On Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:47:38 -0600 Chris <rac...@makeworld.com> dijo:
> ... Redefined... Ubu 9.10 (assuming) is both nice (to use, as in ease) > AND flashy (visually). Not a contradiction at all. > > Perhaps I should have taken the time to define that however, knowing > the Op was using Ubu to begin with, I assumed the Op knew exactly what > I meant and how it was meant. First, thanks to all who responded. I should have given more detail, but it's hard to think of everything when writing an e-mail in a list like this. My failure to communicate required many to make assumptions about my needs. I started with Linux with a brand new laptop that I bought for school four years ago. I found a local user group who helped me get started. The computer had a 15.4 inch widescreen capable of 1680 x 1050, and I was adamant in getting that working with 64-bit Linux. At the time I tried Mandriva, Suse, and several others. No amount of tweaking could get the display to run better than 1024 x 768 Vesa. After several days of frustration I tried a Breezy live CD. The screen came up automatically at 1680 x 1050. That was it. Shuttleworth made another sale. Over the years I have often tried live CDs of other distros, but I always came back to Ubuntu. Two years ago I built myself a new desktop computer to use as a music server. I installed Debian on it and tried really hard to get things to work. Eventually I ended up putting Ubuntu on it. Today I have two main motivations for going to Debian: 1) It's time to expand my knowledge of Linux, and I have no huge computer projects underway at the moment. I can afford the time to fiddle around for a while. At the same time, my experience with other distros over the years leads me to reject any distro that is not Debian based. No package management system can hold a candle to Debian. I want my Synaptic. 2) I write and publish textbooks. In the past I used InDesign on Windows, but now I am in the Linux world. I recently did a new textbook and had to figure out what works best for me in Linux. I spent a week trying to get my head around Lyx-Latex-Tex, but finally gave up. I found my home in Scribus, which I love. But I want to use 1.3.5.1, which is close, but not yet stable. In discussing issues on the Scribus e-list it is clear that the Scribus developers mince few words in their dislike of Ubuntu. Scribus is based on Qt, and apparently the Ubuntu people messed around with some of the Qt libraries. They strongly recommend Fedora, Debian or OpenSuse. So there you have it. Debian is the common denominator for me. The only issue is whether I should have used stable instead of testing. At the time I wrote my original message I was feeling extreme frustration with the bugs in Nautilus on testing. But Márcio H. Parreiras just gave me a solution (thanks!) - gconf-editor allows me to change the configuration without needing to use the Preferences button. I feel much happier with testing now that I have Nautilus configured the way I want it. I still have some troublesome apps to install (realplayer, xaralx, foxit reader), but I had them working on Jaunty, so I'm sure I can do the same on testing. I don't mind that testing is probably not as stable as the current incarnation of Ubuntu. And I am very willing to do my share of bug reporting and participate as much as I can. I know nothing of programming, but there are lots of other ways to contribute. In four years of Ubuntu my "bean count" on the forums is over 1,000. At the moment I think testing is the right fit for me. But if not, well, it is installed on a brand new hard disk. My old hard disk with Jaunty is untouched; all I have to do is put it back in the computer to go back to Ubuntu. Or I can wipe out testing and install stable. Thanks again for the viewpoints. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org