Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 06:16:17 -0800 (PST) From: Haikal Saadh <wyldephyre2@yahoo.com> To: RexFelis <catlord17@yahoo.com>, advocacy@freeBSD.org Subject: Re: A FreeBSD User Reviews Mandrake. Let the flames flow. Message-ID: <20021204141617.35342.qmail@web11802.mail.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <20021204132303.73234.qmail@web40414.mail.yahoo.com>
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--- RexFelis <catlord17@yahoo.com> wrote: > Your "review" comes across sounding at best > biased. You yourself made no effort to > configure the system to fit your needs, even > though the entire configuration (shy of FLASH and > crap like that) could have been done during the > install. Apart from the cardbus stuff, was there much more to configure? I probably could have spent more time tweaking knobs here and there, but really, consider this: I have really been trying to figure out, on and off why no linux would detect my ethernet card on and off for months. Everyone else seems to have gotten the card to work out of the box, and nowhere was any mention made, either on linux or freebsd land, of the card not working unless kernel recompiled, or set to cardbus/16. It was only through twiddling every knob in BIOS did I find this. Not to mention the time I spent looking for where to point the package tool to get software off the 'net instead of cd. Compare this to sysinstall, which has this preconfigured, with mirror lists easily available in the handbook. And of course, this installation was never meant to be permanent. > > As I use both Mandrake and FreeBSD, I agree with > your conclusion that FBSD is a better OS, but you > seem to simply want a flame fest. > Not my intention, I assure. I think we've seen enough of them here for a while. > Why not simply forego Linux and use FBSD on the > laptop to start with? It's not like 4.x is going > to be useless after 5.x comes out, and it's not > like you can't upgrade later. > This point is addressed in my reply to Giorgios. In short, I wanted to see what it was like. > Shannon > > > --- Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> > wrote: > > * Note: I don't like Mandrake Linux, but the > > original post isn't quite > > objective about the relative advantages and/or > > disadvantages that > > Mandrake might have over FreeBSD, and I hate > > seeing people bitch about > > something just for the sake of bitching... > > This makes FreeBSD look > > bad too :-( > > > > On 2002-12-04 21:02, Haikal Saadh > > <haikal@freeshell.org> wrote: > > > I want a flavour of unix simply because, > > well, to bullet it out, > > > O I hate windows 9x/ME, and my laptop's > > really too underpowered for > > > 2k or xp. > > > > Make note here. "Undrepowered laptop" means > > that this laptop has too > > many things to do and too little power to > > actually go on doing them. > > > > > Base Requirements: > > > O No Bullshit setup/configuration. > > > > This is too vague to be of any use to someone > > who's trying to promote > > either Linux or BSD. > > > > > O Must work with my digital camera. > > > > Later on, you described that this worked fine. > > Linux seems OK here :-] > > > > > O Must be able to get on the web with a > > Mozilla-type browser. > > > > Mozilla is a resource pig. If your laptop > > cannot run Windows 95 or > > similar without crawling to its knees, I > > seriously doubt it will be > > able to run anything Mozilla-like without being > > slow. > > > > > O Must run evolution. Sorry, no other mailer > > will do. > > > > Sorry this mailer is not slim, small, powerful > > and less of a resource > > hungry beast than most of them GUI mailers out > > there. > > > > > O Must be able to get on ICQ,YM,MSN, and IRC. > > > > I only use the last of these, and even then I > > have noticed how > > difficult it is to be on IRC and do *real* > > work. You will almost > > certainly find programs that let you use all of > > them though; both on > > Linux and BSD. > > > > > O Must be able to do stuff while listening to > > mp3's off an smb > > > share. > > > > It's an overworked laptop. Don't expect it to > > be a fast performer if > > you load X11, KDE or Gnome, Mozilla, three of > > four chat clients, and a > > host of other tools and *then* start playing > > mp3 audio :-/ > > > > > Super Extended Requirements > > > O Must be able to run Adobe Illustrator and > > Macromedia flash (or > > > equivalent) (dream) > > > > Do these even run at all under Windows > > emulation? If you really need > > these, and a few other MS-based tools that you > > mentioned, and you > > absolutely cannot do your work without them... > > is BSD or Linux the > > best choise for you? I'm not sure. > > > > > Package installation was a royal pain, as it > > was slow as, and in > > > grand linux fashion, insisted on crapping > > shit all over my harddrive. > > > The final install weighed in at around 2.5 > > gig, as the installer did > > > give me gnome and kde, and I did not make any > > efforts to stop it. > > > > I haven't installed Mandrake Linux lately, but > > are you sure you had to > > install both KDE and Gnome? As a matter of > > fact, do you really *need* > > X11 at all? I don't install anything > > X11-related to machines that are > > relatively slow or have limited resources. > > > > > The installer itself, I found too colourful > > for my tastes...as if it > > > was aimed at 7 year olds or something. > > > > Taste is really something that no installer can > > satisfy for *all* the > > possible users of today and ever after. The > > fact that you didn't like > > the looks of the Mandrake installer should be > > considered in the same > > context as something that you mentioned later: > > > > > FreeBSD's /stand/sysinstall, like the > > installer, may not be > > > pretty, but it works. Everytime. And you > > have no other tools to > > > confuse you either. > > > > If the looks of the installer don't matter, why > > are you bitching about > > the looks of Mandrake's installer? > > > > > The first few hours... > > > Were spent in frustration because my network > > card was not being > > > detected. After much frustration at google > > and google groups not > > > being able to answer my question, I finally > > set the bios setting to > > > use 16-bit cardbus, and it worked. > > > > You need to rebuild a kernel with support for > > 32-bit PCMCIA cards for > > this to work. I remember this from a while ago > > that I was reading the > > PCMCIA-HOWTO. You can find the PCMCIA-HOWTO > > at: > > > http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-HOWTO.html > > > > The relevant part reads: > > > > Include 32-bit (CardBus) card support? > > > > This option must be selected if you wish to > > use 32-bit CardBus > > cards. It is not required for CardBus bridge > > support, if you > > only plan to use 16-bit PC Cards. > > > > Sorry, but not looking at the existing > > documentation is not a very > > good excuse for complaining in a "this sucks" > > manner. > > > > > No mention of this setting having to do > > anything was mention on the > > > web. (And google is the web as far as I'm > > concerned). > > > > Google is not ``the web'' but, putting this > > aside, you shouldn't have > > started on the web; the documentation of your > > distribution is a better > > place to look for hints about problems. The > > HOWTOs and mini-HOWTOs of > > Linux are installed as part of the system > > install by most of the Linux > > distributions I know of. These documents are > > an invaluable resource > > of information both for Linux users and users > > of other UNIX-like > > operating systems. Do not *ever* underestimate > > the number of mistakes > > that you can avoid by reading the documentation > > of your system :-) > === message truncated === __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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