On Tue Feb 04, 2003 at 09:54:32AM +1100, Ron Stodden wrote: > >>Interestingly, a reinstall did not fix anything, like it does with > >>Windows 98 > >>(but _NOT_ always) - which is a serious requirements or design problem > >>with > >>the Mandrake installer. > > > > > >The installer goes with the packages it's given... it doesn't install > >something and go "hey wait a minute" and intelligently fix your problem > >for you. > > It should restore your system to the same state as when it was originally > installed, except for your customisation and data, which it and rpm > knows to > leave alone. This does imply checksums or backup copies on hand of > installed > unchanging files. The installer/reinstaller has access to the RPM > library used > at original installation.
Ahhh... so you're not doing a fresh install, you're trying to tell it to downgrade packages for you. I don't think the installer does this. > My point is that Win 98 does this. Plainly, or fortuitously, it was an > important > requirement and goal of installer implementation. New arrivals to Mandrake > from Windows - near all of us? - expect no less, particularly when no other > solution to a randomly clobbered system is offered. Recall that the i86 > architecture fails to offer hardware memory block protection that would > immediately > trap any program's attempt to write-access outside its allocated or > shared memory > blocks. The CDC 6600 had this implemented, so the technology is > nothing new - > except to Intel. That's the major reason why i86 architecture is not > "safe", > especially for multiple concurrent users, and not useable for critical > missions. Well, be that as it may, did DrakX ever advertise this windows-alike behaviour? Did it say that if you did a package upgrade install that it would do what you seem to expect it to do? This isn't something you should be bitching about post-release... this is something you should bring up during development... I can't recall ever seeing any thread about this to date. To say that "updates clobbered your system and DrakX didn't fix it for me" when we never said it would do this, is not really acceptable. You should bring this up with the developers. Not sitting back and crying about it because you just assumed it was there. > It is incredible to me that this obvious requirement seems to have been > totally > overlooked by Mandrake. which is more evidence that the developers just > ignore > industry experience and do not appear to actually be using the product > in any > user-workhorse mode. Well, that's just a load of crap and you know it. I think I use my workstation just as hard as any Win98 user does... and it's rock solid for me. Don't use the product in any user-workhorse mode? Yeah... right. Anyways, this is something you should bring up on cooker... I doubt it can be accomplished for 9.1, but if no one asks for it, we dont't think about it or know it's important to people. Can't be *that* important as this is the first I've heard of it in 3 years. Remember, we are not Windows. Ok, we may be missing some of the good features of Windows in some instances, but we're also missing a lot of the bad ones. We didn't set out to make a Windows clone, you know. -- MandrakeSoft Security; http://www.mandrakesecure.net/ "lynx -source http://linsec.ca/vdanen.asc | gpg --import" {FE6F2AFD : 88D8 0D23 8D4B 3407 5BD7 66F9 2043 D0E5 FE6F 2AFD}
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