David Benfell a écrit :
On Sun, 28 Jul 2002 23:42:19 -0400, Jul wrote: <SNIP>
The installation is not the only reason for choosing a distribution.
Plain stupid ! What do you want me to do with a distro I can't install. Installation has to be completed prior dealing with the nice features of the distro...
Most of the complaining I've seen has been on YaST2 being rammed down everyone's throats.
Because it's not reliable, to say the least...
Most of what I've heard otherwise on SuSE 8.0 is that it's a well put-together distribution.
Right, as long as you can get it installed !
The decision to drop YaST was an unfortunate one, which many of us would have advised against. I doubt that SuSE management foresaw the resulting outcry.
It was NOT an unfortunate one. It was a price cutting one, a profit rising one with NO influence of any technical P.O.V. For that reason and others : - Books are not translated in french any more - Price raised from 25 euros (6.2) to 82 (8.0) - Support no more available to me and many others, people using SMP, or SCSI & IDE at the same time... (just read the fine prints), I finally found a solution to my problem with SuSE (having the 8.0 pro edition for 2 monthes and not being able to install it, nor getting any support from SuSE) : I'm going to buy Debian 3.0 (3 CD, < 10 euros), install it, turn SuSE RPM into apt-installable packages using alien and forget about damned SuSE 8.0 which might be a nice distro like preceding SuSE distro were, but which is definitly to much trouble & too bloody expensive.
There are two messages to be gleaned from all this:
1) For a great many of their customers, SuSE isn't just another distribution. It isn't just marketing hype -- we've found a really good distribution which we care about. We want it to stay that way, and SuSE sees some sales as a result. read wasn't where isn't is written
2) A diversity of tools is a strength which appeals to more people in more situations with more systems. This is a technical advantage easily lost on accountants. But it's also one of the things that makes open source work (even though YaST is not open source).
B.S. One tool is plenty went it works. I don't care for good ole Yast. I'm sure I'd get used pretty easily to Yast2 if it wasn't that braindead & buggy.
SuSE would do well to heed these lessons; their customer base will erode if they start to look like just another distribution.
B.S. again : SuSE management does exactly what it thinks better for profit rising, I do exactly what I think better serves my interests... BTW, I teach Unix admin and shell programming. I started a 3 weeks summer session this very morning and gave Mandrake 8.2 to install to my students, not wanting to take any risk with braindead Yast2. For the last 4 years, I used to have the last available SuSE version installed. So long pals, I may come back sometimes, who knows... -- ~adj~ Ces mystères nous dépassent Feignons d'en être l'organisateur...