This thread has become mired in vitriole that is really being
mis-directed.
> Well, as we are all discovering right now, that is because there are
> different 'versions' of 7.2, all of them clearly marked as '7.2', with no
> real way of differentiating them, and what you get when you get them.
You're absolutely correct and this is the real problem. I'm not even
sure that the Mandrake folks understand the extent of damage they are
doing with this marketing policy. I and others got caught up in a
thread similar to this over C++ libraries in 7.1. From what I can see
the problem is that MacMillan doesn't just take the two iso disks and
burn them to commercial ones, they have decided to eliminate the
extended disk in their Complete packages. The result is that some
stuff has to move from the extended disk to the main one and some
stuff has to be eliminated from the main disk to accommodate this.
The result is, as you describe - all versions of 7.2 are not created
equal, not in terms of third party extras but rather with respect to
the base disks that most people in these conferences use as a
reference.
Matters become more confusing when they change the commercial packages
without making any change to box and they have admitted that they're
doing just that. I bought two copies of 7.1 and they were
significantly different from one another. The 7.2 scheme is clear.
What's in the stores now will change after xmas.
What people here should understand is that this affects what advice
people CAN give here and elsewhere as people are coming to these
conferences with different packages, though they're calling them all
the same thing. What Mandrake needs to understand is that these
marketing policies are driving people to download the isos and AVOID
buying their commercial products. This, I suspect, is hardly what
Mandrake is thinking about when they decide to leave the ext disk out
of their Complete package.
> Decidedly, bsed on this experience, this is the last time I will have spent
> any sort of money on a MacMillan, and particularly a Mandrake product -
> after all, the free downloads *ARE* more complete, so why am I spending my
> money on something that only provides partially what's needed.
>
> Too bad, truly, since I really wanted to send some money Mandrake's way.
I said pretty much the same thing in another forum. I've installed
several copies for people and have always told them to buy the
commercial package, mostly because I felt that Mandrake needed the
support. But once I saw that these packages were changing and that I
couldn't depend on the files I wanted being there, I've since just
used my own disks to install for these people and have warned them of
the problem. MacMillan can talk all they want about "Complete isn't
complete" but to not include the basic two disk distribution in
anything they shrinkwrap with that version number doesn't make any
sense.
So Harry, you may have been a bit snippy with your original post.
You've also received a whole bunch of 'snip' in return. But the truth
of the matter is that Mandrake is shooting themselves in the foot with
this stuff and it's the messengers that are being shot by its
defenders.
Cheers --- Larry
