[ltp] Xandros

[SOTL]

On Monday 03 January 2005 11:44 am, bosslady@msgeek.com wrote:
> > On Sunday 02 January 2005 09:14 am, Adrian Midgley wrote:
> >> On Sun, 2005-01-02 at 13:49, SOTL wrote:
> >> > 1. What is the difference between Xandos, SuSE, and Mandrake as far a
> >> > package content? Does Xandros have the same basic packages?
> >>
> >> Don't you like Debian?
> >
> > Last time I tried Debian it was impossible to configure for a non geek.
> > Still have the disk somewhere. Still would not have a clue in how to
> > configure
> > it as the first thing one did need to know is what the specifications are
> > of
> > the equipment. Now there is an interesting point. How does one obtain the
> > specifications to the internal parts of a Thinkpad. No, simply to
> > difficult.
> > Mandrake is much easer to configure.
>
> I beg to differ.
>
> Debian's new "Sarge" installer is a huge improvement on Debian installers
> past. It's not a gorgeous, sexy framebuffer installer, it's still
> text/ncurses, but it's about as easy as the old ncurses Red Hat installer.
> I had to get some advice when I was in the install/tweak process from a
> Linux wizard friend of mine, but once I got that help I was fine and I now
> have a fully working Sarge/Sid hybrid system on my "daily drive" desktop.
>
> All I need to do now is move the desktop data files from my laptop and I'm
> 100% back "on the air" with this machine.
>
> As a laptop installer, it's a little bit tricky, and leaves you with a
> fair amount of tweaking after installation. But it's nothing a good Linux
> User Group couldn't help you with.

That is the whole point of the message interchange, not an evaluation of the 
various distributions.

The issue, to me, is very simple. I need the Thinkpad for my job. Thus I need 
the installion done now. Meaning from the time I start to the time I finish I 
can do it on a Saturday so I hay have Sunday off. SuSE cost me 4 days with 
out working correctly before I removed it. Mandrake consumed 5 working days 
when I upgraded to 10.1. Debian I did not try on the Thinkpad as the last 
time I tried it on the desktop. [I have a desk top set I built in a full 
tower that has interchangeable HD drive drawers so that I can evaluate 
software. The drawers allow me to set up an evaluation that does not require 
elaborate changes due to having a number of / and /home directories. One for 
each evaluation.] It took a week to set up the Debian. Now I know a lot of 
this time is because _____ but that is exactly what would happen with any 
Thinkpad installation. So the times are fairly accurate for me. 

Considering that I am not a computer teckie I do fairly well. Much better than 
most other non teckies using Linux.

> I am now 100% sold on the "Sarge" installer. You can build a system easy
> enough for your Granny to use...just don't ask Granny to do the
> installing. Once it's installed, apt-get with the Synaptic GUI interface
> is cake to use. Let Synaptic do "smart updates" and it's a 2 click
> process.

Some how this for a number of people on the list these evaluations have moved 
from evaluating what happens on Thinkpads to one in which you bill the 
hardware so lets review a little bit.

A Thinkpad is assembled by IBM. IBM chooses the hardware. Many times IBM 
decides to change hardware in the middle of a production run and as a results 
2 apparent similar Thinkpads have different hardware in them. But! Here is 
the issue. IBM does all this without telling us what hardware they are 
utilizing. Oh! Sometines we get the information but many times not. This 
makes the concept of build a system, hardware wise, irrelevant to the 
discussion.

On the other hand is you are talking of non teckies building a software system 
like Gentoo or such one must recognize that that is way beyond the technical 
capabilities of even the most advanced non teckie much less the average 
computer user.

>
> Take care,
> Michelle