[nzlug] Dell are sooo pwn3d

[Mathew Carley]

I had installed Ubuntu 6.06LTS on a PII 350 machine with 64MB of RAM 
last year, is that low-spec'd enough?

I almost ran XFCE as the primary window manager too... (needed a decent 
kiosk mode... or maybe thats why I didn't run it... or... ah well, 
whatever). Basically, I wanted the box to serve the same purpose as the 
Wyse WinTerms sitting next to it (don't fcuk with my settings!)...

The great thing is that it supported everyones cameras and card readers 
with few issues (the Wyse boxes didn't)... Amazing how many people would 
try and download Windows EXEs and try to run them. The box was/is in a 
public place and I couldn't babysit the machine 24/7, I wanted stuff to 
just work! :)

Security was kind-of a non.issue: obscurity (and the fact that I could 
lock it down easily) was enough in this instance (not that I would care 
a great deal if it got hosed: it was just for web-browsing and stuff, 
but previously it was running pirated XP with no local, user or group 
policies locking the thing down, and it was full of viruses which would 
literally bog down the network and the 12 mbit DSL connection it was on).

MC

Denise Bates wrote:
> Dirk Pilat wrote:
>>
>> On 29/06/2007, at 6:03 PM, Denise Bates wrote:
>>
>>>  Ubuntu isn't my kettle of fish: I can think of at least three major 
>>> shortcomings which make it quite unacceptable to me.
>>
>> Mmmh. This is very interesting and I would love to hear them, as I 
>> harbour a little grudge against Ubuntu as well (mainly due to it's 
>> security probs), that nevertheless doesn't keep me from using it on 2 
>> of my machines at home.
>
> At the risk of being accused of indulging in a "distro-war", I regard 
> the following shortcomings of Ubuntu as sufficient reason to reject it 
> for my own use:
> * Inflexible installation procedure: I want to be able to install 
> _only_ the packages that I need, and/or to tailor the installation to 
> suit the limitations of a particular machine (HD space, memory, etc). 
> I have found that Ubuntu simply refuses to install on low-specced 
> machines.
> * The lack of a regular "root" account: Having to muck about with Sudo 
> is clumsy and too damn slow.
> * Difficult, inconsistent configuration: I concede that e-lists such 
> as this one provide commendable support for configuration problems, 
> but I would prefer to avoid mucking around in the first place.
> * The default kernel configuration is too demanding of resources.
> * Lack of KDE: OK, there is Kubuntu, but I find Gnome doesn't come 
> anywhere near to KDE in functionality (e.g. Gnome dial-up support is 
> clumsy). And, as several people who have acquired, and experimented 
> with a Ubuntu CD remind me, Gnome is so ugly!
>
> I don't have a desire to knock the work of Ubuntu developers per se, 
> but the evangelistic promotion of this one distro as the generic 
> version of Linux is irritating.
>
>> The only machine in my network where security plays an important part 
>> due to various reasons, runs OpenBSD (me being a Theo fanboy)
>
> I also like the approach of FreeBSD (and NetBSD for odd-ball 
> hardware). If I didn't have a head-start in learning Linux, I would be 
> quite content with BSD. I currently use BSD intermittently, partly as 
> a learning experience, but my serious academic work is entrusted to 
> Linux.
>
> regards,
> *********************************************
> Dr Denise J. Bates,
> PO Box 50,
> Meremere 2441
> New Zealand
> E-mail: dbates at iconz.co.nz
> Telephone 09-2336433
> Mobile 021-2541330
> *********************************************
>
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