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It seems sad to me, living like that in the confines of someone else's choices. There are loads of good software that just aren't in any repo of any Linux dist

It seems sad to me, living like that in the confines of someone else's choices. There are loads of good software that just aren't in any repo of any Linux distros. IMO, one of the advantages of Linux is how easy it is to find and install software from source. Compared to Windows where it's an almost unheard of practice.

ekianjo 9y ago
> IMO, one of the advantages of Linux is how easy it is to find and install software from source I'm pretty sure the commenter was referring to not installing anything from binary packages found on the web. (deb or rpms)
- deleted 9y ago
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wolfgang42 9y ago
> It seems sad to me, living like that in the confines of someone else's choices. Counterpoint: Sometimes the confines of someone else's choices can be freeing. Several years ago, I decided to switch to Arch. In the beginning, this was incredibly enlightening: I could set up my system however I wanted! I could make my own packages if the one I wanted wasn't in the repository! Soon a sort of fatigue began to set in: whenever I wanted to install a piece of software, I had to first decide which software I wanted. Every new little task turned into a large project: I wanted to add up a column of numbers, and now I had to decide between gnumeric, libreoffice-calc, and so on. I eventually wound up switching back to KUbuntu purely because it had more or less everything I needed pre-installed, so I could focus on actually doing the work I wanted to get done rather than figuring out the optimal way to do the work. Any given task may be slightly less efficient than optimal, but in total the effort spent is a lot less for the same amount of work done.
- jrimbault 9y ago
  That's a good argument. And I feel that more and more as the years pass. I'm still loving Arch and all the DIY attitude. But I feel like the next time I'd have to change my computers I could go with something "It Just Works™", currently Fedora seems in a good place.

ekianjo 9y ago

> IMO, one of the advantages of Linux is how easy it is to find and install software from source I'm pretty sure the commenter was referring to not installing anything from binary packages found on the web. (deb or rpms)

deleted 9y ago
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wolfgang42 9y ago

> It seems sad to me, living like that in the confines of someone else's choices. Counterpoint: Sometimes the confines of someone else's choices can be freeing. Several years ago, I decided to switch to Arch. In the beginning, this was incredibly enlightening: I could set up my system however I wanted! I could make my own packages if the one I wanted wasn't in the repository! Soon a sort of fatigue began to set in: whenever I wanted to install a piece of software, I had to first decide which software I wanted. Every new little task turned into a large project: I wanted to add up a column of numbers, and now I had to decide between gnumeric, libreoffice-calc, and so on. I eventually wound up switching back to KUbuntu purely because it had more or less everything I needed pre-installed, so I could focus on actually doing the work I wanted to get done rather than figuring out the optimal way to do the work. Any given task may be slightly less efficient than optimal, but in total the effort spent is a lot less for the same amount of work done.

jrimbault 9y ago
That's a good argument. And I feel that more and more as the years pass. I'm still loving Arch and all the DIY attitude. But I feel like the next time I'd have to change my computers I could go with something "It Just Works™", currently Fedora seems in a good place.