Jacob Meuser wrote: > Well, a quick google search turns up 'apm -s', but lo
BTW, "apm -s" works fine on my laptop. There's also "apm -S" which puts it into standby mode. I don't know of a command line way to tell the laptop to suspend to disk. > Grrrr!!!! > > Why can't there be a Linux distro that's: > a) complete but not bloated > b) secure by default > c) well documented > d) easy to install > e) easy to use > f) easy to modify > g) up to date > h) stable > > Why can't some GNU freak just bite the bullet and distribute a real, > complete GNU/Linux system, document it, and keep it up to date? > IMO, the answer is that GNU folk like to hide behind the guise of > "flexibility" or "customization". BS. There is no GNU/Linux system, > there are a bunch of packages that may or may not work together on any > given day. Why do you think Debian only has stable releases every > 20 months? Because nobody has ever, in the history of the world, figured out how to direct thousands of independent developers along the same path. Because building the system we all wish for is a Hard Problem. Because the free software developer community is so big that there are probably 100 packages per day that reach a stable release. (Debian has ~9000 packages. 9000 pkg / 90 days = 100 pkg/day.) Because simply sorting the wheat from the chaff (have you ever looked at some of the crap on Freshmeat?) is a full time job for several people. If 9,000 packages are in Debian, 19,000 aren't good enough yet. Because your definition of a) complete but not bloated, b) secure by default, c) well documented, d) easy to install, e) easy to use, f) easy to modify, g) up to date, h) stable is different than any other person's definition in hundreds of ways. Heck, complete but not bloated is an oxymoron, and so is up to date + stable. The people who make RedHat, Mandrake, Debian, Gentoo, Slack, ELX, Trustix, <insert distro here> all think they've found a good balance among the goals you listed above. Linux is big. Linux is difficult. I can't think of any single project in history that has involved so many knowledge workers. Maybe the space program. > I honestly believe that if RMS and Linus would have settled their > differences and decided to make one true system, M$ would have > been out of business long ago. Nah. It's still a hard problem. The RMS and Linus spat is just an amusing sideshow. -- Bob Miller K<bob> kbobsoft software consulting http://kbobsoft.com [EMAIL PROTECTED]
