[Tfug] Linux doesn't like a quitter

[Brian Masur]

Even though Linux has been a rewarding challenge for over 12 years for me, I 
welcome its variabilities...

Out of all of my distro preferences, I'd still choose gentoo, debian, then 
the others.  I'd be comfortable with Linux-From-Scratch.  I don't think 
anything "just works".  You have to have at least some understanding of 
where everything is coming and going.  LFS (NO DISTRIBUTION) proves you know 
it all upside-down, gentoo takes a longer compile time but makes it faster 
for your superior-than-586 hardware, and debian has a quick-and-easy install 
that isn't optimized for your hardware unless you're using ancients.

I think it's crazy to blindly consider jumping from one distro to another.  
Distros usually modify packages too far in the way they keep their 
configuration in different paths or even formats.  Distros often have 
version discrepencies for each package you need.  Some distros completely 
lack package support and you have to download the source and compile/install 
manually, which is good experience anyway.

>Upgrading your distribution to fix a video problem?  Try Gentoo: video
>just worked for me on this beastie as well.  Of course, I had it
>compile everything, but what the hey!  ( I am actually an avid Gentoo
>user, and that was not meant to be self deprecating).
>
>Google Fedora, and mp3, and you will probably see the problem:
>
>http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/Fedora-Multimedia-Installation-HOWTO/
>
>I know it depends on your interest, but something always "just works"
>in another distribution.  I will assume that as you have taken the
>time to try Linux, you are willing to explore.
>
>This is a good group, and you do have to appreciate the enthusiasm
>(someone will now probably tell you to buy a Macintosh), but I would
>always suggest you google these things beforehand:  if you are smart,
>you can improve yourself a little, and at the same time avoid having
>people blurt out the first thing that came to mind.
>
>Ubuntu is probably awesome, but Linux doesn't like a quitter.