I generally find that informed criticism is less likely to recieve such enraged feedback. 'personal opinion' seems, to me, a bit of a cop out when publicly reviewing a software product (esp. as your 'personal' blog is syndicated via Mozilla).

I thought your Ubuntu review was reminiscent of several other 'leet' linux users' reviews, which were fairly dismissive of Ubuntu because A) they didn't know how to use a system that doesn't let you run amok as root and B) they were incapable of switching from one of the logical defaults that suits 90% of the population. Both of these issues somewhat undermine their self-assumed 'leet'-ness.
Though it has to be said that you were more open to the fact that your needs and the average persons diverge to a great degree.

So perhaps you should, instead of prefacing things with 'personal opinion' as a catch-all, pre-emptive get-out clause, approach new technology experiences with some humility and think:

'I don't know why this is set up like this and am confused/annoyed by it, but I respect the time, effort and intelligence of those working on the project, so rather than dismiss or deride it without in-depth knowledge of the surrounding issues, I will report my experience, explaining my confusion/grievance, and hope that my blog readers can provide the information I need to know why this is done in this way, if it is actually a bug rather than just a different approach, and then decide what my *informed personal opinion* is on this decision/policy/bug etc."

David.
I'm not sure if I aske you already. But did you download the free version of VidaLinux, or would you recommend the full purchase version?

Cheers
-Jed

Jed, I downloaded the free version. I see no reason to pay for it when you can download the same thing for free. Especially not when just evaluating it. The only difference is that you'll have to spend some time in Portage/Porthole after installing if you choose the free version. Linux's supposed to be free, at least that's one of the big reasons why I'm choosing it.

Have you tried any LiveCDs? I think that if someone wants to just play around, that's a good idea.

About differences between compiled and source-based packages
http://isam.bayazidi.net/archives/2004/07/internal-distro-war/
http://www.zefhemel.com/archives/2004/02/04/gentoo-vs-debian
http://newsvac.newsforge.com/newsvac/02/07/27/152253.shtml?tid=23

Once more -- have you tried apt-src in Ubuntu?
http://packages.debian.org/testing/admin/apt-src

Have a nice day,

Matej

pl send me too
qnpcnpp@hotmail.com