Ubuntu & Linspire

[Maynard Wright]

On Thursday 08 February 2007 11:33, Howard Coles wrote:
> On 2/8/07, Joe Hart <j.hart at orange.nl> wrote:
> > Well, that to me is the straw that broke the camel's back.  I'm all for
> > the advancement of Linux and of it gaining popularity, but I was already
> > leary of the way they were heading...trying to remove the command line
> > from Linux is just as bad as Windows 95 taking away DOS.
> >
> > Perhaps I have just grown out of the hand-holding of the community.  I
> > don't want things easier because that makes them transparent.  Perhaps
> > Debian itself is a better alternative.  At least that community is the
> > one that is doing most of the work, and THEY know when things are
> > stable.  The only downside is that they support too many different
> > architectures that hold them back.  There are others...
> >
> > Let Ubuntu/Mepis/Linspire/Mint be for the new converts.  The real
> > hackers won't run them anyway.  You want good information, you need to
> > turn to Debian and since Dapper, compatibility with Debian has been
> > waning.  Dapper is good, Edgy is OK, but I am afraid that Feisty will
> > never make it on my computer.
> >
> > Do I hear Sid calling?  Perhaps Gentoo is knocking on the door...
> > The beauty of Linux is to be able to choose.  I choose control over my
> > computer.
> >
> > The beauty of Linux lies in the fact that there is a distribution for
> > everyone.  I wish all of you the best of luck.
>
> Whoa, guy.  Relax, Ubuntu is still Debian based, which means all the
> command line utils you love are still there.  I run Debian SID, and
> Kubuntu.  I'm not all hung up on the proprietary thing, so for me Kubuntu
> just works better because I can easily install nVidia's Driver for example.
>
> The tone I hear, however, is that if its easy its evil.  My question is
> what the heck is wrong with easy?  The greater majority of Computer users
> out there could care less how one works, all they care about is that it
> does work.  My wife, for example, could care less about how Linux does what
> it does, or about configuring some obscure driver.  All she knows is that
> it doesn't have to be rebooted, and she can do what she wants without it
> crashing.
>
> So, what this CNR will do, is bring both worlds together.  The apt-get
> command lines, and config files are all still there for the Hackers, and
> Techs, and the Point and Click stuff is there for the users.  The fact that
> both work is a good thing to me.

I agree that easy is ok.  I'm not computer illiterate in that I've written 
assembly, Fortran, C and C++ code for a living (not as a professional 
programmer, but as an engineer who needs to write programs on occasion), but 
I'm not really a Linux power user.  I want it to work and to allow me to 
create documents, handle email and write and compile code.  I'm transitioning 
from RedHat 8 to Kubuntu Dapper and I'm pretty happy so far.  I use the Linux 
command line quite a bit.

I've also installed Dapper for a young college friend who doesn't understand 
the technology at all.  She needs word processing, PowerPoint compatibility 
of a sort, and email.  This is a bit of a risk, from my standpoint, but so 
far it's working out very well and she's happy.  She will probably never open 
a terminal to use the command line. 

I hope that the new arrangement between Linspire and Ubuntu will be of help to 
both of us with our different sets of needs.

Maynard