[luau] Aloha all / Hat 7.3 / Drake 8.2

Joe Linux joelinux at earthlink.net
Sun May 26 22:34:00 PDT 2002


Well I don't know about Wayne trying something for me by proxy.  I 
actually recommend everyone try as many Linux distributions as they can 
for themselves.  Every time you install another distribution, you learn 
something.  Almost every distribution has some very nice features that 
could or should be incorporated into almost every distribution, but the 
thing I've noticed is it doesn't take much for a distribution to go on 
the "shelveware" list.
There are some distributions Like Caldera Work Station 3.1.1 that have a 
great install and a good appearance, but then their permissions are so 
strict and "immutable" that an end user can hardly move an icon around 
on their own desktop.  Obviously a sloppy loose permission scheme isn't 
any good either.  What's important is for the end user to have control 
over the system; and above that, easy intuitive control over the system.

People who know the command line love it, but it takes a long time to 
learn it, and particularly when it comes to the nuance of system 
configuration.  People love the Macintosh because of its perceived ease 
of use.  Actually Apple is responsible for  Windows becoming  popular. 
 Apple refused to license their GUI based operating system to anyone 
else, and so virtually every other computer assembler (manufacturer) had 
to use Windows.  Unfortunately Windows never had any real clarity of 
user interface, an annoying registry system that was probably actually 
intended to be a copy protection scheme, tons of partially incompatible 
hardware, and even more software that often wouldn't work as claimed. 
 Nevertheless in spite of all its weaknesses M$ became dominant.

Now Linux is here, and it has great promise for the future; however it 
presently suffers from a shortage of good desktop software for the home 
user.  It seems just now that it is turning the corner.  That being 
said, it's difficult to get "Joe Microsoft" to even try Linux.  You 
virtually have to give them the computer and install it for them, and 
even then they may not be very inclined to use it.  Another issue is 
that big box stores like CompUSA don't push it, because they don't see 
any profit in it for themselves.

A lot of the problem too is that "Linux" considered as a complete system 
isn't equal.  There are in fact wide discrepancies from distribution to 
distribution.  I personally consider every distribution that relies 
exclusively on KDE as the Desktop GUI to be on the lame side.  The 
Xandros beta was a good example of this.  It's a very attractive Debian 
distribution, and you can install ICEwm on it very easily through 
"apt-get;" but then the developers somehow saw fit to user their own 
desktop manager which inhibited the use of anything other than KDE. 
 Caldera will allow the installation of ICE, but somehow inhibits any 
serious customization of it.  ELX has a great button launcher system 
system for KDE; but as they have implemented it, it's total overkill. 
 Again the last I knew of it, there wasn't any provision for customizing 
it.  I know of a reader on this list who considers ELX to be the best 
distribution out there.

Mandrake 8.2 seems to have a very nice and for the most part complete 
easy to use control panel.  The system is both stable and easy to 
configure save some weird quirks like their blanket security permissions 
scheme which doesn't provide for the control of nuance by the end user. 
 If the Mandrake system gave a warning message that it was overriding 
user set permissions and the reason why and where to change it, it would 
go a long way towards better user friendliness.  Nevertheless, having 
sincerely tried  many distributions, Mandrake 8.2 is the best bet out 
there at the present time. Even so, there have been posters on this list 
who have stated Mandrake 8.2 was giving them too many problems.

 

W. Wayne Liauh wrote:

> George (Joe Linux) is probably the only person on the island who has 
> tried essentially every Linux distro on earth.  I know he has at least 
> tried Mandrake 8.2, Red Hat 7.3, SuSE 8 (by me on his behalf), 


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