn how to abstract the process of programming to
the point of making programmers obsolete.
		-- Jabber in #holo