[oclug] Way to lose a customer

[Patrick Gilliland]

Blue Collar summary (who says only executives' time is valuable): 
Unlike Shad MDK 9.2 is the first distro that works for me right out of
the box (almost).


Well, having read this and the two immediate follow ups I must take the
opposite view.  After patching the LG bios - annoying yes but trivial
for _me_ - Mandrake 9.2 just works.

It installed, recognized all my hardware (almost) and let me get to work
right away.

Good points:
SOUND! no tweaking fiddling poking or prodding just many satisfying
BZFlag booms.  Rip record play all painless with no trips through rpm
hell.

USB Key, USB web cam, USB HP still cam - all worked.

DVD - download decss and I'm watching my (legally purchased) Logan's
Run.

Generally all the mind numbing frustrating fiddly bits were gone.

Bad Points:
Flashing the LG Bios - had to do it from windows.  Worse though is that
this would be a complete distro-killer for any regular user with an LG
drive - especially those who didn't see the warnings.  I have great
respect for the "average" user but mucking with the bios is not an
average user task.

Wintel modem not supported without crippled 3rd party driver My fault
for being cheap

Scanner still needs tweaking to work - Again me being cheap but still
less tweaking than before.

Overall:
Damn near perfect.  If I didn't have an LG burner it would be perfect.

Just my opinion.



On Mon, 2004-01-26 at 14:34, Shad Young wrote:
> Heh,
> 
> I am (I'm sorry to say) utterly appalled by this version of Mandrake. It
> is beyond bad. It is the single most broken POS I have encountered in the
> Linux world in a long time. Combined with the fact that there is no other
> distro that comes close to MDK 9.1 (let alone OSX or WinXP) in overall
> polish and functionality I would say Linux has taken a giant step
> backward.
> 
> I fail to understand how they can release a distro that destroys CD-ROM
> drives then have the audacity to blame the manufacturer of the drive for
> their (MDK's) lack of knowledge. If all distros broke the drives, I would
> say blame the drive co. But AFIAK only 9.2 has the problem, so IMO the
> blame for it rests on their feet. Everybody else knows how to get around
> the issue.
> 
> My experience with MDK 9.2 has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth
> toward Linux in general.
> 
> My 2C
> Shad
> 
> Brians Linux Box said:
> > Well, I tried Mandrake 9.2 this afternoon.
> > I now have a pretty paperweight that was an LG CDROM.
> >
> > I had heard of the problem a couple months ago, but
> > assumed Mandrake had put a work around or at least
> > a warning in place...  There was no mention of
> > it on their main page or download section last time
> > I looked either. I understand the root problem is
> > LG, but surely Mandrake could have allowed for their
> > problem after all the trouble it caused?
> > After all, nobody else seems to have this
> > issue.
> > (don't know what I'm talking about? see
> > http://mandrakelinux.com/en/lgerrata.php3 )
> >
> > Their fix instructions consist entirely of
> > 'go see the LG website.'  Then I find out
> > this unit will not re-flash after deciphering
> > the almost illegible LG instructions.
> > (Picture a set of text instructions saved as a
> > .gif file... badly... in broken english... with
> > typos...)
> >
> > I put another CDROM in to finish the install
> > (tempted as I was to toss the idea right there)
> > and the one feature I was really hoping for
> > isn't there - I thought the fonts were supposed to
> > look good?  They are almost unreadable!
> >
> > A first glance at the various settings GUI's
> > is encouraging but I'm still steamed about
> > that CDROM....
> >
> > Brian
> >
> > --
> > OCLUG general discussion list
> > OCLUG at lists.oclug.on.ca
> > http://www.oclug.on.ca/mailman/listinfo/oclug
> 
> 
> -- 
> http://www.ascendant.ca
> 
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