[ale] What divides Linux Distros?

[Steve Litt]

On Fri, 5 Feb 2021 16:45:05 -0500
Solomon Peachy <pizza at shaftnet.org> wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 05, 2021 at 04:32:58PM -0500, Steve Litt via Ale wrote:
> > I wrote a big, detailed answer, but here's a simpler one. As I
> > remember, in 1999 we had a choice of Slackware, Red Hat, Corel,
> > Caldera, and Debian. If those were my sole choices today, I'd hold
> > my nose and buy a Mac.  
> 
> So... you'll go for the one that's objectively the worst, going by
> your previously stated criteria?

Your words, not mine.

> (So much to "freedom" mattering, eh?)

Who said freedom was my main criteria? The freedom I really appreciate
is freedom to DIY. When I did the Manjaro Experiments in 2014, as I
remember, Centos which is supposedly a no-paid-support version of Red
Hat, had packages for only 2 or 3 WMDEs (Window Manager/Desktop
Environment) out of the literally tens of great WMDEs. Anything
else, you'll need to compile from scratch. With freedom like that,
tyranny doesn't sound so bad.

Freedom? Corel was bought and paid for by Microsoft. Caldera became a
patent-troll's dream and was used to threaten lawsuits to Linux users.

Freedom? You try ripping out systemd and replacing it with Runit on
Red Hat products. Oh, it can be done, I've done it, but what a royal
pain in the ass.

There's nothing on my Jeep that's "free", but I still drive it.

I stand by my initial words.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
Autumn 2020 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times
http://www.troubleshooters.com/thrive