[Dclug] Still Lost in the Linux Labyrinth of Distros

[Charles R. Kiss]

>senseless flame war

Set the fuel pumps to high and temperature to high-larious!

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I just had this idea; tell me what you think.

Wouldn't it be nice if anyone could get any distro they wanted 
and could make them look like any other distro they wanted?

Like instead of yum or apt, there was just one command for 
"installs" -though the actual word "install" is already taken.

The context of this argument is this:  why does Gnome have to 
look any different than KDE??  Why can't they have options to 
look precisely the same (and I'm not talkin' about that KDE 
package that runs over the top of Gnome, or vice-versa, and 
this argument extends to every component of every distro.  I 
know there are licensing issues, etc.

I think this would really strengthen the Linux user base; for example, one 
would really have to dig deep into an /etc file to know what 
distro they're running.  Of course, one would have already known 
what distro they had installed for whichever reasons they had, but this 
decision would also be something likely forgotten, and irrelevant, etc.

It seems the whole "Look & Feel" issues are totally arbitrary and meaningless 
and should be completely crossable-over, fully, and in every respect; they 
drive me N U T S !!  Yum?  Apt?  Whatever.  The process, the code, clearly is 
important, but the words should be precisely the same for every user.  Of 
course, they're directed to the appropriate repositories and compilers wrt 
they're OS, but it -the actual sequence of letters, y-u-m, or a-p-t, shouldn't 
be anything important to any user, whatsoever.

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I had to leave Debian behind for awhile because I did think I could get away 
with an upstream package (and I almost did (!) until I tried installing some 
meaningless documentation package called sphinx, LOL!: I was warned, but it 
fully discombobulated my user experience.  I also had a lot of ticks coming 
out of the case even before the upstream fiasco; I wasn't sure if it was the 
hard drive or the fan; the ticks were almost completely gone in Fedora, and 
are also almost completely gone here in SL.  

In any event,  I still heart Debian.  Maybe I'll go back next week. Or when 
they come out with wheezy in a year or two.

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To install KDE in SL, one has to use the "Customize the Installation" button, 
or whatever it is, and select package menus, etc.  Unclick GNome, and click 
KDE.  I really love SL so far; I even have an HP Device Manager on the Panel 
without having to put it there.  A little trouble with google-chrome icons, 
however (but worked around),  Python 3.3, I'm pretty sure; still learning and 
have high expectations; I'll keep you informed.


TFYR!!
Charles