What's the reason for Yellow Dog?

[Brian McKee]

On Monday, September 20, 2004, at 09:41  AM, Ed Sutherland wrote:

> This is what continually drives me back to Mac OS X -- useability.
Hey - that's what sells Macs to everybody.  It's Apple's only real
claim to fame as far as I'm concerned.

>  I install
> YDL and, following directions from the YDL FAQ site, update yum.conf to
> include mirror sites less congested. Upon 'yum update' or 'yum install
> synaptic', YDL spits out several lines of internal errors. The errors 
> were
> along the lines of 'error in line ... Of xxx.py'
>
Yum's error output stinks as far as I'm concerned (Obviously you feel 
the
same way)  It does something similar if you try and run it without being
root.  The solution is to get the yum people add a routine to check if 
the user has the
proper privledges before starting, and improve the error traps.
(As a matter a fact, I think I'll find their suggestion bin
and do that today)

> Nothing simply works or works simply.
Not true.  Not always true however :-(
> YDL is supposed to be Linux for Mac
> users, but carries over none of the Mac mindset, which is to make the
> operating system as transparent to the user as possible...
That's right - rebuilding the desktop weekly and playing with 
conflicting
extensions just didn't translate well :-)
I always thought that YDL was linux for Mac hardware - not necessarily
linux for Mac users.

> in other words,
> you get in, turn the key, and go. At the moment, YDL gives Mac users an
> engine missing a few spark plugs, some wiring and one or two wheels 
> with an
> owner's manual consisting of the line: "figure it out yourself."
I think a better analogy would be they give you many different spark 
plugs,
wheels, etc and the flexibility to make any of them work if you are 
willing
to figure out how.  With YDL you can use it like a sportscar, a Mac 
truck
or a bulldozer.  But ya gotta know how.
With a Mac you get handed a complete functional family sedan.

> This isn't to put down Linux; it can be a fine system for those 
> willing to
> invest a large portion of time getting it operational. But for those 
> just
> wanting to use -- not hack -- their computers, Linux can be the latest
> technological siren-song.
Many people said the same things about computers versus mechanical 
adding
machines.  Learning new things is always time consuming.  Once you have 
the knowledge
however it's not the monster it seems now.  I can get a x86 linux box up
in less time than Win98 on the same hardware.  I imagine many YDL gurus
can say the same.   I can also *use*  my YDL machine to do things I need
to do, that are slower, more time consuming and less reliable to do
under OSX (and not even possible under 9)
> Gnome  says its latest update 'just works' with detecting new
> hardware...maybe the same philosophy will filter down to the various 
> Linux
> distributions.

YDL isn't Mac.   The focus of linux is power and flexiblity.
The focus of Mac is ease of use and consistancy.
Ne'er the twain shall meet I suspect.
	On the other hand, since linux is a user driven operating system,
the more 'regular users' there are compared to 'gurus'
will help drive it to being more user friendly.

My 2c
Brian