Easy to use/install (was Re: [Novalug] Community contribution)

[Beartooth]

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008, Ken Kauffman wrote:

> Ubuntu/Kubuntu using Synaptic does allow the granularity you 
> specified, but be aware that they also have "group" packages. 
> For instance, installing kubuntu-desktop will re/install all of 
> the KDE components you are looking for.  You do not need to 
> install each individually.
>
> I forget what they call it, but 'meta package' comes to mind.

 	I figured somebody would raise that point.

 	Actually, I went through the sub-lists first -- and also 
found them, and the meta-packages, also far finer-grained than 
anything in Fedora.

 	I wouldn't run KDE for five minutes unless Gnome broke 
down completely on me. (It has, a couple times, no doubt through 
faults of my own; so I keep KDE installed for rescue purposes.) 
But neither would I want to live without Konqueror, K3B, and a 
couple other apps. No doubt there are KDE enthusiasts who do 
similar things with an occasional Gnome app.

 	The point, though, was the sheer number of choices. Under 
Fedora, if you set up a machine without KDE and still want 
Konqueror, you have to hunt it down, and then take a whole great 
package to get it. Efforts like "yum install Konqueror" get you 
nowhere.

 	You pays your money -- or your time -- and takes your 
choice, or both.

 	I would still prescribe Fedora for someone who dislikes 
detail; but now Ubuntu for one who does; and if I were setting up 
a whole machine (say, for my sister in law) it would depend on 
the amount of time I were willing to spend: in her house, with my 
cat allergy, Fedora or nothing. In my house, preparing a machine 
to deliver and get connected -- wearing something akin to a gas 
mask -- I might well give her Ubuntu. Or CentOS; I'm not sure 
about that yet.

-- 
Beartooth Paganus, Staffwright, Sciurivore
What do they know of country, who only country know?