Before answering this questions I have to enumerate the limitations I had.
This was not a full time study and I had to to do this amidst lot of work and hardships.
To begin with I would not have done this if I had not gone abroad for a short but intensive stay abroad which included a Medical Examination Review.
When I started looking for Linux resources to take home there was nobody to guide me abroad.
I had to find my own way.
I thought people abroad are more clever and they really had a choice in their selections.
This was not true and that was my first scientific observation.
When I realize they are much stupider than me looking for an alternative operating system.
They thought I was stupid enough to ask such a question and me being not a local (foreign descent for them was a distinction of stupidity and not their own ignorance in scientific knowledge) they felt superior and comfortable selling a proprietary stuff.
The average Sri-Lankan feel very comfortable here but when abroad bend backwards including our M.P.s.
In fact I had to mount a fight to get what I wanted and there was only one Sri-Lankan guy standing beside me.
I had to say it is my money and I know how to spend that in my own way, not by market forces.
The difference was that I paid one third the price an average Guy / Girl pays for the stuff.
Vendors and O.E.M guys were worse off than the ordinary guys and girls.
Not knowing what to buy is a blessing for the vendors and the proprietary guys knows this very well well and brainwash the vendors first.
These guys in turn brainwash the average guy.
So what I state may look out of the blue and completely insane to the average but I believe there are lot of Guys / Girls who are more than average intelligence and their intelligence is always far superior to that of mine.
So I had to download the stuff myself and had few copies of Tiny Linux (including Puppy Linux) in my front shirt pocket to outsmart these gullible vendors.
When I displayed in few seconds what they take at least half an hour to display they had to stand back and watch (if not admiring) what I had in store.
Then I turned to the web browser and typed two words that included my Christian name and Linux what flowed out of the web page was a shock for them and my friend standing by,
My friend had been a computer guy and was building his own web page for publication but he had to have several key strokes to present and sell his name.
Finally we came to our room and I told him few Linux (he was not a Linux Guy anyway having been abroad very well brainwashed) tricks and started downloading distribution after distribution till it was three in the morning.
What it took six (6) months in Ceylon we did it in two days.
1. So my biggest handicap was the download speed and the throughput.
2. I had to shun DVDs to begin with due to this disability.
3. I had my own work to do and restrict my activity after midnight.
4. Testing could not be comprehensive due to time constraints.
5. Basically 386 testing but few of the 64 bits I tested in my laptop for fun.
6. My testing laptop only had a CD and no DVD and that also packed up (mounted a windows CD) not due to testing.
I managed to find a DVD (secondhand for a firsthand price) by that time I have passed 80.
7. Then last but not least I had to format and install new all the distribution s in my box four (4) times due to some of these said to nice and innocent LIVE CDs taking over my hard disk and erased (killer whales I call them and they think that there is only Microsoft there and not even DOS partition) everything (I only lost few Linux Images in the process).
This I took as and opportunity to test few of the distributions that had no Live CDs.
The list can go on.
Only silver lining in the sky was that we had two elections and I was bored to death and knew that this year nothing constructive would happen or emerge except me devoting full time to Linux and killing eavesdropping souls if there were any, especially election engineered.
Mind you I asked my former Dean to give me a desktop computer and leave it in a prominent place so that would be Linux guys can learn from me. He has gone now and a new one has come and because of my little pride left I decided not to offer or volunteer any teaching in Linux to the newcomer.
Instead I got permission to hold a mini workshop for my friends and students.
The theme of the workshop was Linux is not only Ubuntu.
But basically I displayed Ubuntu to the audience except for the last 15 minutes.
There are many more!
I believe some of my students will take the message across.
My other voluntary restrictions were
1. I downloaded only iso images.
2. Did not use torrent.
3. Did not use ZIP files.
4. Dis not use giz files.
5. I used only K3B for writing and only one Linux box (unlike old days windows and Nero) was used for downloading and it had only 76 GiB and only about 15 GiB for downloads. I had to save them in a U.S.B hard disk as well as on DVDs (USB DVD writer). So there were lot of little little inconveniences and I never lost an iso image except during the time the Killer Whaler Distributions went into panic mode (not me).
I do not recommend anybody to download them in Windows and Nero for writing.
High speed writing does cause damage to the isos.
Always should test the Media before booting if not done on Linux box.
Microsoft has found more than one way to kill these images when downloaded in a a Windows box. One lost file can be damaging and unlike Microsoft , the Images have to be 100%.
Nothing less nothing more.
To my surprise some of the commercial bent Linux distributions make sure that their images are slow to download and some with missing files.
This make the would be newbie to go to their site and buy from there ebay.
Unfortunately Mandriva (One of my favorites Mandake), Xandros and Linspire are culprits.
They have their hands tied down by Microsoft and they cannot do anything about these things happening.
They get caught pants down, though.
Mandravia is breaking up since insiders know very well these things are happening under their very nose and closed eyes.
It is a sad story for Mandrake and Mandriva fans.
Do not worry guys there are hundreds of alternatives distributions as I have listed.
Finally for those distros not included, my apologies,
I have used distros that updated from September 2009 to September 2010 but very few from Distromania archives for completeness sake and the variety, flavor and taste.
In future they should have iso in all formats.
Isos should be available in all formats.
Not only Torrent downloads but also HTTP.
ZIP for Linux guys.
Giz.biz for source and compiler guys.
Even Google Chrome has done this mistake.
So Guys and Girls enjoy the list in the Supper of Linux distributions in many flavors.
I have earned a welcome holiday and a vacation.
See you in 2011 with a Very Happy New year.
Please keep in touch if there are knew developments. in the meantime.
