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Re: Debian et. al.



> Debian - Anyone unable to survive that gantlet is deemed too stupid to be
> using Debian. 

And until they do, the several other folks mentioned have a viable business
model of offering "free" Debian with a proprietary "installer". So Debian
would be biting the hand that feeds them by actually completing a good
installer. So progress will be slow, and bloat will set in, and it will be
an unusable mess.

And what a distro really comes down to is the installer and package selection.

> Lycoris - It's based on Caldera. (Thus spake Distrowatch.)

So, is that good, bad, or indifferent? You have to admit, the icons are cute.
They developed the Keramik theme for KDE 3.
 
> Xandros - that company has done really *weird* things to Debian.

Sounds like you're scared of "improvements" by labeling them "weird".
FUD, I tell ya. :=)

BTW, Rick Berenstein, Chairman and COO of Xandros will be at GOTEXPO
(http://www.gotexpo.org/) Sunday, October 26 at EPC in St. Chuck.

> It runs an old version, maybe pre-3.x, and updating it to 3.x wipes the 
> Xandros "improvements."

They have a KDE3-based "preview" CD that came with it from day 1. And it was
based on KDE2.2. It had an XP repartitioner before anyone else did. It comes
with Codeweavers Crossover Office and Plugin (before others started bundling 
it, too). And it is based on Woody - they were after *stability*, not the 
latest break if you sneeze during compilation Gentoo-style distro for their
*initial product launch*. Can you blame 'em? I'd want my first product to work,
since you don't get to make a second impression.

And the reason updating KDE yourself does that is because they don't use 
Konqueror - they use their own XFM, based on Corel's file manager. And it 
does some cool stuff Konqueror *can't*. Like they got the automounting, 
Windows printing and networking to behave the way that Windows refugees expect 
things to work. Good or bad, that's their target market, and they're on target 
with their "Top Ten".

> My humble opinion is that Debian Sarge and Xandros 2 will be released 
> within a month of each other. 

And a) what do they have to do with one another? and b) is that a good thing or
a bad thing?

X2 will be based on Sarge. Just as Libranet 2.8 is. So what? 
KDE3.1 will be the desktop. The autodetection is pretty impressive (not as 
good as Knoppix, but pretty bulletproof from a Windows refugee perspective).

If you _really_ want to run unstable code (like nightly KDE or XFree86, then 
why do you even care if you "lose" the Xandros features when you do so?

And this is a non-problem if you set your apt preferences properly.
You can even update from unstable if you're that brave.

But hey, if you're not their target customer, why is that so unfathomable that
you're not impressed with their product?

> Lindows

Seconded. 100%. It's a shame Wal-Mart gives them more business than they deserve.

> Libranet. - decent installer, good hardware detection, and the most 
> up-to-date packages of any Debian-based distro.

More up to date than Woody? Maybe I prefer my system to work more of the time 
than yours. Also, they're into their post-launch releases and have a customer
base - they can take the marketing risk of incorporating more "edge" features.

> Fer instance: Libranet 2.8 uses version 4.3 of XFree86.  
> Debian Unstable is still on version 4.2.1.

And when X2 comes out, if it's based on 4.3 as well, so what?

> Libanet also ships with a *wonderful* application called Adminmenu (and 
> XAdminmenu) that makes many aspects of Debian configuration childs play.
> If anyone using a Debian -based distro wants to try it, let me know and 
> I'll post a link to an older version (free beer *and* speech). 

Why is only the "older version" free, and the current one not? Or do they 
change the license from non-GPL on "their" stuff (just like the rest of the 
distros mentioned here do) and release it GPL after the next version comes out?
(Effectively retro-actively "forking" it?)

Good comments.

Mike/

---------------------------------------------
http://www.valuenet.net



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