You are not alone to express that, and I too would have probably preferred Gentoo's GRP route to apt for binary installs. Essentially the same kind of streamlining could have been done, with source support built right in. Best of both worlds.
Unfortunately for Gentoo, I believe another reason Debian was chosen is because it is supported on more platforms and in more languages.
Regarding dependency problems, now you know as well as I do portage is not exactly problem free either. Not so much with dependencies themselves, but with broken ebuilds, etc. Besides, for businesses package rollouts will be a managed event, with perhaps only power users given the authority to do things themselves.
As far as the versioning issue you mentioned, I bumped up my apt repository to unstable and have the same revs of packages as I do on Gentoo. FWIW.
Not yet. But it would be nice to have for demonstration purposes. I'd suggest floating the idea on the mailing list. I remember at one time it was discussed, but to what extent I cannot recall.
Gentoo I'm happy as can be and I'm never going back to a distribution that wants to make choices for me.
I've used Gentoo for about 3 years now, and I agree with what you say about it being wide open. It is my preferred distro.
However, Gentoo is not the best option for businesses, especially from a licensing perspective since you have to manage that yourself. Nothing commercial will enter the Debian, and by extension, UserLinux streams. Besides that, for technical reasons, most businesses would not choose Gentoo as you or I would.
I was under impression that desktop was the main target of UserLinux. Apparently, that does not appear to be the case, with web servers and all.
UserLinux has configurations for soho desktop, enterprise desktop, and server stacks. Each stack is a streamlined selection of packages to provide both solutions for businesses.
I'm still waiting for UserLinux to actually create something new. Like GUI configuration tools
As UserLinux matures more of that will be fleshed in. Non-graphical configuration customization has already been done on the installion aspect of UL. If you have specific ideas, participation is always welcome.
If UserLinux can select a small subset of Debian, and produce a stable/supported version of this subsest that's more current than Debian Stable -- and more importantly, position the product as a supported, modern Debian, we'd love it.
UserLinux _is_ a subset of Debian. The team has chosen a streamlined set of applications to include in each of the various packages (soho desktop, enterprise desktop, and server).
You are free however, to install any of the Debian packages, not included in the UL release using standard Debian tools.
Google is my vote, but there is a more fundamental issue/question. First ask the person if they have a technical interest in computing, or are they what most of us would term a "user".
Why? A "user" is not going to have a good experience with most Linux distros. Why is that? Perception. You'll lose this game before it gets very far because the person perceives Linux to be more difficult to use than Windows. Most distributions are more suitable for people with a desire to learn computing. A desire that goes beyond merely using computers. In short, we are a tinkering and inquisitive bunch.
If you ASK the person where their interests lie, you can recommend one distro over an another. For instance. for existing Windows "users", I would recommend looking at Xandros. For the person wanting to learn the technical aspects of computing, any of the distros would be suitable.
If you do not steer the person in the right direction, you've set them up to overcome unnecessary bariers that will utlimatley shape their perception of Linux in general.
BTW, I do not normally reccommend products unless asked, but I just converted my wife and kids machines to that distro and they love it. Why? They perceive it to be as easy as Windows. Little do they know they've got a powerhouse under the hood!:)
Perception IS reality. Like it or not.
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1) Withdraw our troops from SK and clear the area for what comes next. 2) Let China deal with it.
Unfortunately for Gentoo, I believe another reason Debian was chosen is because it is supported on more platforms and in more languages.
Regarding dependency problems, now you know as well as I do portage is not exactly problem free either. Not so much with dependencies themselves, but with broken ebuilds, etc. Besides, for businesses package rollouts will be a managed event, with perhaps only power users given the authority to do things themselves. As far as the versioning issue you mentioned, I bumped up my apt repository to unstable and have the same revs of packages as I do on Gentoo. FWIW.
Not yet. But it would be nice to have for demonstration purposes. I'd suggest floating the idea on the mailing list. I remember at one time it was discussed, but to what extent I cannot recall.
I've used Gentoo for about 3 years now, and I agree with what you say about it being wide open. It is my preferred distro.
However, Gentoo is not the best option for businesses, especially from a licensing perspective since you have to manage that yourself. Nothing commercial will enter the Debian, and by extension, UserLinux streams. Besides that, for technical reasons, most businesses would not choose Gentoo as you or I would.
UserLinux has configurations for soho desktop, enterprise desktop, and server stacks. Each stack is a streamlined selection of packages to provide both solutions for businesses.
Your relevance problem would be solved by installing KDE using apt-get. Nothing is preventing you from doing so.
As UserLinux matures more of that will be fleshed in. Non-graphical configuration customization has already been done on the installion aspect of UL. If you have specific ideas, participation is always welcome.
UserLinux _is_ a subset of Debian. The team has chosen a streamlined set of applications to include in each of the various packages (soho desktop, enterprise desktop, and server). You are free however, to install any of the Debian packages, not included in the UL release using standard Debian tools.
Google is my vote, but there is a more fundamental issue/question. First ask the person if they have a technical interest in computing, or are they what most of us would term a "user". Why? A "user" is not going to have a good experience with most Linux distros. Why is that? Perception. You'll lose this game before it gets very far because the person perceives Linux to be more difficult to use than Windows. Most distributions are more suitable for people with a desire to learn computing. A desire that goes beyond merely using computers. In short, we are a tinkering and inquisitive bunch. If you ASK the person where their interests lie, you can recommend one distro over an another. For instance. for existing Windows "users", I would recommend looking at Xandros. For the person wanting to learn the technical aspects of computing, any of the distros would be suitable. If you do not steer the person in the right direction, you've set them up to overcome unnecessary bariers that will utlimatley shape their perception of Linux in general. BTW, I do not normally reccommend products unless asked, but I just converted my wife and kids machines to that distro and they love it. Why? They perceive it to be as easy as Windows. Little do they know they've got a powerhouse under the hood! :)
Perception IS reality. Like it or not.