[NCLUG] Mandrake 8.1 installed.

[John Purser]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: nclug-admin at nclug.org [mailto:nclug-admin at nclug.org]On Behalf Of
> Mark Horning
> Sent: Monday, October 29, 2001 16:38
> To: nclug at nclug.org
> Subject: Re: [NCLUG] Mandrake 8.1 installed.
>
>
> John Purser wrote:
> >
> > In defense of Red Hat let me say I've installed 7.1 on a
> couple of Pentium
> > machines (166, 550) and it is a very slick install.  I was
> having trouble
> > with a hard drive at one point and repeatedly re-installed
> Windows 2000 and
> > Red Hat 7.1.  After a few cycles I think I proffered the Red Hat
> > installation process over Windows.
> >
> > I'll add that a friend of mine also tried Mandrake and
> prefers it over all
> > others.
> >
> > I'm currently a fan of Debian.
> >
> > Aint choice grand?
> >
> > John Purser
> I've recently installed Mandrake and will have to admit it
> was probably
> the 'slickest' Linux install I've done to date. They do a few things
> that I need to 'fix', but all in all a wonderful install. Which is
> quite a far cry from the Windows ME reinstall I just did for my wife.
> The OS, plus office 2000, the nic driver it couldn't find the first
> time through and all the sp's and updates ad nauseum...was 14 reboots
> by the time I stopped counting! What a painful piece of #$%#! Not
> to mention the instability from all the other games/apps
> being installed
> that required the reload of OS in the first place! One of the things
> that really amazed me was the initial install didn't recognize the
> M$ usb mouse and I had to tab my way through the install. Why on god's
> green earth so many people put up with such a terrible OS is beyond
> any comprehension.
>
> Mark
>
> --
>
> Mark Horning
> rip6 at rip6.net


The times they may be a changing.  I belong to a mailing list from my days
as a Controller of a Hardware Store chain up in the Pacific North West.  The
goal of our user group was always getting the most out of the computer
system because none of us were in the computer business. We were all trying
to make money selling boards, bolts, bricks.  Not much margin, very mature
market, and the "Big Boxes" (home depot and their ilk) were moving in
everywhere.  One thing special about this group was that our central
POS/Accounting package ran on either Unix or an Unix-alike called SuperDos.
For about the last year there's been a lot of activity on this list directly
or indirectly related to linux.  These people are looking at running it for
servers and desktop machines and are actively working to rid their networks
of anything that says MS on it.  Remember these aren't Open Source purists
or Operating System holy warriors.  These are people who by and in large
backed into an IT career and are looking at keeping overhead down.  They're
also PISSED at that SBA warning about licensing software too and none of
them like any of the various XP licensing schemes that have come out.  All
have had exposure to Unix, like it, and are amazed at what Linux can deliver
for free.  Very interesting and I'm guessing it won't be just hardware
stores that will see it this way.

FWIW

John Purser