On Fri, 05 Mar 1999, Raider wrote:
> By putting some software that isn't entirely free. So Debian is
> better... because they use only free software.
I got the impression that during a RH install, everything you selected was
"free". You have to explicity finish the installation and go to the contrib
directory to get the "unfree" stuff. Funny how Debian also has a contrib
directory.
> Than, as m$, they incourage the 'newbie' style. So the questions
> that are answered in the HOWTOs and FAQs are posted mostly by RH users.
Exactly how do they encourage it? Is it somehow ideologically pure to use the
command line as opposed to a tk app that does the same fscking thing? RH has
name recognition, newbies (who by definition, know nothing of linux) choose RH
because they recognize the name. That's why they post redundant questions. If
debian were the only distro found on the store shelves, it would be debian
newbies who post these questions.
> I have RH. I run it because I didn't have anything else
> available. And I got sucked into that. Now, when it comes to get
> something new, I have to fight the temptation of getting the rpm with the
> exacutables.
If you hate it so much, go out and get debian.
> It's bad. Because you get used with its way. And the next thing
> you know it you just can't do without rpms or other things like that.
And what is the RH way? How is it different from the Debian way? Last I looked,
there were just as many deb packages out there as there were rpm's.
If I choose to compile a package, I download the tarball, extract it, and read
the README and INSTALL files. These all say exactly the same thing: configure,
make, make install. But when I configure, I learn that there are three or four
libraries I need that the README never mentioned. I download them, and due to
the recursive nature of things, have to download a couple more to compile them.
Then I move on to "make" and discover yet more unfulfilled dependencies because
the louse who made the package never bothered to properly configure his
configure. I finally get it done and "make install". The program sucks. Waste
of time. Now I have to peruse the make file to find out what obscure spots the
program was installed to.
On the other hand, I could use rpm's or deb's. I'm done in a few seconds. If I
don't like the program, I can instantly uninstall it. If I do like it, and like
it well enough, I can still download the tarball and go the compilation route,
and configure it the way I want.
I don't like flaming, but this is a newbie list. People here are trying to
learn and understand Linux. They don't need someone to tell them that their new
system is bad, unfree and that they should have to go through that whole
mind-numbing (to them) installation process all over again so that they can use
the politically-correct distribution. It's weird how linux people will bash
other people for using linux. You never see a mac or windows person doing that.
--
Arandir...
