Standardizing the install-fest (WAS Re: Meeting Notes for 20030116)

[Travis Saling]

Answering two e-mails:

> You do realize, don't you, that you are about to touch
> off a distribution war?


I know... there is probably no single solution that 100% will be happy 
with, so the target will be reaching 90% who say they can "live with it" 
I guess.  Whatever gets chosen, I think a very important factor is that 
it works (without tweaking) on a broad range of hardware.

> Much as I dislike it personally, I would recommend
> using Mandrake, if we are indeed standardizing.


Yes.  While personally I really like RedHat 8, the fact that it doesn't 
provide a working MP3 player out of the box nixes it.  Probably your 
average college student will at minimum want office applications, a Web 
browser, E-mail, and of course an MP3 player (not necessarilly in that 
order).  For functionality and compatibility I'd guess that'd mean 
OpenOffice, Mozilla, Evolution (although I prefer Mozilla Mail), and XMMS.

 > Why are RH and GUI evil? Just curious.

You'd have to ask the people who think that way - and I have met them, 
so I know they're out there. :-) But I don't feel that way.

I really like RedHat, and I think a GUI is great. But more importantly, 
I doubt any newbie will even try to use an OS that doesn't have a GUI 
available.

-- 
Travis Saling
Webmaster, UW Electrical Engineering
trav at u.washington.edu / webmaster at ee.washington.edu
(206) 543-8984