Okay, know how you just said that you want lots of choices in installer package formats? Yeah. Well, you just told him that he should be using apt-get, which uses ONE format, and if he wants something else, he needs to re-think what he wants. Then, you told him he should just build from source. Foot. In. Mouth. You whined that him wanting something that improves the quality and value of Linux is "fascist", but then you turn around and tell him that his way of doing things is wrong. Good one.
Sounds like my intentions weren't clear. What I suggest is using some sort of package manager, whichever suits you best, to manage as much as you can. For the few programs that aren't available from your package manager's repos, if you really need something, you can just build from source, because that will always be workable. OpenOffice or X11 - you should never have to try to build those from source, because they are available from like 10 different package management systems. However, occasionally, you will want a program/library that isn't in your pms (!) - gdal or grass for example. Or one of the packages you want isn't properly built by the distributor - such as transcode from Dag, with improper png support. Then you build from source.
Some people want to just use their goddamn computer and not fuck around with all this stupid shit. What I've never figured out is how OPENSTEP and Mac OS X can exist, be so popular, and NOBODY WILL EVEN TRY TO MAKE SOMETHING THAT USES THEIR METHODS. We tried it with GenSTEP... and I believe Komodo uses a similar system, so don't fret Aloone, someone's on your side.
1. I still have GenStep wallpaper on my computer, and I use it from time to time.
2. I have no problem with people building computer systems that suit their needs and match their ideals - in fact, I support it. What I do have a problem with is demanding that an existing system meet their needs. I happen to like Linux the way it is. And if you don't, thats cool, whateva. But if you change Linux to suit your needs in a way that tramples on my needs, then we have a problem. That's all I'm saying.
Another snobbish Linux phrase! What if he's NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG?
Then he wouldn't have any problems. It sounds snotty, but it isn't. A computer will do exactly what you tell it to do. If it doesn't do what you ask, then you asked incorrectly. That's how computers work.
Don't make this harder than it is. Regardless of what you might think, or have heard on the net, Linux does "just work". But don't think that means you will be composing TeX documents within 5 minutes of booting the installation disk, because you will quickly be disappointed. You have to work at it. With an Apple, you can take the computer out of the box and be working in 10 minutes. Linux is not like that, and if it was, it wouldn't be Linux.
Choose which of eleven thousand disparate but somehow similar distros you want. Hope to high heaven that the software and drivers you want and need are available in an "installer package" format that this damn thing uses. Download 80 ISOs. Burn them. One of them was bad. Download it again. Burn it. Boot with the first one. SHIT. Somebody decided to use some new fancy-pants Linux boot CD format that isn't compatible with your machine. WTF? Give up on that one, try a different distro. It only comes on DVD and you don't have a DVD drive. Look for another. Finally give up and get Ubuntu or Fedora or something. Download 11.46 million ISOs and burn them. Install it. Your NIC doesn't work. At all. X11 will only run at 800x960 8 bit @ 50Hz. Fuck all. You repartition so you can have a Windows drive and install XP there so you can research how to make this junk work. You finally get X11 going right, but it won't do 95Hz for some reason. Asking on forums, nobody will ever help you to get it going... instead they all say "RTFM NOOB." There is no manual for X11. After 3 months you finally learned how to make your NIC work... buy a different one. Yours is about a year old... far too new!! Never mind the fact that it's one of the most common ones, but nobody bothered to write software for it. Oops!!
Sounds okay to me - it's all for fun, right? It is for me, anyway.
Jimmy, I mailed you a Fedora DVD. Paid for the shipping costs out of my own pocket. Shame on you for saying how anti-community I am.
I downloaded Vector Linux this weekend. To prove how nice a guy I am, I am going to install it, and then outfit it. So if anybody has anything specific they want me to go over, let me know. Open Office and Opera are already on the list.
