Well I have been using TeXlive for a long time, and I do it in different machines and with different OS. But my basic system is Ubuntu LTS, I hate to change my OS every six months and I prefer something more stables. With Fedora in the last versions I have few troubles and I use them but they are not my hit. But, yes I know, this is a Fedora list.
And about TeXLive and all those troubles, in fact as José Matos says, we need to install all the schemes we need for our papers and projects. I teach how to use LaTeX from the most basic until special packages for certain task, not always for typeset math. TeX in fact is more than that, but of course isn't the only tool, so i install Tex-live full, all the schemes for avoid those problems. It can be a little expensive abut the HD space usage with up 1.5 GB for store everything, but this is how I can use different compilers such as tex, pdtex, latex, pdflatex, xetex, xelatex and luatex for ConTeXt.
Perhaps you can customise the settings of the TeXlive for install only the packages you need, but I don't know if it is possible or how to do it. So simply I prefer install everything.
As Gordon Bell said: TeX is potentially the most significant invention in typesetting in the last century [...] and in terms of importance could rank near the introduction of the Gutenberg press.
So isn't the only tool, but perhaps is the most powerful one. We have InDesign (not in linux yet) and Scribus, and they're good for some tasks, but in my opinion we can't compare them, TeX and both of its embodiments: LaTeX and ConTeXt can do a better work , faster and easier than InDesign, QuarkXpress, Scribus and others. We can typeset huge quantities of pages automatically with an excellent composition and without adjust manually line by line and save paper using the traditional pica points instead the PostScript pica points.
There is a long time (two years ago) I don't use Scribus, is an interesting software, but the typographical management was poor for me and unable to take advantage of Open Type features. With LaTeX we can do it using XeLaTeX and it's great. Surely Scribus now is better than the version I knew, but it can be better for typeset highly hierarchized texts with a lot of cross references, and equations, chemical formulae or musical notation or chess notation, but it's ok for magazines, newspapers, brochures (leaflets) and all those publications where the design and the number of pages depends from the contents.
I do not think the way pdf file is created is important, but the way you can compose an equation, or another thing typographically difficult, matters.
That's all, cheers.
Aradenatorix.
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