YDL based distro released

[Derick Centeno]

> 
> From: "Pickled" <pickled at netlane.com>
> Date: 2005/03/13 Sun PM 07:10:14 EST
> To: <yellowdog-general at lists.terrasoftsolutions.com>
> Subject: YDL based distro released
> 
> Linux sucks, you guys are dummies not running OS X
> 

Hi to all of the YDL community, including Pickles!

I've read the responses so far to Pickles statement and have admiration for the 
very traditional American -- Hang 'em High approach and booting this person off 
this list -- after of course the proper drawing and quartering/tar and 
feathering treatment he has earned and many perhaps feel it is their personal 
duty as upstanding religious members of the community to perform with 
appropriate fanfare.  I admire the skill with which Pickles was tracked down 
and have no doubt that someone will have the fellow complete with his SS# and 
file the offender with Home Security and Immigration as a terrorist and persona 
non grata by the end of today if not by the end of the week.

As much as I admire such diligence and energy expressed by others, I will 
present a view that Pickles is one individual in need of an education yes, but 
of a different kind and nature which will allow him to see his errors, as he 
survives the education process.  One must survive and be allowed an opportunity 
to correct one's views and behaviour on one's own.  But for that to happen 
Pickles must be lead to an understanding of why his current view is too narrow 
and deeply uninformed.  

In brief, he should be allowed to stay on the YDL lists, as long as he wishes.
Others expressing truly vitriolic expletives have received less reaction from 
the membership of this list than Pickles has.  If Pickles, has expressed 
anything he has merely expressed the kind of pickledness common pickles have 
when having been in the container in which they were pickled in too long!  His 
exposure to OS X is something he has to get away from in order to have a bit of 
perspective, and apparently he has become one of those Mac lovers of the past 
who would state something like "they would have to pry their Macs from their 
cold death-frozen hands..." -- we all know who "they" are right??  So he 
belongs more to the Macaddict crowd, but hey they are a part of us too, right?
So at base, there is no real problem here.  Why create one?  Let's leave 
ostracism and expulsion for those whose language and manner of abusive behavior 
actually deserve it.

What Pickles and those like him should consider:
OS X is a modified and specific version of BSD Unix in which all or nearly all 
traditionally available functions of Unix as a Server, have been removed, 
becoming "headerless", such that OS X is STRICTLY A CLIENT!  The Server 
functions have been relegated to the Apple product known as "X Server".  Even 
though this is so there have been professionals I have communicated with which 
have expressed that how OS X behaves given instructions as a Server is not 
unlike what a Server is supposed to do in the first place.  I admit to being a 
bit surprised about this as programming professionally for Servers and for 
Clients are different in the sense of what the marketplace will pay for.

Having said this however, Linux -- including YellowDog Linux -- have full 
Server facilities whereas the nature of what Server facilities are within OS X 
remain murky or unclear in comparison to Linux.  Apple designed OS X 
intentionally to be a product simplified in full realization of the fact that 
not everyone is interested in running a Server nor would care to; therefore a 
straight comparison between OS X and Linux is unfair, as much more is available 
to the highly skilled professional via Linux AND THAT IS AVAIABLE FOR FREE 
UNDER THE GPL WHEREAS OS X SERVER IS NOT FREE (NOR IS OS X) ALTHOUGH APPLE HAS 
ALLOWED DARWIN TO EXIST AS CLOSE TO THE GPL license structure as it is 
comfortable with.  BUT what Apple has with OS X and OS X Server is NOT a GPL 
product.

As it is NOT a GPL product, whereas YDL IS someone who is proflific and skilled 
can develop both Server and Client products and test them within YDL on the 
systems one already has.  This may not quite be the case with either OS X or OS 
X Server once a person investigates the matter closely.  Consider that to 
ensure whatever Server product one may care to design one must have OS X 
Server, not the CLIENT alone and few people I know can spring immediately for a 
Server with added costs just to try something out.  The way to go for Server 
testing purposes remains one way for both PC's and Macs -- and that is to go 
Linux!

And while Linux does have problems, and may continue to have them for quite a 
while, one uses Linux not because it is simple and holds "one's hand" in a 
protected environment where one avoids intensive thinking and programming 
analysis...the Linux programmer uses Linux to do intensive research and 
development with the computers they are using and controlling every component 
of hardware it contains for their own purposes perhaps never envisioned by 
anyone anywhere else!  Now THAT is the POWER of Thinking Differently and very 
fortunately for us Apple allows Terrasoft Solutions to load and install 
YellowDog Linux onto any and all Apple machines containing OS X, OS X Server 
and even now the enviable iPod WITHOUT VOIDING THE APPLE WARRANTY.  

NO other Linux can state that!  NONE.  

I don't know if this clears anything up for Pickles, but these are things all 
of us should keep in mind.  Apple has embraced what Microsoft has chosen to 
continue to malign and see as an enemy...Linux and the GPL!  Now that is 
something we should remember as well.

That allows us who want quality access to the architecture Apple and IBM use 
and full control in as precise a manner as we ourselves choose to contruct and 
utilize via Linux a method of research and experimentation we could not have 
without their cooperation and consideration.  Of course, this is all hard work, 
but this is not the kind of work people like Pickles want or care to do.  Just 
as not everyone is versed in the nuances of Quantum Chemistry -- not everyone 
is versed in the nuances of programming and designing for Servers and 
Clients...for those who are so interested in moving in this direction Linux and 
especially YDL is THE place TO BE!  Where else is one going to acquire the AIX 
Server hardware IBM uses for less than $2,000?

Linux is NOT AIX either, but if one is going to demontrate what one can do in 
AIX or any other commercial proprietary Unix, then YDL is the ONLY game in town 
to strut one's stuff!  Again this is heady stuff, not for persons frightened of 
heights or persons who get queasy and whose eyes glaze over at the mention of 
Tensor equations and Josephson Junctions or creating new classes in C++ or 
libraries and drivers for Servers and Clients.  This is for a unique class of 
researchers, developers, designers...in short -- thinkers, not afraid to think.

Others will do or not, as they choose according to their capacity and 
comprehension.  Fellow thinkers, let us allow those such as they are to be as 
what they choose to be...and let us move and direct our energy to more critical 
and really pressing things demanding our attention.