[creat0]

The thing with LFS is that it would cause Linux users to learn. Not necessarily a bad thing. And I would predict it could lower their tolerance for the lots of the garbage that many ditributions force on them. (Like this brilliant move by Ubuntu!) Who knows, it could lead to a more DIY capable userbase.

They would not have to ask anyone how to remove things or plead with decision-makers to implement their desired changes, they'd just do it themselves.

But yeah, from what I know the Arch Linux distribution imposes a very minimal amount of "pre-configuration".

I've always found it easier to add stuff to a bare bones OS configuration than to remove it from a pre-configured one (you have to thoroughly understand what you're removing first; it's easy to break someone else's delicate Rube Goldberg contraption). But maybe that's just me.

[icelancer]

>The thing with LFS is that it would cause Linux users to learn. Not necessarily a bad thing.

This is exactly why I stopped using RHEL and other distros back in the late 90's. I am very interested in learning - to some extent. Writing my own goddamned drivers for my ADSL modem was not what I had in mind. Canonical and Ubuntu have made huge strides forward for Linux in the marketplace.

[creat0]

Yeah, but who said anything about writing drivers? Very few people can do that. How about just really basic stuff, like how to not have ads for Amazon popping up when there is no need?

The driver issue is, in my opinion, the single biggest problem with not using Windows or Mac. If you just jump right into that issue i.e. that the latest driver for your peripehral is not going to be available for some time and ignore all the other benefits of Linux and other UNIX-like systems, then you could pretty easily conclude these systems are worthless. Hardware manufacturers don't care about them. They only care about Windows and Mac.

But we all know these other systems like Linux are far from worthless.

Clearly, there is some middle ground.

You can still do a heck of a lot without the source code for the 2012 driver for Whiz Bang Hardware Component.

If Canonical and Ubuntu decided not to accept any binary blobs I wonder if the "strides" would seem as huge.

[icelancer]

These days Ubuntu has made some seriously poor decisions; I won't deny that (Unity is a joke, this Amazon thing is a huge lol). But Canonical was vital in the push to get Linux on the desktop and to be accepted as more than a "hacker's playground" that is too hard to use for the average person.

Chromebooks and other low-cost appliances like it are successful in large part because of how easy Ubuntu/Canonical made it to transfer into the Linux world from Windows.

I personally use an Ubuntu 11.x build for everything these days (minus some plain Debian builds on my ARM7 devices), and I really like what they've done for Linux - even if the present stuff they've done has been a little stupid.

[jamespo]

idealism is a wonderful thing but really it would just get more people on mac or windows