news: was (erroneously) Linux-users digest, Vol 1 #688 - 14 msgs

[Collins]

On Sat, 11 May 2002 14:04:24 +0100 Dallam Wych
<dallam.wyche at virgin.net> wrote:
> On Sat, May 11, 2002 at 08:38:08AM -0400, Tim Wunder wrote:
> 
> > Why is Caldera, which offers a free download, *bad*, while Suse,
> > which doesn't offer a free download, *good*?
> > Just wondering...
> 
> SuSE offers a ftp install, for free.
> It is usually available about a month after release I believe.
> 

Neither is good or bad per se.  As I've said before, there is no
perfect linux distro, only various distros that are evolving towards
usability.

I happen to be a gentoo biggot and a minimalist (read: not a KDE or
gnome user), but would I recommend that approach for a brand new
refugee from Windoze?  Probably not.  A new user (IMO) could achieve
equally good results with Caldera, RedHat, SuSE, or even Mandrake or
ELX  The critical factor is belonging to a good support group, like
this one.  It is not economically feasible for vendors to provide more
than minimal direct support for their distros (Armies of telephone
operators waiting for calls from under-educated users 24x7 - I don't
think so.).  The various user mailing groups and/for forums are what
is critical, from my standpoint.

The linux-users group and (in my case) the gentoo-users group fill a
vital role in making linux a success.  At the risk of preaching to the
choir or offending those who liked it the old way, the major
improvements in this group since it cut loose from Caldera are (IMO)
distro-neutrality and tolerance for the linux-challenged user (read:
clueless newbie).  I can remember in the (Thank God!) distant past
when members used to pounce with glee on newbies who didn't even
understand how to report a problem.  Make friends not enemies seems to
be the new motto, and I'm happy to see it.


-- 
Collins Richey - Denver Area - WWTLRD?
gentoo(since 01/01/01) 2.4.19+(ext3) xfce-sylpheed-mozilla