[olug] Langa defends (or tries to defend) his article on Linux

[IrishMASMS]

>From the LangaList Standard Edition dated 2003-05-08 (ISSN 1533-1156). To
read it online, click <a href="
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-05-08.htm ">here</a>
[http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-05-08.htm]

<i>1) Easy Linux Setups

In the current article at http://www.informationweek.com/938/langa.htm,
I single out three Linux distributions for having really excellent setup
and installation routines--- ones so good that I hope they serve as
models for future builds of Linux in general.

Of course, some Linux fans--- among the most thin-skinned people in
computerdom--- still managed to take offense at that. Even when you're
delivering praise to Linux, the more fanatic Linux users still will
often find a way to see it as an attack! For example,

    Fred, some of what you say is just not true and I hate to see
    you discouraging people from removing the MS yoke. Yes,
    Slackware and several others are old school. However, three
    distros come to mind that are just as easy to install as any
    Windows OS and do great at hardware detection.

    1. Mandrake Linux
    2. Red Hat Linux
    3. SuSE Linux

    I know you are primarily Windows-centered, but please stop
    misleading the readers of your newsletter. Thank you, Stephen

Man, if conclusion-jumping were an Olympic sport, Linuxen would be world
champs. In this case, it appears that reader (and many other Linux fans)
skimmed a couple points in the article and jumped to the conclusion that
I'd written an anti-Linux rant.

To the contrary. For example, in the last issue, I said "Red Hat--- 9.0,
'Shrike' [---] has one of the most-polished installation interfaces
there is in the Linux world...." And in the InformationWeek article, I
go into some detail about SuSE 8.2, saying:

    The entire [SuSE 8.2 Live-Eval] setup is complete in about
    five minutes, and delivers a fully-configured Linux
    environment, running a desktop designed to be instantly
    familiar to Windows users, and already equipped with many
    tools such as Office-type applications, Web browsers, E-mail
    tools, games, developer tools, and more.

Does that sound like a slam to you? I guess it does to some Linuxen,
probably because the article's context is about how some of these new
versions of Linux are overcoming one of the traditional limitations of
that OS--- difficult and archaic installation methods. But you can't say
"Linux" and "limitation" in the same sentence without freaking out the
more irrational elements of Linux fandom. Sigh. As if any OS were
perfect....

Be that as it may, there is something really good afoot in the Linux
world. Don't let the froth-on-the-lips crowd keep you from trying the
new Linux distributions that offer highly-automated, zero- or small-
footprint installation options with no hard-drive partitioning needed;
and requiring no or only trivial and safe system changes.

I've picked the top three small- and zero-footprint Linux distributions
from among all I've seen so far, and made them the focus of the column
that's available now at http://www.informationweek.com/938/langa.htm .
I'll go into those three in some detail, and also provide links to
literally dozens of others you can try--- all for free.

Come check it out, and then join in the discussion: Have you tried any
of the zero- and small-footprint Linux distributions? If you have, which
ones, and was your overall experience good or bad? If you've shied away
from Linux in the past, will you now try one of the versions that won't
affect your current setup? Which Linux versions look most appealing?
Join in!  </i>



-- 
A: No.
Q: Should I include e-mail quotations after my reply?
=====================================================
An often repeated quote on news.admin.net-abuse.email - <I>"Spam is not
about content, it is about consent".</I>