呵呵，没有bsd和slackware
What your choice of Linux distribution says about you
Saturday October 30, 2004 (02:00 PM GMT)
By: Joe Barr


Many Linux newbies -- or wanna-be newbies -- get hung up over the choice of their initial distribution. We here at NewsForge have put a lot of thought into this, and have decided to share our best thinking on the subject in order to help ease you newbies out of the monopoly spread into the Linux world. The most important thing for newbies to consider is this: what does your choice of distributions say about you?

To
that end, we have created this brief list of observations of the users of specific distributions, highlighting their most notable traits, in order that you can weigh this important aspect of distribution selection in your final, initial decision.

Debian

  * This distribution is popular with those who always count in binary, and are politically correct in a free software kind of way. Many are suspected of having been nursed on a TTY. Debian users take pride in the fact that their distribution is always several releases behind the latest version of the kernel, but makes up for that by being more difficult to install and use.

Gentoo

  * If John Wayne had been a Linux user, he would have used Gentoo. Gentoo users are pioneers, people who like to live close to the metal, and don't mind hurting themselves on sharp objects. Some feel that Gentoo users are simply lazy louts who always want to have a ready excuse for why they are not doing constructive things with their computer, other than compiling or recompiling the latest kernel, app, or hapless passerby. The official Gentoo motto is, "If it moves, compile it."

Knoppix

  * Knoppix users are pushy and aggressive. It's not at all unusual for them to hand you a CD and tell you to boot from it. Mainly, they like to stare at the console during the boot process while its sniffers check out the current hardware and network configuration. While this is a flashy and very useful distribution, it never seems to stick around on the systems it is used on as long as the other distributions. Don't trust Knoppix users in matters of the heart.

Linspire

  * This distribution is popular with the timid and the meek. Often this includes those straying away from Windows for the very first time. With a womb-to-grave GUI interface, which can download and install software packages with a single click, Linspire provides its users more ease of use than they deserve. When you think of Linspire users, think of a princess whose culinary repertoire is limited to making reservations.

Mandrake

  * Mandrake users are suave and sophisticated. They prefer to focus on a polished desktop environment rather than just serving others. It's also said that they enjoy sipping -- but only late in the year -- the new crop of Beaujolais each year. Red Hat users say that Mandrake users don't love freedom. Mandrakians insist it is only freedom fries they hold in disdain.

MEPIS

  * This newbie distribution attracts people who can't decide whether they'd rather have Knoppix-like LiveCD ability or Linspire's easy install and GUI-all-the-way interface: It has both. MEPIS is also totally the distro of choice for people who like to hum John Denver's song, "Country Roads," under their breath, because it's the only one headquartered in West Virginia. Go Mountaineers!

Red Hat

  * Red Hat is not synonymous with Linux, but many of its users believe that it is. Long the king of the Linux street, Red Hat is most popular with middle-of-the-road types who always end up following along with the crowd, even when everyone in the crowd is wearing a silly hat. Red Hat is very strict about the licensing of the apps it includes with the distribution, but doesn't seem to mind abandoning customers who are not large corporations.

SUSE

  * If you like beer, horns, or green eggs, you'll like SUSE. The recent acquisition of SUSE by Novell is similar to Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers adopting the West Coast offense. SUSE users like a clean, well-lighted desktop, and are far less concerned about where things are kept in the filesystem than they ought to be.

Since they didn't cover Slackware, here you go:

Slackware users are paradoxically obsessed with being cutting edge and traditional at the same time. They love to point out that their distro has all the latest programs, but explain that it's ancient installer is 'still up to the task' and that the lack of powerful package management 'leaves them in control'. Slackware users like to do things for themselves and tend to ignore what popular opinion (and logic and reason and all rational thought) says is good.

And, since they didn't include Fedora either, here's that one:

Fedora is synonymous with Red Hat, but many of its users believe that it isn't. The song of the king of the Linux street, Fedora is popular with those who want to be in the middle of the road, but leading the crowd. Unfortunately, they are actually be pushed along from behind, with the silly-hat men leading from behind. Fedora is very loyal to its customers, except when they want something that Red Hat doesn't, in which case they consider the feature risky.

I think it would be more fun to pick a Star Trek race for each user to assume at a convention.

Mandrake - Humans. Like it simple and straightforward, but can be badass at need and gets things done.

Redhat - Vulcans. People may not like them, but they do a lot of things right and everyone owes them.

Debian - Romulans. Tough, but strangely elegant. Deserve more respect than they get.

Gentoo - Klingons. Never do it the easy way if there is a hard way - it makes one stronger!

If any MacOSX guys wander in, they get to be the tribbles. Soft, cuddly, and relatively harmless.

Windows users unlucky enough to stray in - the Borg, of course. The one common enemy of everybody else in the room.