It isn't what RHL 5.2 was

[Jim Cornette]

> I have to say FC2 has been a disappointment.   I have been using  
> redhat since 5.2 and this is the most unstable system since I ditched  
> win95 over 5 years ago.
> 
> --
> Rob Brown-Bayliss
> 
>

I think that RHL 5.2 with it's realplayer, netscape 4.x browser,  
wordperfect for linux trial edition converted me over from windows  
also.

The other thing was that I called my ISP about a w95 problem connecting  
to a cable modem. W95 changed all my IRQ's when I inserted a 3com  
ethernet card. This messed up my sound and my modem. To solve this for  
w95, I had to uncheck for it to not automatically change my IRqs on  
working hardware. Linux RHL 5.2 worked right after the installation. My  
first RHL version was 4.2, but that was all command line for learning  
Unix commands.

The strange thing is that w98 --> current MS operating systems would  
recognize this card. How did Linux mess up the functionality of this  
NIC. I had to give up the card, held onto since RHL 5.2

But overall, I think that FC2 is a pretty stable OS version. I feel  
that the higher complexity that Linux has now, compared to back then  
causes more possible problems to arise.

I guess stability also depends upon your hardware chosen. Also, most  
prebuild systems have pre-installed MS OS versions on them. The vender  
has to do quite a bit of work to get the OS,drivers, etc to work.

I think that vendor support for hardware setup in linux would help  
stabalize the OS more.

Even windows claimed that the blue screens were caused by drivers for  
hardware, in a lot of cases. If more companies push out systems and  
dedicate resources to work on Open source, or at least decent binary  
drivers, it would seem more stable.

If people would flag hardware that is either buggy or designed  
specifically to hinder Linux installation on it, things might become  
more stable in the linux world.

Since hardware choices were important back when RHL 5.2 was released.  
Choosing video cards, ethernet cards and non-winmodems was standard  
practices. Today, it is more like, we will use it with wrappers or rely  
on the company to make a driver for Linux.

I picked the 3com NIC because of confidence that the card was Linux  
compatible.

I'd like to see a computer built with functionality as the priority and  
with all active components having reliable and unhidden secrets to some  
hardware components on the list.

My personal computer systems work well with Fedora. I know of some bugs  
with systems at work. But one thing known is, the RHL 5.2 would not be  
able to handle these machines hardware.

Just my observation (and a test of the balsa GUI mail program)

Jim


-- 
... when fits of creativity run strong, more than one programmer or  
writer
has been known to abandon the desktop for the more spacious floor.
		-- Fred Brooks