I've listened to Jeanette's accounts of success and failure for some time, and
I just wanted to put my 2 cents in:
I nabbed my copy of Venus at Sam's Club, of all places, for $25. I installed,
crashed, installed, crashed, oh, about 20 times, usually my fault, because I
like to muck around where I don't belong. What I've found is that sometimes
everything installs right; sometimes it doesn't. The package manager is not
consistent; KDE freezes in root, but over-all, I haven't had this much fun with
an OS in a long time. Finally got everything running pretty much the way I want
-- ipchains, dial-on demand, web server, FTP, user accounts, and haven't had
trouble in a couple of weeks.
While Jeanette is waiting for a better (Cassini?) package, I would suggest
running down to Sam's to get another copy of Venus (maybe you Do have a bad
copy). Try installing again. At the first sign of instability, install again.
Try custom installs. Try minimal installs. Etc. At the very least, she'll
get really good at the installation procedure.
I think I remember Jeanette saying that she didn't want to spend her time
tweeking a stupid machine, but if it's any consolation, it gets easier and
somehow faster each time, much like installing any other OS. I think I'm also
learning where I don't belong, and what "close enough" means.
