Re: Learning Linux from scratch

> What are you after here? Do you want "Linux user" to mean someone who
> compiles everything?

When did I ever say that?

> At some point we need to get work done. If I need an email client should
> I get the Ubuntu package for Thunderbird or should I code my own email
> client? Which one do you use?

What does this have to do with anything?

> All this talk about Linux and compiling is crazy. If you want to spend
> your life coding your own distribution that's fine. Some people don't
> have the skill or the desire to code anything. Does that mean open
> source and Linux is not for them? I hope not.

Who said coding is equal to updating a package without a package manager?

> Just because you compile it your self doesn't mean anything. What do you
> do if the code you have has an exploit? Do you fix that your self or do
> you wait for someone else to do that? If a feature you want isn't in
> there are you going to write it your self or wait for someone else to do
> it? What about device drives? Do you write them your self or download
> someones code?

Who fixes the exploit, the distro or the developers?

> I'm going to guess that the answer to the above questions is a big fat
> NO. Which means you are relying on other peoples code. If you didn't
> write the code or read every line of it you have know idea what's in
> there. You are compiling code that could have problems. All code has a
> few problems. That's why there are updates and bug fixes.

What does this have to do with running a distro that is source based?

> When you get your email client compiled let me know. Oh, wait. If you
> want a gui email client you need to write a gui. According to your logic
> you can't use the ones that are out there because you don't know what's
> in them. Wait, did you check the code in the kernel? I think you might
> want to start there. You never know who put what where.

When did I ever say that?

> I want open source to be for everyone. Not just a hand full of people
> who can type "make install" and fix dependency issues. Which is all you
> are doing. Nothing more. Sure it's complex and requires a lot of skill.
> But you have know idea what's in the code. Again, unless you write the
> code your self or read every line of code the other person wrote you
> have no idea what's in it.

So when an application fails to install or whacks another application that is
already installed, how do they fix that? Are you trying to say that a distro
such as debian or fedora or suse always does the right thing and doesn't make a
mistake? I know for a fact they do and sometimes their packages will screw you,
but we don't want the user to be able to fix that, because open source is for
everyone. Why do they need to read code? Maybe they should learn how to fix the
errors that are on the screen. And that has NOTHING to do with using a source
based distro, that is troubleshooting.

> I'm not a programmer. That's why I leave the programming to the experts.
> There is a team of experts behind distributions like Ubuntu, Debian and
> Red Hat. How many developers are behind Neva. One! I'll take a team of
> experts over one.

This has absolutely nothing to do with anything, tell me, who wrote thubderbird,
firefox, xmms, open office, which "team of experts" at any of the above
mentioned distros wrote those?

> If it sounds like I'm ranting it's because I am. These kind of
> conversations need to stop.

If that were true you would have emailed me directly.

> Oh, I never did finish LFS. I was able to compile my compiler. Does that
> mean anything? No! Not a dam thing! Why? I may have learned more about
> Linux and how it's put together but I still can't write a single piece
> of code. Which means I have no choice but to except the code others
> provide and use it. If there is a problem with the application,
> distribution or OS I'll stop using it and find a better one. Or let the
> team of developers know and they can fix it for me. ;-)

Did you start LFS to teach you how to program? The "code of others" is what is
in debian, they take the packages and build a distro around these packages.
They do not develop them, what does apt-get do? It downloads packages from a
repository, were do those packages come from, debian?

Jon
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Received on Thu Mar 15 08:44:23 2007