I must agree that Mdk7 is rather buggy. I've had to reinstall many times and it
seemed to act different each time. After two
machines, I told friends that they would have to wait or I would install Mdk6 instead.
Mdk6 was a successful install the first time
and the same everytime. Let's hope the next Mdk release isn't as troublesome. But
still... it sure beats the crap out of the
unpleasant every-hour surprises from Windows.
Seve
-----Original Message-----
From: Trevor Farrell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Linux Mandrake Expert list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Friday, March 31, 2000 2:58 AM
Subject: [expert] Mdk 7 - time to take out the trash? (long)
>When I first installed it, I really liked Mdk 7.0-2 - real nifty new
>installer, supermount, XFree3.3.6, the first graphical install to work
>with my SiS 6326 chip, ... Yes, I thought it was really nice. Then the
>cracks started to appear - sound card that worked under Ver 6 wouldn't
>install under 7, Netscape had yucky b&w icons, cd burner not linked
>properly, and wouldn't burn when it was, wheel mouse that wheeled
>without help under 6 didn't under 7, partitioning tool buggy, expert
>install option absolutely unusable - how the hell do you know what is
>selected and what isn't? - the "magic 50%" install rule - it only fills
>your partition to 50%, regardless of what you really wanted, ...
>
>Now, weeks later, some of the above are fixed and some aren't, but I put
>it down to my "el cheapo" buying - PCchips motherboard, ide cdrw, etc
>and lack of knowledge/skill - ie my fault...
>
>Today, I feel differently. We have had a Mdk 6 machine at work for
>some time, and its supervisor today decided to install 7.0-2 . He
>started by booting from a boot floppy, the install locked when it tried
>to initialize the CD. So I suggested that he set the BIOS to boot from
>CD (it was previously set to boot from the floppy, then the ide drive.)
>and this time the install went nicely, until he hit the expert select
>packages fiasco - he couldn't make any more sense of it than I could -
>so he cancelled that and started again, this time being careful not to
>select expert! It loaded the packages (why is Mandrake so slow doing
>this, compared to red hat?) and then locked up as it started the X
>configuration. Rebooted the machine, everything started up well, but no
>X. At this stage my colleague threw the ver 7 cd in the bin, and will be
>putting 6 back on the machine next week. (No - he doesn't want to know
>how to fix it, or what went wrong.)
>
>Also today, I installed the BeOS 5 (Personal Edition) operating system
>that I downloaded last night. It really just unpacked the files. I
>rebooted the machine, and hey! presto ... BeOS! Funny, video worked,
>sound worked, Cdrw burnt cd's, ... all with NO installation questions,
>NO how-to's, No hassles. OK - so there is nothing written for BeOS yet,
>and I'm not serious about keeping it, just curious, BUT, it proved you
>can write a hassle free installer THAT WORKS!
>
>OK - back to Linux - the current attitude that if something didn't work,
>it's because you didn't read the instructions or your hardware is faulty
>IS SIMPLY NOT ACCEPTABLE to me any more - If it doesn't work FIRST TIME
>it's because its broken, and needs fixing.
>
> The first Linux distribution that produces a hassle free installer that
>works (no if's, but's, or maybe's - I mean works - full stop!)
>WILL SUCCEED, all the rest will only be installed by enthusiasts (which
>I still count myself among) and are doomed to their rightful resting
>place in the garbage bin.
>
>Now, it's time for my big decision - Do I, like my colleague, consign
>the Ver 7 install I have spent so much time on to oblivion, and go back
>to Ver 6 because it worked, or do I persevere, and try to get 7 up and
>running properly, or, perhaps, do I try RedHat 6.2, or just wait for a
>distro with kernel 2.4 & XFree 4? I really don't know, and I really
>don't expect anyone else to decide for me, I just know that my
>perceptions of install problems will never be the same again.
>
>
