Public SourceMage Discussion List

[Jaanus Heeringson <jaanus AT heeringson.com>]

Arwed von Merkatz wrote:

> On Mon, Apr 26, 2004 at 01:34:05AM +0200, Jaanus Heeringson wrote:
>  
>
> > So I'm at it again, burning the midnight oil.
> >
> > I have recently read a lot of different articles about Linux in 
> > general to try and get a grip on the "feel" out there, and this is 
> > some things i found out:
> >
> > 1. There is a confusion about choise of distro. At least more than 
> > there was a few years ago, mostly due to the big ones starting to 
> > charge for updates etc. People change distros often and simply can't 
> > make up their minds. This is good for us, and we should take 
> > advantage of it.
> > 2. Gentoo is big. It is almost allways mentioned alongside the other 
> > large commercial distros. This is good since more people are 
> > interested in sourcebased distros, and bad because we have a lot of 
> > work to do if we want to make ourselves heard next to them.
> > 3. A lot of the intermediate users are very tired of choise. They 
> > simply don't want to research at every corner to install the 
> > appropriate stuff (which MTA, DNS etc) and are asking for a 
> > "preferred setup". This maby don't concern us yet, but it might in 
> > the future.
> >   
>
>
> I'm not sure we _ever_ want a "preferred setup". I mean a preffered
> setup is nice, but Source Mage is, has been, and as far is I am
> concerned will forever be about choice. That's what got me into the
> distro back in the Sorcerer days, and has kept me with it all the time.
> I think we could use more profiles that can get people started, although
> imo we need a different way to do that than the current meta-spell way.
>  
This was an observation based on public articles, but in some cases I 
have to agree that it would be nice to skip the research step and just 
cast default provider of some service. Can't actually remember any 
specific scenario, but that might be because this functionality mainly 
is needed for beginners (of SMGL not Linux). It kind of speeds up 
initial install, specially if you don't have any way (internet 
connection up) to find out more about your choises.

> About the rest of your mail I can't tell much, all I know about gentoo
> is based on what i read on the gentoo website and what i read from the
> gentoo users (you can't really get around them recently .
> I think sorcery is more powerful than emerge, but that opinion isn't
> based on experience, just on what former gentoo users who switched told
> me.
>
>  
>
> > I'm a bit interested in gentoo and how it differentiates from SMGL. I 
> > have read in on it a bit, but don't currently have time to install it 
> > now. What I have found so far does not seem very impressive, at least 
> > not when it comes to the base system. This of cause is not enough, so 
> > I need more input reguarding this issue. I'm sure there are a lot of 
> > you out there that try Gentoo now and then, so could you please 
> > describe your view of the differences between Gentoo and SMGL? What's 
> > good & bad? What are the major differences?
> >
> > My gut feeling is that in order to get some attention we will have to 
> > compete with Gentoo to get it, and since they actually are a for 
> > profit company, it will be quite a task. In my opinion we need to 
> > find a couple of point on how we differentiate us from Gentoo in a 
> > good way.
> >
> > --
> > MVH
> >
> > Jaanus Heeringson
> >
> > Underwerks Design
> > Ålegådsgatan 424
> > 43150 Mölndal
> > Sweden
> >
> > Mobile: +46 709 492609
> > Phone: +46 31 402980
> >
> > http://www.underwerks.com
> > mail: jaanus AT heeringson.com
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > SM-Discuss mailing list
> > SM-Discuss AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/sm-discuss
> >
> >   
>
>
>  


--
MVH

Jaanus Heeringson

Underwerks Design
Ålegådsgatan 424
43150 Mölndal
Sweden

Mobile: +46 709 492609
Phone: +46 31 402980

http://www.underwerks.com
mail: jaanus AT heeringson.com