Why I Still Love Linux

[Todd Walton]

On 8/28/06, Stewart Stremler <bofh at stremler.net> wrote:
> > says... , click Next."  "Include the spell checker, but don't include
> > ODBC."  "First install this dependency, the associated Word document
> > is on the network drive.  Come back when you're done."  And on and on.
>
> Oh, like compiling Linux applications!

I can automate compiling Linux applications.

> That's a deliberate design *feature*. They work hard to make it
> that way.

That's not the point.

> I've build up a system where "installation" consisted of dropping
> a .jar file into a directory somewhere, and then running it to
> perform the initial setup.  This was considered "old school", and
> we had to have someone write a GUI installation program to do
> much the same thing.  Naturally, the GUI installation program was
> M$ specific, even though the program was not.

Where's the pictures??  What the heck am I supposed to do if there's
no pictures??

> I like UNIX.

UNIX is a myth.  UNIX is the ghost that animates today's OSs.  (It's
even starting to haunt Windows.)  UNIX is the one that got away, the
time when everyone loved thy neighbor, the pure Christian nation we
once were.

> I like Linux because it's a reasonbly supported *cheap*
> UNIX. But I want more than Linux gives me...

Linux is not UNIX.  Linux gives you more than the mythical UNIX
creature of yore.  What you want is Solaris or AIX or whatever you
kids get into these days.

> I want an install system that

> I want an install system that doesn't require root access to

> I want an install system that gives me the option of using stow.

> I want an install system that

> I want an install system that

Me too, me too, me too.

> I want the time and motivation to build the sort of install system
> that I'd like.

Me too.

-todd