Steve, You didn't mention one BIG reason why forwarding problems about Linux in general and SuSE in particular is a good thing to do: They don't become "features', they get fixed! JLK On Tuesday 13 March 2001 01:06, you wrote:
I've been giving SuSE a drubbing for the past several weeks. This should not, in anyway, be taken as an indication that I think there is a better product. I know the one product that most people would use in its place. I have licenses to use that product, and I don't. I use SuSE instead. The reasons I am always pointing out faults are because the faults are the things which provent me from taking full advantage of the OS, and because I want this product to improve to the point where it is the unquestionable leader in quality and usability.
The one obvious fact people may overlook when they see all the complaints I have about the product is that I am spending an incredible amount of time working with it. Do you really think I'd spend this much time working with something I don't believe in? There is more potential in this product than I can conceive. Everytime I look at one of these boxes I see new and interesting things.
When there are fundamental problems which prevent me, and/or others from exploring this vast universe of opportunity, these become my focus. These obstacles are often the most difficult matters to address. This is true because they are the problems which were too difficult to handle in the last go round. All too often in life, we avoid the big problems because addressing them distracts us from "making progress." In so doing these problems simply grow and the workarounds become problems unto themselves. The workarounds also tend to become tangled up with the original obstacles to the point where fixing the original problem becomes an order of magnitude more costly. I belive there are fundamental problems with (SuSE) Linux which must be addressed now, or they will forever cripple GNU/Linux and prevent it from reaching its full potential.
This is why I am always pointing out faults. It think 7.1 is the best desktop implementation I have ever worked with. It is intuitive, attractive, full of nice features, and quite relieable (now that I have figured out what was causing my X to crash.) But Mom's not gonna want to investigate these problems, When she's working on a document and the screen goes blank, she's just going to get upset. We have to address these issues in every area where they occure.
Steve