Joachim Holst wrote:
>
> On tor, 25 nov 1999, you wrote:
> > Joachim Holst wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi !
> > >
> > > I've just joined this list, and I wonder why the h?ck is there so much
> > > debate about getting EI to run on a Linux system ?? Isn't it better to get
> > > Mozilla in working order giving us an alternativ to propriety software ??
> >
> > Yes! It's of immensely more importance to get Mozilla stable.
> > Unfortunately, old habits die hard and people want to stick with
> > software they've used before. I have a feeling that THAT (or quite
> > possibly, people just want to troll the mailing list for reactions) is
> > the reason for the IE postings.
>
> You could have a point there, and now I have reacted. I don't join a
> mailinglist concerning Linux to get updates on the possibility of porting an MS
> app to Linux.
>
> Another thing about IE, is that a Swedish computer magazine (PC+) made a survey
> of what browsers were most used. Of cuorse, IE won the race, but it doesn't
> really mean a thing. I mean, that if someone gave you a pre installed machine
> with window maker for example and you don't know about alternatives, then why
> should you use for example KDE or Gnome insteas. May it be that KDE or Gnome ar
> far superior to Windowmaker when it comes to usability for Linux starters.
> Hope you get my point here. Think I lost it somewhere..
Actually, that's a very good point. Think of Red Hat and Mandrake on
both sides of this coin. Red Hat prefers to ship their distribution
defaulting to GNOME. Mandrake ships theirs defaulting to KDE. Is one
superior to the other? In technical ways, probably. In political ways,
probably. Do they both allow you to simply get your work done? Yes.
For that, neither is superior to the other.
However, the interesting question is the one you raise: given the
default desktop, how many people actively seek out other alternatives?
I'd imagine it's probably a small percentage, probably those who've used
other desktops/window managers previously.
Could a Linux distribution survive (or alternately, keep it's customers
happy) concentrating on one desktop? I'm not familiar enough with
Corel's new offering to know whether they ship GNOME, but it could be an
interesting path for them to completely concentrate on a single desktop.
Personally, I'd love for a distribution to do it. Ship a single
desktop. Ship a single set of applications created/molded to that
desktop. Do away with the 15 choices of editors/mp3 players/mail
readers/etc. For sure, it would be a much more compact installation.
It would also be much easier from a quality control aspect since you'd
be dealing with 1/3 to 1/2 the applications. Anyone know of a
distribution currently taking that route?
For the current extremes, you'd have to look at something like Mandrake
which ships a "normal" distribution. For the most part, it's no more or
less like any of the other big distributions (save one, but I'll get to
that). Take a look at the package list and you'll find the same
packages in Mandrake that you'll likely find in Caldera. Contrast that
with SuSE and you'll find that Mandrake is rather conservative in the
things they include. SuSE ships with applications and utilities that I
haven't seen in 6 years of Linux use! Sure, it's nice to have all the
choices, but the installation must seem extremely daunting to a new
user.
--
Steve Philp
Network Administrator
Advance Packaging Corporation
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
