Gross. Why does Linux do that?

[m3rcury]

I've been running Redhat for a while now. I took off my windows after I had used it for a while. Its nice and everything... EXCEPT ... it comes with 39837 programs preinstalled. People moan about Microsoft bundling IE with windows. What about the lack of choice we get when installing .. say Redhat for example? Eh? If you want to do any one thing, Redhat will give you the following programs to run it:

KProgram
Program
Advanced Program
Bobs Program
Tom's Program
Bob's version of Tom's program
Tom's version of Bob's program

I mean there isn't even an option to do a 'bare' install so I can go out and get my own programs of choice. I can't even uninstall these things afer I finish my installation. Sure the package manage is there, but thats hard to do. I keep worrying I'll remove something and break a dependency that I shouldnt have messed with. It gets annoying when you are given a choice of no less than 8 text editors to do a job. Come on.

 

[TonyRic]

You have the ability to individually select the packages to install or not install during installation. You also have the ability to CLEANLY uninstall or install them after the system is up and running. Red Hat includes command line AND GUI tools to do this.

 

[Sunner]

If you do a full install you will indeed get a million programs, lots doing the same as others.

Thats why you shouldn't do a full install if this bothers you.

[edit] Oh and as TonyRic said, you can at least uninstall them after the system is up and running, and without having alot of junk left behind. [/edit]

 

[Nothinman]

People moan about Microsoft bundling IE with windows. What about the lack of choice we get when installing .. say Redhat for example?

How about reading the installation instructions or atleast all the options? You can choose to through all the packges you want or use the default groups RedHat set up. And it's a lot easier to remove KProgram than it is IE, after the installation.

 

[TheWart]

If you want total control over what gets installed, then check out Gentoo Linux which builds everything from source with a BSD-style ports system. I am currently running it, and boy is it BALZING fast....everything is optimized for your system, not just i386.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

flames aplenty!

if you dont want stuff installed, you can NOT select it during installation. if you didnt know that then well....

 

[CTho9305]

<< People moan about Microsoft bundling IE with windows. What about the lack of choice we get when installing .. say Redhat for example?

How about reading the installation instructions or atleast all the options? You can choose to through all the packges you want or use the default groups RedHat set up. And it's a lot easier to remove KProgram than it is IE, after the installation. >>



I disagree... most of the package names are incredibly cryptic. When doing my latest install of mandrake, there was a fair amount of stuff I couldn't figure out. In windows, the names are pretty at least

 

[miniMUNCH]

TheWart is right...Gentoo is real nice and fast plus has support for all the latest stuff in Linux (Xfree 4.2, XFS, etc...)

 

[Nothinman]

I disagree... most of the package names are incredibly cryptic. When doing my latest install of mandrake, there was a fair amount of stuff I couldn't figure out. In windows, the names are pretty at least

I agree the names aren't that descriptive, unless you can figure out what libgd is without looking it up, but there is a small description thing (think if you hit F1 or 2 on the package name) and if you don't know what it is you shouldn't complain that it's there =)

If the Windows names are so pretty, WTF does COM+ components mean to someone? How do I know if I really need those?

 

[MGMorden]

They usually at least have categories. If you're really anal about only putting what you want on there then just select something like 'Base Linux System' and 'Development Packages'. Then copy over ncftp and lynx via floppy, compile and happy hunting.

 

[CTho9305]

I dont know (i didn't read it, so I stil dont know )