Re: stuff and the thing

[John Corey <whoop@mtco.com>]

mike packard wrote:
> 
> Is there anyplace to reference all the dumb little errors and messages
> that pop up in your log files for sendmail, messages, etc.?  I don't know
> what a lot of them mean.

Well, there's the source code.  Otherwise, there isn't any big
repositories of errors and their meanings.  You can always post the
error message and relevant information to mail lists, news groups, etc,
and see what happens.

> Also, regarding Caldera: Did anyone else not really like using it after
> they had it installed?  I thought that the install was pretty nice.
> However, when I rebooted I didn't even feel like I was in Linux anymore.
> Not that graphical logins are horrible, but I couldn't figure out how to
> turn it off.

I'd imagine just resetting /etc/inittab to boot to a non-gui runlevel
would take care of that.

>  I also find KDE very uncomfortable because (like Windows)
> it's easy and convenient to configure the things they have menus for, but
> very difficult, to do what there isn't a menu for. It seems to me that
> this whole "getting Linux on the desktop" movement is doing a lot more
> "Hey we can imitate Windows." and not enough "Hey, we're so much cooler
> than windows, see!"  The whole thing (RedHat is doing this too) just
> seemed very clogged and messy.  Example: A "minimum" install from Caldera
> 2.2 installed full-blown KDE along with all its stuff and that gui login
> thingy.

You've got to take into account who the target audience is for both the
desktop environments and the distribution makers.  Primarily, they are
working towards easing the pain of folks who are familiar with Windows
in coming to Linux.  There are plenty of GUI utils in KDE/GNOME that
make it easier for them to edit the usual text files for many programs. 
But still, anyone can just edit the files themselves just as we always
have been able to.  Personally, I'm more comfortable with a handful of
KVT windows and vi than most of those programs.  Deep down, Linux is
Linux.

Most importantly, these movements aren't for everybody, and there is
still the choice not to use them.  The last thing we need is for a group
to demand that their way is the one and only way.  Some of the people
get very vocal that their way is the only way, but that's not what has
made Linux what it is today.  At least give them a try if you can.  If
you like them use them, if you don't, don't.

OpenLinux is really targetted to these people.  So their minimal
installation installs KDE and all.  For a "true" minimal install, go
with Debian or Slackware.

As to KDE/GNOME, I see them merging more and more in the coming future. 
They will agree on standards and methods of doing common things, and
some day you could run programs from either group working side by side,
in perfect harmony.  I was browsing the kde-devel list recently, and
there was on guy with an @redhat.com address that was saying how he
frequently talked with the GNOME developers at RedHat on ways they do
some of these things.  They are working on the format for the (soon to
be formerly named) .kdelnk "shortcut" files, so there isn't any conflict
between GNOME and KDE files.

> I'm interested in hearing what everyone else thinks.
> 
> ghort

There ya go.

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