Re: project status

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On Friday 14 January 2005 09:57, Sven Vermeulen wrote:
> With all due respect, but if you don't read, you'll get into trouble
> anyway. How would you know how to update your system? How would you know
> how to maintain software? How would you know how Gentoo's init style works?

- From a (relatively) novice point of view:
I tried Red hat and Mandrake back when they were on version 5, or so, as my 
first Linux experience. I got both of them installed, muddling through the 
graphical installer, and got them running, but I was left with very little 
understanding of how to run a Linux system. I'd used Irix at university, so I 
knew how to run programs and so on, but I had no knowledge of how to 
administer my new system. It was gone within a month.

I tried again with Mandrake 9 some time later, and (fairly) sucessfully got a 
home server running, but I still had no idea how to administer it. Its only 
been with Gentoo forcing me to go through all the hoops (together with a 
superb installation manual) that I have realised _what_ makes up a running 
Linux system: glibc, syslog, kernel, cron etc. and how to set them running.

Typing all the commands does make it stick in the mind in a way that clicking 
doesn't. I believe that any graphical install should be very thin, requiring 
lots of input from the user, together with information to allow them to make 
informed decisions.

If you make it to easy, you end up with a Mandrake, and users installing all 
the software they can, purely because they ticked a box they had no clue 
about.

Sorry, this has been a longer post than I intended!

Alex Wright.
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