Ed Tharp amongst others wrote (with a lot of snipping):
> And Mike is right about the platforms, too. OSs (plural) for the x86
> platform should be able to support all the hardware available for the
> platform.
> > > But it isn't the responsibility of the OS company to support all
> hardware. All hardware for the x86 platform should support every OS
> > > available. So while I'll agree with you, I'll disagree about who is
> toblame. A decent hardware company should support every OS they can. >
> > >> And they should start with the most common. I'd like Linux to
> > >> support my Matrox Marvel G400, PS/2 mouse, CD-RW and HP DeskJet 930
I can hardly believe this thread. There is no way in hell that any os company
(even ms) can have enough time and resources to write drivers for all the
hardware out there. I repeat ... not even MS. Off the top of my head, x86
Linux has better hardware support then any other os except ms win95/98. Does
win2k/nt do usb? what about ce? Also, if more hardware companies would write
unified drivers then that would solve a number of problems. Think Nvidia and
not 3dfx in the future. Incidentally, 3dfx is a dinosaur and will be extinct
very soon.
Second, whoever wrote that the mandrake drivers aren't broke and that there the
best probably has to much coding experience to be on this newbie list. Sorry
for being arrogant and rude but they came across in the same manner.
Third, if you can't wrap your mind around the idea of partitions and mount
points then there just isn't much hope for you. Is it really any harder to
grasp then chapter /usr in the book hda begins on page hda1. Not to mention
those partitions/mount points are kind of nice when it comes time to upgrade.
Ever upgraded or reinstalled a MS system (seems like I can't go more then 3
months)? What a pain in the ass (ms trademark); I mean really. The best
application that comes with the os is notepad .... and I'm not dissin' notepad
either. It might be the best thing MS ever made. At least I don't have to
reboot after using it. <more rant>You can't keep your applications on another
partition, reinstall the os, and expect them to work with that freakin' Satanic
registry.</morerant>
Fourth, a bit closer to the original posting. Granted, a V5 isn't going to be
the easiest thing to get working at this point, but in two or three months
every distro will have X4.0 with fairly modern 3d drivers ... until then you've
got to either wait it out or install some drivers. I've read a few hardware
reviews of the V5 in Linux so it must work. <sarcasm>You mean there are
problems with some games in Linux ... oh dear, I can't ever seem to recall any
articles in either PC Gamer or MaximumPC bitching about broken games and
patches for windows. Fact: there games are just as broken as ours. Maybe not
Quake or Unreal (actually, Unreal has been nothing short of hell for me in
windows) but a lot of win98 games are just as big a pain to setup and tweak to
stability.</sarcasm> I have a friend that laughed hysterically when he saw me
playing a q3 match to 500 at a lan party a while back. What's so damn funny?
I'd be lucky if my (win98) system made it to 20. Who cares about the buffet
when the ship is sinking.
Fifth, there is no "easiest" to install distro. Mandrake is easy; no doubt
about it. Caldera might be a bit easier because it doesn't have quite as many
hardware setup choices. Corel a bit easier still. You can get a Fry's system
with a custom version of Linux. Pop in the cd and bam ... the system is
installed. No questions asked. But you get what you pay for in a sense. I
can't install either X3.6 or X4 in Caldera. That Fry's system is totally
closed unless you know how to boot in as single user and replace root's
password. So the added bit of complexity can be a good thing. Does the win98
install give you either an easy install or much choice? Don't think so. Can
Win98 install over a network? Nope. FTP? With that silly ftp client?! Ever
had a win98 system setup with 5 or 6 comilers/languages; all the internet tools
you can use; graphics programs; multimedia players; mp3 rippers/encoders in
under a hour? A week? Maybe w/ dsl or cable. Ever had a win98 system
reinstall an older version of DirectX on top of the one you just dl'ed? Would
a newbie know what just happened? Nope. Need another 50 examples of crappy
software design? Hopefully not.
Moral of the story: Linux is somewhat more complex at times; however that
complexity gives us a much more robust and flexible os. And don't forget we
won't be paying MS taxes any time soon either. Should we dumb down Linux just
so a bunch of windows weenies can use it? Never. Let evolution replace them
.... keep Linux pristine.
--
Larry Hignight Descent 3 Beta tester Caldera Linux 2.4
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5:10pm up 18 days, 1:18, 4 users, load average: 0.04, 0.09, 0.03
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