Orn E. Hansen wrote:
Most of the time I avoid doing too much to my system, there are a few reasons why.
1. To me, an OS should be a stable core on which I build something else. I've always find Linux somewhat a Rock and a Hard place, because the updates to the core are far too often.
I guess it's time to get a little philosophical :-) A Linux distro is a bundling of an OS, a GUI and a whole pile of applications with an incredibly wide scope. Personally I think of the OS as the kernel, the modules and system utilities (e.g. modprobe), plus the minimal set of utilities and libraries that enable it to run applications, plus the networking stack. And that really doesn't change that much unless you want it to e.g. to get support for the latest fantastic Wifi interface. The GUI is KDE (for me), all the X-stuff, the artwork and all that jazz. Again, unless you want to be right at the bleeding edge, it doesn't change much. The applications, mostly due to the vast numbers, change much more often. For SUSE 10.1, I've been quite active in the beta-tests and I had a few systems that changed a lot every two weeks. Apart from that exceptional exercise, I've kept my systems on mostly 9.0, some 8.2 and even a single one at 7.1. They've required quite a few applications updates, and because I like to, I've also been keeping up with the kernel releases. As to "avoiding doing too much to your system", I fully agree, but at installation time you _do_ determine what you want your system to do and look like. You choose between thousands of packages, you choose the GUI etc. SO at that time, you already do a LOT to your system. The key thing is that there is no single Linux distro that could possibly cater to all of its users equally well. Therefore, unlike certain OS'es and GUI'es from certain wellknown vendors, you get a wide choice in customising your system. Linux is the diametrically opposite of "one size fits all", although a distro vendor will need to achieve some level of that.
2. A desktop system, should be setup for users who use it for other purposes than tweaking the OS for optimal personal use.
Agree. But SUSE Linux is not and does not purport to be just a desktop system. I could perhaps be tempted to rant about lack of JFS install support, that smartd isn't started by default, that NTP isn't running by default, that samba is always installed, but ...
Linux isn't Unix, and it isn't a batch OS ... batch operating isn't cool stuff,
You're somehow hung up about this batch stuff and UNIX. Linux does quite well processing batch-type workloads, whether or not it's a batch OS. Even IBMs z/OS, perhaps _the_ archetypical batch OS, does very well in running OLTP systems. As to Linux not being UNIX - who really cares?
A computer is a tool, you don't get yourself a toolbox ... just to have a toolbox, you get it to eventually use it create something else. Some of that stuff need to be done, but when doing it "now" means someone has to take a lunch break from their work, that's an "oobs" to me.
You've decided to use a tool that was not custom-designed for your intended purpose - and you complain that you need to tweak it a bit? Frankly, that's a bit of an ooops to me.
On a desktop computer, there are a few things that don't need prioritation, and there are those that do. A computer doesn't have to react to the user, more quickly than the user does in human terms. But a computer, where a user has to wait for the interface ... and on a system, that has time and time again, stated it's "faster than windows", "better than windows", "fancier than windows" ... makes it neither funny, nor impressive.
It does to me. In my shop, SUSE Linux is both faster and better than Windows - not sure what I'm to do with "fancier", but it's a lot cheaper too. That's pretty impressive.
It's not a reasonable thing, to demand that some user "tweaks" his system, to get rid of the slowness
But it is reasonable to make me tweak my system to have it use NTP? Or connect to a VPN?
... it's reasonable to say that the users who know what they're doing, change the system, to make it slow to obtain some other purpose. The default should be user friendly, not geek friendly.
Well, define "user" then. My typical user is an employee that uses a workstation from 0800 to 1700. Or perhap a salesman with a laptop on the road all day. What you're asking is utopia. /Per Jessen, Zürich