Malcolm Johnston wrote:
Regarding Martin Visser's comments in the final "Sound Problem" posting. I
don't want to incite a Holdens versus Faclcons type debate here, but how
would one briefly characterize "mainstream Linux" these days?
I've been using generic Unix systems (including Bell Unix, Whitesmith's Idris,
AIX, Solaris and Linux) since the mid-1980s. Slackware Linux is rather in
the old, tool-box type mould, I guess, and although it can be a bit fiddly to
set up and can produce problems like the one I just had, I can't honestly say
I find it all that strange or alien. I've had a couple of bouts with Red Hat
(the last one was the somewhat quirky RH8) and found that unsatisfactory
because (apart from problems with the implementation) I found I was out of
sync with many of its defaults.
All this may be just me. I haven't had a decent look at distros like Ubuntu,
and this is why I ask my question. What, in a nutshell, is their appeal?
One one level it's all Unix, of course, but, given that, what are the
appealing differences?
My experience with Unix is a little older. We had to program on it in the course
of my studies circa 1980-81 - there was something called a shell - which I felt
was akin to the Java Virtual Machine.
Then in the mid 80s Solaris,AIX, Ultrix (from DEC, which was bought by Compaq,
which was subsequently bought by HP) appeared - these were vendors half hearted
attempt to standardise on an operating system.
I am not sure whether the software is/was open source - distributed shared
developer pool.
In 2003, faced with moving from an aging laptop running Windows 95 - I checked
out a few distros of Linux - Fedora, Debian and Knoppix. Ubuntu wasn't around.
In the end I settled on Knoppix -it ran on my laptop - though the sound, power
management did not work. I upgraded to Knoppix 5.1, on the same laptop, a couple
of years back and sound and power "just worked".
It was with some trepidation that I took my laptop, shipped with some version of
windows, into a service centre, with Knoppix 3.2, when it wouldn't boot.
However, the tech showed me copies of Xandros and asked if he could have a copy
of my Knoppix Disk :-). Xandros is the distro on the eeePC. The tech did not say
anything, but returned a working computer - I think I just had a flat battery.
:-(
Linux seems not to be hardware specific nor to suffer from the proprietary
divergence of AIX and Ultrix. My understanding is that it is just one version
packaged differently.
I documented my switch to Linux here:
<http://www.ramin.com.au/linux/linux-log1.html>
The idea of customised distros has application in Schools and workplaces.
> About eduKnoppix
> eduKnoppix is an Italian educational distribution based on Knoppix, designed
especially for teachers and pupils (age 12 up). eduKnoppix has two major
features: it comes with a comprehensive range of various Mathematics packages,
as well as resources to obtain the European Computer Driver's License ONLY with
free software.
<http://distrowatch.com/eduknoppix>
Marghanita
--
Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: (+61)0414 869202
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