[ Thanks to BeOpen
for this link. ]
“At it’s best, the GNU/Linux community is a helpful,
open-minded group. Unfortunately there are a few fringe groups
within our community that don’t display those qualities. This has
outsiders wondering whether GNU/Linux is a private club or an
operating system. There are three groups in particular that
come to mind from this fringe community — the distribution
fanatics, the anti-anything-other-than-Linux zealots, and the “I
had to RTFM (read the freaking manual), so why shouldn’t you?”
camp. Let’s discuss some of the common practices among these
groups.”
“Which Linux distribution (distro) is the best? Ask the wrong
person this question and you’re liable to get an ear/eye full with
their response. This can result in a virtual “war” about the
virtues of XYZ Distro compared to ABC Distro. We can only imagine
what new users think when they pose this question and receive
conflicting answers, or rage instead of reason. Why is something
that seems so inconsequential to non-Linux users such a big deal to
those who do use Linux? It’s a matter of preferences and of
personal loyalties.”
“First, we aren’t specifically committed to any one
distribution. We started with Red Hat, but explored the other
distributions eventually settling on three that we prefer: SuSE,
Mandrake and Caldera. We tried most of the other major
distributions, which also include Debian, TurboLinux, and Corel. We
believe we’ve made a good determination of what distribution best
matches our needs. When asked, “Which Linux distribution is best?”
our favored response is, “I prefer SuSE, Mandrake and/or Caldera.
But, you should decide for yourself. You can get a bundle with 6 of
the most popular distros on CD for about $10 at LinuxMall (search
for Linux SixPack).” We wouldn’t try to push our opinion on anyone
else and have never been able to understand why others become so
fanatical about a distribution to the point of abusive flame
wars.”