Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (3964 mails)

[Don Parris <webdev@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sunday 21 November 2004 03:31, jfweber@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> On Saturday 20 November 2004 9:40 am, Joe Polk wrote:
> > I think the problem is that the ratio of flawless installations to
> > problems is much greater in 9.2 than it was in previous versions.
>
> Seems to me this list in heavily weighted bad to good installs w/ every new
> release. Usually, except for the first 10-20 folks who get their boxed
> versions before anyone else does, and hurry to install it and report on the
> good bad or ugly, we don't hear from folks who have no problems. By the
> nature of this list, we get lots and lots of complaints. Especially from
> long time users who feel hard done by when some beloved piece of hardware
> no longer works as expected... or perhaps there is an issue w/ a new box
> and the new hardware isn't yet working as expected, nor even as it did
> before they upgrades.
>
> I fear we all suffer from selective amnesia ... things we sweated and
> tweeked to get running, worked for so long, before we finally are bitten by
> the desire to upgrade bug...  ( lie down and rest until the feeling passes
> <G>) we forget how much time and effort we spent doing the prior install.
> ;)
>
> <snip>
> Yet,
>
> > if you total the experiences where have systems freezing and unexplained
> > issues you get a big picture that just makes 9.2 look poor. And it's hard
> > for those who've had a perfectly fine installation experience to full
> > appreciate and that's probably a natural thing.
>
> And as I said, the negative appearing picture might be less negative if all
> the easy installs and no problem at all installs on legacy systems were
> reported to the list.
>
I reported previously that my install was flawless.  Nor have I experienced 
the same kinds of problems with SUSE 9.2. Some of the changes from 8.0 to 9.2 
take a little getting used to.  I still haven't had time to work on my 
Handspring Visor or my Kodak camera, but I have a feeling that I'll be able 
to resolve these last two issues when I get time to put my nose to the 
grindstone.

I have noticed that, if I stay logged in for a few days (without logging out), 
the system seems to slow down.  I think the system takes longer to boot than 
I anticipated (3 minutes), although I'm not starting any more services than I 
did with SUSE 8.0.  However, speed is not an essential factor for me, as most 
apps load fairly quickly once I am logged in.

> > You may have to try another
> > distro for your hardware. I used to get reamed in IRC for trying to help
> > someone by asking what distro they were running. People would say, "Linux
> > is linux, that shouldn't matter." But I've seen hardware work under one
> > distro and not under another, even within the same kernel releases.
> > <shrug>
>
> I agree here. I have a couple of Live systems I use to check out hardware
> before I install, unless I know it's going to work already. Knoppix and
> several similar types of distros put a lot of emphasis on hardware
> detection and use.  However, it still won't setup my sound card, and
> refuses to see my dsl connection... <shrug> On other systems I've tired it
> on, various things work or don't. a lot has to do w/ hardware combinations.
> And unless you build your won boxes , it's easy to get old hardware fobbed
> off as "free upgrades" Older dvd readers are being 'given away" as upgrades
> by some companies. They can't sell them as they are of limited use.
> Different strokes for different folks..
>
I, too, can see the need to try other distros.  After all, isn't _choice_ one 
of the strengths of GNU/Linux?  I cannot,  for the life of me, suggest going 
back to Windows, as someone else suggested.

Don
-- 
DC Parris GNU Evangelist
http://matheteuo.org/
http://chaddb.sourceforge.net/
"Free software is like God's love - you can share it with 
anyone anytime anywhere!"