[NTLUG:Discuss] Desktop Linux - From Open Source

[Dennis Rice]

Part of my message is lost in the following response.  Steve is 
providing a view for ONE distribution.  Please do not misunderstand, as 
I feel Yast is excellent, and so is Yum or Apt-Get.  If a user elects to 
use Debian or Red Hat / Fedra or Slackware or Ubuntu or .... then the 
installation procedure will not be the same.  How do you respond to 
software that MUST be installed from source?

The software developer must now write different installation packages 
for each distribution.  That is not a way to make new software sell (be 
it for free or with a cost).  I believe that all of us are willing to 
pay a price for software that we find to be the very best for a given 
application.  Yes free software may be out there to compete, but will it 
always do what a commercial software will do?  Sometimes yes and 
sometimes no.  Pays your money and take your choice.

What I am advocating is consistency between the MANY distributions for 
software installation, we have a very long way to go in that respect.  
We must also make software installation easy for the non-geek!

Dennis

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From: Stephen Davidson <gorky at freenet.carleton.ca>
Subject: Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] Desktop Linux - From Open Source
To: NTLUG Discussion List <discuss at ntlug.org>
Message-ID: <47A232CE.6010401 at freenet.carleton.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I like YaST in regards to software management.