[mythtv-users] Upgrading from 32-bit to 64-bit and maybe a distroswitch?

[Jarod Wilson]

On 06/19/2009 05:14 PM, match at ece.utah.edu wrote:
> On 19 Jun 2009 at 12:39, Jarod Wilson wrote:
>
>>> I'm looking at Fedora 11 now, and I notice that with each release
>>> Fedora
>>> acts a little more like Ubuntu. Why is that?
>> How so?
>
> OK, I'm an old UNIX curmudgen. I don't like installations with everything in
> one big root partition, and I like to work as root in a terminal session when
> appropriate, rather than having to use sudo and my password for every
> command that needs root authentication. It's against my religion.

Well, Fedora's defaulted to one big root partition for a good while now. 
Personally, I hate it too though, I always have at *least* one other 
separate partition... I'm rather partial to a root shell as well if I 
know I've got a fair amount to do that will require it.

> Ubuntu has done this from the beginning... yeah I know I can partition my
> drives any way I want to, and there's an easy work-around for the sudo thing
> just by creating a root password, but it's just SUCH a bother to have to put
> things "the way they should be", and this has just always irritated the snot out
> of me.
>
> So, I just installed F-11 this morning, alongside Windows 7 RC1, and I just
> let anaconda use the partitioning scheme it defaulted to. I chose not to give
> anaconda any guidance because I wanted to see if it would trash Windows 7
> (it didn't, all is well)
>
> Guess what? I have a 120GB root partition, and the very first command I
> tried to execute (don't remember what it was, I'm getting old, but I think it was
> actually a menu item) I got a pop-up telling me I had to use sudo and my
> password.

You sure it wanted you to use sudo? Knowing Fedora, I'd be more inclined 
to think it was ConsoleKit or DeviceKit or PolicyKit one of the other 
new *Kit frameworks, which give you similar 'do root things w/o being 
root' power as sudo does, but for some reason, reinventing the wheel is 
good fun. Its supposed to be a better wheel though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PolicyKit

And amusingly, the screen shot on that page lends credence to my rant 
about Ubuntu getting credit for other people's work... Its an Ubuntu 
screen shot and Ubuntu is mentioned first as one of the distros using 
it, but the primary developer, David Zeuthen, is a Red Hat employee...

> Thanks, I don't want training wheels. If I want to hose up my system by doing
> something stupid as root, then that's my business.
>
> GRRRR!!
>
> Maybe I'm just behind the times, but old habits die hard.

Nah, I'm with ya. Although I have found a few things PolicyKit does to 
be useful from time to time... (such as its PackageKit integration so 
you can install updates via the graphical tools w/o being bugged about a 
password, its handling of device permissions, etc)

>> <asbestos underpants>
>> In my experience, the latest Ubuntu release typically has all sorts of
>> features that were already in the prior Fedora release... We (RH/
>> Fedora) write the code, test it, stabilize it, then Ubuntu ships it,
>> claims credit (or at least doesn't say boo when they get the credit
>> that should go to someone else) while everyone keeps knocking Fedora
>> as being nothing but Red Hat's playground for RHEL, unstable, etc... :D
>> </asbestos underpants>
>
> Well, I don't knock Fedora. It's my distro of choice. I jump ship occasionally,
> but always come back.

Yeah, no, I was thinking of others who might be reading the list, I know 
you know better. :)

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod at wilsonet.com