Will Linux be ready too late? The Knoppix-Debian adventure.

From: gp (gilpel_at_inverse.nretla.org)
Date: 08/26/03 

Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2003 00:48:26 -0400

First, The state of Slackware
_____________________________

After 2 years, I'm still with Slackware -- 9, lately -- and it's still
broken as ever. /dev/cdrom is still not linked to /dev/scd0 for a
CD-RW. The so-called autoconfiguration sets only abominably low
refresh rates, which can be easily corrected in KDE, though. Apsfilter
for setting the printer is antedeluvian by today's standard.

Of course, the geeky instructions that are supposed to help the newbie
select the packages are more than apt to get him stir crazy in no time
at all, so the best is to install the whole thing. Then, of course,
not to make matters too complicated for geeks, all installed servers
are enabled by default, with all ports listening... and no firewall
installed by default.

Of course, XMMS doesn't work! Who cares? I'm sure The Man checked that
vi and Emacs are working.

But the real fun -- even for me, a 2 years old newbie :) -- came when
I decided to get my Logitech mouse wheel working. With Slackware 8.1,
I succeeded by copying Knoppix's XF86Config file, but this time, it
was a no-go.

So I tried all kind of options for Logitech mices that were still
commented in XF86Config, but it didn't work. So I checked Google and
found one (1) message saying that this line

Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

had to be addedm to the config.

So I did add it and of course... it didn't work. So, I went to the new
Slack book -- that's real despair, believe me! -- and found out that
rc.gpm sometimes causes problems. It was suggested to chmod it not
executable -- lots of fun for a real newbie! -- but I thought it would
be better to comment out the call in rc.M. (Not a owrd about the said
ZAxisMapping, of course.)

So I did that and it did work. Soooo... I lost the afternoon on
getting a mouse to work properly. And I learned nothing about Linux,
since I still don't know what the effect of this XAxis and rc.gpm crap
is.

It's just as if an interface in Windows was lacking some option. What
would you learn from that? Friggin' nothin' ! One can only wonder what
happens when you try to set up servers to... really work with Slackware!

And don't tell "The Man" that he ought to put a few more instructions
on his site so that you don't have to wander around, he'll reply that
it's too bad you're not nearby, I'd take a minute or two to "squeeze
your little head".

But, despite what "Not So Volker" says, everybody knows that Slackware
is not for beginners. Neither is it for experts, I suppose, since they
would certaily prefer to install Linux with a Knoppix-like distro:
perfect configuration made in about 15 seconds! Slackware is certainly
much easier to install now than ten years ago, but "Not So Volker" is
digging his grave by not listening, just as the author of SLS did when
he started Slackware.

The Knoppix-Debian Adventure
____________________________

Speaking about Knoppix... I showed a friend how great Linux is with it
this aft. The computer booted right fron its straps to the right track
and all that remainded to do was choose the default keyboard in KDE,
go to Knoppix-Config in the KDE menu and configure the printer and the
dsl connection. The kind of Enter - Enter - Enter chore :)

Want to stop the connexion?

CTRL + ATL + F2

poff

It's stopped. Want to start it?

CTRL + ATL + F2

pon dsl-provider (dsl-provider exactly, not your dsl provider name!)

Click an ogg, XMMS comes to forefront. The printer works. The fonts
look fine, etc.

My friend instantly said: "Install it!"

_ I can't, I said.

_ What do you mean, you can't?

_ I mean there is an installer, but Klaus Knopper himself advises
against using Knoppix as a production system because the tree is not
standard. There's so much /tmp/Knoppix and /Knoppix/tmp/Knoppix/tmp
stuff that you can't even use mkrescue to make a rescue floppy after
it's installed. And, of course, let's not talk about making a /home
partition without a lot of newbie sweat.

My friend fell back to his chair.

But... Didn't you tell me that it's Linux's year and that everything
was ready, he said, dismayed.

As a matter of fact that's what I told him last year. As we all know,
it's the second Linux on the Desktop year in a row. So how good are we
doing? I mean can we stop the hoopla for a second and take a closer
look, as any normal for profit or not for profit organisation should
do once in a while? Do you remember the fabulous predictions Eric S.
Raymond made a few years ago. (I hope you do, because it seems the
article has disappeared from Forbes.) What's happening in reality,
back on earth?

Here are Google's statistics on their users' OS:

March 2003

http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/zeitgeist-mar03.html

July 2003

http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html

1% ... or less, I suppose. The figures haven't changed. And those are
not weirdos' extrapolations made from LinuxCounter's figures. This is
as close as you can get to the facts: in the stores, computer still
sell with Microsoft installed because in August 2003, you still can't
tell a friend "Sure, I'll install Knoppix for you."

And yes, I've tried Mandrake and the interfaces are nice and all too
often, they don't work. And since Bob Young once declared that Bill
Gates was his mentor and that he proved it by introducing the first
Linux company on the Stock Exchange, I can only wish good luck, but
without any support from me. Not interested in all those freak companies!

But imagine for a minute that Bill Gates was heading a company called
Linux with 1% of the desktop market share, don't you think this suit
guy would tell his programmers "You guys all get on Knoppix and I want
the final product next week" ?

Of course, the task of making Knoppix installable might not be as easy
as it seems. Assorting the testing and unstable packages with the
proper libraries and then managing the installed system so that the
updates don't break everything is apparently easier said than done.

I don't know, maybe starting with the installer from the Debian end
could prove easier. But the people from Debian seem only midly
interested in working on the installer. It doesn't look like a from
rew center project at all(1). Just as for Woody, Sarge "could" be
ready in December, but it's most probably going to turn out being June
or July 2004. September? With what kind of installer? Who knows?

(1)
Beta testing of debian-installer by adventurous users (subscribe to
debian-boot, and try CVS or the images at
http://people.debian.org/~tfheen/d-i/images/daily/)

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2003/debian-devel-announce-200308/msg00010.html

But certainly, whoever hasn't tried Knoppix yet should try the latest
version, the V3.2-2003-07-26 (1). Whereas Knoppix was sometimes
realeased every second day, this version hasn't changed for a month.
Maybe Knopper is taking some well deserved vacations, or maybe he's
working for a change :) , but it's pretty good stuff and it's yours
for the taking. (Don't offer money, it gets KK in a bad mood!)

(1) http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

Getting to the net with Knoppix from a cold unconfigured computer
takes about 5 minutes. Hey! Can Microsoft NT, 2000, XP, you name it,
do that? Can't Linux make better than 1% with such a machine laying
around?

I might be just be some kind of stupid suit without much in his
pockets, but can you understand it's no use dreaming about a third,
fourth, tenth Linux on the Desktop year? Will Linux be ready when it's
too late?

A Knoppix-Debian installer is badly needed now!

GP

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