Dueling Distros - It's All Good, Apparently

An Anonymous Coward points to a review listed on osfaq.com, summarizing: "Red Hat's latest release is here with the much improved 2.4 kernel. Its new features make it a compelling upgrade for both server and workstation installation. In addition, there has been more of an emphasis on security in this release than in previous Red Hat releases." Similarly, another nameless reader writes: " The Duke of URL has given Libranet a favourable review. It looks like Libranet may be heading toward becoming one of the big players in the Linux distributions game." I'm still looking for a good review of Mandrake 8.0, which seems to have generated few reviews so far. (Or distro reviews willing to be a little harsher in general.)

Comments

Re:The old too many distros argument again

[Genom]

I'm thoroughly convinced that the "ease of use" of Windows is a myth. It's simply that people are FAMILIAR with Windows, that things seem "easier" in Windows.

I've seen a complete computer newbie sit down at a PC running WinME and be completely confused. There's little pictures of things they can't quite recognize (yet) and just about everything moves, or pops up a window, or a menu, or something else. After an hours worth of coaching, they get the basics of how to doubleclick, how to click in a dialog box to type, possibly even how to start up IE/OE and browse the web, send email, etc...but it DOES take some time.

And they still can't figure out the filesystem. They don't understand the concept of a directory (even if you go with the "folder" analogy) - they don't know how to download a file anywhere but the default location - they don't know how to save an attachment from an email before they run it - half the time they don't know that the things they download ARE files. If it's not on their desktop, it doesn't exist.

Take this same person, now that they've "learned" Windows, and sit them down in front of a *nix box - OF COURSE they're going to be confused! *nix doesn't work the same way Windows does (and auguably, it *shouldn't*), so all that "knowledge" they have about the way Windows works can't be applied. (Well, not entirely true - moving the mouse around generally does still move the pointer, etc...)

Now - take a complete computer newbie, and sit them down in front of a *nix box. Again, confusion - the *same* confusion the total newbie had when they sat down in front of the Windows box. After an hour of coaching, they can be at the same level.

Configurability is another matter - and there's a signifigant hump to get over - that being that hardware manufacturers (who would be the ones who know their hardware the best) seldom provide l*nix drivers for their hardware. They tend to only provide Windows drivers. Why? Because Windows is what *most* people have - and *not* supporting Windows is going to hurt their bottom line. Compared to Windows, the *nix installed base of home/workstation systems is pretty low - so generally not supporting *nix doesn't hurt their bottom line.

In addition, they tend to be SO protective of their "intellectual property", that even if a third party developer approaches them and says "I know you don't support *nix, but I'd like to write a driver so people who want to buy your hardware and use it with *nix can do so" gets denied, or forced to sign so many NDA agreements that the final product would be incredibly tough to distribute anyway.

This sets up a catch-22 of sorts. End-users (home/office) want support for the latest and greatest hardware NOW - not 6 months from now when a few brilliant and dedicated people have finally been able to reverse-engineer, legally, the means with which to support that hardware at the most basic level. They don't want to have to do research before they go to the store, in order to buy hardware that is compatible, and well supported - they want to buy the newest, flashiest thing they can find on sale.

Without support from the manufacturer, you're not going to GET that kind of support with *nix. SO people stick with Windows, and turn the whole situation around, blaming *nix for a lack of hardware support, whin in fact the blame rests on the manufacturers for not providing drivers, and placing roadblocks in the way of third party drivers.

Add to this the recent legal developments with regard to reverse engineering (IE: DeCSS) and you have a VERY hostile environment for good hardware/consumer tech support on a *nix platform.

Add to this the *nix community's distaste for binary-only releases of proprietary hardware drivers, and you have a REALLY bad situation.

For configurability under *nix to match that of Windows, we need manufacturers to support, or at the very least allow third party drivers to be written, with proper documentation of their hardware's features. In order for this to happen, the *nix community has to give a little, and allow for the possibility of proprietary, binary-only driver releases (at least until an open-source alternative can be developed). Both of these are big steps, and both sides quibble about taking small ones, let alone big ones like these. It's going to be a while before the situation gets better here.

OK - enough rambling - back to work =)

The old too many distros argument again

[Mr_Silver]

I've noticed that anyone who ever says there are too many Linux distros gets shot down in flames generally with the argument that choice is good.

I currently run Redhat 7 and after loosing some stuff on it that I liked (such as enlightenment) and general flaws and badly built stuff (missing files etc.etc) I figured I'd move to something else.

I use it mainly as a desktop OS, would like everything I possibly need already configured and if possible running, reasonably secure and dare I say it?, as close to being as friendly as Windows as possible. Ie. I don't have to piss about with config options, it does it for me and i can get on with doing fun stuff.

I use my machine for web development and socket programming (so C and perl really). I don't have a perminant connection, just a dial up which I hardly use (since the phone is miles away from the PC and we in the UK still have to pay for isp calls) so cron jobbing apt-get-whatnot isn't really useful.

I've asked about and can I get a sensible answer about what is the best desktop-come-development-come-nice-windows-style-t hing-but-running-linux distro for me? Nope, everyone comes up with totally different distros for a variety of reasons! At the end of the day its confusing me and whilst I'm by no means a linux expert, I'm not a total dunce.

I'm totally lost. Do I upgrade or not? I'm no closer to picking a distro than I was when i first started. Its times like this when I really start to wonder if maybe it would be better to have a few really good distros rather than lots that seem to do some bits well and some not.

I just know I'm going to get shot down in flames and marked as "Troll" but i'm not. I'm totally and completely lost in the maze of distributions and seem to be unable to get a sensible consistent answer from anyone.

Am I alone?

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