Re: distributions: UBUNTU vs DEBIAN
On Sat, Apr 22, 2006 at 02:30:34PM -0700, Steve Lamb wrote:
> Paul Johnson wrote:
> > First, there isn't an Ethernet card Linux can't find these days, so that's
> > kind of an empty argument.
>
> Bull, Paul. Want me to mail you the one that's useless for me since it
> wasn't detected and the documentation to get it going was beyond confusing?
> It's best use right now is a paper weight.
Did you buy it knowing you were going to use it under linux? If so,
it's you problem. If not, the answer's simple--don't give them any more
money and tell us, so we don't give them money until they rectify the
situation.
> > Second, so you go spend five minutes on nvidia.com downloading the drivers,
> > and another five to install them. Big fat hairy deal. If you're so pent up
> > about it, why not go make your own apt-source and slap it into your own
> > unofficial/non-free?
>
> *looks at the ATI card in his machine*
>
> What good will those nVidia drivers do me?
Okay. :%s/nvidia/ati/g
> Have you built the ATI drivers
> from scratch?
No, but the driver and module source are in non-free, and this page:
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/flavio.stanchina/debian/fglrx-installer.html#install
lists 4 seperate ways to build the module, none of which seem difficult.
Sub kernel-source for linux-headers and it should all work smoothly.
> If you're saying 5 minutes I'm betting you're talking out your
> posterior if you claim you have. It wasn't even 5 minutes the first time I
> did it *following a well written, step-by-step guide on the web!* It was more
> like an hour. Subsequent installs when I knew the basic process droped to,
> maybe... 30 minutes.
It seems you're doing something wrong then. It should take about 5
commands, and take less than 7 minutes (I just did it while writing this
email). However, you can't be using xorg 7 as fglrx-driver currently
depends on <6.9.99 -- but that'll be cleared up quickly. Two commands
after it's built--one 'dpkg -i', one 'modprobe'.
> Same drivers installed on Mepis, one mouseclick, not even 5 minutes. And
> Mepis is Debian based so there's nothing there that Debian couldn't do if it
> wanted to be more than a badge of pride and actually attempt to address the
> userbase every once and a while.
They do address their userbase--the people who want to follow the social
contract. They also allow the most common 'non-free' things to be done
easily. What more do you want?
--
Christopher Nelson -- chris@cavein.org
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Did YOU find a DIGITAL WATCH in YOUR box of VELVEETA?
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