[NTLUG:Discuss] RedHat 6.1 (+ dists in general)

[Jonathan Miller]

> I used to use Slackware exclusively, but haven't in a year or two.  I
> liked it because it gave me more control, but also meant I had to know
> more about what I was doing (not for the newbie).  I haven't used a
> recent Slackware to know what they're like now.
> 
> Kevin

I began using linux on Slackware and I feel I'm all the better because of
it. I switched to Stampede a while back because it looked like it was a
Slackware with glibc and it look like it was going to be maintained more
than the apparently dead Slackware.

Now though I'm back to being a happy Slackware user. Their 4.0-current
(not 4.0 but what they've done since then) is great. All the recent stuff,
all the packages work right, and there's the continual concern with doing
stuff the right way to being with.

I think having a bleeding edge distro is a pipe dream, and any distro that
tries to include software that's released days before the ship date is
going to compromise quality. I think it's more important to have a stable
base, and then expand it to your personal preferences. Because if you are
concerned enough about the new features or bugs in the software that
included your going to upgrade it. If sloppier distributions include the
latest version of some library just to have the highest possible version
number, but screw up compiling it or not wait long enoughlet the bugs
surface do the user a great diservice.

That's my little rant.

A little note: I hate packages for the dependancy checking and general
lack of control they give you. I also think it's that most distributions
have their place, but like it was commented on before most are concerned
with newbies and high version numbers. Sometimes both of those are the
main concern and it hurts the user whose system is only slightly less
buggier than some lesser operating system.

--
Jonathan                                     "Thinking corrupts the mind."


On Sat, 23 Oct 1999, Kevin Brannen wrote: