In one post on games and hardware, the writer mentioned that he would really
like to see information included in the RPM's such that "If you have this
card, you should install these packages."
I'd like to see it go a little further. My biggest problem with just about
any distribution of Linux, is trying to get my hardware to work. For
example, I have an Adaptec 1520B ISA PnP that I can't get working under
RedHat. All the information I can find says to read the SCSI how-to. Yet,
I can't find that how to anywhere.
I know that a lot of the problem with new hardware is not with the
distribution but with the manufactures of the hardware. But, even getting
kernel modules to work are a real hassel.
I have a Celeron 433 with 196M of Ram, Vodoo 3000, Diamond MX300 sound card,
A Richoh 2xCDRW attached to the SCSI Card. At first I had a heck of a time
getting linux to recognize the full 196M of ram under mandrake 7.0. The
only way I got it to work was recompiling the kernel with large memory
support (over 2 gig). The next issue I have is (and I haven't been able to
succesfully install a 7.1 Beta yet) is the ata 66 drive that is my main
drive along with the 1024 barrier issue. When I download and compile the
devolpmental kernel my esd and the K soundmanager lock up the system.
Finally, I can not get XFree86 4.0 installed correctly in RedHat, and if I
do sorta get it installed, I can't get the tdfx module to compile and
install correctly. Actually, it's glide that gives me the problem.
Another issue closely related to this one is documentation. I'm not a
software engineer, nor am I a programmer. Yet, every how-to doc around is
terribly confusing, often including much more information that I really
don't need at all. All this does is confuse me all the more. This has made
fixing all these problems a real pain. That's if I can even find a how-to
for my problem.
What I would like to see to help all this is revamping the whole
documentation problem. Along with working more closely with the vendors of
hardware so that more hardware can be supported easily.
What I would really like to see on the documentation issue is something
similar to the warp pharmacy. Users and devolpers helping each other. For
those not familiar with this website, it's like this: The site was set into
different areas for different affected componnents. Then there were message
boards, links, fags, and such with solutions and discussions. I would like
to see more formal solutions that are very easy to read in the format like
this:
Problems: If your system/device is doing this, this, or this, or has done
this since doing this...do this. I'd like to see this documentation
available both on and off line since sometimes the network configuration is
the issue. The documentation would then have links to the more complex
sources like how-to's, man pages, and such.
I realize that Linux is a very hand's on system and is not really geared for
that person who is somewhere in the intermediate to advanced knowledge
level. If you can't get the pre-built stuff to work--you are left on your
own. So, I guess I'd like to see information and utilities that are set for
that beginner to intermediate level while at the same time doesn't alienate
the advanced users.
B. K. Barley
-----Original Message-----
From: Denis HAVLIK [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2000 2:30 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Cooker] GET READY FOR A DISCUSSION
(I hope you do not get this twice on cooker)
Hi, folks!
What follows is probably a single most important letter I ever posted on
these mailing lists, so please read it very carefully!
[ANNOUNCEMENT]
We (Mandrakesoft) are starting internal discussions about future of
our distributions NOW. We want you to take part in the process of
improving our next distro.
- NOW is a time to ask us whatever you want: tell us what you like, tell
us what you hate, tell us what you dream of!
- NOW is a time for you to influence the future company decisions - start
thinking, and if you come up with a briliant idea, post it here.
Starting NOW, I am going to stop sleeping, eating, or doing any other job
which would interfere with currently most important task: Making sure we
make the best decisions based on whatever input we can get.
[RULES]
* Basically everything you can think of is open for discussion, except
question of including non-free software in the core of our distro, which
is absolute NO-NO.
* Listen to what other people have to say. Try keeping the signal/noise
ratio as high as possible.
* One topic per e-mail and informative subject line help us a lot. ("125
Great ideas!!!" is a very bad subject line.)
* Please, try to avoid any kind of flaming on the list for the next 10
days.
* Finaly, If you have time and skills to pick up ideas from long
discussion threads and write a good summary, please do it, it will help us
a lot.
[TOPICS]
Topics we are particularly interested in at this moment include:
1) ergonomics: What should our user interfaces look like in the
future, what should we improve in our desktop configuration, which things
need polishing...
2) install: Which features of our current installation
program (DrakX) do you like, which features are you missing, what is not
clear enough? The same question goes for post-install configuration
tools.
3) packages: which packages to add, what to remove from the distro,
which subset of packages is really nessesary for a minimal install,
and which packages are "just add-ons"?
4) tools: which new tools (packages) should we develop ourselves, or
improve in case we are already developing them? Many great
programs already exist out there, so we really badly need to know
which important linux tools you still miss, in order to
concentrate on them in the future.
5) system policy: We want to make our system "logical" by following the
Linux Standards, and being consistent in the way
"things" (services, settings) are implemented. Tell us where
we need to improve.
6) security policy: Closely related to point "6". You know that we care a
lot about security, don't you? Well, the problem is choosing right
security settings for various situations.
(If you feel that we have forgotten an important topic, just start a
discusion on it, the list should not be taken too strictly)
################
I am going to spend a lot of time in reading "newbie" and "expert" mailing
lists during next two weeks. Guillaume will do the same on the
"cooker" list, and other members of the company may pop-up and take
part in discussion too, for topics they may be particularly interested in
(and if they get time to do it, our schedule is bursting).
At the end of the discussion cycle (in two weeks), I will try to write a
resume of what has been decided and share it with you.
yours
Denis Havlik
--
-----------------------------------------------------
Dr. Denis Havlik <http://www.ap.univie.ac.at/users/havlik>
Mandrakesoft ||| e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Quality Assurance (@ @) (private: [EMAIL PROTECTED])
-------------------oOO--(_)--OOo---------------------
