[PLUG] Bored

[jeff <jeffv@op.net>]

Bored, apparently in need of more abject failure, and spurred along by 
the recent talk of lightweight desktops, I installed a few of them onto 
Xubuntu (Gutless Gazelle).

I should say at this point that I get ten gold stars for not being bored 
ENOUGH to upgrade to Horny Hippo.  I did this on one less-used work 
desktop because having it in a vm just wasn't proving its usefulness. 
Thus far it is very well-behaved (aside from the fact that Etherape 
flatly refused to launch) and looks every bit like the previous version 
(Gangrenous Gecko).

Not quite ready for the challenge of an as yet unseen desktop, I tried 
KDE first.  My first task, and thus my first mistake, was going into 
Adept and removing all the things about KDE that bother me.  Before you 
ask me if I wound up with XFCE when I was done, I want to tell you how 
it went.

I've spent a lot of time in various Ubuntus, trying to uninstall things 
that just get up my nose.  Consequently I've spent a lot of time with a 
stuffed up nose.  For some reason known only to Mark Shuttlecock and the 
pope, Ubuntu MUST HAVE pidgin, evolution, and forty or fifty other 
programs that have absolutely no bearing on the function of the OS.

Having proven to the universe that one can successfully operate an open 
source OS without instant messaging, an Outlook clone, games, and a 
multimedia player that plays multimedia without giving you a Total 
Multimedia Experience (YIKES!), I figure it's my right as a FOSS 
advocate (not to mention an American) to de-install them.

Stupid little linux user.

To my great surprise, I was allowed to uncheck things like mad.  When I 
eventually finished unchecking, I even spent some time checking to 
install a bunch of new apps that looked interesting.  It was tedious and 
time consuming but I felt it would be worth it.

Today I came home from work, checked off a few more, and hit GO.
Adept asked me if I was sure.
"Sure I'm sure," I reassured it.
Then it said no.

My wife claims she couldn't hear it but I swear it was laughing at me.

I reasserted.
It refused.

The problem here, aside from the obvious, is that the reason it gave was 
anything BUT obvious.  'Perhaps there's something wrong with a 
dependency.... or something' is most assuredly NOT a decent error 
message.  At least when Synaptic tells me no, it gives a somewhat 
satisfactory reason.  I suppose Adept wants to pretend it's a bit more 
demure than Synaptic and go all coy on me.  I dumped Windows to get AWAY 
from this behavior.

I just don't have the time or heart to go back and reselect the programs 
to be dumped or installed.  Plus I'm afraid that if I do, Ubuntu will 
display some OTHER less-interesting personality trait, featuring an even 
MORE vague error message.

"Nope, sorry.  It just wasn't right today.  Do try again tomorrow."

___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug