FC2 Issues

[Craig White]

On Wed, 2004-06-16 at 11:30, Timothy Murphy wrote:
> Craig White wrote:
> 
> >> and if an "improvement" is known not to work on some machines
> >> it should be eschewed.
> 
> > let me see now...
> > new kernel version
> > new X server
> > a stated goal for fedora "It is also a proving ground for new
> > technology"
> > 
> > and you expect it to work at least as well as the previous version on
> > all systems or it should be eschewed.
> > 
> > Let me suggest that those who are frustrated with their perception of
> > the quality of the FC-2 release familiarize themselves with the
> > 'Cathedral and the Bazaar' by Eric Raymond.
> 
> A bug is a bug, and should be acknowledged as such,
> instead of trying to excuse it with all this philosophical stuff.
> 
> If someone thinks they have improved the X driver for ATI
> (which is what I was talking about)
> they should at least have tested it on existing ATI machines.
> 
> As far as I can see, there is only one guy working on this driver,
> and he does not seem to read bug-reports on it.
> 
> Everyone makes mistakes;
> it's what they do about it that matters.
> 
> As far as I can see, Fedora moved over to Xorg from XFree86
> because of some quibble about licences.
> I'm not sure if Xorg has the resources to maintain the X servers,
> let alone improve them.
> 
> Incidentally, I think one should apply exactly the same criteria
> to software whether it is free or not.
> It is seriously damaging to Linux if you reply to complaints
> by saying, "But it's free" with the implied addendum,
> "What do you expect?".
----
I never said anything whatsoever about free. The fact remains...all
reasonably sophisticated software - even in final form is released with
known limitations (bugs as it were). You have the source code if you
want to try to fix some of these things yourself or just hang in there,
they will get worked out.

Yes Xorg has become the focus of X server for a large portion of Linux
because of the license issues. What you have characterized as a quibble
about licenses has caused the largesse of the open source packagers to
migrate. Have you reported your problems there? Did you bugzilla your
problems with Xorg/FC-2 to fedora's bugzilla? 

I can tell you from my own experience with Fedora extra's wxPythonGTK2
that I had a problem. Removed the rpm's and downloaded the source from
python.org and rebuilt it. Posted on bugilla.fedora.us my findings.
Within a day, I had a test rpm that solved the issue. Within 3 days, the
fixed rpm was downloaded and installed via apt-get. I don't get this
type of service from proprietary vendors. When I had a problem with
openldap, I was able to discuss it with the authors.

No one that I can tell is denying the existence of bugs and I think
everyone is acknowledging that they exist. Do you believe that Xorg
hasn't done a considerable amount of testing on ati drivers?

Daring to repeat myself, it's up to each and everyone to decide for
themselves whether they are content to curse the darkness or light a
candle.

Craig