[100131] in RedHat Linux List
Re: I'm dissapointed in 5.2
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ramon Gandia)
Wed Nov 18 16:07:23 1998
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 12:06:10 -0900
From: Ramon Gandia <rfg@nook.net>
To: roberts@tsasa.lanl.gov, redhat-list@redhat.com
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
Reply-To: redhat-list@redhat.com
Doug Roberts wrote:
> Actually, the 6 points in my message _were_ specifics. I think we
> deserve better from a commercial distribution. Hell, the _free_
> distributions are even better (by that, I mean that they are less buggy).
I agree that your complaints were specific. I am not experienced
in
PCMCIA stuff at all, but have some generic comments.
(1) Red Hat is free. You can download it for free, or get a
snapshot
of the FtP site on CD from Cheapbytes for about $2.00.
(2) What Red Hat charges the $39 for is:
(a) Installation support - including your PCMCIA problems which
they are addressing NOW. You can expect this to be fixed
shortly and the update/errata will be on ftp.redhat.com, and
the next batch of CD's will have the fix incorporated. This
is their policy.
(b) Printed Manual. This is no cheap paperbook novel printed by
the Millions. You *need* this manual, for the most part. Yes
a copy is in the CD, but it cost more to print out on a Laser
than to get it printed and bound.
(c) Some commercial add-ons, source CD, applications CD (its a 3
CD
set) which are not free. RedHat is perfectly functional
without
them, but these will save you money and time in obtaining them
elsewhere.
All releases, be they RedHat, Debian, Slackware, FreeBSD, always
break something. It is impossible for a team of 15 or 20 to test
every possible permutation of the Linux install. Take PCMCIA for
example. Jillions of laptops, cards, desktop with card sockets,
different motherboards, etc. etc.
RedHat will test things with what they have on hand, perhaps farm
out some testing to "alpha or beta testers". But at some point
you
have to stop testing and release the damn thing.
THEN: When the screaming, gnashing of teeth etc dies down a bit,
then they incorporate the Fix in the next batch. You may not be
aware of it, but with RedHat 5.1 there were three releases that I
was aware of, and several on RH 4.2. What RedHat does is they
burn a bunch of CD's, then they accumulate errata and updates, and
at some point -when the already burnt CD's are sold- they issue
another CD version with the errata and updates incorporated in it.
They DO NOT tell anyone about this. They just do it. You can find
out by checking your CD against the errata and updates pages. If
you find you need ALL the errata/updates, then you have version #1
of your CD! If you see that you need some, on none, then you are
lucky and you have the later model with more chrome.
RedHat is no Microsoft, but they have a very short debugging
cycle,
and us here on the mailling list have a part in this cycle.
Rather
than walk away from RH because of some frustrations, why don't you
grab the bull by the horns and try to become a part of the cycle?
--
Ramon Gandia ----- Owner & Sysadmin, Nook Net
P.O. Box 970, Nome, AK 99762 http://www.nook.net
Nome: 907-443-7575 Unalakleet: 907-624-5080
Fax: 907-443-2487 AK. Toll Free: 888-443-7525
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