On Tue, Oct 05, 1999 at 10:13:35PM -0700, Eosnet Team wrote:
| From: Vincent Danen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
| [...]
|
| > The whole point of Linux is personal preference and choice... choices you
| > make by looking at and playing with different packages... draw your own
| > conclusions. Start dictating packages on install and that's too close to
| > the way *other* operating systems are laid out.
| >
| I agree for the most part, however, what I think his point was, was toward
| the novice users who may be installing linux for the first time. Right now
| it is very old fasioned compared to the windows installation.
|
| Sure, keep the standard packages, but I think recomending ceartain programs
| would be a good idea for the new linux user, and the advancement of linuxs'
| popularity.
I agree. I've been a linux user for quite some time now, and pretty
familiar with it. However, everytime I install a new distro I find
myself spending an hour or two weeding out packages I don't want, need
or have never even heard of - even if I've been quite conservative in
the installation process. I've helped total newbie users set up linux
boxes (Mandrake 6.1 being of course the distro of choice), and they
are typically completely overwhelmed by the amount of Stuff that ends
up on their disk...
I would say that the default installation should be a very minimal
one, with only the necessary and basic, "recommended" packages being
installed. But the rpms of all the other packages should still be
provided in the distribution, such that the expert users still have
their choice... Personally, I'd rather select any additional packages
during the installation - or install them later - than remove them
afterwards to free up some disk space. To some extend Mandrake is
already doing a good job at this, but as far as I'm concerned the base
selection of packages could be a lot `leaner.'
I think the real problem would be to get the linux community to agree
on what would be "recommended." I wouldn't want to try to suggest
choosing either emacs or vi as The Editor in the base installation :)
Perhaps distros like Mandrake could have their users vote on, for
example, which of the 5 terminal programs should be installed by
default, and which should be optional...
-- Alex
