[ale] Distro Question -- State of the Linux Nation

[Matthew Brown]

Gentoo is awesome.  I am so pleased with it hat I'll probaly move my
existing RH boxen over to it over time.  I love the fact that it's compiled
completely on my machine, tweaked out to the hilt -- without my having to
learn and understand every nuance of every setting.

Of course, it'll be even greater when there is a more complete set of server
tools on there.  I personally am looking forward to an OpenGroupware ebuild.
Been wanting to try that one.


Matthew Brown
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-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Emil P.
Man
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2004 4:38 PM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] Distro Question -- State of the Linux Nation

> RH8/9 I have been more and more unsatisfied with the larger 
> distrobutions. Redhat has morphed the desktop into the REDHAT desktop.
> So if you want KDE you get there version of KDE. Every distro seems to 
> tweak the apps to run how they want them to run.
>
So true about the KDE being morphed. I recently uninstalled some stuff that
SuSE packs into KDE and it looks like a different desktop enviornment. True,
what SuSE has done makes the desktop a lot more refined and a lot cleaner,
but at the same time, when it comes time to upgrade to let's say KDE 3.2
(some people have heard me complain about this before), getting rid of all
the SuSE stuff that is put into KDE is a pain. And of course, the upgrade is
pretty much impossible unless you get rid of the SuSE "add-ons". I'll go the
opposite route from you on this one Eric and say that I have just recently
gotten an idea on working with apt-get and I must say that it kicks butt.
Recently, I have had problems compiling a package from source, and after
about a week of pulling my hair out, I gave in and just did an apt-get of
the package. 
True, it is not the latest version that I was compiling, but at the same
time it works.

> My question for you is, has anyone else felt the same way about the 
> state of the linux world? That most of the larger distros have gotten 
> away from their roots, and are now moving on to please the masses?
>
Truthfully, I am quite worried when it comes to this issue to. A lot of
people were overjoyed when  Novell bought SuSE and when it comes to getting
linux on every computer in the world (aaahh drool), I must say that it is a
step forward. At the same time, I also feel like we are slowly moving away
from what Linux is all about. Yes, I am happy that corporations and
governments around the world are starting to realise the power of our OS,
but at the same time, I get worried about all the things that are going to
come with it. The point of Linux is FREE!!! The distro addons are nice but
at the same time they should be GPLed.

> I ask hoping that someone has an answer or an idea, not to cause a 
> flame war between distros.
>
I have not installed Gentoo yet, but I plan on doing it soon. And from what
I have heard from others, Gentoo comes close to your ideal and hopefully
mine.

EMIL
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