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Choosing a Distro—Day 7© Copyright Darrell Anderson. Although I have four distros installed I do not want to become a distro junkie. I want to select one distro and move forward. I want to select a distro that allows me to grow at my pace. I do not want to experience vendor lock-in. If I want to update a particular tool, I want to do so on my own and not wait for a vendor. I much prefer an opt-in approach rather than learn how to remove various hacks that some distro vendors provide. I also prefer an approach that avoids heavy patching of important files such as the kernel. Heavy patching tends to create vendor lock-in. That is one of my personal complaints against Mandrake. Mandrake is an excellent distro for newbies, but once an individual accepts the Mandrake way of doing things, that user is locked into depending upon the Mandrake programmers to release updates and patches. I also have noticed that the Mandrake people tend to release their new versions just prior to any KDE releases so that Mandrake is always one KDE release behind. Possibly only a coincidence but also an old marketing strategy I dislike. The beat of this drum sounds familiar. Additionally, the Mandrake people tend to live on the bleeding edge of GNU/Linux. That means frequent updating to correct bugs. They also like to patch and modify the kernel. I want a system that I can adapt and grow with, but not at rocket speeds. Consider that I have been using NT4 for seven years, although I have updated individual application and utility packages. I want a similar approach with my GNU/Linux environment! For example, I likely could be happy with an “older” kernel for a long time because I don’t have any bleeding edge hardware. Although familiar and comfortable with command lines and scripts, I am spoiled with the GUI (graphical user interface) point-and-click way of doing things. Although the command line is a great way to bail out of troubled moments and is an excellent way to automate various tasks, I much rather prefer point-and-click to perform many jobs. I don’t mind writing scripts, but once written I prefer to remain a point-and-click user. I enjoy the wonderful convenience of simple GUI tools. I believe the Microsoft Control Panel introduced in Windows 3.x, and used in NT4 and Windows 95/98, is still one of the best portals for modifying a system. I don’t mind knowing how to tinker under the hood, but I much prefer the GUI approach. I have no desires to be a “propeller head” nor am I interested in being an RTM (read the manual) expert. Tools should improve our existence and that is my philosophy with computers! The “newbie” distros, such as Mandrake, Xandros, or Lycoris, tend to lock users into a certain way of doing things. However, those distros provide many tools to help bypass the command line. At the other end of the spectrum, distros like Slackware leave a user in full control but provide no GUI tools. More importantly, however, those types of distros do not get in one’s face or create vendor lock-in. I want the best of both worlds and I already know my answer. I am going down the road of the minimal distro. I simply do not like my hands being tied. Yes, the minimal distro requires me to invest time up front to better understand a system and I expect my share of initial frustration. However, once I pass through that valley I should be able to take care of myself thereafter. I do not look forward to the initial learning curve, but the long-term picture looks comforting. As the old proverb reminds, the longest journey begins with but a single step. Well, yeah—assuming one knows how to walk! Finis. |
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