[Klug-general] KLUG OS

[AllenJB]

Stuart Brand wrote:
> Hi AllenJB
> 
> You are so right, why bother trying to understand how something is made, just use a prebuilt version that has a strong following and where any problems have already been solved, no need to know how it works, just know that it does and use it. 

While one or two of us might be able to achieve this, for most of the 
group I believe it's going to be (using a probably inappropriate 
analogy...) like trying to build an engine by starting with only a 
blacksmiths workshop when you don't even know where the fuel goes or how 
to read blueprints.

I believe that there are far better ways to go about learning the ins 
and outs of Linux - namely through LFS and Gentoo. These give you a 
starting point, and a very firm one at that - they are both well 
supported and well documented. Gentoo in particular allows you to start 
at a level you're happy with, even if that level is a very high 
overview, and then work away on the more detailed aspects and focus 
where you choose.

You still get to understand how something is made - but you get support 
and documentation while doing it.

It's also wrong to say that "any problems have been solved". Find me ANY 
open source projects with a public bug tracker that has no open bugs on 
it! Not only can you get a better understanding of how projects work by 
picking up open issues and working on them, but your work can benefit a 
large number of people, rather than only a small number.

It doesn't have to be just coding either - I frequently work on Gentoo 
Wiki to improve existing articles or write new ones. Documentation is 
often seen as one of the more boring parts of any project, but through 
writing it you can discover a lot of things you didn't know.

Yes, common problems will have already been solved, but with the 
thousands of linux distros already out there, do you think any of the 
problems you're likely to encounter trying to create your own haven't 
been solved either?

> 
> Sounds like a Microsoft theosophy to me?

This isn't any Microsoft philosophy.

This is the proper open source philosophy:
- Don't reinvent the wheel
- Give back to the projects you use
- The size or quantity of your contributions is not important
- Stand on the shoulders of those who came before you

AllenJB

> 
> Thanks for the support
> 
> Stuart
> 
> 
> 
> On Wednesday, April 29, 2009, at 05:42PM, "AllenJB" <allen at allenjb.me.uk> wrote:
>> Stuart Brand wrote:
>>> A website would be good, for the tutorials
>>>
>>> the user would still need to download a distro regardless, may as well be ours so we have a reference point for the tutorials and help 
>> While in theory this may give *us* (the LUG) a good reference point, 
>> assuming the entire LUG decides to learn this new distro (I know I won't 
>> - I'm too busy working with and for my current distro and preferred 
>> applications - and that's just my limited free time), it's going to be 
>> absolutely terrible for anyone else to support.
>>
>> Why not use an existing popular distro for which there is already a 
>> large amount of good documentation, such as Gentoo or Ubuntu? This way, 
>> not only is there almost certainly going to be someone in the LUG who 
>> can help with support, there will definitely be documentation and 
>> support from outside the LUG too.
>>
>> AllenJB
>>
>>> On Wednesday, April 29, 2009, at 03:21PM, "Karl Buckland" <karl at digital-end.com> wrote:
>>>> 2009/4/29 Stuart Brand <stuart_mac_admin at me.com>:
>>>>> How about a "Welcome to Linux" distro, a basic live cd that has firefox and a terminal that we can write tutorials for? stuff like that
>>>>>
>>>> Wouldn't a website be more appropriate for that? Then the user doesn't
>>>> have to download anything.
>>>>
>>>> Karl
>>
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>> Kent at mailman.lug.org.uk
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>>
>>
> 
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