>> You're more likley to find the distro that does exactly what you want with so many distro's around.
No, you're less likely to find one that does what you want, having to research 50 distros all claiming to be everything to everybody.
"Specialized" distros that are made for a specific purpose are great. Knoppix, Smoothwall, and Damn Small are examples of distros with specific reasons for existence. The problem comes when someone wants a desktop Linux distro, and there's an army of them claiming to be exactly what the user wants. After the user has tried 7 of them and found none of them were quite what they claimed, the user is forced to ask himself why he should bother with this whole "Linux thing".
I stopped using Camino and switched to Firefox on my Powerbook because, at the time, the most recent Camino release was over a year old (this was around May, with tnen-current 0.7 having been released in March 2003).
But now 0.8 and 0.8.1 have dropped, and I'm using Camino again - at least for the time being.
Senator Kerry, How do you reconcile the strict environmental guidelines established by the Kyoto Protocols - which you have spoken in favor of - with the creation and continuation of high tech - and therefore high energy consumption - industries?
I don't. I just say each of those things to the different groups of people that want to hear them. YOU may notice, but they don't, so we've got a couple million happy people and one astute dissident. I'll take 1,999,999 votes anytime!
Oh, you meant this to be a question to the REAL Senator Kerry? Then why did you reply in this subthread, instead of to the root post?
".... first p0st.... must..1stp0st... gnaa... grits... portman... linux, tux, debian, GEN-2! my use flags.... 03 vs. 0s.... no use 02 st00pid n00b... fux0r bush... stfu fux0r kerrie... perl good... no perl BAD FIRE BAD!!11..."
Doctor: "Timmy, you've been offline for 2 days and 3 hours. How do you feel?
".... omfg 14 new IE h0les by now... must linux troll..."
Sun has just nailed Red Hat and Linux with a steel chair! Oh no! It's SCO... and SCO is raising Sun's hand! What does this mean?! This can only be settled at Linuxmania!
>> I like the idea of kids getting their hands on something other than MS.
And that's it. Personally, I don't subscribe to the idea of Linux being superior to everything else. But the idea is to break the "Windows OS is the only OS" notion.
I remember years ago, when people weren't so tied to "Microsoft this" and "Microsoft that". MS stuff was just one option - often a very good option, but not the sole option.
Make no mistake about it, IBM doesn't give a ripshit about "the community" or anyone/thing else other than the Almighty Dollar.
You're right, but you completely miss the point.
Free software has never been about "it's free but you must pay your way by worshipping the software ideals and community", no matter how much some may with that to be true. Free software has been about "use it, but keep it free" (and sometimes, "share your changes" as well).
IBM is using free software as it has always envisioned to be used. Commercial use is not merely tolerated, but has always been a GOAL. The free software ideals want corporations to rely (and play by the rules of) free software, instead of creating their own non-free solutions for people to become dependent of.
IBM is playing by the rules - not by being forced or threatened, but in good faith to the ideals and rules of free software.
1) Gentoo's documentation and forums are second to none. I often look up answers to questions at the Gentoo forums even when using a non-Gentoo Linux distro. Gentoo's install is very involved, but detailed documentation accompanies every step-by-step part of the process.
2) USE flags give me a ton of control on what support is compiled into each package. If I want Freetype to use the patented bytecode that makes AA so purty (to my eyes), I just add a flag to my USE flags and it shall be compiled as so.
3) I've had less dependency problems with Gentoo/Portage than Debian/APT. The last time I used Debian, I had a dependency issue that I could not find help for quickly on Google or mailing lists. I've yet to have an ebuild problem in Gentoo that wasn't quickly explained/fixed by searching the Gentoo forums.
4) Debian makes me feel guilty if I want to use any reasonably up-to-date software.:) I have to use SUPER-UNSTABLE-OMFG-ITS-GONNA-BREAK distro. So many posts around insist "don't use Sid, it'll break! OMFG!!11 use Sarge!". I have to admit that it makes me a bit gun-shy. With Gentoo, if I get a funky "too new" package that's breakable, I can just roll that one back to an older version. Gentoo stable is very up-to-date but not exceedingly so.
... and how much more expensive Xbox 2's are going to be, if you have the money to buy an Xbox 2, and you haven't bought an Xbox to play Xbox games by now, then obviously Xbox games aren't very important to you.
Many people who cry about this are very obviously PlayStation fans who have no real honest interest in the Xbox/2 to begin with.
Backwards compatability is always nice, sure. But it's just a bonus. Anyone posing as someone as someone with hundreds of dollars in their wallet that they can blow on an Xbox 2, but haven't bought a dirt-cheap Xbox to play all those games they seem to want to play and play them between NOW and late 2005/early 2006, well, they're just bullshitting.
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No, you're less likely to find one that does what you want, having to research 50 distros all claiming to be everything to everybody.
"Specialized" distros that are made for a specific purpose are great. Knoppix, Smoothwall, and Damn Small are examples of distros with specific reasons for existence. The problem comes when someone wants a desktop Linux distro, and there's an army of them claiming to be exactly what the user wants. After the user has tried 7 of them and found none of them were quite what they claimed, the user is forced to ask himself why he should bother with this whole "Linux thing".
I refuse to use any drive whose top speed is not a power of 2.
But now 0.8 and 0.8.1 have dropped, and I'm using Camino again - at least for the time being.
Hopefully development will remain steady.
I don't. I just say each of those things to the different groups of people that want to hear them. YOU may notice, but they don't, so we've got a couple million happy people and one astute dissident. I'll take 1,999,999 votes anytime!
Oh, you meant this to be a question to the REAL Senator Kerry? Then why did you reply in this subthread, instead of to the root post?
Actually, I'm trying to marry his sister. He's trying to stop our forbidden love...
Sir, you will probably be moderated down, as Edwin Starr has sufficiently dealt with this question.
It's called "the law".
They do not have legal rights to use those names.
Doctor: "Timmy, you've been offline for 2 days and 3 hours. How do you feel?
".... omfg 14 new IE h0les by now... must linux troll..."
The sad thing is, after reading the first sentence, I thought this was a reference to Frank Francisco and the rest of the Texas Rangers bullpen...
Nope. Billy Joel is.
Same as it ever was.
Wait....
My .sig should read something like that.
That part always seems to get left out.
And that's it. Personally, I don't subscribe to the idea of Linux being superior to everything else. But the idea is to break the "Windows OS is the only OS" notion.
I remember years ago, when people weren't so tied to "Microsoft this" and "Microsoft that". MS stuff was just one option - often a very good option, but not the sole option.
That's what we need back.
You're right, but you completely miss the point.
Free software has never been about "it's free but you must pay your way by worshipping the software ideals and community", no matter how much some may with that to be true. Free software has been about "use it, but keep it free" (and sometimes, "share your changes" as well).
IBM is using free software as it has always envisioned to be used. Commercial use is not merely tolerated, but has always been a GOAL. The free software ideals want corporations to rely (and play by the rules of) free software, instead of creating their own non-free solutions for people to become dependent of.
IBM is playing by the rules - not by being forced or threatened, but in good faith to the ideals and rules of free software.
There isn't a problem. It's more of an "odd couple" pairing sort of thing.
Hydrogen miners.
And as Flava Flav taught us: "Don't believe the hype"
1) Gentoo's documentation and forums are second to none. I often look up answers to questions at the Gentoo forums even when using a non-Gentoo Linux distro. Gentoo's install is very involved, but detailed documentation accompanies every step-by-step part of the process.
2) USE flags give me a ton of control on what support is compiled into each package. If I want Freetype to use the patented bytecode that makes AA so purty (to my eyes), I just add a flag to my USE flags and it shall be compiled as so.
3) I've had less dependency problems with Gentoo/Portage than Debian/APT. The last time I used Debian, I had a dependency issue that I could not find help for quickly on Google or mailing lists. I've yet to have an ebuild problem in Gentoo that wasn't quickly explained/fixed by searching the Gentoo forums.
4) Debian makes me feel guilty if I want to use any reasonably up-to-date software. :) I have to use SUPER-UNSTABLE-OMFG-ITS-GONNA-BREAK distro. So many posts around insist "don't use Sid, it'll break! OMFG!!11 use Sarge!". I have to admit that it makes me a bit gun-shy. With Gentoo, if I get a funky "too new" package that's breakable, I can just roll that one back to an older version. Gentoo stable is very up-to-date but not exceedingly so.
Many people who cry about this are very obviously PlayStation fans who have no real honest interest in the Xbox/2 to begin with.
Backwards compatability is always nice, sure. But it's just a bonus. Anyone posing as someone as someone with hundreds of dollars in their wallet that they can blow on an Xbox 2, but haven't bought a dirt-cheap Xbox to play all those games they seem to want to play and play them between NOW and late 2005/early 2006, well, they're just bullshitting.
Yeah, me too. It's just ridiculous. Like I have all day to sit here and dow....
"Dammit, let my NIC get an IP from the DHCP server!"
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, iamdrscience"