[dundee] Change of Distro - light blue touchpaper and retire

[Rick Moynihan]

2009/2/25 Robert Ladyman <it at file-away.co.uk>:
> I think I have finally had enough of OpenSuse, discouraged by things like
> refusing to fix Network manager's conflict with ppp and marking it as a
> "WONTFIX" [fx offstage: sounds of hysterical laughter]; removal of Webmin,
> Realplayer, kjobviewer; smashing /etc/* config files and/or magically
> generating them from some gui tool without telling you where THAT tool has its
> config files [fx offstage: sounds of crying, smashing of keyboard]; making it
> hard to derive a new distro; ignoring simple user requests to fix minor bugs;
> bizarre problems with HAL (also known as the Hardware Obstruction Layer) and
> putting the "F" into "fdi"; not even having the GIMP in the live-cd...grrr.
>
> As I'm too lazy^H^H^H busy to do any research for myself (and seem to be a bit
> busy writing some gubbins about Squid for a bunch of sandal-wearing
> linuxistas) and it's been a bad day AND the gout is playing up again
> [ibuprofen and cocodamil for lunch, my favourite] perhaps some serious and
> ideally, not-so-serious suggestions from you all would help.
>
> My URS for a new distro is:-
>
> - Must not commit any of the above distro-crimes;
> - Must be KDE-friendly (Gnome is gnot for me);
> - Must not be Ubuntu-derived (so kiss my shiny plastic mouse, Azmodie et al);
> - Must have reasonably good package management (i.e. not like Linux From
> Scratch*)...
> - ...and that really means probably NOT rpm/hell package management;
> - Should be able to reasonably easily derive new distros / modified distros
> from it;
> - Should allow for installation of so-called 'restricted' or patent-encumbered
> software.
> - Ideally, would be easily usable by she-who-must-be-obeyed / DFU's as well;
> Should be upgradable in-place**;
>
> Does this just leave Slackware and Gentoo?
> TayLix? TheLinuxSociety.iso? OldGitix? Suggestions, serious or otherwise
> welcome (only physically possible ones from you *buntu users, please).
>
> [Sits back, sips coffee, awaits flames]

What is the main usage scenario for the box?  A server, desktop,
laptop, (pda, phone, toaster...)?

As much as I loved Gentoo, I found it broke on at least 1 in 5
emerge's and updates...  Things might be better now, but they were
sadly getting worse and worse a few years ago which caused me to jump
ship to Ubuntu for desktop usage.  Mind you I did always have a
tendency to live on the bleeding edge; making full use of portage
overlays; and even going so far as to wire portage directly into a
branch for my window managers SVN repository!  (This actually worked
quite well, but fluxbox thankfully has a stable codebase and some
conservative developers).

Anyway, be warned - choosing Gentoo for any machine you use in
production and plan to update regularly might rapidly leave you
shaving yaks!

I'm not a big debianite, but it ticks most of your boxes except the
proprietary installs...  but this might prove more a theoretical
problem than a significant practical one...  how much non-free stuff
do you need installed?  Software or drivers?

It sounds like your requirements are quite specific and go beyond
typical (geek) desktop use and that you're wanting a one-size-fits all
solution, when there probably isn't one.  For example, some of your
requirements seem to be quite server/admin oriented (webmin, etc...)
whilst others seem more desktop oriented (Realplayer/GIMP etc...), and
some indicate that you want to generate a number of clones with the
same base configuration.

If this is the case then maybe you should just bite the bullet and run
one distro for your desktop, and another for your servers/clones.

Can I ask why not a *buntu derivative?  Personal preference?
Technical reasons?  Or a general distaste for the
community/project-direction?

R.