------- Original Message ------- On Thursday, November 17th, 2022 at 6:27 PM, Keith Lofstrom <kei...@kl-ic.com> wrote:
> > I hate the mount command (John Jason Jordan) > > > If I correctly understood that thread, John's "problem" > is that mount and df and other commands are designed for > "real" file systems, not ubuntu snaps, which Canonical > pretends are file systems, spewing a crap-ton of line > noise when querying. > > I (and presumably John) just want mount and df to display > and manage the file systems we are responsible for, not > distribution abstractions that Canonical wants to control, > and seemingly remove from end user control. Perhaps there > is a command line switch that snips out the snaps, and I > can alias /usr/local/bin commands to those. > > John, like me, lives on the command line, writing words, > computing numbers ... not videos, not games, not graphical > gestures. > > I am already migrating from RedHat/IBM to Ubuntu-Mate to > avoid distro churn and the end of long term support (LTS). > > Debian seems to be extending towards community-supported > and community-managed long-term support, while Ubuntu > seems to be devolving towards an IBM/Redhat-like walled > garden. Out of the frying pan, into the plasma torch? > > Perhaps I should re-migrate from Mate-Ubuntu-LTS to > Mate-Debian LTS. AFAIKS, the main thing I lose is easy > access to proprietary hardware drivers ... though if I > can buy hardware with open drivers (ditch the nVidia > cards, purchase AMD/Radeon?), I can manage "nuts and > volts) rather than dependencies and paywalls. > > A related issue is my fondness for my older "big pixel" > 3x4 Thinkpad laptops with trackpoint, though not their > ancient 4 GB memory limit. I have a lifetime supply. > 4 GB of RAM is constraining, but less so with an SSD > "hard drive" and rapid swap. Screens? I have some > 1536x2048 screens for my largest T60 Thinkpads, and > tools to reprogram the BIOS to accept them. > > So - get out your crystal balls, and help me decide which > distro (Ubuntu, Debian) to use for the next decade. > Which distro is most likely to enable new design and > engineering/science/math apps, friendliest to occasional > personal hardware and software hacks, least likely to > migrate from free to prison-ware? > > For me, a computer should be "just a tool". The more > they resemble my Swedish great-grandfather's 1880's > flat-blade screwdriver (which has turned hundreds of > thousands of screws, and I still use), the better. > > Keith L. > > P.S. Some PLUGgers use other distros like Rocky or > Slackware or BSD derivatives, and more power to them. > But do me a favor and discuss the ubuntu/debian binary > choice for now. My first "distro" (not counting PDP-8 > boot loader and paper tape) was BSD 3 at UC Berkeley, > many decades ago; been there, done that. > > -- > Keith Lofstrom kei...@keithl.com Debian is the obvious choice here. You spend a lot of time dealing with the constant churn of desktop-oriented ideas that you clearly have no interest in. You also seem to be the kind of person that is willing to put in the effort up front to make it work, then just set it and forget it. While Debian has implemented some sizable changes they tend to do so in a way that is considerate of older methods. See the 2019 vote on systemd for proof of that. Even when the default changes, nobody is gonna stop you from switching back to eth1/eth2 iface names. ;) In 10 years Debian will likely look similar to what it is now, in that it starts off looking like nothing until you install the packages you want. Grab a minimal install iso and go nuts. -Ben
