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On Sat, Sep 18, 2004 at 09:48:30PM -0500, Wyatt M. Portendt wrote:
> Yast says the kmix and alsa are installed.  It also says that emu10k1x is 
> detected.  Then it says that the kernel module could not be loaded for that 
> one possibly due to IRQ's and IO's or something like that.  I could give the 
> details better, but I have to type them out by hand and I have to keep 
> popping the screen up, type a few words, then pop it up again.  I can't 
> highlight, copy, and paste the error messages.  :(
> 
> Says it can be caused by improper parameters.  I don't know what the correct 
> parameters are or how to enter them.  :(


Again, not being familiar with SuSE, can't give you specific answers.

All kidding aside, I do see your point, as far as advocacy and all that
and would have to disagree with some of the other opinions.

When someone is selling laptops installed with Linux, and putting, in
not very large (albeit not tiny) print that the modem doesn't work, one
has to think they (the seller) isn't doing a great job of pushing Linux
to the public.  

There are distros and distros.  Some are made to be as compatible with
most hardware as possible, others are oriented towards those who don't
mind spending a good deal of time making things work.  (Or, perhaps
these distros are more oriented towards the server end, and if you want
to use them as a desktop, be prepared to do some research.)

SuSE, AFAIK, is supposedly aimed at being user friendly, and in this
case, it sounds as if they didn't do that great a job.  


On the other hand, it does seem as if you devoted a good deal of effort
to getting Windows to do what you wanted it to do, including securing
IE, or using something else.  As has been said, and I can attest as a
systems/network administrator, browsing the Internet with IE is somewhat
akin to walking through a minefield blindfolded.  In part, this is a
tribute to its success--most people aim at IE because that's what most
people use.  The big problem is how it is so tightly integrated with the
O/S that anything affecting it affects the entire O/S.

I don't know about user groups being more friendly.  Watching this
thread it seemed it started nicely, then somehow degenerated on both
sides, but I don't remember, or perhaps didn't note, which side
degenerated first.  :)

I think that some of the complaints you have made are justified.  AFAIK,
SuSE pro costs money and they should get it together about you not being
able to register on their web site.  It's not as if you took a free one
and expected it to just work, you went to the extra trouble to buy a
distribution which is one that claims it does work.  

As for error messages, yeah, that's one thing that most O/S's do pretty
badly.  Including MS.  (There's a series of haiku error messages that I
put up on my site, at
 http://home.nyc.rr.com/computertaijutsu/haiku.html   )

(Not my creation, someone had sent it to me and I put it up, thinking it
was pretty funny.)


Manufacturers, most of them, are in business to make money.  Business
has seldom been known for its altruism, and so they aren't going to
necessarily create drivers for Linux if there's little profit in it for
them.  So, from an advocacy standpoint, I have to disagree with some of
the points being made here. 

This, of course, doesn't mean I'm right.  :)   And yeah, I do think it's
a bit ridiculous sometimes, that one has to google for things that
should Just Work  (TM).  

Anyway, I think the thread began to degenerate at some point.  So c'mon
folks, group hug.  :)

At this point, it seems to be something that isn't going to Just Work
(TM) for you unless you get into it, that is, unless you feel it's worth
the trouble to do the research, or at least get SuSE to give you that
support for which you paid.  :)

So, I'd say the options are
1) Get SuSE to help and write an aggravated email to their customer
service department about how their web registration had problems.  That
one should, if it does nothing else, make you feel better. 

2) Say the heck with it

3) Get into it in the same way you got into learning about Windows.
Learn a bit more about it, realize most of the docs are horrible, and
remember how unhelpful MS help can be too, and work with it the same way
you evidently have before.  

2) Say the heck with it

3) Get into it in the same way you got into learning about Windows.
Learn a bit more about it, realize most of the docs are horrible, and
remember how unhelpful MS help can be too, and work with it the same way
you evidently have before.  

As far as graphics--one big difference twixt Linux and other *nix's is
that the graphic system is distinct.  In MS, the GUI is fully
integrated, with the upside that it runs more smoothly (though recent
improvements, at least if you're not a gamer, have considerably closed
the gap) and the downside that if something screws up the GUI the O/S
becomes close to being unusable.  Things like sound are part of the
actual Linux kernel.  How sound works in various apps though is also
somewhat distinct from Linux itself, one reason Debian and others insist
on the term GNU Linux--as many of the applications, including some very
essential programs were created by the GNU foundation and have nothing
to do with Linux itself.  

Ooops, forgot option 4).  Try the distro slut approach, go to
www.distrowatch.com, browse around and see which ones claim to be good
for desktop users who don't want to spend too much time figuring out how
it works and trying a few of them.  There's Mepis, Knoppix, Mandrake's
latest and greatest, Yoper, and plenty of others, all aimed at being
user friendly. Some of them actually succeed now, I think. 

This of course, is only a course if you don't mind installing one,
trying it, seeing it doesn't meet your needs, wiping it and installing
another.  Most of these install in under an hour, anyway.  :)


> 
> There's no book for the soundcard, so I'll have to go and try to get one off 
> the internet and then try to print it so I can remember all the numbers and 
> crap.  I still won't know where to put them.

Sometimes, this stuff comes with decent instructions, sometimes it
doesn't.  There's a distribution called Gentoo.  It's not easy to get it
going but it became a roaring success.  I think that one large reason is
because the docs were so well written that newcomers could perform what
was really a fairly complex installation and then feel like Linux Gurus.  

Its docs have become a model for many others, which is a Good Thing
(TM).  I think most original man pages were written by academics for
other academics where showing your knowledge and using specialty words
to help show it is as important as imparting information.  That's one
reason I much prefer the FreeBSD man pages, they seem to take themselves
less seriously.   :)



- -- 

Scott 

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Wesley: The Council's orders are to concentrate on the...
Buffy: Orders. I don't think I'm going to be taking any more 
orders. Not from you, not from them. 
Wesley: You can't turn your back on the Council. 
Buffy: They're in England. I don't think they can tell which way 
my back is facing. 
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