[wellylug] Forking Linux.

[Enkidu]

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 13:16:36 +1300, you wrote:

>On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 09:40:48 -0800 (PST), you wrote:
>
>>>>Windows is the sort of thing I was thinking of. Someone said to me the
>>>>other day that they were running Linux and I asked what sort. "KDE"
>>>>was the reply. Obviously this is both good and bad. (Said person did
>>>>click to what they had just said and named the distro which is between
>>>>"Linux" and "Network" in the dictionary). Made me think.
>>>>
>>>Great news IMO.
>>>
>>And bad... It means that Linux/GNU/KDE, whatever you want to call the
>>GUI front-ended Linux, has got so Windows-like that people are
>>treating it like Windows.
>>
>>I betchadupa that those M boxes not to mention DeadRat and Sooky boxes
>>*never* will get patched, and we'll have viruses sprouting everywhere.
>>
>And maybe if the people who were skilled with Linux weren't so 
>condescending, and helped the distros make it easier for people to keep 
>their systems patched, we could avoid the problem altogether.
>
Um, that's the second time I've been called condescending this week. I
don't think it is condescending to realise that many of those systems
will not be upgraded, no matter how easy you make it.
>
>I use 'Deadhat' myself, among other distributions, not because i'm 'too 
>clueless' to use Debian/Gentoo/Slackware, but because I like what Redhat 
>offers, in terms of polish and relative simplicity. This kind of elitist 
>rhetoric is simply not constructive.
>
I've used DeadRat, and my beef is not with the distro itself but with
the sudden and expensive change of direction by RH. What little I've
seen of SuSe I didn't like - it seemed like you HAD to have a GUI on
the server, or else you couldn't maintain it. Mandrake is not a distro
that I've ever wanted to use but it is the one that many many people
will start out with and a bigger than most proportion of those will be
the ex-Windows users who want a familiar environment. 

I don't think that Debian/Gentoo/Slackware are any *better* for being
supposedly more difficult to handle. 

Cheers,

Cliff