Goodbye F7... Hello FC6 ...why not F8 test 1?

Jim Cornette fc-cornette at insight.rr.com
Tue Jul 31 01:35:07 UTC 2007


Robin Laing wrote:
> 
> I think the issues with F7 are related to the major changes in the 
> kernel that are affecting different software applications in different 
> ways on different pieces of software. (hardware?)

Fortunately I did not have trouble with anything with my hardware on 
either the desktop or laptop. The other server Fedora 7 Installations 
have not failed anything yet either. I had trouble with a couple of XP 
installations on the same hardware though regarding goofy and surprising 
failures for mostly hardware related issues.

I did have old computers in the past (A Packard Bell desktop) which 
eventually could not be upgraded and another old Toshiba Laptop that 
needed to stay behind due to hardware limitations. I guess new hardware 
could also work better with older versions compared to the newer versions.


> 
> Also, finding some issues with Bugzilla can be a pain for those that 
> don't want to take the time to learn.  Of course if you have an issue 
> that is slightly related to either the ATI or Nvidia video drivers, you 
> will have to back out of the closed source driver just to submit a bug 
> report.

Bug reports, especially regarding X problems seem to be ignored in a lot 
of circumstances. Some of the reports are followed-up even if I forget 
all about the bug. Others are solved but the bug is not marked as a 
duplicate and the fix is not passed on. The hard disk conformance 
problem is a good recent example.
There has to be a more cohesive bug reporting tool than current bugzilla.

> 
> I am frustrated with F7 and it has greatly delayed the upgrading of my 
> other machines from FC4 which is working like a dream.

It sounds like the long term spinoff distros which track Red Hat 
enterprise versions would fit you better for reliability and at least 
security upgrades for the system. I would not know enough to compile 
security updates and build source rpms from later distros.

> 
> Yes, I submit bug reports if I can find out any details to submit.  I am 
> also running into what seems to be a new issue every other day.

Are you sure the Rawhide repo is not activated? - :-)
Seriously, how is it possible to run into a problem every other day, are 
you running MS Linux?

> 
> I would like to see F8 delayed or maybe F9 delayed until even the minor 
> issues are resolved.  At least this would give a pretty clean base to 
> work with F9 from.

I'm for progressional updates with no version in particular. Fedora is 
snapshot based but at the same time capped like 2/3 of our oil wells in 
the US. I guess that is why I prefer venturing into Development when the 
new test phases commence. It might also be why most of my computer 
hardware and peripherals work throughout the release cycles.

Personally I think stopping release cycles would do more harm than good. 
I do think support for earlier distro versions would allow more 
stability, but programs and system hardware would probably stay dormant. 
  If they work as Goldilocks would have wanted it, fine! I just think it 
would mainly overburden the program maintainers and designers if in 
house programs.

> 
> At present, I cannot show off F7 as a replacement for Windows in any 
> way.  Heck, it is even making me have some thoughts about Windows.
> 

I have to admit that convincing people to use Linux vs. Windows is a 
hard thing to accomplish. People are unpredictable by me, but here are 
the basic concepts which hold people off from trying Linux.

- They don't use it at work. I will get confused.
- I can't play my games on Linux

Things that get users to make the switch:
- My computer won't boot windows, my grand daughter messed it up.

This happened to me today. The computer was setup to dual boot into 
Fedora or Windows. So she booted into Fedora and was ready to go. 
Previously this person would boot XP. Since the person is about 100 
miles away and I help with computer issues, she took the plunge. Fedora 
will probably be priority boot OS for that person for now on. I already 
got her accustomed to seamonkey and to a limited extent Openoffice.org 
for XP. Conversion should not be too difficult now.

Install Fedora as the default OS and install only a minimal MS limited 
system that came with the computer. The person will most likely just 
want the default Linux to load and only go to the MS bought with 
computer distro to run stuff which is not yet possible with Fedora.

Regarding MS products, I do not think it would be a good escape path.

Jim

-- 
Remember that there is an outside world to see and enjoy.
		-- Hans Liepmann




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