Disclaimer: This article is a mumbling written by a man who is claimed by several persons to be mad, strange, geek, unusual etc. The article were meant as a method of expression when the author find it difficult to have asleep at three in the morning. With all due respects, the author honor the privacy and dignity owned by every women and/or every linux communities that might be mentioned in the article. All trademark/copyright/license belong to their respective owners. Erroneous english or typos weren’t intended, believe me. The author as referred in the first sentence, takes no responsibilities from any damage, losses, nausea, brain disorder, physiological malfunction, civil war, earthquake, or any effects caused by reading the material follows. I’ve warned you.. :p
If you don’t even know what linux is, simply stated it’s an operating system. Computer codes that allows you to have access to the underlying hardware of your computer, the electronic components. With an extended definition, an operating system provides you with some working environment and some programs to support your work on a computer. And if you don’t know what woman is, umm.. uhh.. I think there are no simple explanation for this.. Even Einstein once said that he understands the universe with the laws beneath, but he still doesn’t understand women.. Sorry dude.. :p
And why would I compare women with linux? Because to my opinion, somehow they share many similarities. I’ll start with elaborating linux in a non technical way I hope, and you, readers, may compare, interpret, make jokes or take whatever conclusion you feel is right for the women side. I’ll just show you some hints. I don’t ask you to have a philosophical way of thinking, just a little imagination will do.. :p Here we go..
At the time of writing, there are about 500 different linux distributions or the so called “distro(s)”. I forget where I got this statement, but let’s just follow it. If you don’t like it, stop reading and write your own blog :p This favorite site of mine btw, distrowatch.com shows a hundred distros referred as the most popular ones. Why on earth there are so many different flavour of linux? Because of different environments, different needs, different habits, different tastes from the people who crafted it or from the people the developer targeted to. Well, you name it. There should be about 500 different reasons to answer such question. Every distro usually claimed to be better from each other, but in my opinion, they just simply work best for their intended purpose or target users.
As to myself, I have always been a huge fan and quite a long time user of SuSE linux (openSUSE now). A well-polished distro originated from Germany. I have been using this distro ever since I’m still in high school, back in early year of 2000. But living in the world of open source, to have so many options is very natural. SuSE is not the only distro I ever use though. As a matter of fact, the first linux distro I installed was Slackware. Known as a highly reputable, very stable and the oldest distro ever survived until today, but maybe not the easiest distro to deal with. SuSE on the other hand, in my opinion, has always comes up with the latest stable kernel, well maintained software repositories, modern desktop environment/window manager, easy installation with a wide range of hardware recognition and not to mention the eye-candy and bling-bling stuffs. In contrast, never expect everything will work out of the box when you first install Slackware. Those features are the least expected when you install Slackware. There’re always some extra efforts needed to make everything runs smoothly in Slackware.
SuSE is considered as a modern operating system, a bleeding edge system like other well-polished operating systems. Several names included are Mandriva, Debian, PCLinuxOS, and the emerging Ubuntu and their derivatives. Mandriva is also powerful yet beautiful, pretty much like SuSE, but I don’t like it, maybe because it’s just too “French” to me.. :p On the other hand, I also like Ubuntu and its derivatives especially xubuntu because its simplicity and the work-out-of-the-box sensation, and of course because of the great support from the community.
As the case with my two favourite distros, SuSE and Slackware, I like both distros so much but however Slackware has a special place in my heart. Despite its difficulties and its old-skool techniques, it has become a distro I always come back to. No pain no gain is a perfect proverb to be applied to this distro. I learned so many things about linux and how things in linux work together, because I travel so many adventurous journey with Slackware. The feeling to have something finally runs by yourself like you wanted to, beats the glory of work-out-of-the-box and bling-bling distros.
[to be continued]
Peace. Out.
