why your distro sucks

[Garrett]

Distro wars are boring and senseless.

Use whatever works for you. Any of the distributions can be set up properly
or improperly. I concurrently use Debian, Redhat, and Trustix with GRSEC and
ACLs; they all do the trick. Red Hat sits on my desktop and never gets
booted (grin, linux doesn't run Softice, or Hitman 2), Trustix on perimeter,
and Debian on the other computers.

I generally take Debian to clients and customers since Debian has the
oh-so-wonderful apt-get, but that's also my preference. Another reason I
take Debian to customers is that I have never taken the time to learn how to
properly secure most other distros out of the box, while I believe I have
done so with Debian. That doesn't make Debian the better distro, but it does
make Debian a better choice for my situation. In my experience, customers
usually don't care unless they intend to develop software for it (and then
they probably won't be using consultants to set it up, anyhow), they just
want the job done. And besides, all of the distributions do the same thing.
They all run the kernel, you install software, break it, remove it, develop
it, hack it to pieces, etc.

In response to your posed questions:

1) It does no good to berate anyone for anything computer-related (unless
your kid wiped your HD or something). Computers aren't life.
2) Normally the people who are quick to condescend based on someone else's
choice of software are simply inferring that they don't know much about said
software. I take advantage of times like that to familiarize myself with
mail filters and the /ignore feature of most IRC clients. :)

My /bin/2cents,
Garrett

----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig White" <craigwhite@azapple.com>
To: <plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 8:38 PM
Subject: why your distro sucks


> I am not gonna mention any names but I find some of the bludgeoning that
> goes on with some people's opinion often going over the top.
>
> I have used Redhat since 5.2 (but I think 6.0 had already been released)
> and it was 6.1 or 6.2 by the time I was starting to understand what it
> was that I was looking at. My usage at that time was primarily as a
> firewall / mail /webserver for Macintosh & Windows networks.
>
> To this point, I have always used Redhat as my distro, sendmail as my
> MTA, UW-IMAP as my pop/imap server, wu-ftpd as the ftp daemon etc.
>
> Perhaps my ignorance has been the cause of my bliss but the stuff has
> always worked. Yes, RH 6.1's sendmail allowed open mail relay but I
> learned to close it. Yes, I had some boxes hacked into way back when but
> it was my ignorance on a proper firewall and I learned ipchains very
> well. While I can't make heads or tails of the sendmail rulesets, I
> found out, I didn't have to...I only needed to know how to use the
> sendmail.mc file and the m4 utility and how to masquerade a domain, how
> to accept mail for a domain, use authentication for sending and how to
> create aliases. I also figured out how to chroot a 'unix user' in
> wu-ftpd and uw-imap has never failed me.
>
> Since my experience with linux has only been for maybe 3 1/2 years, I
> don't have any knowledge of sendmail/uw-imap/wu-ftpd frailties of the
> past...I only know that these packages have been rock solid for 3 1/2
> years now...have worked day in/day out and I actually learned how to
> configure them and life is good. I'm getting pretty good at this
> stuff...I even have been trying to help the guy with Mandrake even
> though I have never seen a computer running Mandrake.
>
> I am certain that the opinion is held by many knowledgable circles,
> there are better than sendmail/uw-imap/wu-ftpd and Redhat.
>
> My point is that what purpose does it serve to berate me or anyone else
> for using Redhat or any of these packages? Why isn't it obvious that
> those who gently suggest that there may be a better way appear to be
> more knowledgable than those who can't pass up an opportunity to suggest
> that you are stupid for using them. It reminds me of stupid Macintosh
> users that wanted to grab some elitist high ground because of the
> computer that they were using.
>
> I can tell you this...using Redhat has meant that I don't have to
> educate my customers on why I'm using debian which they have never heard
> of instead of Redhat which they have.
>
> I will install debian soon enough...if not at the non-profit, certainly
> on the next computer for my own personal use. But Redhat has been a
> tremendous asset to the open source / free software community,
> especially when breaking into the corporate offices as the first wave of
> free software in the Microsoft stranglehold.
>
> My suggestion...if you prefer one package over another or one distro
> over another and you don't have the time and/or energy to actually say
> why, then just say that this is what you prefer. If you feel the need to
> trample the stuff that is working fine for me, you should know that I
> will lose some respect for your opinion.
>
> Craig
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