john rigby wrote: >Hi Lee and folks, >----- Original Message ----- >From: Lee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 7:31 PM >Subject: Re: [newbie] Any First Go success stories ? > >>OK, I got it now. >> >>Anyone who has positive input to your thread is a "geek" or "power user" >> >-------------------------------------------- >No, No! >Anyone who has something positive to say will help give me heart to try it >all yet again! But I need it to be someone who isn't an expert at it :-) > >Example: >Many centuries ago, I hired a young kid to help me with a small problem I >was having. >I didn't know you couldn't do it so ........................... >I was interfacing $5,000 Osborne Executive microcomputers (Transportable >P.C.) to $55,000 Photoypesetting computers because they could do so much >more. >So, I was aiming for a $5000 really useful Terminal, instead of paying >$23,000 for a "real" Terminal. > >The kid read machine code directly, like I read a Dunn's Report. ( Something >most Software Engineers today have no idea of its even existence - but it is >the "ones and zeros" end stuff.) > >He was very lonely. Nobody really understood anything he was talking about. >I introduced him to some VHT (very high tec) people in the Big computer >industry. He was mightily unimpressed. >He worked 18 hours a day for a couple of weeks and then went away - found >something more interesting somewhere else. >But I had the first input system of its kind in the whole world - even the >manufacturers couldn't work out how the kid did it. He did the analysis > determined the technical job) programmed it, built the circuitboards, even >devised a cable signal cleaner. >Never even seen a Modem. I showed him how to use it and roughly what it did. >He went and made up new ones for my branches that *really* worked - they >were the first smart modems I ever knew of...... > >Could not type or spell to save his life. Could hardly read. You had to >talk to him and show him what you wanted but once he >understood................... > >Now, he was the True Geek. Like the guys who think writing advanced computer >games is easy. >So geekness is a many faceted thing. >It isn't the kid who knows a bit more than the true Newbie and quotes what >he has read /been told, it is a state of mind - AND a knack with the tin >boxes. > >But at the other end are the simple users - people like me who never want to >see a command line if there is no reason to - who simply want to plug it in >and go. Even Doze 98SE can do that. > >It can be done. Mandrake can do it. All that is necessary is to stop trying >to be all things to all people. >Put out a RETAIL product for the "rest of us". >We don't need Servers in a distro for God's sake! >Or 5000 utilities that even the laws of statistics tell us will have a 50% >no-go rate. >We need an approved list of bits that work - like MS does, but on a smaller >scale. >We need small entrepreneurs who will put together setup boxes for people. OR >help by installing it on existing systems - putting in Win4Lin (next >version!) if necessary for already exposed users. >But mainly putting in the equivalent, or literally, Wordperfect Office. 99% >of all prospects out there only want/need to get on the net, write a letter, >run simple accounts and have a source of help on line AT THEIR LEVEL. > >OK, I guess I AM an evangelist in a way................. >but I have a dream........... >well, a nightmare anyway - called Dot NET. > >Cheers, > >Him Again >John Rigby > > > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? >Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com > OK,
My 14 year old son took a downloadable CD set (8.2 Beta4) and installed it. His 13 year old friend then did the same. Neither asked me any questions. They are happily playing crossfire on the internet. Both used "Recommended" installs then downloaded the crossfire rpms from Mandrake-devel. They prefer it to Windows-compatible crossfire which they claim crashes a lot with loss of experience points for their game characters. On my son's computer, a single-board VIA C3-733MHz processor based item with AC97 sound and Trident Cyberblade video, the crossfire sound worked without a tweak. 8.0 had a deadly problem for those who had "off-board" controllers for IDE drives, like some ASUS motherboards and some rigs with Promise Chipsets. Unless the Freq release following 8.0 is used, it will see the drives one way during install and try to boot them a different way later, resulting in an unbootable system, for a few hardware configurations. Anyway, the number of systems that will install out of the box with no tweaks is increasing, but some do still require some effort. There are ways the hardware configuration can be analyzed and 8.1 and 8.2 have easily accessible alternate install and boot images to take care of older systems and weird systems. And 8.2 as it is soon to be released will support vastly more hardware than windows XP, and it is probably easier to install as well. The gimmick there is that most XP computers are sold by manufacturers with XP preloaded and the headaches and tweaks taken care of. The weaknesses show up in the lack of support for aftermarket devices. I did a house call here for someone with a Dell Dimension who tried to update win 98 to XP the day it was released. His mouse and keyboard would not be recognized... As a matter of fact, they were both Microsoft brand and both in excess of $50 retail and top-of-the-line. I had to install linux to rescue his data, then restore it to windows after he wiped XP and reinstalled 98. The Microsoft folks had told him to do a clean install of XP and he had tried that after his data was secure--no joy, same problems. I can't say your install will be error-free, and certainly not when yu insist on using a year-old system that was finished at a very turbulent time in Mandrakesoft's history, but I do encourage you to try. And try installing Windows for comparison and look at the fearsome number of post-install tweaks required to get video and sound running at appropriate levels (default install often leaves you with 256 colors on a 640x480 screen and you have to hunt down drivers to go further). Our install takes care of that and now of printer and network connection at install time. Civileme
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
