Re: [tlug] Linux distro!: Centos is RHEL

[Scott Robbins <scottro@example.com>]

On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 09:14:22PM -0700, SL Baur wrote:
> On 4/21/08, Scott Robbins <scottro@example.com> wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > Noooo problem, Fedora can do that.  Remove wireless-tools and watch it
> >  take away most KDE programs--oh, sorry, I thought you meant that was a
> >  good thing.  :)
> 
> That must have changed.  I replaced wireless-tools (by removing it
> first) and the
> only two conflicts I got were with NetworkManager and kwifimanager.
> NetworkManager was easy enough to find a compatible SRPM (to my RHEL 4
> userland), kwifimanager needed a patch in order to build, but otherwise was no
> biggie - the patch was a one-liner.  A functional and most up-to-date wireless-
> tools is very high on my must-have list.  :-)

This was on my workstation at work, where I used kopete as a jabber
client (which we used among ourselves.)  I blithely typed yum -y remove
wireless-tools and when I came back, kopete was gone.  :)  It wasn't
a conflict, it was that for some reason, yum thought that if I didn't
want wireless, I didn't want jabber. 

They have NetworkManager and the KDE one whatever it is. I use fluxbox
and just use wpa_supplicant.  


> 
> Red Hat does stupid things with their RPM spec files sometimes, but I wasn't
> aware they had sunk that low.  Odd considering how RPM is technically an
> in-house invention for them.  Considering how old RHEL 4 is and their disdain
> for the desktop maybe it's just that they had 0 users for their wifi support.

I do remember a funny line when I was ranting about Linux bloat on a BSD
forum.  Someone else, an RHCE, no less, said, yes he couldn't understand
why they tied bluetooth into everything.  He then wrote, "I'm sure the
two people who use it must be ecstatic."  

It was also in the early days of Fedora 8, so that might have been a
factor.  

Each Fedora release seems to become more gnome-centric.  Last November,
sound began getting tied into ConsoleKit, which those of us who don't
run Gnome had never used.  In a discussion on their bugzilla, the
developer said that he was going to make it more difficult to disable
consolekit.  I asked wouldn't a few lines of documentation be easier.
He replied no, because now too many things needed it. 

Fedora, (and I'm not the only one who says this) seems to be caught
between the desktop and the enterprise, so in certain ways, it never
seems sure if it should aim at the geek or the newcomer.  It manages to
get both sides angry, so I suppose it's a good compromise.  :)

I think that almost any distro, and even the BSDs at times, will pull in
dependencies that many people feel unnecessary.  I imagine they all try
to take a more conservative approach, figuring leaving them out will
break more things for more people.  I'm sure that even Gentoo will pull
in things you don't want.  Perhaps not, if you spend a week reading up
on USE flags. <shrug>.   (That's not a Gentoo putdown, my point is
simply that with almost any distribution or O/S, you can make it leaner
and meaner, but it often takes too much effort.)




-- 
Scott Robbins
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