One of the strong points of Linux is that there is lots of choice. Not every distro is right for every user. If you need to have every imaginable piece of software either installed with the ISO or in the distro's repos, VectoLinux is not for you.
I am much closer to being a user than an enthusiast. I don't know how to write code and have zero interest in learning how. I'm happy to use scripts written by someone else, but I can't write one myself and don't want to learn how. I prefer to use a GUI most of the time, but I don't avoid the command line like the plague. Sometimes the command line is the easiest and quickest way to do something.
What I like about VectorLinux is the quickness, the stability, and the way it lets me set up the system I want--no more and no less. VectorLinux deliberately releases an ISO that fits on one CD. To include all the software a "user" would want would make VL too large to fit on one CD. VL wants installation to be easy. If all the software a user could want is included in the ISO, a user would either have to install everything or go through a list and pick individual packages or groups of packages. That makes installation more complicated for a user because until you've used Linux for a while, you probably don't know what packages you want.
We'd all like to have more packages in the repos, but VectorLinux is a community effort and most of the work is done by volunteers who receive no money or perks for their efforts. If a user can't accept this reality, he or she should go elsewhere. VectorLinux does not have a big company or big money behind it like Fedora, SuSE, or the Ubuntus do. What we do have is a wonderful community of helpful people who care enough about Linux to spend time making VL as good as we can.
VectorLinux doesn't forget that some people have old or substandard hardware so it provides a distro that can add new life to old systems that would otherwise become doorstops and little else. At the same time, VL can add a little "kick" to newer hardware because being lean is a goal and "lean" is good for new hardware, too.
Because VL doesn't make decisions for users and shield them from what goes on under the hood, a VL user can learn about *Linux*, not just how to click on an icon and have the distro do everything for you. I prefer it this way and while I'm in no way a Linux expert, I'm very comfortable in Linux and am not intimidated when the automatic tools run into a snag.
I appreciate your needs but the fact is that VectorLinux cannot provide them in the way you want. We all know perfectly well what the "users" you describe want. The Vector team is always working to make things easier without de-Linuxing VectorLinux. The volunteer packagers do the best they can within the time they have to fill package requests. And there's nothing to prevent a USER from taking responsibility for finding a program outside the repo and installing it (as you can do for Adobe Reader, Picasa, Google Earth, RealPlayer, and other programs that are not open source). It's even possible for a USER to learn to compile something they want. It's often an easy process. Even I've done it!
If this doesn't appeal to you, look elsewhere. I say that with no anger at all. There is no one-size-fits-all in Linux.
--GrannyGeek
