On Sat, 11 May 2002 14:04:24 +0100 Dallam Wych <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sat, May 11, 2002 at 08:38:08AM -0400, Tim Wunder wrote: > > > Why is Caldera, which offers a free download, *bad*, while Suse, > > which doesn't offer a free download, *good*? > > Just wondering... > > SuSE offers a ftp install, for free. > It is usually available about a month after release I believe. >
Neither is good or bad per se. As I've said before, there is no perfect linux distro, only various distros that are evolving towards usability. I happen to be a gentoo biggot and a minimalist (read: not a KDE or gnome user), but would I recommend that approach for a brand new refugee from Windoze? Probably not. A new user (IMO) could achieve equally good results with Caldera, RedHat, SuSE, or even Mandrake or ELX The critical factor is belonging to a good support group, like this one. It is not economically feasible for vendors to provide more than minimal direct support for their distros (Armies of telephone operators waiting for calls from under-educated users 24x7 - I don't think so.). The various user mailing groups and/for forums are what is critical, from my standpoint. The linux-users group and (in my case) the gentoo-users group fill a vital role in making linux a success. At the risk of preaching to the choir or offending those who liked it the old way, the major improvements in this group since it cut loose from Caldera are (IMO) distro-neutrality and tolerance for the linux-challenged user (read: clueless newbie). I can remember in the (Thank God!) distant past when members used to pounce with glee on newbies who didn't even understand how to report a problem. Make friends not enemies seems to be the new motto, and I'm happy to see it. -- Collins Richey - Denver Area - WWTLRD? gentoo(since 01/01/01) 2.4.19+(ext3) xfce-sylpheed-mozilla _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list - http://linux-sxs.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-users Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Archives,and Digests are located at the above URL.
