 | | | Install Times | Install Times 2002-05-10 - By John
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On Friday 10 May 2002 23:34, you wrote:
>
> The point I was originally trying to make is that Red Hat (and, for that
> matter, most other Linux distros) are getting bigger and bigger, and not
> always for the better. While it 's nice to get more and more software as
> part of the distro, if these programs are not going to be used, then
> what good are they doing installed on the hard drive? (The point that if
> I used Windows I would have to buy extra software that comes as part of
> the Linux package is not germane to the discussion; my comment that
It is, you know. Some of the stuff that doesn 't get installed by default (eg
lynx) I use all the time. Same with some things that are no longer part of
RHL - my wife 's favourite game is xpat2.
I don 't use koffice (at least the WP) because I think it 's not up to snuff
yet, but from reports I 've seen others think it fine.
I may well use it in the future, and the future may well be on the completion
of my valhalla download, but for now OpenOffice.org does wonderfully.
Some of the stuff is irrelevant to me (palm sync, ISDN utils) but I use a
considerable amount of what is there.
I simply could not afford t kit out a Windows box to do the things I do on
Linux.
OTOH my wiffe is happy with KDE, kmail, xpat2 and StarOffcice (I 've not
inflicted OpenOffice on her yet, but I will).
To be sure there 's a certain amount of junk (to my eyes) gets installed, but
I 'd rather not take the time to make more choices.
If I doa custom install now, it 's more likely it 's to add stuff than remove
it.
> One of the reasons that I chose Linux as an OS was because it allowed
> much more control over the system than Windows. Unfortunately, much of
> this is being lost as distributions are assuming that I want more and
> more programs. This is fine, as long as I can chose which packages that
I 'd say you have MORE control, not less. More choices gives more control over
the tools you can have.
> I want. But this selection ability is being taken away through
> installing many of them by default. For example, I do not want games or
> a screensaver or extra backgrounds or themes on my system. But in order
> to install Gnome, I have to install these because Gnome depends upon
> themes and the screensaver, which in turn depends upon games. And why do
What version of Gnome is this? On 7.2, nothing requires gnome-games. For the
rest, if you want gnome you get gnome. All of it.
> I need Japanese TT fonts on my system?
I 'll concede that sucks.
>
> Every program that goes onto my hard disk is a loss of space and an
> increased security risk.
>
> This morning I went back and reinstalled RH 7.3 as a workstation and
> then carefully went through and removed everything that I did not want.
> Then the dependencies kicked in and I ended up with a 1.8 GB
> installation --- only 100 MB less than yesterday 's 1.9 GB custom
> installation.
Perhaps you should settle on 5.0;-)
It will be a while yet before I get to try, but I had selected installs of
7.2 at less than a Gbyte including Netscape and all dependancies.
>
> As a user, I would like to have the control to dictate exactly what I
> install; this is being taken away more and more with each distribution
> assuming that I want more and more programs and through programmers who
> make their programs dependent on more and more other programs.
>
> So the installations getting bigger and bigger. In one generation (four
> releases), RH has doubled in size. And it 's not just RH, it 's all the
> Linux distros.
You can install what you like, but always you must install all the bits to
make what you want to work work.
Programmers use these libraries because it makes their task easier. I 'm sure
they make mistakes - I know I do - and if themes depends on something in
games I 'd say they have.
Isn 't it the screensaver component that gives you the ability to turn off the
monitor and save power? I 'd not think if installing a Linux without it.
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