. On Sunday 04 August 2002 09:45 am, you wrote:

Now, this can happen, nobody is perfect, but where SuSE really disappointed me is in its reaction to these problems, namely there was no reaction, just silence, and this is simply not acceptable. Speaking for myself, I cannot allow any serious fault in my box: I work on it and I very much want it to be stable (for instance, right now i have on it the 60 abstracts of a conference I am organizing).  That's why i keep it always updated with YOU and I never launch myself into upgrading from source or install any development package. Finding myself unable to  launch Yast2 and connect to the internet (another thing I need for  my job) was really upsetting. Furthermore, none of these problems were solved by support at SuSE, but only by experimenting and by all the helpful people here on this list (thanks again, folks!). These hassles certainly cost me lot of time and effort.

I have to agree, except we only made it to K3.0.1 . Overt, complex failures, on PRODUCTION machines cost my company 3 weeks of downtime due solely to our 'upgrade' to Suse8. And it wasn't just problems with K... numerous problems and bugs owing to the packager (Suse). We were forced back to 7.3 in order simply to get anything done. My boss is furious. Of course 7.3 has its problems (right now we have only TWO FONTS in K, and cannot PRINT nor FAX) but at least we can function to a degree. I've noticed in postings to this list that at least two members of the Suse *team* are still running 7.3, as of two weeks ago. I realize that since the layoffs Suse is short of manpower, and we sympathise with that. But major instabilities in this "stable" shipping product effectively shift hidden costs to us, and we can't (shouldn't) afford that, particularly since no one on this list has been able to answer my questions. (the most urgent is reproduced below) I can only conclude that those who say they're not having problems with 8 are simply not using their machines very much. And you're right: Suse doesn't say a word. Which is in keeping with the current cultural view that admitting mistakes (and/or apologising), is only a sign of weakness. (a cultural view which is negative and ossifying, but which has become pervasive) We are waiting for Suse8.1 . If this release is nearly as bad as 8.0 we must abandon Suse altogether. It's a question of survival. Please do better Suse. We hope to see 8.1 soon. Carl