[oclug] Eating crow

[Rod Giffin]

On Mon, 2004-01-26 at 22:22, Brian's Linux Box wrote:
> ummmm..... from http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/ftp.php3 (the offical
> download page)
> 
> > Important note before download: If you own a LG CD-ROM drive....
> 
> I'm an idiot.

No, It's not really prominent enough, and you still have asked a
legitimate question: Why are the current ISO's still breaking CD Rom
drives?  I'm not entirely sure of the whole reason.  It might be related
to the level of LG's co-operation with Mandrake on this issue.  If you
dig a little you can find more on the story, but, in a nutshell it
appears that there is more profit in the cell phone market than the
CD-ROM market.

Why did it happen to Mandrake and not other distributions?  Well it
turns out the software which triggers the problem with the drive is
contained in a kernel patch provided by SuSE.  SuSE however was not in a
release cycle when it was discovered - Mandrake was.

I'm not saying we should all feel sorry for Mandrake, I'm just saying
that if you're familiar with formal software release processes, and
willing to entertain the idea that computer hardware should actually
follow the minimum specification of whatever standard they advertise
that the product is supposed to follow, you'll find it a lot easier to
at least put the blame where it belongs.

Rod.