I have to disagree. I'd rather distros ship with a more minimal set of "best of breed" applications, thoroughly QAed and well integrated. This, I believe, leads to a higher quality distro, that is easier for inexperienced users to approach. Alternative sets of packages can then be downloaded separately, by more advanced users, from places like fedora or freshrpms.
I have to vote with Phil here. On some things, like mail server daemons, there needs to be recognition that sendmail/postfix/exim are all mainstream packages (and yes, yuck, qmail), so I am glad that RedHat supplies both postfix and sendmail. However, on most other things, choosing one or two "best of breed" packages will lead to better integration, better user experience, wider adoption, and a higher-quality distro with fewer bugs (and more bugs fixed!).
IMHO the single greatest difference between Winders and Linux on the desktop is that, in Windows, EVERYTHING works fairly well together. One comparison although I have dozens: I set up a printer in Windows in only one place, and every app works with it. In Linux, I have gotten my printer to work well and easily through the magic of CUPS (after years of hating LPR and failing with it), but individual applications often require separate integration.
If this kind of problem could be reduced, we could push Linux penetration far more aggressively.
-- Rodolfo J. Paiz rpaiz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-- Shrike-list mailing list Shrike-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/shrike-list
