so my buddy is still waiting for gentoo 2008.0 (and what month is it?)(don't get kicked from any irc forums asking questions btw), and i'm still using ubuntu as my daily box (re: the last ubuntu post)
sooooo, here's my update on this little challenge...
i am really happy w/ the OS i'm using atm... the only issue i've run into that i couldn't solve within seconds is that VLC didn't play a dvd like i expected it to (like it did w/ a diff dvd in windows) so i went upstairs and watched it on the dvd player on my tv... also, vmplayer is dead in the water w/ hardy afaik... that sucks...
but to balance that out, tons of other stuff works correctly which gives me issues on my gentoo laptop (ie: sound, truecrypt, and other stuff i can't think of atm)...
so here's my real bitch about the ubuntu community. i've got a buddy who is getting into *nix, and he tried to drop it on his laptop. since then there's been video card issues w/ Xorg and wifi issues which render the box unusuable. he is pretty decent w/ RTFM and all of that, but he keeps calling me up to come fix his stuff. i kinda wanna bitch, but the sad truth is that when i go out to google issues using the ubuntu keyword, there just isn't much out there. it is as though they've taken for granted that their stuff works all the time, and don't provide detailed documentation for the people who might want to reference it...
i mean, dig into the links and compare this to this... wtf...
so i am considering contributing to the ubuntu community w/ some low level documentation, b/c i see people out there using ubuntu having problems w/ questions that aren't answered by the docs...
the truth i am willing to face up to, is that i can make ubuntu work on a variety of hardware platforms only because i cut my teeth on gentoo... i'm still happier running ubuntu day to day tho ;)
infosec stuff on the bound
7 comments:
It's not too late -- 2008.0 is slated for later this month!
I'm not sure Ubuntu is geared toward people who want to tweak and mess with their installs. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think anyone wanting to really configure his/her machine will use Debian or some other less 'fuzzy' distro, no?
With all the problems I've been having with Gentoo (not to mention with the community), I've been more seriously considering switching to something else, but I don't want to lose the granularity I have with Gentoo. There is a lot that needs improving in Gentoo though...
Maybe I should start up a VM of Debain/Ubuntu vs. a fresh Gentoo vs. *BSD and just go nuts configuring each the same way. Do some crazy stuff w/ Gentoo (ie: Paludis) and see who wins. If you *reallly* think I would like Ubuntu...
I can't even force myself to type that.
you been talkin to ppl on irc about this release? ;P
and yea, i agree w/ you about ubuntu being geared towards users who just want it to work. and for the most part it does just work. but sometimes it doesn't, and imo it'd be nice to have some better documentation when it doesn't.
from what i hear the forums offer some help, but from what little i've seen in that area it was disappointing...
i hear what you're sayin about gentoo and granularity, but i guess my question to you is do you really lose anything w/ ubuntu? i mean, it is linux, right? it boots 2.6.xx atm, and it runs xorg, and even though it is all clicky clicky, you can still open a term and modify files to really get things done...
the whole fixing my buddies box deal involved me booting via livecd, mounting his drive, and fixing the files that his gui stuff (mis)configured.
is apt-get really different than emerge? i know you might have some speed benefit w/ emerge, but that's about it. ultimately you're still trusting that some nebulous code or binary is legit and running it on your system.
i am really curious about where fbsd is at nowadays...
anywho, mb running some VMs would be the way to go to experiment. or mb you should just stick to gentoo. i can't say that you would _really_ like ubuntu. but i know that it is working well for me, and it is easy enough to get things running the way i like that i use it as my daily box. i don't even have a win box atm b/c i haven't even been motivated to build one (i am missing gaming tho)...
i told my buddy who needed me to fix his ubuntu box that he should really install gentoo as his next step. he said, yea i bet we wouldn't have all these problems cause it'd all be configured for my machine. i laughed there. i said, well, you'd still have problems, but you'd learn a lot more in the process. you'd know how to mount a drive via cli, amongst a thousand other things.
i was talkin to a guy today who articulated what i am feeling, which is that gentoo will teach you a ton, but there comes a point where you need to get work done and it just isn't worth dicking w/ making gentoo work anymore. that's where i'm at atm. if i need to build a secure server, it will be a gentoo box. daily use workstation, no way.
anywho, my buddy sk00t got to the place i am at now like a year ago (and for diff reasons i don't entirely agree w/ to some extent), and so i gotta give him props and admit to the world he was right-ish at least in some aspects.
I definitely understand not wanting to dick around with 'making it work' anymore. When my nvidia-drivers broke and X was messed up for a little over a week, I was really there. Why put all that time into making it work when I have real work to do?
I just started ranting about the gentoo community and had to stop myself. But you're right -- for a workstation, maybe gentoo isn't the way to go. I'm not sure if I will lose any of that granularity, but did you do an lsmod and see what's there? I guarantee a *lot* more than what I would want.
From what I can tell, the Ubuntu community actively discourages users from compiling their own kernel, which seems like the wrong ideology to me. For me at least, one of my big draws to Linux was the ability to do what I want -- to make a system that's what I need and want, no more no less. I don't need or want 60 modules loading on my system. I don't need or want someone saying 'Just use the gui.' The flip side is I don't need or want to be kick banned for asking questions.
I guess I'm still torn.
well the downside is:
rwnin@deadwood:~$ uname -a
Linux deadwood 2.6.24-19-generic #1 SMP Wed Jun 4 16:35:01 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
rwnin@deadwood:~$ lsmod | wc -l
106
rwnin@deadwood:~$
but, this here isn't so bad for default:
rwnin@deadwood:~$ netstat -na | grep -v unix | grep -v stream | grep -i listen
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:631 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 127.0.0.1:8008 :::* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 :::1322 :::* LISTEN
rwnin@deadwood:~$
i agree on kernel modules. i run most of my gentoo boxes w/o loadable modules at all. but you know, i don't care if the community wants me to recompile my kernel or not. if i get so stuck that i can't figure out how to make it work and the community won't help, i'll prolly be peeved, but that day hasn't come yet...
anywho, i dug this up just for you... lol....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bPndxNNKfA
lol. Wow.
don't tell me you're too young to remember that song... sigh...
Actually, I'm not. AND I heard it on the radio yesterday. Oh yeah.
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