RE: New Linux distribution
If you have sensitive skin you may wish to push the delete button now....
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kenneth.Scharf@coulter.com [mailto:Kenneth.Scharf@coulter.com]
> Sent: Thursday, April 30, 1998 8:27 AM
> To: bruce@pixar.com; debian-devel@lists.debian.org
> Subject: New Linux distribution
>
>
> Bruce, I just read your letter to the debian devel list and your name
> sounded familiar. You were mentioned in a Linux Ham-HowTo as starting a
> linux
> distribution for amateur radio. The mentioned web page however does not
> exist (dns entry not found anyway).
I learned of Debian from this goal too. Never saw the Ham distribution, but
found what I needed in Debian.
> I assume that your current
> letter is a
> resumption of this desire. I have had my own thoughts along these ideas.
> There are several Amateur radio programs currently available for
> dos/windows that
> *NEED* to be ported to linux. These include contest loggers, satalite
> trackers, packet radio, RTTY, and SSTV programs. There is very good SSTV
> program for windows 95, using the sound blaster that I would like to see
> ported to Linux / X. It is currently shareware. A call to ham software
> developers!!!!!
Yep, lots of apps need to be ported - are you volunteering?
> I have installed debian 1.3.1 (several times!) at home and
> have found
> that it is NOT easy to install. Many of the utilities are older than
> versions supplied with Slackware or Redhat. Examples: Man uses More
> instead of Less as a pager (this can be fixed but debian's man does not
> support the 'rc file format that slackware uses). LS does not support
> color (can be added but again debian does not support the same 'rc or
> enviromental settings found elseware). Getting networking up was a real
> head scratcher as a network configuration program (such as supplied with
> slackware and redhat) does not exist and you must edit startup scripts by
> hand. Yes a true sysadmin should know this stuff, but I had to find the
> answeres in a book on Slackware and translate to debians script format! I
> like debians goals and style but it needs polish. A good book on dpkg and
> dselect (along the read-ability lines of maximum RPM ) would help.
> If you set up another list for this effort please post it's url here
> or e-mail me. Thanks.
>
Most of the items listed are in FAQs or documentation on the system. As I
recall
from Debian 0.93 (I think that was the revision when I started using it) the
configuration of a network was part of the post-inst script. PPP needed
tweaking,
but nothing that wasn't in the documentation. If someone has the desire to
install an operating system on a computer that is created, supported, and
distributed by volunteers they should expect to have to do some amount of
reading
to configure the system to their liking. When someone does the install and
then
proceeds to cry because the system doesn't do what their friend's does,
without
being willing to read and follow the documentation I quickly lose patience.
It
is a different issue if the person reads the documentation and doesn't
understand
it, or the solution is not in the documentation. At least the person has
*tried*
to help themselves.
As with most free things, you get out what you put in. If you want a system
that is easy for the "casual" user, you need to develop that and be willing
to hold the hand of all the "casual" users when they don't understand why
the
system is doing what they told it to, not what they think it should be
doing.
I applaud Bruce for attempting to follow this goal, and wish him the best of
luck in the endeavor. I hope it meets with better success than the Linux
for Hams
project.
Pat
Pat Ouellette
Email: pouellet@eng.utoledo.edu
Amateur Radio (voice): KB8PYM on KB8YVY repeater (52.650 / 146.835 /
444.650)
Amateur Radio (packet): kb8pym@w8hhf.#tol.#nwoh.us.noam
Running down the hall: Hey you!
You can ping your node, you can ping you neighbor, but you can't ping your
neighbor?s node.
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
Reply to: