[sf-lug] choices/defaults: Re: systemd 8-O ...

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Michael Paoli (Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu):

[snip very droll car metaphor, which I enjoyed hugely]

> Well, in my opinion, in far too many cases, folks just go with defaults,
> and don't bother to make decisions.  E.g. I see a whole lot 'o folks
> make their decisions on which distro largely if not entirely by some
> defaults of a distro, rather than at all what the distro has and can
> very easily do/provide, or drop out if unwanted.

All the damned time -- which boggled me for a while when I first noticed
it?  ('What?  You simply accepted all defaults?  _Why?_')  

When I finally became aware of this as a depressingly widespread
phenomenon, I started using the term 'forehead install' for the basic
heuristic these folks seek out:  Insert installation media, boot
machine, and then hit the spacebar repeatedly with one's forehead until
done.

What finally clued me to how _very_ widespread this practice is, was 
how, in the mid-2000s, DamnedSmallLinux aka DSL (now defunct) kept being
touted to Linux newcomers with 'old' IA32 computers.  I would inquire of
the helpers:

RM:  'Why specifically DSL?  Sure, it's a cute little live-CD distro,
and you _can_ install it, but it's horribly compromised by shoehorning
it into a 48MB ISO file, and it doesn't even have reasonable package
management.'

Helpers:  'Because the user had only a 2.1GB hard drive.'

RM:  'Excuse me?  That's gobs of room for Debian, Slackware, AntiX, 
Kanotix, and many more.  Heck, you can even do CentOS or Mandriva with 
that.  Over two gigs is a _lot_.'

Helpers:  'We tried Debian, but it was going to require several
gigabytes.'

RM:  'Not if you install only what you actually need and want.  And also
you should remove and disable processes you don't wish to run, if only
to save wasteage of RAM.'

Helpers:  'How do you do that?'

RM:  {headdesk}


Shortly after that, I noticed that 'distribution reviews' on Web sites
catering to Linux users had overwhelmingly become commentary on the
results and process of forehead installations, with nothing whatsoever
about what the distribution is like to _live_ with -- which would be
like rating cars on the basis of how smooth their rides were when
driving off the dealer lot.