[Techtalk] What distro?

[L J L]

Little Girl wrote:
> Hey there,
> 
> L J L wrote:
>> Little Girl wrote:
>>> L J L wrote:
> 
> [Run command or Run application]
>>> As it turns out, it wasn't an Ubuntu fool who did it. Debian is
>>> missing it as well - at least it's not to be found anywhere in the
>>> menu in debian-506-i386-netinst.iso. It can only be accessed via
>>> an applet in the panel just like Ubuntu.
>  
>> That's odd.  I'm running Lenny, with KDE.  I bring up K Menu, and
>> there it is, just above the "switch User" and below the "System
>> Menu".
> 
> Ah, yes, it's GNOME it's missing from. KDE always has it. (:

Ah.  Well, probably part why I don't really care for Gnome... But it's 
all personal taste in that.

>>>> Compelling?  Not sure - if you like Kubuntu.  But I found it 
>>>> frustrating, and I'm a long time Debian and Linux user.  It was 
>>>> supposedly more user friendly, but it felt more like a Windows
>>>> wannabe.
>  
>>> Lots of people feel that way. (:
>  
>> Heh. I'm glad to know I'm *not* the only one.  I've had Ubuntu
>> advocates tell me I was delusional, and didn't know what I was
>> talking about. :(
> 
> No, you're definitely not delusional, and many before you have said
> the same thing. The fact that it felt familiar immediately is one of
> the reasons I chose Kubuntu when I switched over from Windows. (:
> 
> You know that you can make Kubuntu look just like Ubuntu, right? Both
> are pretty well interchangeable when it comes to looks as long as
> you're willing to play around with their themes, colors, icons, and
> other settings for a while.

Yeah, but I actually tried both, and found both very annoying to change 
easily other than purely cosmetic stuff.  The apparent difference 
between them is what window manager is the default, and you can always 
specify another, but the tools aren't always there.

>>> I would actually enjoy a slower release cycle (as seen by the fact
>>> that I still use Hardy Heron even though it's quite outdated).
>>> What's the tiff about the Firefox name and branding?
>  
>> They won't bundle actual FireFox and Thunderbird, but genericized 
>> versions called IceWeasel and IceDove.  They work fine, except when
>> it comes to installing 3rd party extensions that want "FireFox" -
>> like anything Adobe or Flash.
> 
> Oh good heavens - so the folks who use those can't use Adobe or Flash?

Not easily.  You have to tweak what the browser sends as the user agent, 
and other arcane stuff, or install real FireFox, and mess with 
/etc/alternatives/* settings (via update-alternatives) to tell stuff 
where to go for the right default browser.

>>> I also tried out Kubuntu 10.04 in VirtualBox and decided that
>>> they've restored enough of the Desktop functionality that I'm
>>> willing to go ahead and upgrade to that. (:
>  
>> OK, I'm glad they fixed the problems,
> 
> They restored enough original functionality to convince me that,
> after a bit of tweaking, I should be able to get comfortable in it. (:

Yaaay!

>> Maybe they will figure out that the reason that people are
>> migrating away from Windows is because they don't *want* a dumbed
>> down interface...
> 
> Heh, I didn't know that. I figured that most people make the switch
> for security reasons. I remember spending a good chunk of my time
> maintaining, updating, and running all sorts of anti-virus,
> anti-trojan, anti-spyware, anti-adware, and anti-other-horrible-stuff
> programs. Being able to just simply *use* my computer rather than
> dedicating myself to maintaining it was a novel concept for me when I
> first switched over to Kubuntu.

That too.  The AV, virus/trojan/spyware stuff is a nightmare, and 
Windows updates break things often.  Then running it is often BSOD and 
corrupted files all over the place.

> There have to also be those who make the switch to save money. How
> much does Windows cost nowadays? I know quite a few people who have
> Windows even though the last price I remember for it was out of their
> league, which brings me to the next reason: those many who most
> likely have an illegal copy (which must be stressful). (:

I don't know, since I haven't actually bought a copy in years.  The only 
Windows computer I own runs Win 2k.  Other than one provided by a job, 
I've been running Linux on my systems - desktop and laptop - for the 
last ten years.  The last time my roomies bought an OEM XP license for a 
system they were building, it was somewhere around $150.

ljl