*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 6/16/98, at 2:24 PM, William T Wilson wrote:
>On Tue, 16 Jun 1998, Scott wrote:
>
>> Only a user who is familair with messing with an OS. I for one don't
>> want to think about touching my OS in this manner. I doin't know C nor
>> do I have any plans to know. I'll grant you that someone somewhere does
>> fix it and updates are more quickly available.
>
>Whether you are the one that fixes the software or not, the fact remains
>that bugs are fixed more aptly. And the tech support is better, too:
>there are no support droids in free software. If you find a bug, you can
>mail it directly to the author of the code. He'll fix it himself if you
>don't.
Only my OS has Driods assocaited with it. The rest of my software is
supported by compitant individuals.
>
>> Don't belive what you read. Sticking in the RH 5.0 floppy and having it
>> do the install is only the first step in a linux setup. Have that 10
>
>It's also only the first step in a Windows setup.
True but it gets about 95% done vs about 60-70%
>
>> do a modular install or do a kernel upgrade or download, modify, and
>> install a network card driver. My guess is unless she is a geniuos this
>
>Who ever has to do this? Nobody really unless they want to or they have
>important (advanced) reason to. For example I like to recompile my kernel
>without module support for security reasons. So I have to do that. Joe
>User finds that Red Hat installs functioning modules for the default
>settings for every card it supports. If your card isn't on the default
>settings, you have to explicitly reconfigure things. It's the same way
>with Windows especially if your cards are non plug-n-play. IMO Windows
>still has a significant advantage in dealing with PnP cards because of a
>lack of an automated way to configure them in Linux. But I think ISA PnP
>cards are a transition technology that will soon be gone altogether
>replaced by PCI. (I can hope!)
Its almost inpossible to buy a new card that is not PNP. And if a card
isn't I won't buy it. Most cards make poor usage fo this feature but they
are PnP.
Redhat tells me no where how its kernal installs default. It only gives me
2 options in its chapter "next steps after install".. Todo a modular or
monolithic compile. My netowrk card (Linksys 10/100 using the PNIC chip)
is not supported by Redhat's driver. It requires version .83 or above to
work. I had to find it on the net, download it, modify the C code to
enable full duplex support and then install it. The installations
instructions for a modular kernel install consisted of executing 5 commands
and for a monolithic it was recompile the kernel. Redhat's instructions on
the monolithic compile are giberish so I'm avoiding that. I chose to do a
monolithic kernel to support simple upgardes. I gather from your responce
that Redhat has already done this to a point thus poor documentaton lead me
to re-compile my kernal.. No biggy since it worked,,just wasted 2 hours of
my time.
>
>> support features as its competition. That includes manufacturer support
>> (drivers) and common tools for creating add on programs. I should not
>> have to compile programs I download from the net along with 3 libraries
>
>It's really a conflict between the traditional Unix way and the way that
>PC users are accustomed to. The rapid evolution of Linux is an additional
>stumbling block to this; most programs are even harder to compile on Linux
>than they are on other forms of Unix. This is because of a lack of
>standardization. What program authors need to do is distribute along with
>source the precompiled RPM of their package. This is becoming
>increasingly common for free programs. But major application vendors for
>some reason fail to do this. There are no StarOffice RPMs by StarDivision
>for Red Hat 5 for reasons which remain completely mysterious to me.
>Instead you must bludgeon libraries with a large block of wood, then
>sacrifice a chicken at the Temple of Zuul, if you want it to run. I don't
>understand this. If you want your program to run on Linux, why don't you
>make it easy to install?
Absolutley. Even developers of libraries such as Qt don't have RMPs on
their web site (atleast not that I could find). I looked on sunday since I
wanted to use KDE for Xwindows. It needs Qt libraries and what I found was
two pages of ugly installation instructions for Qt. Ihave since found out
that there are RPMs for the Qt libraries at Sunsite. I might get to try
KDE afterall.
Visual basic and Visual C++ might not be the best programing tools in the
world but the end result is way esy to install.
>
>> I think things are starting to turn with support from Linksys (linksys
>> offers phone suport for installing their network cards on Linux, states
>> Linux as a supported OS on the box but still provides no driver),
>
>Linksys drivers are included with the kernel. Why include a separate one
>in the box? One of the serious technical problems with Windows is that
>most of it really isn't compatible with the rest of it because every time
>you install someting, it surreptitiously changes other parts of your
>system. It is good that the kernel maintainers also handle the drivers.
These drivers only work on Linksys cards that use the DEC chip not the PNIC
chip (at least my RH 5.0 2.0.31 installation CDROM).
The PNCI Chip is being used on all new Lynksys 10/100 PCI cards. Maybe it
works on newer kernels. This is the problem with drivers being part of the
kernel.. If the kernel doesn't have it you don't use it.
Good points though :)
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