[nzlug] favourite distro

[Simon Bridge]

On Tue, 2008-01-08 at 06:46 +1300, yuri wrote:
> On 08/01/2008, Simon Bridge wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 2008-01-07 at 19:58 +1300, yuri wrote:
> > > 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...
> [snip]
> > Including proprietary codecs out of the box similarly discourages
> > thinking about free codecs.
> >
> > So all that ain't actually points *in favour* of PCLinuxOS.
> 
> Like I said - not for purists.
> I'm not a purist so for me those points *are* in favour.
> 
You don't have to be RMS to care about community - PCLinuxOS and similar
are often touted for and by newbies glorying in the unthinkingness of
the experience. If you already know the issues, then you can ake an
informed decision to be less free. But for others, this doesn't even
admit there is any issue. And the issues go beyond the legal ambiguities
of certain formats, which you failed to mention.

> I don't begrudge the existence of other distros so you can have one
> that *you* like.
> I'm not going to start a distro war. All distros are good (to different people).
> PCLinuxOS is good for people like me. I hope your distro is good for you.

This was not about whether a distro is good *for me* or not. It's about
what kind of World we are to be allowed to live in.

Perhaps it was your wording that confused me:

Instead of saying "not for purists", perhaps it would be more accurate
to say "not for users who value their freedom and a free community". Or
"not for people who feel that users should be told when their freedoms
are being compromised."

You may decide you meant "not for people who are pig headed about free
software"... but then, I am not advocating that distros cannot have all
the things you crave, just that they should be up-front about the cost -
at least give users a chance to make an *informed* decision.

Perhaps PCLinuxOS does this, if so, tell me how.