[cumbria_lug] Mandrake 9.2

[trevor at haven.demon.co.uk]

mike at aster.fsnet.co.uk wrote:
> On Tue, 4 Nov 2003, Trevor Pearson wrote:
> 
> > I would recommend Suse, RedHat or Mandrake with very little worry,
> 
> Recommending SUSE to a newcomer is rarely an option -- if he/she is
> not sure about Linux, you can't ask them to spend £30 or so on the
> boxed set (no freely distributable ISOs to download and burn).

They buy a buggy and unreliable OS called Windows, with virtually no software
for more than a hundred pounds at a time so spending say £5 on a mag with a distro on the cover is not going to break the bank and that would now cover SUSE 8.2 as well as several versions of Mandrake/debian/red hat, I have a frightning collection of distros big and small


> 
> Similarly, after the recent problems I wouldn't recommend Mandrake to
> a first-timer; if he/she sees a bug-ridden desktop with bizarre
> behaviour and all manner of weird glitches, he/she may be put off
> Linux for life. Some folk have hassle-free Mandrake experiences, which
> is good, but there are too many reports of nasty bugs and weirdness.

I am aware of these reports but my own experiance with mandrake distros is very good. I like the installer too.


> 
> As for Red Hat, as said, there is no more Red Hat Linux with all the
> testing, QA and support that goes with it. Fedora is unproven, and
> does not appear to be appropriate for newbies.
> 
> What we need is a distro that's:
> 
> A) Free to download and distribute
> B) Built with recent (not bleeding-edge) software
> C) Easy to use and carefully supported
> C) Well tested and reliable
> 
You don't need a bleeding edge, not even a <this years> distro just to try linux, there are more distro's in my diskl collection than I know what to do with, most are unused (redmond linux, Definite Linux ...) Yes a newbie needs to have ease of use but support (from a supplier) has to be paid for and this is available from suse and red hat and mandrake and ...

We all want well tested and reliable software but with free software it is up to us to test and correct, remember that GNU/Linux is techie project run by, contributed to by and supported by volunters not one commercial organisation so do not expect the same things you would from a company, in some respects we get more but gnu/linux is a hobby-job and was never really meant to challange Windows for the desktop market it is aimed at technically competent hobbyists, students and computer gurus who want to be able to compile-it-themselves.  If you want to drive GNU/Linux into the commercial world then start a commercial org to do it like red-hat/mandrake/SUSE did. 

If you want a user system thats well supported, easy to use, and good for playing games go buy Windows XP Home edition !


> And right now, Fedora, Mandrake and SUSE don't fulfil all those 
> criteria. Some cover some, but not one of them all (if you follow!).
> 
> Is there anything else?
> 
> Mike
> 
> -- 
> Michael Saunders
> www.aster.fsnet.co.uk
> 
> 
> 
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