InfiniteTides

It’s not often that I dread going into work, but I’ve been doing so since Monday when Ken told me I needed to talk to one of my inspectors about their attitude.  Oh great!  I have to do Ken’s job, as usual.

Fortunately, I’ve received a stay of execution, because this operator has not been into work all week.  Today, I think she’ll be there, and I’ll have to try to convey Ken’s message without getting her too pissed off.  It just sucks when you have to to your bosses job, and when the message you are trying to convey isn’t yours.  I understand how my inspectors can let things on the floor get under their skin.  I understand how certain operators are not very smart and frustrate the inspectors.  Ken does not.  Management does not.  So it comes down to who complained about whom first, and this time the operators have the upper hand.

I’ll have the little talk.  I’ll be as gentle and understanding as I’m capable of being, but there’s no telling what the reaction is going to be.  How would you react to being told that your attitude is very negative when you work in a place where nearly everyone is incompetent, acts like they are still in junior high, needs a baby sitter, and most people don’t do the job they are paid to do?  Sometimes work really sucks.

My good friend Josh challenged me yesterday to try some other Linux distributions. He’s like that. If he knows that I really like something, he’ll point me in the direction of something similar that I’d probably like. Anyway, I’m going to start checking out some of the other flavors of Linux on at least one of my three machines. If I like one of the other distros better, I might even consider ditching openSUSE <gasp!>.

One great site to read up on many of the various Linux distributions is DistroWatch. Josh has been pushing FreeBSD on me, so I might try that out along with Gentoo and Fedora. At first, I’ll check these OS’s out via live CD (where possible) so I don’t actually have to install the OS to get the gist of it.

There are a few features that a distribution MUST have in order for me to stick with it. First and foremost, a distro needs to support KDE. I also appreciate automatic updates with lots of additional repositories pre-built (or at least selectable) into the OS. Obviously it helps if the distro has support for a broad range of wireless cards as well. Being an amateur when it comes to using the terminal to do anything, it’s nice when a distro automatically configures my hardware for me correctly at install. Something as minor as buggy sound card support can really harsh your experience (right Josh?!). Support for both standard and oddball resolutions is a must. I’m still a bit disheartened that I cannot expand the standard definition (800×600) screen on the openSUSE install on my Playstation 3. One feature that is often overlooked when choosing a flavor of Linux to install is community support. Without good user support and a willingly helpful community behind it, noobs like me will struggle with some of the more technical issues that invariably crop up with any Linux installation and extended use.

As I start checking out the other Linux distros, I’ll post mini reviews here on Infinite Tides, including analysis of the distro’s trademark (just for Josh who LOVES him some penguins).