Month: July 2005

Be not overcome of evil

I extend my prayers, along with the rest of the free world, to all of London today. Our hearts and thoughts are with you.

“When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love.”

–Martin Luther King Jr.

Desktop Linux Debate

Family has kept me from blogging the last few weeks, but a couple links drew my attention today. The Linux Desktop Distribution of the Future is a blog post by akaimbatman at blogspot. In it he lists (his perceptions of) some of Linux’s problems mastering the desktop. In a total 180 from most posts of this type, he also lists solutions. Now several of his “thoughts” are re-occurring theories that pop-up from know-it-all new-to-Linux types from time-to-time (sorry about this sentence, I have been reading a great deal of Joyce lately.) It does, however, provoke some good thought on selected topics.

This post is a rant of the perceived shortcomings of the RPM package format. The author demonstrates a distinct lack of understanding about RPM and its design decisions. A technically solid (if less then totally coherent) rebuttal can be found here. The whole DKPG/RPM debate is one of the quickest ways to spot a Linux zealot. Technically speaking RPM is superior to DKPG in every perceivable way, yet DKPG defenders will routinely throw arguments like “RPM is a steaming pile of crap” in defense of thier package of choice.

I don’t like Redhat, I don’t use Redhat (anymore) but one thing they did RIGHT… was RPM.