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

[Mike Meredith]

On Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:02:24 -0400, Phil Stracchino wrote:
> 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.

Never really thought of those not-quite Ubuntu distributions as
lightweight. If you want something lightweight, you don't start trying
to slim down a heavyweight.

> NetworkManager - that to the best of my knowledge will only work from
> a GUI login session.  

I'd imagine that they're under the impression that most users will only
want networking up when the GUI is up. Fact is, text-mode users are a
tiny minority and the mainstream distribution are just not going to
spend much time on keeping them happy. In fact I've heard there's a
kernel feature coming up that allows text consoles to be removed
entirely!

Personally I run ArchLinux on my netbook, because it is a little more
text mode friendly, and text mode is the ideal solution to lack of
resources on a netbook. 

> masses ... but it seems like its lesson to the masses is that Linux
> really has nothing to offer over Windows except for being free.

Not sure about what advantages there are to the users, but it's pretty
useful to _me_ having family members run Ubuntu rather than Windows
because it's a whole lot easier supporting them. And "I don't do
Windows" doesn't seem to stop the questions coming :(



-- 
Mike Meredith (http://zonky.org/)
 A petty thief is put in jail. A great brigand becomes a ruler of a
State -- Zhuangzi