What would you want in a distribution?

ichigo@tea · 03-07-2009, 03:11 PM

Hey folks. I've been mucking about in Linux for a while now, about 4 years. I usually jump from distro to distro with no real success- I just want something that will work for me as a programmer.

For many newbies coming to Linux are often confused how things are arranged. This may seem cryptic, but to the graybeards this feels just right.

This is what I would like:

i686 optimized, fast boot time, stable, and secure. A lot of control, yet maintaining usability.

As you can see, this looks like Arch Linux. But here's a twist (Taken from GoboLinux)

Add a windows-like filesystem in there (Oh no! The horror!) Programs would be stored in a /usr/programs folder. There can be different versions of a program installed to avoid compile errors.

Eh, that's all I have. How about everyone else?

acid_kewpie · 03-07-2009, 03:49 PM

/opt = C:\program files\

it's already there. A distro isn't going to restructure ALL applications like that though, that's not going to happen.

computerophil · 03-07-2009, 05:16 PM

For a normal desktopuse I do have already what I want.
Ofcourse I would prefer some changes.

It should be modular like SLAX, small and easy to use and stable like Puppy, but it should be multilingual so it would exist also in German and Italian.
Every distribution offers also programs I don't need.
But the things to start with most used are the Internet.
Seamonkey I like (it includes html-editor and mail-client).
There should be skype and wordprozessing (Abiword) gostview to see the pdf and flash-plugin. A radio similary to screamer in Windows and a mediaplayer (VLC) would make it perfect for me.

Then there should be a multimedia-module to include a pendent to AnyDVD, CloneDVD (DVD-Shrink).

I think then it is complete for private desktopuse.

salasi · 03-10-2009, 04:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by acid_kewpie

/opt = C:\program files\

it's already there. A distro isn't going to restructure ALL applications like that though, that's not going to happen.

That's not going to happen?

If you mean that no one is going to rip up the Unix-y file hierarchy and replace it with something less, err, arcane or baroque, you should look here:
http://lwn.net/Articles/67196/
because someone (gobolinux) already has. OTOH, if you mean that they are not going to replace the interestingly featured Unixy hierarchy and separators with a windows-alike one, I would hope that you are correct.

And as that article was from '04, you might be wondering why Gobolinux is taking quite this long to take the world by storm.