Rodd Ahrenstorff wrote: > 4. Applications are not duplicated. There isn't 3 different > browsers, 4 email clients, 5 editors , etc... One popular application > is installed to perform each task, however others are included on the > cds. Jim Crumley wrote: > I have a hard time seeing how this is an advantage. There are several > instances where giving multiple options would be useful. For example Before I get the subject, I guess I'd like to counter this with some real-world examples. Here at the IMA, we cater computer services to a number of users. We get users of all kinds, each with their own preferences. Standardizing on one desktop environment would be easier for the sysadmins, namely me, but it wouldn't provide the users of the hundreds of machines the tools that they're used to. If our distribution were to only package one set of tools, then we would be hamstrung. That is why we use either Red Hat or Debian. The downside to this is that we have a HUGE archive for Debian. There's close to 8000 packages right now. Truely an astronomical number. Jim Crumley wrote: > For example for text editors, a console capable text editor is a must, > even if the user themselves won't use it, recovery situations if X > breaks. This is VERY important. You need to be able to edit files on the root drive when in single user mode. /usr may not be mounted, and therefore my favorite editor, vim, is not available as it resides in /usr/bin. I must fall back on the only default editor that installs in /bin on Debian: ed. Debian does install nano and nvi, but both of these also live in /usr/bin. 'ae' was the standard on boot floppies, but I no longer see it in the debootstrap list for "required" or "base" packages. Not surprisingly, it's also not in the archive any longer; it had many bugs. What does Debian require for a default editor in /bin? It must be multi-architecture, meaning it can compile on all of the Debian ports. It must be small. No emacs here, folks. It must be dependable. You can't get more standard than ed, (or cat and sed for the hardcore admins). Still, without man (it lives in /usr/bin), you have no command reference to use. I believe elvis-tiny does install in /bin, but it cannot be distributed as a "base" package because it's not exactly cross-platform. *sigh* -- Chad Walstrom <chewie at wookimus.net> | a.k.a. ^chewie http://www.wookimus.net/ | s.k.a. gunnarr Get my public key, ICQ#, etc. $(mailx -s 'get info' chewie at wookimus.net) -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 232 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://shadowknight.real-time.com/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20020130/1921636f/attachment.pgp