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Date:      Wed, 11 Oct 2000 23:32:58 -0400
From:      Shannon Hendrix <shannon@widomaker.com>
To:        Neil Blakey-Milner <nbm@mithrandr.moria.org>
Cc:        FreeBSD-newbies@freeBSD.org, FreeBSD-advocacy@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Without BSD...(humor)
Message-ID:  <20001011233257.B14974@widomaker.com>
In-Reply-To: <20001008191356.A24008@mithrandr.moria.org>; from nbm@mithrandr.moria.org on Sun, Oct 08, 2000 at 07:13:56PM %2B0200
References:  <39E084A8.3D20844@uswest.net> <20001008191356.A24008@mithrandr.moria.org>

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On Sun, Oct 08, 2000 at 07:13:56PM +0200, Neil Blakey-Milner wrote:
> On Sun 2000-10-08 (08:28), Joe Warner wrote:
> > You know those Karl's Jr. commercials where the guy
> > walks into a grocery store and stares blankly at a shelf
> > of a hundred or so brands of bread?
> > 
> > Now picture the same guy walking into a computer or
> > software store, staring blankly at a shelf of Linux
> > distributions....
> > 
> > 1.  http://www.topology.org/linux.html#os
> 
> A better list is at http://www.ldl.cx/ - Linux distribution list:
> 
> ``The LDL currently holds 180 distributions - 9 added and 1 updated since
> last update''

I've been using Linux for a very long time, and I get more sick of the
direction some people are taking it each year.  Red Hat is both angel and
devil.  I think they have helped a lot, but I also think they have done a ton
of damage.  Mandrake has done a lot to create a distribution that installs
nicely, and is attractive to new users.  But they've also created a bloated
mess that would make any admin cry.  I can't speak for SuSE, but I did try it
once and find little difference.

I think wrapping up the mess in /etc/sysconfig with various UIs is a huge
mistake, because that's basically what Windows is.  Nothing wrong with a GUI
wrapper, but I fear it is used an excuse to not fix the problems with normal
administration.  The tools I've seen are hard to use manually and with the
GUIs (i.e. adminstering in different ways), and that's a disaster waiting to
happen.

I believe Debian and Slackware are more sane in that regard, but they are not
dominant, and still suffer from the problems associated with C libraries,
Gnome, etc.  Maybe it will all work out, but it's all bad enough that you have
to worry, a lot.  No doubt the open source idea is still very young, and
partly to blame.

I've run BSD for years, but hardware issues kept me from putting it on my main
box.  Now I'm seriously considering it, even though my current Debian setup is
very stable.  I have tried to keep the system lean, but there are still over
130K files in /usr (yes, one hundred thirty thousand).  I have a lot of apps
installed, but they number under 100.  It's the ton of themes, config files,
libraries, and applets that come with the Gnome setup.  Of course, that's a
UNIX problem (no standard GUI system), but it seems worse on Linux than when I
duplicate the setup on FreeBSD.

I want Linux to start merging and think a single from source distribution
should be created, just like the BSD systems.  It's insane that we don't have
that.

Hopefully the BSD systems will fully benefit from the large library of
software being created for Linux, and at the same time can influence the path
Linux is taking.  It needs help.

-- 
UNIX/Perl/C/Pizza__________________________________shannon@widomaker.com


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