Re: An open letter to the debian community
On Sun, 5 Dec 1999, David Blackman wrote:
david >Slackware is just too much of a hassle. Plus, they were drawn to apt-get.
i was drawn to debian about a year and a half ago, never touched apt-get
till about 2 weeks ago! doh heheh
david > No it's not.
i like the idea of that, with debian's standard distribution you can be
completly assued that you are using 100% free software. No license issues
will come up if you want to deploy it in a commercial enviornment, no
outstanding patent issues, everything is already resolved. I'm not aware
of anything else out there that is developed with that in mind. Which is
where the greatness of linux comes, if you dont like it, use another
distribution. or add your own stuff on top of it, nobody is stopping
you..or anyone else.(noone in the debian community at least)
david > Okay, I've just installed Debian/GNU Linux (Don't forget the GNU!), it
david >only took me 3 hours to get through all those cryptic installation
david >questions. now where's my full featured web browser?
3 hours? last install i did took at most 1 hour and a good 50 minutes of
that was the copy process. accept the defaults, change em later if you
dont want.
david > <I>Yes, but it's not Free, so you need to download it. </I><BR>
how often is it that an OS/distribution comes with an updated browser
anyways? i for one use the 128bit U.S. export controlled netscape..which
has to be d/l anyways.
david > And WordPerfect 8?
david > 25 meg download.
cant comment on office shit i havent touched an office app in ages.
david > Well, GIMP is the greatest piece of software ever, but it
david >doesn't include GIF & TIFF support in Debian, so you'll need to
david >download GIMP-nonfree. But after all, we're on a holy war to burn all
david >GIFS anyway, use PNGs and JPEGS.
big deal..you act as if debian was the only thing available. there is a
linux distribution for (almost) everyone. no one distribution will fill
the void for everyone, i can't ever see it happening. not even MS with
their billions in development can make a windows for everyone.
david > You see, the QT widget set wasn't under a Free license, so we
david >yanked it, but now it's under a Free license, but we still have issues
david >with KDE, so you'll have to use GNOME.
its easy to grab kde..i dont think anyone advertises that debian is for
the average user. you seem to be trying to attack it by saying it should
be for the average user. oh the stories i have heard about package
conflicts and management problems in redhat systems ..
david > Get the picture? Here's approximatley 150 megs of downloads so far (kernel
david >sources + KDE + QT + SO51 + WP8 + X335). Add on top of this the lack
*yawn* well it sure beats the hell outta compiling it all yourself. i
remember manually upgrading slackware packages compiling them from source,
everything from libc and gcc to X and kde.
david >is. We like feeling superior, adhering to a higher standard of Free,
david >and the warm and fuzzy feeling we get from whizzing around a cryptic
david >console in front of a newbie.
i'll use it in whatever form it comes in. Now heres corel. I put the
first corel 1.0 cd i burned into a test machine, guess what? The installer
just reboots the system. You want to talk about hard to use? lets talk
about *use at all*. when faced with that option, i'll take hard to use
ANY DAY. I use debian because it is well tested, secure, and has a
crapload of developers working on it. honestly i dont care all that much
about it being free, although i would like to be made aware of the legal
stuff when it comes to using it in a commercial enviornment. If someone
else comes up with a system that does the same..and offers a compelling
reason to change i'll change.
After seeing offerings from caldera, and recently corel i am quite
dissapointed with what they have in terms of application selection. I
install corel, and it reminds me of Win2k. All this stuff and yet the
selection of programs on the KDE menu is tiny! Maybe they will offer an
add on cd with the full line of slink apps, give me 250 icons i dont care
i just want it all esp if its free.
david >Staroffice. We'll make the install process less cryptic, include
david >non-free on the CD and forget the Debian philosophy, that the only
david >way to learn is by doing it the hard way.
go for it ..always room for more distributions.
I dont think you really made a point here though. you just seem pissed off
that apparently you are being forced to use debian against your wishes
because of apt, and wish you could use redhat. I believe debian exists for
a reason, a good reason at that. to develop, distribute free software and
the free software concept. Be it based on the linux kernel, BSD kernel
HURD kernel or something different in the future. They aren't out to make
a quick buck, they aren't out to attract attention from big companies who
file a lawsuit at the slight act of infringement of
copyrights/trademarks/whatever they do what they want, they govern
themselves. and do a damn good job of it. they develop the system the way
they want it, the way that works the best for them. They dont have suits
breathing down their necks saying "if you dont make this easy to use
you're outta the job!" they want it fast, stable, compadible. and it is.
in the end, if you don't like it, don't use it.
your attacking debian for accomplishing its own goals in a very timely
manner and doing a very good job of it (thanks to all developers!!)
i dont see a point in the attack :)
nate
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