Kjetil Kjernsmo wrote:
On fredag 16 september 2005, 21:09, Antony Gelberg wrote:Please reply onlist.Errr, well, I don't consider this an important topic for the list, and it is also rather rude to respond to a off-list message on-list. Please refrain from that in the future.
I suppose it is. I consider it rude to reply to an on-list message via personal email.
It's because if people use stable, there is no reason to get burnt.Oh, there is plenty of reason. Stable has its issues, as any other complex software system.
Ok, what reasons are there to get burnt by using stable? The point of stable is that it is very unlikely to burn a clueful user.
There is no reason to be overwhelmed by anything if the user iswilling to learn. I understand that Debian is not geared at newbies, but that doesn't mean that newbies can't use it.Well, speaking as someone who has his parents on Debian, I can attest to that newbies can use a Debian system fine. I also speak as someone who did his first Linux install ever with Debian. Been there, done that, didn't get a lousy teeshirt. However, in my parents' case, it is because I have made most of the complex, technical choices for them, and in my case, it was because I was dedicated and had a good friend and experienced sysadmin by my side throughout the process. Frankly, I find that to be efficient on Debian, one should read many hundred pages of documentation. I'm perfectly fine with that, because I realized from the start that it would pay in increased productivity once I'm up to speed. However, one must acknowledge that this is an imposing task for most users.
So what? The OP didn't say he wasn't willing to learn. We could give him the option.
Most importantly, this is _debian_-user. If you want to advocate other distributions willy-nilly, it's not the place.That kind of isolationism is something I think you will find very little support for in the free software community. I think most people will agree that we want to direct people to what is best for them.
Call it what you want, and I'm not looking for support. I can support myself. Notice the phrase "willy-nilly" above. I didn't say we should never recommend other distributions. I totally agree that Debian is not for everybody. I do feel that we could have made more of an effort to help the OP to use Debian before nudging him in that direction. Otherwise a large percentage of new users' questions could be answered with "just move to a distro that makes more choices for you".
Best, Anton