[Lilux-help] Distro is not as important as we all think

[Georges Toth]

> > the "lower layer" is at least just as important as the "higher stuff".
> > imagine a car without an engine? what good would be for?
> > for many things, maybe, but not for driving, right?
>
> Then you don't know how people buy cars. Most people will first think
> about the size. If they have 3 kids, they will not buy a Smart or an
> Audi TT. After they have found the right size and model, they will
> choose the engine. Normally every manufacturer has some choice between
> diesel and several petrol engines.
> .....

you didn't get what i meant with that...


> > i wouldn't recommend suse to anyone, i, hate suse.
>
> I basically agree with you on this topic. But we should all try to get a
> bit more tolerant. This attitude doesn't help the Linux community at
> all. If we want that all the banks offer a internet banking solution
> that runs under Linux, we will need a user base as large as possible, no
> matter if the users runs SuSE or not!!! The distro just isn't important
> to this degree. What counts is the fact that the users uses standard
> compliant browsers and so on. If BGL, CCPL, BCEE and so on runs on SuSE,
> it will automatically also run on Gentoo. *Please*, never forget this
> basic fact. On this level, I can only say: Any distro will be a good
> choice.

that wasn't the point.
i just said that there are distros i personally don't like out of experience.
of course everybody is free to use what he likes, and of course 
webbanking-applets should work on LINUX, not on suse, rh, .... but on LINUX.
but i still don't like certain ones, and as such if somebody asks me "what 
would you recommend me?", i would for sure, NOT tell him "just use suse".


> You know what: If I would have the choice to work for two employers: one
> that uses a Windows firewall and one that uses a SuSE firewall, I would
> take the second one immediately. I could replace the SuSE firewall
> overnight to a Gentoo firewall by telling the boss that the firewall
> needed an important security update recently. Same with a SuSE webserver
> that uses PHP or perls scripts. But what would you do with an IIS server
> which uses ASP programs? Then you would have to change the *envionment*,
> which would have a much larger impact to the users than just changing
> the OS.
> What I already told before: changing a database server is a breeze as
> long you change the OS and *not* the database product.

no question, i would go the same way as you did.
i'm open to new stuff, and i can live with what my boss tells me to do or work 
with. but i would try to convince him to better stuff if available and 
possible.


> I had no argument *against* you. I just told why I dont't like pure
> network based installs. I thought Gentoo was mainly network based,
> because I didn't find ISOs for Gentoo with contain a complete
> distrobution that contains all the common tools and apps. I saw only the
> choice between stage 1, stage 2 and stage 3 installs which all needed a
> network connection at some point.

there are iso's available with grp's on them. which means binary packages.
those contain a full base system (x, kde, gnome, ... )


> > gentoo is a community project, not a company project.
> > to keep gentoo alive is easier than to keep a distro like suse alive.
> > with gentoo there would be forks....with suse there would be migrations.
>
> There already are community projects which have been given up.

sure, i know.
but there were many forks as well.
if there is a large community, and if the project is very popular, there will 
be forks.


> It's far more plausible than you think. Look at OSS cryptographic tools
> which you couldn't be downloaded from US servers. You know why OpenBSD
> is based in Canada? OpenBSD was the first major free BSD (the other are
> FreeBSD and NetBSD) which contained cryptographic software. This was
> only possibly because Theo Raadt lives in Canada!

i wouldn't compare that to the sco case.
sco never had a chance, and they are on the way to close their doors.
so this is not very plausible.


> If nobody knows that I am using the software package at home, nobody
> will come except burglars!!!

i maybe thought a bit too paranoid....
but things happen....

-- 
regards,
Georges Toth