linuxgeek: [LINUX_Newbies] Debunking Linux Myths

Monday, October 26, 2009

[LINUX_Newbies] Debunking Linux Myths

Just another "Lets debunk the Linux myths" blog post, but he's got
some rather old ones that remind me of the early days, and a couple
newer ones... though Im not sure I agree completely with this one:

"- There are too many different versions of Linux available Who cares
how many versions are available, when you only need one? Pick one, and
try it. If it works for you, and it has what you want, then keep it,
and forget about all the others. If you're not happy with it, try a
different one - at least it doesn't cost you any money to keep trying
until you find one that suits you! I live in Switzerland, and when I
go in a supermarket in the U.S., I often think there are far too many
different brands of breakfast cereal on the shelf, for example, but I
don't let that put me off breakfast cereals completely."

Unlike choosing breakfast cereal it takes a comparitively large amount
of time to try out a new OS, not to mention the investment in disk
space and time moving data back and forth. I like that more and more
distros are providing live CDs so people can more quickly try them out
before going through the Install/Test/Delete/InstallDifferentDistro
cycle over and over like they used to.

However telling someone new to Linux, "Hey, if you don't like X then
just download one of X+n distros instead and just keep trying until
you find what you like." Sure that's fair advice, but going through
15 different Debian based distros and 25 different Red Hat based
distros is very time consuming and frustrating...

Then again, so is going to a linux list and asking what the best distro is...

Anyway, it was a nice quick read, some good points and a nice diversion...

Cheers,

Jeff

--

Joan Crawford - "I, Joan Crawford, I believe in the dollar.
Everything I earn, I spend." -
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/joan_crawford.html