SLED, Ubuntu and Slack, oh my....

Here I am back in SLED10.

This is after an excursion into Ubuntu6.1 this morning.

U6.1 isn't too bad, as canned distos go.

Had to fight with a couple of 'features'...

• Video still defaults to 1024x768, 800x600 or 640x480 (what is that for? PDAs?) I was able to locate an online HOW-TO that walked me through the sudo based commands to reconfigure the X Server (If this sounds scary it is not...to a seasoned Linux Admin.)
  
• Went into the 'system' controls menu and tried to reset 'Time and Date' - FUNKY! Finally realized that after setting the time I had to hit the 'Synchronize' button to get it to set the time. Sheeeeeesh.
• I thought instead of me setting/correcting the time I would just invoke the NTP service and let it go to the network for accurate time. When I checked the box it prompted me to provide it with root credentials and then asked if I wanted to install the NTP service. When I clicked 'Install' it just thought for a second (whirling thinking symbol) and then it stopped... no dialog box, no install window, no NTP services. Harrrrumph!
  
• Something down-deep that I didn't care for was a kind of latency when it comes to mouse clicks and button choices. On a couple of occasions the system seemed to offer a button, give it focus, but not let the user click on it. Seems I had to click somewhere else and then return to the button in question.

So I have returned to SLED...

Prepared by Novell, SLED is a commercial package. It is prepped to a commercial standard. It works exactly the way it is supposed to, with rare and as yet unfound exception.

This is very important in the distro perspective of things. If putting together a distro is fun and interesting that is one thing. If prepping a distro is a matter of commercial livelihood - for which a company will be held accountable - that is anther thing entirely.

As a canned distro goes, SLED10 is one of the very best I have seen. But... it is still canned.

So I will be patient ... let vamp download the 6 CD ISO images that constitute Slackware 11.

More to follow...