On Fri, Mar 24, 2000 at 10:59 -0600, Sean Armstrong wrote:
>
> The problem doesn't occur in the Linux part of the distribution, the problem
> only occurs in the software that Mandrake wrote for the distribution.
That exactly is the difference. The core of the product is
something no distribution tampers with (errhhm, maybe we cut
SuSE out of this). It is the "extras" which make just this
distro perfect for this customer and another distro perfect for
another customer.
For me, these extras of Mandrake, the pentium optimization, the
optimization for modern hardware and some more are making
Mandrake the perfect distro for me.
> Granted, not every distribution is going to cover every piece of Hardware.
> But the idea behind Linux support was to develop drivers for at LEAST the
> hardware that Windbloze supports in order to compete. That is why my cdrom
> IS supported by the Kernel.Mandrake should at least write software that
> supports what the Linux kernel supports. It doesn't have to be backwards
> compatible, but if we start dropping things willy-nilly without any warning
> to customers of previous versions, then Mandrake's QC/QA and customer
> service becomes no better than Apple.
There you have a point.
> I'd rather have a fancy Sports Car, but I see your point ;) However I think
> you may be oversimplifying the problem. The problem seems to be a QA/QC
> issue with Mandrake. If you don't believe me, go to their website and read
> about all of the outstanding bugs that they haven't fixed yet.
I know the website, I'm the german translator.
> True. Then Mandrake should not claim that 7.02 is stable until they work all
> of the bugs out. IMHO Mandrake 7.02 is still BETA software and should be
> labelled as such until the new Mandrake software added to the distribution
> has been properly debugged and modified. This is all I'm trying to say.
> Thanx for your patience in this conversation.
So it all boils down to the fact that we regard the distribution
from different point of views.
I regard every *new* distribution as yet to be tested by me on
my machine. I don't claim that every distro that comes out for
sale *has* to run to my fullest contentment. I try it and if it
doesn't I try to make it run. If I can't then the distro and I
will not become friends ;-)
If I get you right you are claiming that a distro being released
as final version should be running up to the manufacterers
specifications.
Now if Mandrake had put some warning on the box and/or on the
website about v.7.0x being a bleeding edge distro, would that
have made a difference to you?
All in all Mandrake is responsible how their product looks like
and how it performs. If they want to release it this way they
can release it this way. It's up to the customer to decide if he
wants the product. He can tell Mandrake his wishes and/or his
complaints. After that is done he has to play along or quit
(changing to a different distro).
wobo
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