[ale] Distro Question -- State of the Linux Nation

[Emil P. Man]

> RH8/9 I have been more and more unsatisfied with the larger 
> distrobutions. Redhat has morphed the desktop into the REDHAT desktop. 
> So if you want KDE you get there version of KDE. Every distro seems to 
> tweak the apps to run how they want them to run.
>
So true about the KDE being morphed. I recently uninstalled some stuff 
that SuSE packs into KDE and it looks like a different desktop 
enviornment. True, what SuSE has done makes the desktop a lot more 
refined and a lot cleaner, but at the same time, when it comes time to 
upgrade to let's say KDE 3.2 (some people have heard me complain about 
this before), getting rid of all the SuSE stuff that is put into KDE is 
a pain. And of course, the upgrade is pretty much impossible unless you 
get rid of the SuSE "add-ons". I'll go the opposite route from you on 
this one Eric and say that I have just recently gotten an idea on 
working with apt-get and I must say that it kicks butt. Recently, I have 
had problems compiling a package from source, and after about a week of 
pulling my hair out, I gave in and just did an apt-get of the package. 
True, it is not the latest version that I was compiling, but at the same 
time it works.

> My question for you is, has anyone else felt the same way about the 
> state of the linux world? That most of the larger distros have gotten 
> away from their roots, and are now moving on to please the masses?
>
Truthfully, I am quite worried when it comes to this issue to. A lot of 
people were overjoyed when  Novell bought SuSE and when it comes to 
getting linux on every computer in the world (aaahh drool), I must say 
that it is a step forward. At the same time, I also feel like we are 
slowly moving away from what Linux is all about. Yes, I am happy that 
corporations and governments around the world are starting to realise 
the power of our OS, but at the same time, I get worried about all the 
things that are going to come with it. The point of Linux is FREE!!! The 
distro addons are nice but at the same time they should be GPLed.

> I ask hoping that someone has an answer or an idea, not to cause a 
> flame war between distros.
>
I have not installed Gentoo yet, but I plan on doing it soon. And from 
what I have heard from others, Gentoo comes close to your ideal and 
hopefully mine.

EMIL