[Glastonbury] Mandrake 9.2 a warning

[Nick Irwin]

Ok, so I got the latest LXF yesterday, and at 2 in the morning decided it 
would be the ideal time to upgrade the brand-spanking new Mandrake 9.2

An extra long album later, it was installed. Thank god I thought - since i 
needed some sleep - but first I had to go for the reboot to have a look at 
the ultra good configuration and shiny new look.

The bootloader and booting screen looked a little nicer (SUSE sort of style) 
if you like that sort of thing. I was getting excited, so you could imagine 
my horror when I realised that the X-server wouldn't come up.

A little research later and it became clear that the Linux Mandrake 9.2 kernel 
doesn't support nvidia architecture. Thats a little stupid I hear you say, 
and yes you would be right, they would be cutting themselves off from half 
the computer users in the world.
But I ask you was it accidental, or was it in fact PLANNED? Yes thats right my 
colleagues, after numerous release candidates, they never knew they had a 
problem with nvidia card support? No in fact i bet they did.

Why my harsh attack on MandrakeSoft you ask? Well it turns out that they have 
released an RPM you can install that will give the kernel nvidia architecture 
support......... oh but you have to become a MandrakeClub member to get it!

So those of us that have too much fear (and perhaps common sense) to try 
compiling their own modifications into the kernel, either have to join 
MandrakeClub or thank Torvalds that they can still boot into Mandrake 9.1 
that was rather brilliantly left (in a working state) on their system.

MandrakeSoft are modelling themselves a little too much on M$ tactics if you 
ask me. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem giving a little money for a 
great operating system, but when you suffer the difficulties of Linux cos its 
free, and find it hard to pay the rent as it is, you feel that they are being 
a little cheeky.

So anyone who has nvidia technology and is thinking of upgrading to MDK 9.2, I 
suggest you wait until the problem is solved or you are prepared to join 
MandrakeClub.

Well thats my rant over with.

-- 
Nick Irwin
Term-time E-mail: nirwin at blueyonder.co.uk
Home E-mail: nirwin at pulbah.plus.com