[NTLUG:Discuss] Install Gripes

[Robert Pearson]

On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 1:13 AM, Ralph <sfreader at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> On Mon, 2008-07-07 at 09:30 -0500, brian at pongonova.net wrote:
>> On Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 07:29:10AM -0500, Stephen Davidson wrote:
>> > I could rant and rave about this all day, but this constructively sums
>> > up the situation with installing software on Linux;
>>
>> FTFA:
>>
>>     The engineers and programmers (in all three camps, Windoze, Apple and
>>     Linux) need to spend less time and energy on being excessively clever
>>     and more on making a useful and usable product.
>>
>> Didn't bother to continue reading after this bit of inanity.  Nothing
>> to see here...
>>
>
> Howdy,
>  Well said.  Since I have been using Ubuntu as my main distro, I don't
> remember ever having a problem adding or removing programs.  I think
> debian systems, in general, handle this quite well.  Now, I have
> certainly had a few installation problems on some hardware, but nothing
> I did not get past.  Now, you could take the original article to be
> complaining that debian, redhat, slackware and others all take different
> approaches.  I think that is the strength of Linux, not its failure
> point.  They are all getting better and improving as different teams try
> out different approaches.
>  Finally, to be a bit pedantic.  How exactly does that statement
> constructively sum it up?  I don't see a solution offered.  I just see
> one persons opinion.
> Good day,
> Ralph
>

I second the Debian recommendation. Or a Debian variant. Or a
Mandrake/Mandriva legacy.
I have been very happy with Ubuntu and less so with Kubuntu because of
KDE problems. Some real growth pains there.
Fedora and openSUSE both fell by the wayside because of repository
problems. Maybe I'll try openSUSE 11.0 but I am very happy with my
productive, stable environment of Ubuntu, Kubuntu and PCLinusOS (both
KDE and Gnome).

I never understood why all software developers don't run a stable
Linux like Debian, Ubuntu or a Mandrake/Mandriva legacy as a stable
base for VMware Server? Then add on whatever development environment
floats your boat. If you keep your development source code in a safe
Storage area (not with the OS) you can just blow away the OS and
reinstall from the image tar file you made after you got everything
set up the way you wanted it?

In my experience developers don't think that way. They are like
greyhounds on race day. The rabbit is the first successful compile of
the new code. After that they are off to the races.
Delete the old compiler before adding the new one? Or even after? No
way! I might need it. VMware might take care of that.
So I find developmental platforms choked with leading edge, trailing
leading edge, "maybe" edge and Production (stable) code.
Plus thousands of one-time and one-off fixes and variants. No one
could keep track of all those.

You know, they don't get paid to maintain an orderly universe. They
are shooting stars. A visual treat for others.
Not much you can do for a rabbit chasing greyhound or a shooting star.
Admire them for a while.
They require care and feeding. And a development environment that works.
I haven't found any that were ready-made. I've built a few based on
how some top programmers I've known did things.
Any suggestions?

Robert