On Thu, 06 Nov 2003 09:51:27 -0600
Daniel Taylor <dante at argle.org> wrote:

> "Generally" is correct. IF I install a new Linux distro, I _expect_
> that I will have installed or immediately available _all_ of the
> above. If I install Solaris, I expect that _some_ will be installed,
> and that I will have to hack around libraries and get source to
> install the rest. That, and the hacks and deviant packages will be
> different if I'm using UW, Tru64, HPUX, or AIX.
> FreeBSD has more in common with Linux than Solaris has with Tru64 in
> my experience.
> 
This all comes down to the various distros again, what they include on thier disks and so forth.  Same with the major UNIXes, you have a lot of software packages to choose from.  Neither of which will have everything you want or need immediately available.  Well, except Debian.  There seems to be more packages available for that than anything else, but that's a lone instance.

> Because the people who are packaging the binaries are malinformed or
> lazy and don't know how easy it can be to generate rpm, deb, and tgz
> from the same source package. I have worked on projects packaged and
> tested for multiple distro's. Apart from having a partition with the
> distro installed on it to boot to for testing, it just isn't that much
> extra work.

I agree, but have run into some issues and have had to root thru countless pages of Googling to find out how to fix it so it will run.


> I do not consider linuxconf/kudzu/kcontrol/etc. to be _core_ admin
> tools. They are nice for those who want to use them.
> Yes, vi/emacs on text files, m4, awk, perl, and the basic sysinfo
> command line tools are what I consider "core admin tools" everything
> else is built up from them.
> 
Most of this is considered utilities/applications that are aside from the base kernel.  I can choose not to install tar, perl, lsof, compilers, emacs, vim, etc.  Although, I will admit they they definately make life easier than without them

> Exactly. This is why I do not consider most of the GUI helper tools
> to be "core admin tools". A decent admin _should_ be able to check
> the system out pretty thouroghly over a terminal without having to
> resort to GUI tools. Yes, the GUI tools make life easier, but they
> aren't standard enough yet and most of the ones I've seen take an
> information hiding approach that makes it harder for an inexperienced
> admin to become an experienced admin.
> 
Exactly.  Overall we agree more than disagree, I think. 


-- 
Shawn

 "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear -- not absence of fear."
	-Mark Twain

  Ne Obliviscaris --  "Forget Not"

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