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

[Jeff Silverman]

On Fri, 17 Jan 2003, Travis Saling wrote:

> 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.

Although it is true that Red Hat does not provide a working MP3 player out 
of the box, they thoughtfully provide a page, 
http://www.redhat.com/advice/speaks_80mm.html
which explains why they didn't do it and how to work around it.  I think 
that Red Hat is a company that is trying to make money in the open source 
business, and one way to make money is to avoid lawyers like the plague.  
Another way to make money is to hire an army of lawyers (consider for 
example, Disney and Microsoft).  


It seems to me that if we're going to have an install fest, then we could 
easily add the missing components post install.  While this is a legal 
grey area, a bunch of students do not make an enticing target for a lawyer 
working on a contingency basis.

> 
>  > 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.
> 
Me neither.

> 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.

-- 
Jeff Silverman, 
Senior Computing Specialist 3, Fire and Environmental Research Applications (FERA) team.
jeffs at duet.cfr.washington.edu   (206) 732-7815
http://duet.cfr.washington.edu