[nzlug] favourite distro

[Simon Bridge]

On Mon, 2008-01-07 at 19:58 +1300, yuri wrote:
> On 07/01/2008, brendon  wrote:
> > Hi  there one and all, what is your favorite distribution  at the moment?
> 
> Current using PCLinuxOS which I got off an APC magazine coverdisk.
> I'm impressed and everything works. Codecs, DVD and other stuff that
> most distros shy away from including for legal fears.
Not just legal...

You know, I've just sat through a long lecture from rms about this sort
of thing. He obviously has it on file. Serves me right.

Personally:

I try to avoid distros that are very windows-like, as this can lead to
newcomers expecting things to work like windows and getting frustrated
when they don't - despite advantages. By comparison, when the UI is
clearly different it leads to the expectation that things will work
differently, and so to an appreciation of the advantages.

Including proprietary codecs out of the box similarly discourages
thinking about free codecs.

So all that ain't actually points *in favour* of PCLinuxOS.

I've seen people install fglrx (badly) for cards with sufficient 3D
support in the radeon driver because of not thinking.

Ubuntu's including proprietary drivers is, therefore, pause for thought.

They use the word "restricted" to imply it's not a good thing. But they
say it is "needed" which implies that it is a "must have". However, it
is an extra hurdle that goes some way to increasing awareness about the
drivers and they have only included the common impediments to an
arbitrary install. Get's you video and online.

So it will be interesting to see how this compromise works out.