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

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

Attila Kinali writes:

 > 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).

But I don't see that as a relevant comparison.  Sure the kernels are
the same across Linux distros, but it would be a major pain to get Red
Hat networking to work on an otherwise Debian host, too.

Furthermore, with many modern distros using initrds even in an install
to HDD, I wouldn't bet on Linux userlands necessarily working with a
different kernel.

 > And as far as i know, DarwinPorts and Fink require a running MacOS
 > and do not provide a complete OS (corrections welcome).

I'm not sure about Fink, but the Darwin project provides a whole
distro.  Few people use it, because there's no practical reason not to
use Mac OS X.

 > > 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.

I don't see the point.  Of course you can configure a free OS's
desktop much more flexibly than you can Windows or Mac OS X, and it
has the programmability needed to deal with dozens of windows.

But although Mac OS X is not a good UI for dealing with dozens of
windows, it is a *big* improvement over Windows for dealing with two
or three.  Are there any Linux distros for which that can be said?
Are there any Linux distros you find usable out of the box?

 > Do i have to tell you that MPlayer is the one application that
 > can play the most obscure video format out there,

What's "video" and why should I care about its obscure formats? ;-)

Seriously, yes, in the case of an individual app you are sometimes
going to have to rewrite from scratch.  But we're talking about
distros which are actually supposed to be platforms supporting a wide
variety of programs.