[ale] Linux Distributions

[George Carless]

> Why post this on list?
> Troll.

Hardly.  
> 
> Here's the reason that I didn't want to discuss it: I have already seen and 
> participated in the "run as root" argument. Similarly, I have participated in 
> the "HB1, obfuscate email addresses on this list, and distro flame wars" 
> threads.
> 
> Really, these threads repeat - and nothing new is learned or gained. 

On the contrary.  To refute posts that seem to be saying silly things 
is, I think, a responsible approach; there are others reading this list, 
who might be led to believe that running as root is advisable.  I don't 
think that it is.  And there are always gains in good discussion - at 
least for those who are willing to gain by discussion.  

> My interest is only to get a fully-working OS. Other people want to make it 
> about whether or not I should ever run as root. I realize that the more 
> people waste energy on the root argument, the less attention will be put on 
> the issues that I posted about.

Well, that's the nature of things: it is frustrating--massively 
frustrating--to be asked for help by people who do not seem to be 
willing to listen to good advice.  That you argue that running as root 
is perfectly safe seems, to me, to be a good indication that you are 
likely not approaching other issues in the right way.  Indeed, I would 
go far as to say that someone who runs as root as a matter of course has 
likely done a number of other things to their system that might 
complicate the installation of other software, or that might otherwise 
make it difficult to determine the root cause of any 'issues' they may 
be encountering.  And it's my experience that those same people will say 
"I don't want to argue about whether I should run as root; just tell me 
how to solve THIS problem" without understanding that the two issues are 
related.  

I can understand your not wanting to engage in a flamewar - and that's 
fine.  But you must understand that some of the things that you say are 
BOUND to raise heckles; given that, it seems in poor faith to say them 
anyhow and then believe you can simply walk away from what you have 
said.  If you don't want the argument, don't make the assertion.
 
> The bottom line is that there is absolutely no way that I could be convinced 
> to run this system another way - and I realize that most others on this list 
> feel the same about how they run their systems. Let it be.

And that's why I don't think you can really be helped; and that's why I 
find it rather irritating that you make big statements about, say, 
Debian, as though you some authority to do so.  

--George
--------------------------------------
George Carless ... kafka at antichri.st
Words are just dust in deserts of sound