Morning folks,
Going through slashdot I cam across this link to ZDnet. It talks about
Linux distros being too big and including far to many applications and
servers for the average desktop (home/corporate) user. Personally, I
think this is long overdue.
< http://www.zdnet.com/enterprise/stories/main/0,10228,2667259,00.html
>
And here is why.
The average desktop unit I set up includes the following applications
(coporate set-up):
- word processor
- spread sheet
- Acrobat Reader
- Netscape (browser)
- email client
- calculator
- image viewer
- clipboard
that's a basic workstation in our office. Marketing people will have
stuff like PageMaker and graphic tools installed. An engineer will have
AutoCAD, Visio and in our case Protel. Developers will have Visual C++,
gVim, Matlab.
So when I want to install a new workstation, I start with the basic
setup and add applications as needed.
One of my bones to pick with Linux distros is even the default install,
ends up installing a TON of extra applications and services that the
average user doesn't need. What I'd like to see and I agree with the
ZDNet write-up on is someone to take the lead and create an install
disk
(or even a selection) that does just the bare-bones.
In the Stormix world I think all that would be needed is:
- SAS
- StormPKG
- apt, dpkg, dselect
- TCP Wrappers
- LDP or some other printing tool
- Samba
- Gnumeric
- Natilus <???>
- TradeClient (email)
- Netscape/Mozilla (like Opera myself)
- gqview
- Xterm or ONE other (kterm, eterm, etc...)
- Gnome/Sawfish and/or KDE 2
- basic command line tools (ls, telnet, ftp, etc...)
- openSSH
- xmms, CD player
Now I am sure I am simplifing this, but I have yet to come arcoss an
office that allows/wants each use to have 30+ games installed on their
employee's desktop PC. Also, I still remeber using Linux when the
default install was less than 300MB of space after install. Most distro
these days take up 600+MB of space.
I love that all this free and stable software comes with your average
Linux distro. And myself, I do run Apache, NFS, and all those other
services on my own box (work and home), but my mother for example, just
wants to check email, surf the web, print out pictures of her
grandchildren and play on-line bingo. She doesn't need web servers, FTP
servers, RPC/NFS/NIS tools, IRC clients (let alone 4 of them). She
isn't
about to recompile code let alone a kernel.
Which brings up another point. StormPKG would be the very best (hell it
is already the best) GUI package management tool if it offered
different
modes. How hard would it be (nudge nudge to the Stormix crew) to add a
feature (eeks) that allows a user to choose mode of operation for
Stormpkg? i.e.:
- basic (when an update is done, it only displays newer versions of
files presently installed and recommendations. It wouldn't for example
show kernel files, dev-libs, etc..)
- advanced ( works like the present version does. Shows you ALL the
files not installed)
As an idea, maybe the Stormix marketing crew could run a survey to see
what are the basic tools everyone uses/needs and build something from
there.
PS - sorry about any damn typos. Am using a beta email client and it
has
a few bugs.
Later folks,
"Frank " <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, on the subject of '[SLU] Second thought
about Storm vs SuSe?', is quoted as:
>Hello,
>
>I just ordered Storm Deluxe today and while browsing the local stores,
I came upon SuSe that looked pretty good in regards to applications and
support.
>
>Question:
>
>Did I make a mistake buying Storm? The price was about the same.
>I have not used SuSe before and need advice from users that are more
involved in Linux.
>
>Thanks for the help.
>
>Frank
>
===========================================================
Scott Fraser Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
IT Systems Manager Quester Tangent Corporation
99-9865 West Saanich Road Voice: 250.656.6677 ext 236
Sidney, BC, Canada Fax: 250.655.4696
V8L 5Y8 http://www.questertangent.com/
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