Recommended Linux Distribution for Current Mandriva 2011.0 User

[Christopher Browne]

On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 2:18 PM, Lennart Sorensen <
lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> On Thu, May 09, 2013 at 12:00:42PM -0400, Paul Tarvydas wrote:
> > Correct.
> >
> > Although, it didn't "confuse" me.  It just pissed me off.
> >
> > It was like using Windows.
>
> It's almost the exact opposit of windows.  Windows installs all the
> features by default and enables them all.  Debian installs almost nothing
> and does not enable things by default.
>

It might technically be "opposite," but it does not amaze me that someone
might find some way in which it appears to be similar in behaviour.

> Every time I wanted to accomplish something, I needed to install an
> > "update".  By the time it was finished, I couldn't remember what it
> > was I was trying to accomplish.
> >
> > It continuously got in my way.
> >
> > I've been developing real-time embedded software and compilers (not
> > linux development, not webserver development / deployment) for a
> > living for 30+ years.  I need all of the tools to be in place.  And
> > the "office" and web-client stuff just needs to be there and not
> > irritate me.
>
> Unfortunately what you want is not what everyone wants in a system.
>

Quite so.

One of the ways to regard Debian is as a "distribution construction kit,"
and the sour grapes about Ubuntu's popularity as an instance of a
distribution constructed using that kit is simultaneously understandable
as well as annoying, because Shuttleworth is effectively doing what he
was *supposed* to be able to do with Debian.

The one place where I continue to find Ubuntu somewhat desirable is
in that it works harder on having something that makes all the major
sorts of functionality on laptops "sing and dance."

I recently acquired a new laptop, and am running Debian testing on it;
sadly, I have not yet been able to get WiFi working, despite spending
some efforts on that.  On Debian, "some efforts" have borne near-zero
results (and since I have a nice Cat5 cable beside my easy chair, I
haven't cared *that* much).

In contrast, I think I'd have had near zero difficulty getting wireless
going with near zero effort on Ubuntu.  And it is rather irritating for
there
to be such a painful difference.

An old, and still amusing, essay is the "Clueless Users Are Bad For
Debian" one.  <http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/1999/03/msg02288.html>

The afterword of that essay suggests that the Right Thing is to have
Debian derivatives that strive to be friendly for the "Clueless Users."
Unfortunately, that will always engender a substantial amount of
conflict, as:

a) A derivative may take on a life of its own and try to ignore the
progenitor (Ubuntu, I'm looking at you!  :-))

b) There is sure to be some conflict as the downstream systems
will generally prefer to have as little between them and the upstream,
and would correspondingly prefer to push whatever they do into
Debian whether or not that injures others involved.  I'm not sure
there are many cases of that.
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