[geeks] While I'm at it, another Ubunut grouse

[velociraptor]

On Tue, Jun 9, 2009 at 5:02 AM, Phil Stracchino<alaric at metrocast.net> wrote:
> gsm at mendelson.com wrote:
>> It simply won't work properly if you try to make an XDMCP connection
>> from MacOS 10.5.7 and use GNOME. The keyboard is all messed up and none of
>> the known workarounds fix it.
>>
>> It works fine with the other window managers and the VNC hack still works.
>
> I'm very unimpressed with Ubuntu in all of its variations.  Even the
> "lightweight" xubuntu still has most of Gnome running, and even still
> uses gdm instead of, say, xdm.

I run Xubuntu here, have done zip for customization other than adding
emacs and a few other utilities, and the only thing running that is
"gnomish" is gdm itself.  I could switch to xdm if I want, but it's
not worth the hassle since my hardware is not that marginal (I prefer
xfce).  I am running 9.04.

Of course, if you fire up Evolution (or other mish-mashes), all bets
are off, since it's linked to the fscking gnome hilt.

> (Allow me to comment at this point on the utter STUPIDITY of building a
> Unixlike OS with a network connection management tool - NetworkManager -
> that to the best of my knowledge will only work from a GUI login
> session.  WTF were the Gnome people thinking?  I'd almost be tempted to
> speculate that key Gnome developers are deep-cover Microsoft moles
> tasked to sabotage Linux from the inside.)

It's easy enough to disable (I did that on 8.04 when I was toting
around the laptop to the datacenter, b/c the wireless supplication
didn't work right on this box).

> To me, Ubuntu is Debian Linux dumbed-down and crippled to look and act
> as much like Windows as possible.  Yeah, sure, it's accessible to the
> masses ... but it seems like its lesson to the masses is that Linux
> really has nothing to offer over Windows except for being free.

It *is* a desktop distribution--unless you install the server version
(which I have, in a vm, I like it because it keeps me informed of
updates, just like *ubuntu on the desktop).  So, you know, what do you
expect?  People want pretty GUIs on their desktop.  The fact that
we're all old (certain parties excepted) and curmudgeonly, and prefer
the command line doesn't obviate the fact that the majority of users
are youngsters that haven't even heard of DOS, CP/M, SysV, VMS,etc. in
most cases.

Compared to trying to trim down something like RH or Fedora to get it
onto marginal hardware, going the Xubuntu route is a great deal more
straightforward.

But that's the one nice thing about Linux, if you don't like a
particular distro's peculiarities, you can find another.  Consider
PuppyLinux or DSL or something intended to fit on a USB thumb drive.

=Nadine=