[Nottingham] For info Fedora 17 out today

[David Aldred]

On 29 May 2012 15:59, david at gbenet.com <david at gbenet.com> wrote:

> Linux was once free and open source - even Ubuntu has changed to being a
> closed shop. The
> Ubuntu you have now is very very much different from the Ubuntu of 5 years
> ago. If your
> mind does not grasp the changes to your distro - what then?
>

As far as I know, Ubuntu is free/opensource (though it does allow you to
add non-free components if you like).  It's one of the systems I use.

I've not been using Ubuntu derivatives Kubuntu and Lubuntu for five years -
before it I used Sidux, and before that Mandrake, and before that
very briefly Suse; along the way Vector and Slackware have had brief
trials, and I'm sure there have been one or two others.  Oh, yes, DSL.
And Linpus.

And yes, Linux has changed over those years.   It's got far easier to use;
more just works; the need to intervene with root permissions has dropped
significantly.  There have been design decisions I disagree with - I still
reckon KDE4 broke more than it fixed, and a lot of it remains broken.   But
each time I install a Linux version, there's less time wasted tweaking it
all to make it work properly with printers, peripherals, on-line services
and so on.

Ubuntu's not had root logins by default for a long time - in fact I seem to
recall that it never did - it was one of those startup design decisions.
Apart from software installation, I think I last used root permissions on
my main system sometime around Christmas.  I use them more often on my
laptop, but I play with that (it's on Lubuntu) and don't mind breaking
things, so I've more often got damage to repair.

So in respect of root logins Ubuntu wouldn't be any different now to how it
was 5 years ago, if it existed then.  In respect of user flexibility, Unity
was horrible when it first came out, but then so was KDE4.   Apt-get is
still available, so I can install whatever I like.  Even a
build environment, for when what I like isn't packaged.   That's still
pretty flexible.

So I have to say I really don't know what your beef is.
What exactly can't you now do in Linux - given that you can use root - that
you couldn't five years ago?  And, be honest, what can you do now that you
couldn't then?

And why aren't you using Slackware, if purity, historical consistency and
need to use Root for pretty well anything useful are your criteria for a
good Linux system?  Sure, if your system is anything like mine was last
time I tried Slack, you may not have sound, vision at high quality or the
ability to print anything, but surely that's  small price to pay for a Real
Linux.   And you could leave the rest of us to use one which actually works
for us.

David Aldred
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