Since everyone is giving away their bits os appreciation, I felt like giving mine.
My first ever GNU/Linux distro was some old Red Hat, which I couldn't handle well and was dropped in favor of Suse. Once again I had trouble with network hardware and was forced to dive in the command line with almost no understanding and no one to help. "tar -xvzf", what the hell?! So I did a long search around, since I had absolutely no idea where I was getting into. Back then I used to think that what was getting in the way of free software were usability and shinny. Tried gNewSense and again, had to go offroads and take chances messing around to just make my wireless card work. While researching three distros were always popping up as being the base, where true hackers lived: arch, debian and slackware. Since my main reason to moving was an ethical one but I was already experiencing a lot of difficulty, debian's promises sounded the most appealing. Non-free software only for vital tasks, usually firmware, not by default and hopefully no more. A path, not a total jump in the abyss. Moreover, community sounded more central issue. No ties. No boss. No leader, no guarantees. Debian is inseparable of its community. It grows with community, it is the result of communitarian work on its own needs. If some software becomes unmantained, it's because less people rely or care for it, not because someone atop had the hipster idea of the month. In someways I think that debian incarnates better the "world to come of free software". It is now the dream of a future society were we got over money and started working for meaningful reasons. We already have the technology and the intel on how to build and deliver goods throughout the world, money just distorts how it's done. What applies to software applies to physical goods. Funny I never *really* tried other distros, debian became addiction. Something I can never get the time because I'm also felling shorthanded before my debian peers and willing to give something back from all the help I found in this community. Oh, and the shell... what a shinny little thing, full of secrets. http://www.loldongs.dk/ShowImage.asp?lol=8412 On Tue, 2013-08-20 at 18:58 +0200, Ralf Mardorf wrote: > On Tue, 2013-08-20 at 18:06 +0200, berenger.mo...@neutralite.org wrote: > > [ ubuntu | archlinux | gentoo ] > > $ cat /etc/issue > Arch Linux \r (\l) > > This is my "main" distro, IOW the distro I like the best, while > switching to systemd wasn't the best idea, it split the community, > people were banned from the mailing list and now it's a hardcore > moderated mailing list. > > I suspect the best mailing lists for newbies are Ubuntu mailing lists, > followed by this Debian list, other lists are a little bit strange. IOW > newbies should use Ubuntu or Debian. > > Funny thread: > http://lists.linuxaudio.org/pipermail/linux-audio-user/2013-August/094164.html > > And I run into similar situation, so I closed a thread at > https://mail.gnome.org/archives/evolution-list/2013-August/msg00117.html > > I would call the Ubuntu and Debian communities liberal :), FWIW the Arch > community is liberal too, just the original mailing list is hard to use. > > However, an issue, especially for newbies are many Linux mailing lists. > It seems to be, that Jesus Christ had not to suffer that hard, as > several Linux (userspace) coders and some disciples do from those many > evil users who don't contribute by following their directives and > opinions :D. > > Resume: > > There are many good linux distributions we could install, but there are > only a few communities with "normal" [1] people. > > [1] "normal" in this context is for people who have a live > beside Linux, with friends who don't know what Linux is. I bet > the friends of some of those "abnormal" coders and disciples be > sick of hearing them talking about Linux. > > A major distro with a huge community of "normal" people (Arch btw. is a > major distro too), IMO is the best way to go. > > 2 Cents, > Ralf > > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/1377289493.15394.70.camel@tagesuhu-pc