Just some reflections.. On Mon, 2005-04-25 at 09:28 +1200, Jim Cheetham wrote: > Ubuntu does not release a constant stream of upgrades, it releases one > complete distro every six months, that is guaranteed to remain > unchanged (modulo security) for the next 18 months. This stability is > essential for lots of usages :-)
I guess the market I am testing for is the alternative desktop, while trying to learn enough to be fully employable on the server side one day too. So I take your point - only bullet-proof goes on the latter, and stays there. Though mine is yet another usage. > You want a kernel that is always changing, go play with a different > distro :-) and spend all your time downloading, compiling or tweaking. > And reverting. Don't forget rebooting and selecting the previous kernel > so you can fix the current one :-) Been there, done that. The perceived > benefits don't stack up against the actual loss of time trying to get > them, if you're using your machine to work with, rather than to work > on. No, I'm a great believer in muss-free defaults. Kernel is only one area (where presumably desirable advantages do regularly surface); to show Linux in best light is to have recent OOo, package tools, well-driven hardware etc up & running, fast. For desktop comparisons, one wants to see everything being renewed when possible, as quickly as possible. Gentoo seems best at this. For Ubuntu as a classy current desktop, I recommend a separate data partition (fat32), and replace the whole OS every six months (disposable, like your smoke alarm battery). Treat sufficient partitions as fully recyclable. :-) Unless uninstallation of old software versions is guaranteed tidy. Any old FTP client, mail, browser, etc may still be usable for getting real work done, but the latest are better to have for a variety of reasons, including security, experience, and just plain nice. This may sound like heresy for classic *nix server work, but it is not that. The desktop market works very differently, and the plethora of Linux distros need to be navigated (ignored?) somehow. Selection and/or re-selection seems the constantly challenging task at hand. What works, and remains current (kernel included), is what will stand (out most). Changing the whole distro install still seems a time-efficient upgrade to me (with no loose ends / housekeeping to worry about). How else can we gain from the rapid and diverse distro release cycles, when we're not building servers every day? Correct me if I'm wrong. More pluses for Hoary: This Evolution has a good spell check, and Dictionary app is under Gnome -Apps-Accessories. Handy. There is a live hardware compatibility interface feeding back to base. Updates have their own GUI & system tray notification now. Synaptic repository settings have been clarified & extended. Help is extensive. This Gnome has its Nautilus parent-child frame multiplication fixed by default. The Networking GUI is improved. ..All working great! :-) oops!! drafting this message(?) crashed major resources then Evolution. But it was auto-recovered. Cool. > > What's the answer from Sydney, Jim? > > I'll let you know when I get there :-) Sorry, I thought that was today. Cheers, Rik -- Richard Tindall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> InfoHelp Services <http://www.infohelp.co.nz> on: UbuntuGNU/Linux 5.04 OS, Kernel2.6.10-5-386 (i686), GNOME2.10.0 desktop, OpenOffice.org1.1.3 suite, Firefox1.0.2 browser, Evolution2.2.1.1 email.
