[geeks] KDE "konsole" cluebat?

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 @ 17:23 +0200, Jochen Kunz said:

> > I guess my view is different because I spent so much of my first years
> > as a programmer un-Sunifying UNIX code. Sun weenies used to be the
> > dominant problem children who didn't know there was any other form of
> > UNIX system, software or hardware.
> "All the world is a VAX."

That's one that got written down, but there were other isolated worlds
out there too:

	ITS
	SAIL
	PDP-10, those guys are still very angry... :)
	IBM mainframes
	
...and so on.

I worked with a guy years ago who came from IBM systems, mostly MVS.

He actually duplicated the JCL system with a mix of C, and shell
scripts.

I've never seen UNIX turned on its head like that before.

I will say this though: I actually liked how he gave UNIX background
processing and daemons a more consistent management interface.

The problem was he also used the syntax from the IBM world, and that was
blaspheme.

> > Most of the desktop oriented ones appear to get it right, if you can
> > stomach using them.
> That is an other problem. Distribution A has problem 1. So you choose
> distribution B. But B will have problem 2...

I see it differently: dist A, B, and C have problem 1,2,3, and I can't
find anything that doesn't.

So, I use Slackware and fix it myself.

The problem is, lately I'm getting tired of having to always fix things,
and it looke like Ubuntu is close enough that I can accept it.

Yes, it will have things I don't like and a lot of stuff I don't really
need, but I'm thinking of trying it anyway for awhile.

If it doesn't work, I'll go screaming back to Slackware like I did last
time.

Ideally, I'd go screaming back to BSD, but BSD still isn't as good as
Linux on the desktop.

Of course, I might also decide at some point I just don't care. We'll
see.

Either that, or I'll get a Mac... :)

> Similar at my work. We use Debian so I use Debian on my desktop at work
> to avoid confusion with just an other distribution.

The confusion issue is one thing that never bothered me.  When I started
out with computers, I was regularly using Ataris, IBM mainframes, UNIX
of different flavors, PrimeOS, and TOPS-20.

When I sat down at each one, my mind seemed to dynamically load the
appropriate library into the lobes and off I went.

One thing interesting about those old minicomputers, and partly related
to "All the world is a VAX", is that you really could lose yourself in
them and ignore the outside world to a great degree.

What was particularly interesting is how those old computers had a
"soul", partly the community of users, and partly because they were in
operation for so long.

When you used one of those machines, you might be using a machine that
had worked for generations of users.

Now machines are throwaways and usually operate in isolation.

> > Could you try Ubuntu instead?  They seem to have fixed most of
> > Debian's problems.
> I consider moving my machine at work to (U|Ku)buntu instead of Debian
> 4.0. It seems (U|Ku)buntu fixed at least some of Debians braindeadnes.

I just downloaded Kubuntu and Ubuntu 7.0.4, and if I get brave enough to
replace Slackware 11 with it, I'll see how it works out.

Part of me just wants to leave it alone, but if it could eliminate the
time I spend bending Slackware to my will, it might be worth it.

It's just that with most other Linux distributions, it is much harder to
bend them to your will if something doesn't work quite right.

-- 
shannon           |    Tara is grass, and behold how Troy lieth 
                  |    low--And even the English, perchance their 
                  |    hour will come!