Package configuration philosophy
It seems that Debian is taking a rather different philosophy on
pre-configured packages than other distributions, such as RedHat. What I
mean is that after installation of RedHat you have a more or less
pre-tailored system setup. You can start tweaking your heart out but the
basics are already there. Debian comes up in a much "rawer" form after
install - for instance, no prompt beyond the basic "#" for root and "$"
for the user (RedHat gives you the now famous "username /home/username$"
prompt). X is pretty bare in Debian after install, too - if you just
"startx" you get a simple xterm with no default menus, no menued way of
running another xterm, heck not even a FvwmModule running on screen with
xload and xclock in it.
These are just a few examples. Of course, any competent person should
be able to set all these up to suit his own tastes given enough time,
but a default setup would be nice IMHO.
It seems as if Debian is catering to the more techie crowd - the ones
that want a bare-bones system they can play around with and not have
someone else make decisions and choices for them. Sort of like after
installing Solaris - the system is stripped to the bones by way of
configuration - you have to set it all up by yourself.
My proposition - let's go for the more casual, yet sophisticated user.
A user that DOES want to read the Fvwm man page to learn how to set it
up to his own tastes, BUT doesn't want to do it 2 hours after installing
the system and in the meantime he would like a nice default to help him
get along.
Yoav
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