[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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