Very Computer

Quote:> Hear, Hear!  I've noticed this trend in several of RedHat's
> announcements lately, referring to "the Red Hat Linux operating
> system" as if it's a separate operating system from other
> distributions.

Oh please, get a grip.  "Red Hat Linux" is no more or less than the name of
the distribution, just like "Debian GNU/Linux", to mention the distro I
prefer for most applications, or "SuSE Linux" or "TurboLinux", or any of the
others.  (I don't recall if Slackware generally uses "Slackware Linux" -
it's been a good long time since I used it, and we always just called it
"Slackware", or just "Slack" in conversation.)

And of course it is true that the distributions are somewhat different from
each other.  I understand that you can unpack and install an RPM under
Debian, for example, but I've never tried it myself.  Debian's package
management is a large part of the reason I prefer it to Red Hat, which I
have installed and used on a "testbed" machine, or Slackware, which I got
tired of upgrading by reinstalling (it was easier that way).

Quote:>  It seems like an intentionally dishonest way to make
> people feel like they better use RedHat if they want to be compatible
> with all this new stuff coming out.  Experienced Linux users will

I guess it all depends on how you look at it.   I would have said it looked
like an attempt to clearly label the distribution that Red Hat sells and
supports.  Doing so would help to prevent unexpected pain if someone with,
say, a SuSE system bought a package that did happen to depend on some
idiosyncrasy of Red Hat - an unusual library, perhaps, or a certain
directory structure.  Sure, in the best of all possible worlds there would
be less unnecessary differences between distros - but if there weren't some
differences what would be the point of having more than one?  Seems to me we
all benefit a lot from the variety: I would hate to be stick using Slackware
or Red Hat, myself.  I could get by, but I have no irrational desire to have
to build a few hundred arge packages from source and manage their
installation, configuration, and (especially) upgrading by hand.  In fact,
if I had to spend that much time on managing the system instead of getting
what I consider useful work done... why, I might as well be using Windows,
complete with annual preventitive reinstalls and frequent reboots - I'd
still come out ahead on time lost to the system.

I am very, VERY glad I don't have to do that!  <big grin>

I would hate to be stick using Slackware

Quote:> or Red Hat, myself.  I could get by, but I have no irrational desire to have
> to build a few hundred arge packages from source and manage their
> installation, configuration, and (especially) upgrading by hand.  In fact,
> if I had to spend that much time on managing the system instead of getting
> what I consider useful work done... why, I might as well be using Windows,
> complete with annual preventitive reinstalls and frequent reboots - I'd
> still come out ahead on time lost to the system.

> I am very, VERY glad I don't have to do that!  <big grin>

    This is exactly the way I choose to maintain my own (Slackware)
system: I spend about half an hour a day scanning the web for updated
packages, download and install them from source. This way I know exactly
what is going on in the system, always have the very latest (RPMs are
usually delayed), and once you get into the swing of it, installing new
packages becomes fairly painless, and a damn sight less painful than
enduring Winders reboots twice a day and complete reinstalls twice a
year. RedHat serves no useful purpose to me.

                                                                   Dale

[ snippity snip ]

Which means at the end of the year I'm about $3.5k richer than you are,
as I just run 'apt-get update; apt-get upgrade', which takes two minutes
on a slow day.

If I was unemployed and only looking after one machine, I'd probably do
it all from source, just to stop myself going crazy with boredom
(perfectly working machines get boring after a while ;-).

I do install things from source, when I want/need the latest bleeding
edge stuff, but I generally make a package from it - it makes my systems
that much more maintainable.

Regards,
        Nic.

-- Nic B. -- email "sky" at "wibble dot net" ------
-- UN*X Programmer, IHUG (NZ) Ltd. ----------------
-- #include <stddisclaimer.h> ---------------------