Fedora Core 2 Problems

[Benjamin J. Weiss]

From: "Gordon Keehn" <gordonkeehn at netzero.net>
>     *WRONG ANSWER!*  If FC2 were truly ready for general distribution,
> this would never have happened.  Failure to detect and configure known
> and supported devices during installation is a sign of sloppy testing
> and (by implication) a rushed distribution cycle.

Maybe.  The impression I've had is similar in some respects.

> Failure to have
> drivers for a major video card in time for a release is another.

Absolutely wrong.  Check NVidia's site.  They refuse to put out drivers for
test releases for distros.  This means that *NVidia* was unwilling to work
on their FC2 driver until after its final release.  There may or may not be
a fault with NVidia here (depending upon philosophy), but it's definitely
*not* with the Fedora Core team.

> I see
> this pointing up a basic flaw in the philosophy behind the Fedora
> Project.  In a completely free (in the "Free Beer" as well as "Free
> Speech" sense) environment there is no incentive to compete, and
> therefore no reason to strive for excellence.  I would rather pay a few
> dollars (as I did until Redhat got greedy) for each upgrade, expecting
> that it would work out of the box, and knowing that, if it didn't, I had
> someone smarter than I to call.

Okay, I've had my issues with FC, as I'm sure that all on the list realize.
However, I think you're completely wrong on this.  FC may have its problems
and may have a hard time keeping up with its published release cycle, but
(from an outsider's perspective) they sure as hell are doing their best to
compete and to put out a quality product.  In spite of my frustrations wth
RH for their business direction, and in spite of my frustrations with
getting FC to be my only desktop environment, I have no doubt that FC is the
best free distro available.  Just because the project's goals don't meet
your needs (and sometimes mine) is no reason to make baseless accusations.

>     I know that Fedora is by design a bleeding edge distribution, but
> the impression I have received from this mailing list since the release
> last week is that FC2 has hemorrhagic fever.  I upgraded from RH 9 to
> FC1 two weeks after release and have not had any problems since.  So far
> everything I've read tells me I don't want to touch FC2.

LOL...I had the same impression of FC1 that you've had of FC2.  Sure, some
things are broke, but the problems that *I've* had have to do with the
kernel, not the FC team.

If you want to go back to RH, there's always RHEL WS...

>     Cheers,
> Gordon Keehn
>

Ben Weiss