[conspire] Re: conspire Digest, Vol 17, Issue 12

[Ross Bernheim]

On Sunday, October 10, 2004, at 08:23 AM, 
conspire-request at linuxmafia.com wrote:

> I value the flexibility of the more-orthodox varieties of Debian
> installer -- as opposed to, say, Ubuntu Linux or Knoppix.  There's
> nothing in the latter that you cannot get from one of the
> general-purpose images, and you don't get your arm twisted towards
> using, say, GNOME 2.8.

Agreed that there is nothing you can't get from one of the 
general-purpose
images. The if is if you know what packages you want and or need. Ubuntu
and Knoppix come with what you will need pre-selected so that you have
a starting point that for desktop users is much closer to where they 
will
most likely want to end up.

As to getting your arm twisted towards Gnome or KDE, for most desktop
users with reasonably modern hardware and coming from either Mac
or Windows platforms, they would choose one of these windowing
systems. So it makes sense that these distros would include one of
these and go on to configure the menus and packages for their
intended desktop audience. The standard Debian distro has all
the building blocks, but you have to put things together.

As to the installer issue. Debian installer was until fairly recently
been rather a pain. The Debian installer is also targeted to work
across multiple platforms. The Knoppix installer is more
specialized and does a better job of detecting hardware and
configuration on the x-86 platform.

If you fall within the profile for which Ubuntu and Knoppix are
tailored for, they are a good choice. Debian is a good choice for
those who want more control over the installation process and
package selection or want to use Linux for a different purpose
than as a desktop operating system/program selection.

I have a straight up Debian installation on my AMD box and
have done a few Knoppix installationa and now have
Ubuntu on my Celeron box. They are all different in some
details and have different strengths and weaknesses for my
uses.

Ross