[CS-FSLUG] Time to jump ship?

[N.Thompson]

On June 6, 2004 05:45 pm, Timothy R. Butler wrote:
> > I've tried every distribution I can think of, Mandrake, SUSE, Fedora,
> > Debian
> > and its derivatives, Slackware, Onebase, Lycoris (older versions),
> > Lindows
> > (free giveaway versions, no CNR subscription), Yoper, Libranet (free
> > versions),  and none of them succeeded to satisfy what I'm looking
> > for. I'm
> > honestly hoping that I'll get some sort of convincing argument to try
> > another
> > distribution but as it stands my only incentives to stick with Linux
> > are the
> > free developer tools and KDE.
>
> 	Not to repeat the same old tune, but I think the key isn't finding the
> right distro for you but making the distro right for you.

Fixing a configuration error that I know how to handle is one thing, 
rebuilding half a distribution from scratch is much more complicated.

> 	You seem to like to tweak and play with the system, so I would just
> make it a goal to take a distribution of some sort and hack on it until
> it does what you want. Start with one that is fast and has most of what
> you want already -- let's say Mandrake (or Fedora Core 2 maybe). Then,
> it shouldn't take much to get it to do what you want.

I'll agree with your first two points and I do like to tinker but I preffer to 
do so with graphical tools or a well designed cli tool, xf86config is an 
example of what I would call a cli tool with a poor interface.

> 	Better yet, go with Debian. And really use it -- for at least a month
> or two as your only distribution. I betcha you wouldn't switch back.

Currently I've finally managed to get Ark to install, so far so good but as 
with Mandrake and SUSE it will be about two days before I start to notice 
things that drive my up a wall. Only way to find out it I will like the 
distribution though is to wait and see.

> 	I'm currently debating what to do myself -- my GNU/Linux box is in
> disarray. I'm probably going to go to Fedora Core 2... and, if that
> doesn't work the way I want with my hardware, I will settle on Mandrake
> and set back to getting it the way I like it. Presently, I'm spending
> my time on my PowerMac until I get things cleaned up (haven't had
> time). The problem is, I decided to switch to FC1 back in January, but
> never had time to move it to the main partition, so I'm out of room,
> and I never got things tweaked quite right either. *sigh*

If you are looking for another distribution now is the time to try Ark, their 
packages have *finally* been updated from much older versions.

> 	Also: try GNOME 2. If you like fast, you'll like GNOME. Don't try it
> for a few hours, try it for a week or two. You'll really like it, I
> think. Plus, look at it this way: you keep thinking about an iBook or
> other Apple... well, GNOME gets a lot of inspiration from the Mac. If
> you don't like GNOME after a few weeks, you probably won't like Mac OS
> X either (not to say GNOME even comes close to fully imitating Mac OS X
> yet, but it does seem to follow the same spirit of UI design).

I've used Gnome for extended periods of time before, if Mac OS X is anything 
like Gnome then I won't like it. The problem with Gnome is simply one of 
prefferernce, everything in KDE is well integrated and runs smoothly, Gnome 
to me has always felt like the absolute opposite, I've always regarded it as 
a very unprofessional, hacked together, desktop environment.

> 	Another benefit to learning GNOME 2 is that you'll become better at
> switching between distributions. If you always use the same D.E. you
> really never switch anything but a few optimizations and configuration
> tools. Essentially KDE is pretty much the same everywhere. If you want
> some excitement, you need to try a different D.E. Maybe try XFCE too...
> lots of people love that.

I've never liked switching desktop environments, I tried it for a long time in 
Mandrake 8.2 because I couldn't get any KDE themes but I never liked it. I 
find it hard to deal with inconsistencty (which is why I don't like visual 
basic ;-) ).

> 	But back to what I was saying... I don't think you'll ever find the
> right distribution. I've never even found the right Operating System! I
> love GNU/Linux, and I've really grown to love Mac OS X too... but both
> annoy me in different ways (but not even to a smidgen of the magnitude
> that Windows annoys me). I always have to tweak a system to my needs.

SUSE came close but it seems to me that all the major distributions are stuck 
with bugs that they either can't fix or don't want to. I've had some contact 
with the Ark developers and its my understanding that they put more emphasis 
on making sure that packages are stable rather then making sure they are 
current, unfortunately its almost always a trade off, you can only have both 
when there are major upgrades (ex: Lycoris 1.4 will have KDE 3.2.2, Ark Linux 
1.0 alpha 11-1 has current and seemingly stable packages).

> :-)
>
> 	-Tim
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Timothy R. Butler       Universal Networks      www.uninet.info
> ==================== <tbutler at uninet.info> ====================
>
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