Linux Format forums

RE: Re: gNewSense Linux

M0PHP — Fri Nov 10, 2006 8:17 pm

Author: M0PHP

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 8:17 pm

Ah, ok then

RE: Re: gNewSense Linux

Rhakios — Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:17 pm

Author: Rhakios

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:17 pm

I don't have anything against KDE, I use it all the time. However, my new distro requires a desktop, which unlike KDE, which is well known for its user-friendliness and notorious for its vast array of configuration options, pretends to both and gives you neither. Hence the K(rappy) derivative.
I suppose I could have gone for K(rippled), but then people might think it gives you a wavey effect.

RE: Re: gNewSense Linux

M0PHP — Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:45 pm

Author: M0PHP

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:45 pm

What do you have against KDE Rhakios (I'm not defending it though), and what desktop environment do your prefer?

Surely I'm not the only person who thinks there's nothing wrong with just "Computer" and "Documents".

Here's the new Vista layout anyway:

\My Documents and Settings
\My Windows\
\My Windows\My System32
\My Program Files\
...

Re: gNewSense Linux

Rhakios — Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:34 pm

Author: Rhakios

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:34 pm

Marrea wrote:

Or maybe a knitting needle?

"Return Of The Knitter", I can almost see it now, the next great box-office hit. I didn't really think you'd given up for one minute.

nelz wrote:

Bear in mind that Linux us a multiuser OS, so you also need His Computer, Her Computer, Their Computer and The Dog's Computer

Well, you'd think so, but it seems some distros are happy to stick the word "My" in front of everything last damned thing. So "Your" should work just as well.

Re: RE: Re: gNewSense Linux

nelz — Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:26 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:26 pm

Rhakios wrote:

More news on my own gNuisance Linux distribution. The K(rappy) D(esktop) E(nvironment) will have all the icons labelled along the lines of "Your Computer", "Your Documents", "Your Pictures" and the same for music, browser, wastebin and so on.

Bear in mind that Linux us a multiuser OS, so you also need His Computer, Her Computer, Their Computer and The Dog's Computer

Re: gNewSense Linux

Marrea — Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:11 pm

Author: Marrea

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:11 pm

Rhakios wrote:

That isn't a knife in your hand is it, Marrea? Can't quite make it out looking over my shoulder.

Or maybe a knitting needle?

Re: gNewSense Linux

Rhakios — Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:57 pm

Author: Rhakios

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:57 pm

Marrea wrote:

Rest assured, Rhakios, now you have mentioned it, various other people (one step behind you as usual)

That isn't a knife in your hand is it, Marrea? Can't quite make it out looking over my shoulder.

nelz wrote:

What's wrong with using an FSF-friendly distro, like Debian, as the starting point?

Or how about Morphix, it seems made for the job and comes with a friendly installer very similar to Ubuntu's.

RE: Re: gNewSense Linux

Rhakios — Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:52 pm

Author: Rhakios

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:52 pm

More news on my own gNuisance Linux distribution. The K(rappy) D(esktop) E(nvironment) will have all the icons labelled along the lines of "Your Computer", "Your Documents", "Your Pictures" and the same for music, browser, wastebin and so on.
Originally, I was going to call them "The Documents" etc., until I thought, why waste people's time with three useless, futile and time wasting extra letters prepended to the front of everything, when I could do the same with four!

RE: Re: gNewSense Linux

nelz — Fri Nov 10, 2006 2:42 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 2:42 pm

One could argue that starting with a "tainted" distro and hacking out the impure parts means your distro is still less than pure. What's wrong with using an FSF-friendly distro, like Debian, as the starting point?

It strikes me as a pointless exercise.

RE: Re: gNewSense Linux

davecs — Fri Nov 10, 2006 1:56 pm

Author: davecs

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 1:56 pm

So here is this new, completely FSF distro. No access to 3D acceleration, media codecs, free but propritory programs... does the Mozilla licence qualify for this?

We had a spell a little while ago where the PCLinuxOS forums were getting flamed by people accusing the distro of not being "pure" Free Software.

Making Linux accessible to newcomers isn't about theoretical debates about different licences, it's about making it usable. PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu, Mepis and others are trying to go down that road. From what I see, "Nuisance" linux seems to be just the opposite, a distracting festival of intellectual self-abuse!

(1sf where are you when I need you?)

Re: gNewSense Linux

Marrea — Fri Nov 10, 2006 11:37 am

Author: Marrea

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 11:37 am

Rhakios wrote:

Ho hum, well, seeing as no one else has seen fit to mention it, perhaps I ought to point out that there is a new FSF-approved Linux distribution available.

Rest assured, Rhakios, now you have mentioned it, various other people (one step behind you as usual) will leap in to tell us all about it.

It makes me wonder though, do we really need yet another distro? How can we encourage disaffected Windows users to switch to Linux when they suddenly realise that you don't just switch to "Linux". They first have to contend with a confusing array of distros spread before them.

It may be just me but I have a sneaky feeling that Ubuntu is rapidly becoming synonymous with Linux and this is certainly what I would recommend to newcomers.

RE: Re: gNewSense Linux

Rhakios — Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:19 am

Author: Rhakios

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:19 am

Well, we all know that Hell is at least partly frozen, so the rest might follow, but now Heck has to freeze as well?! I am not aware of any knowledgeable accounts of Heck, perhaps someone from the forums could elucidate its thermal condition?

Yes Nigel, I was aware of the purpose of gNewSense, though I appreciate you making it clear for everyone here. However, this is no doubt what gave rise to my sarcastic inclination. Those who need an easy-to-use installer are unlikely to be happy with a distro stripped of all the whizzy bits, while those who will be interested in it are quite capable of disabling those Debian repositories which provide the naughty-but-nice things of which they disapprove.
I must try downloading it some time, just to see if I can get all the proprietary stuff working on it, but not this weekend.

RE: Re: gNewSense Linux

Nigel — Thu Nov 09, 2006 10:03 pm

Author: Nigel

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 10:03 pm

Back on topic... Groklaw carried the announcement a few days ago. PJ, as expected, is all in favour, but many posters were asking why go to all this trouble when Debian is about as politically correct as you can get
The consensus seems to be that they want the ease of installation, setup & use of *buntu with the untaintedness of Debian, and gNewSense is supposed to give just that.

It will be interesting to see just how well it works out.

Is the FSF finally admitting that the Hurd won't be ready until Heck freezes over ?

RE: Re: gNewSense Linux

Rhakios — Thu Nov 09, 2006 9:43 pm

Author: Rhakios

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 9:43 pm

I'll bow to your expertise in this matter Nigel.

Really, it's terrible the way this thread has got off the politically very important topic of GNewSense and onto some nonsense I tacked onto the end of my post in a fit of sarcasm. Still, I have only myself to blame

Re: gNewSense Linux

Nigel — Thu Nov 09, 2006 9:21 pm

Author: Nigel

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 9:21 pm

Rhakios wrote:

My other thought is to develop Gnubile Linux, for young ladies who have reached that age and are of a certain disposition. Sadly as I don't know any, I've no idea what features to offer

Surely that's an easy one - lots of eye candy eating up all the CPU time so you can't get any useful work done