the 'which distro' question

[Ric Moore]

On Fri, 2007-03-02 at 07:36 -0800, Tony Alfrey wrote:
> Ric Moore wrote:
> > On Fri, 2007-03-02 at 07:20 -0500, Tim Wunder wrote:
> 
> <snip>
> >> The only issue I have with Fedora is the pace of change. It seems that no 
> >> sooner do I go to update to "the latest" when lo and behold, 
> >> there's /another/ release. That said, it's easy to find software for Fedora, 
> >> and when you can't find pre-packaged RPMs, compiling from someone else's SRPM 
> >> is usually pretty easy.
> >>
> >> So if you don't mind the update roller coaster that staying current on Fedora 
> >> brings you, I'd recommend it. But, if you want something that doesn't change 
> >> as much, perhaps something like CentOS (or one of the other RHEL clones) 
> >> would suit you.
> > 
> > Jeeeez Tony, you're a pretty adventurous guy... 
> 
> I am.  The International Man Of Mystery.
> 
> > Fedora is balls out,
> > like a B-52 flying low scattering chickens in the barnyard. Vrooooom! 
> > 
> > FC7 is supposed to be the *ultimate* show stopper ...much more sedate,
> > fixed and orderly. It's just "not out yet" (tm). 
> > 
> > So, wrap that rubber hose real tight, and job that CD home full of FC6.
> 
> So does that mean it works?
Sure it works. Works as well as any other distro as I cannot think of
one that has no problems, glitches and gotchas. They do get fixed fast
which is why updates come frequently. To some it's a curse, to some it's
a blessing. Humans make mistakes 15% of the time on a good day, which
includes package maintainers. So, if something goes boom! it gets fixed
pretty darn fast. 

> 
> > Just make sure that your tray table and seat is in the upright and
> > locked position before the rush hits. I think it was Country Joe and the
> > Fish
> 
> You're showing your age and history of drug use.

My age isn't in question, my minor drug use is history. Like
Steppenwolf, I've never taken anything "that my spirit would will."
Well, never more than once. I'm no angel! :) 

> > 
> > Make sure you install the app "smart". It's the best rpm manager thingie
> > you'll ever use. It'll even handle apt-get as well. 
> 
> But can't I just use rpm from a terminal?

Well, I have almost 2000 rpm packages installed. So there is the
question of application suites and "depends" to contend with. smart
breaks it all down so that if you're looking at a certain video
application, it'll depend on a score of other libraries and lib-devels,
you name it. rpm is fine for a command line installer of one package
that you dnloaded, but to resolve the dependencies you would use yum or
better yet "smart" which will show you all of the other available files
that you might wish to include. I've just started using it myself, and
it's the shit. 

Say you wanted to install mplayer. It'll show all of the files related
to mplayer, and break them down to each repo that contains the files so
you can pick and chose. Sometimes atrpms will have a newer version built
before livna, extras, freshrpms or dries does. Smart already knows about
all of the repos, even if you don't, when it installs. It's supposed to
also support apt-get as well, although I've not used it.  OK, so you
checked the newest version of mplayer and the codec package, but you
lack madlib, smart will also grab that as well and tell you it has done
so and why. Maybe it has to get that package from freshrpms and another
from livna. No prob, it'll just do it. Slick. One click and you're
seeing what you have installed, another click and it'll show what you
haven't installed or another to see what needs to be updated. Or any
combination of those possible selections. 

Smart, like yum, is just a pre-processor for rpm. Smart is a gui. yum is
command line. You can use either when ever you chose to. RedHat has
plowed a ton of money back into devel for the linux community, so I just
chose to dance with who brung me, which is why I prefer Fedora.  Ric
-- 
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"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
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