Joe Zien wrote:
Hi Chris,
I agree with you 100%. I started with SuSE 6.2 and used most up to 9.2 and 7.1 was the best. Nothing but trouble with 9.1 and 9.2. I would suggest you try libranet 2.8, a debian distribution, and a free download at libranet.com.
I've looked at that before. A little dated, with only KDE 3.1.3. Also, I like the kernel 2.6.x, since it seems to have smoother responsivity when doing IO intensive tasks. Although, I'm not 100% sure about that since I have strange pauses on my Suse 9.1, but that seems to be a Mozilla problem, not the base Linux system. The one thing I'm sure of is that in 2.4.x I could hardly interact with the machine when burning CDRs, but now it works fine. Though that might be because DMA didn't work before...
Debian has apt-get to update, better than rpm. Also try knoppix 3.6 or 7, also debian. Knoppix runs linux without installing linux to your hard drive, it runs off the cd-rom.
Yeah, I've downloaded the recent Knoppix to perform some experiments. also try mepis, another debian linux.
A good site to get linux cd's is :
Don't give up on linux, maybe these suggestions will help.
Thanks for the link. I won't give up and I appreciate your polite response, rather than flaming me for letting my pent up frustrations fly. Like I said, I've been in this for 9 years. Actually I started with Slackware, and I'm getting very close to trying an install of that again. It's very up to date. Slackware is a big investment in time to set up. But once set up it just works. I had a Slackware box that ran for 4 years before I got into Suse. I almost never had to fix anything. Of course, I wasn't doing 1/10 of the stuff I do now. I went to Suse because at that time, something as simple as the keyboard didn't work as you'd expect without tinkering. Like the Home, End, Delete keys. Suse had those things working out of the box. Now days they try to make the system too intelligent. Hotplugging, submount, blech! And the fonts are still ugly. Read my post "Re: [SLE] Intercharacter spacing in OpenOffice" on 01/29/2005 06:25 PM. It took me 9 years to get to that point. I used to spend literally days dismantling the font installation, trying to figure it out. Things get *really* complicated when you try using strange languages, like Thai which we use at home. Actually, now days it's pretty good. But the rendering problem persists. The legal issues are really a tragedy for Linux. Still can't have a Suse with professional looking fonts, and a fully functional media player out of the box. With these sorts of legal obstacles, obscurity will be the only future for the Linux desktop. Good day! -- ____________________________________ Christopher R. Carlen Principal Laser/Optical Technologist Sandia National Laboratories CA USA crcarle@sandia.gov