[kwlug-disc] Desktop linux for Gramps

[Paul Nijjar]

On Mon, Dec 07, 2009 at 10:48:02AM -0500, unsolicited wrote:
> Paul Nijjar wrote, On 12/03/2009 7:31 PM:
>> On Thu, Dec 03, 2009 at 01:39:40PM -0500, unsolicited wrote:

>> I totally disagree with unsolicited on this point. You will be the tech
>> support for your parents. Therefore you should give them what you know
>> and understand. 
>
> I think you do Glenn a disservice here. By your reasoning we should
> all still be running windows, and K-W LUG should not exist.

Not necessarily. There is no problem with learning something new. But
from experience I know that I have been much more successful
supporting people remotely when they are using distros familiar to me. 

If somebody has some experience for the look and feel (and where to
find things) in Ubuntu, then that is great! That person can offer
effective assistance for the parents when they make support
calls. Otherwise... not so much. I have trouble figuring out how
Karmic does things, for example -- and I supposedly am familiar with
Debian and Ubuntu. Dropping somebody into a completely unfamiliar
distro is a great way to convey that Linux is Hard, which is not
exactly the message we want to send. 

> Please review the nature of Glenn's queries to the list over the past
> few years. My overall impression is that the queries center around
> problems with the packaging / distribution / presentation of Mandriva.
> You seldom hear from him on any other topic. i.e. It appears he seldom
> has reason to post, otherwise.

Sure. I personally am not fixated on Glenn (or anybody else) changing
their distros to conform to the hivemind. I know that lots of us
stumbled onto our first distro more-or-less by accident. I know I did. 

I think that is a distinct issue from getting somebody started on
their first distro. If Glenn falls in love with some other distro for
his other projects, he could then give his parents that new distro for
their next experience. Maybe they will latch onto Mandriva as their
favourite distro. That might be awkward, but it is not the end of the
world. 

> And reasons why you, yourself, are neither running it, nor migrating
> to it. Your comment flies in the face of your own attitude - you
> frequently search for better solutions than you have at the moment,
> despite however familiar you are with the current tools you are using.

It's true. I am not personally migrating to Mandriva. That does not
mean it is inferior, or that it is a bad choice for others. Other
people have different itches they need to scratch, and different
things they are looking from in a distro. 

I do not think that looking for better tools really flies in the face
of sticking with what you know. For example, I may be working with
Asterisk in the near future. There are CentOS-based Asterisk distros,
but for our production system I am likely to stick with something I
know -- a Debian-based install -- because I think that will be easier
to support. If there are compelling reasons to switch, I will do so
(the migration from IPCop to pfSense is one example of that) but all
other things being similar I want to leverage what I know. 

- Paul