[mythtv-users] MythTV + Distro

[David Campbell]

Stroller wrote:
> On 9 Feb 2007, at 15:29, David Campbell wrote:
>> Cole Brodine wrote:
>>> I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but I prefer Gentoo ...
>>>
>>> Probably not the best distro to start with on Linux, but it will  
>>> force
>>> you to learn quite a bit.
>> With respect in my experience all that Gentoo teaches many people  
>> how to
>>   cut and paste from a wiki or other source.
> 
> With respect, I think one should add "YMMV" to this statement.
> 
> I'd agree with Mr Brodine's statement that it's "probably not the  
> best distro to start with on Linux" and add that Gentoo is therefore  
> probably not the best distro for the OP, but I learned far more in a  
> weekend of installing Gentoo than I did in two years of other distros.
> 
> I think the reason I learned so much from Gentoo was my previous  
> experience with Mandrake & whatnot, but I think it's unfair to say  
> that Gentoo only teaches you to cut & paste. Under Mandrake I had  
> compiled my own kernels & leafnode, I had configured a bootloader and  
> various other software, and chased down issues with KDE & DCOP (??),  
> but so many of these experiences were stressful and difficult.
> 
> On other distros I followed the instructions I found on the web and  
> at a certain level I understood what I was doing, but I always felt  
> that I was only looking at a fraction of the picture.
> 
> When I installed Gentoo, everything just fell into place.
> 
> All of a sudden, following those instructions and copying & pasting  
> from the wiki I appreciated what different parts of the system were  
> doing, how they interacted and why I was doing each step.
> 
> I think there's a lot of people who come to Linux from Windows who  
> can't differentiate the window that you click on to drag & drop files  
> in your home directory from the o/s itself. Microsoft would have you  
> believe that the desktop is part of the operating-system, and I can  
> understand why that's a useful way for my mother to think.
> 
> I am not promoting Gentoo for the OP, but when I finished Gentoo's  
> install and found myself able to log in to a terminal & get a bash  
> prompt a lot started to make sense to me. Thereafter I understood the  
> difference between `emerge kde` and `emerge gnome` much more deeply  
> than I would the difference between the Ubunutu & Kubuntu distros.

I should have qualified what I posted.

It's dangerous to label users of any distro or OS.  I shouldn't make 
sweeping statements about Gentoo users.  What I was really trying to say 
was that whilst /many/ Gentoo users will tell you that they learned vast 
swathes of knowledge running Gentoo and that they understand Linux much 
better since using Gentoo - my experience is that they generally are no 
more well informed than any other Linux hobbyists.

> 
>> I'd say [K]ubuntu as it's a single command to install (but not
>> configure) myth
> 
> Indeed, as it is with Gentoo and surely many other distros.
> 
> May I ask - had you never installed anything else on [K]ubuntu before  
> you installed Myth?

It /was/ my desktop for nearly three years. I did an apt-get install 
mythtv myth-plugins - ran setup and moved the cube to my living space.

Job done (mostly)

DC

-- 
David Campbell :: www.cpfc.org