fc6 nearing eol but f7 not useable yet (rant or feedback?)
Karl Larsen
k5di at zianet.com
Fri Oct 26 19:11:54 UTC 2007
Mike Wright wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Rant or feedback? You decide. This is all IMHO.
>
> I'm becoming concerned about the end of life for fc6. It has been
> stable for me and is the first of the fedoras that gave me a
> more-or-less useable multimedia experience. (vlc is awesome!) I'd like
> to continue using fc6 but am guessing I need to create my own repository
> before fc6 disappears from the public repos.
>
> The reason I'm so concerned is f7 blows chunks. I've been running RH
> and its ilk since 5.2 (never got 4 running because I couldn't afford a
> Matrox video adapter way back then) and have to say this release is
> buggier than my vegetable garden.
>
> I'll start by logging into a Gnome session.
>
> First mess is the "Package Updater". 1) That's not the !@#$%ing
> program's name. Its toolbar icon has no properties associated with it
> so I can't even tell what it launches. The app itself has no "About"
> button. In fact, one must perform command line forensics to even find
> out that the program's name is "pup". (I prefer the spanish
> pronunciation.) Why, oh why, is every package preselected? Why is the
> "update list" window not resizeable? Absolutely one of the worst user
> interfaces I have ever used. Actually, it's hard to call it a UI since
> there is no interaction allowed except "click the mouse several hundred
> times", quit, or apply, and it provides no user feedback except when it
> barfs on itself. Is it hanging? Is it running? Is it stalled?
> Absolutely no way to tell. Oh, a dependency issue. Option of ignore or
> continue? No way, those choices are not available. Error out.
>
> Second, where did the Applications->Run Program option go?
>
> Third, why does the bottom toolbar show up about two inches below the
> top one? Right clicking on its far left edge gives me some options:
> click "expand" twice and it returns to its position at the bottom.
>
> Why are the toolbar widgets now locked to the toolbar? What, don't like
> us rearranging things according to our own tastes? OK fine, just right
> click, Unlock. Right click, Move. Swell. I get the plus sign shaped
> move cursor but it doesn't work! I can't rearrange the toolbars.
>
> Well, maybe it's got its panties in a bunch. I'll just logout and try
> again. Oh my! Isn't this sweet. Where are the toolbars? Why doesn't
> right click do anything? Fortunately, I shortcut keyed an xterm.
> Enter the shortcut key combo and I get an xterm window with borders and
> no prompt, no cursor, zippadeedoodah!
>
> OK. Ctrl-Alt-F1 gives me a mingetty. "useradd nextvictim; passwd
> nextvictim; init 3; init 5". Login as nextvictim and logout. Login
> again as nextvictim and ecco! Where are the toolbars? Desktop void of
> everything except the background image, no right click response, just
> another dead session.
>
> As a side note, this box has been around for a while and has lots of
> distros scattered throughout its drives, and all of them are rock solid
> so this definitely points to f7 and not the hardware.
>
> Q: if it's really to be known as f7 why are the kernels named
> "something.fc7"? I think the decision to change the naming scheme
> wasn't wise. Google on f7 and you'll get lots of hits on the function
> key but very little on fedora.
>
> Q: why was it decided to put marketing names on the applications and
> remove their properties? How are we supposed to help debug, etc, if the
> program identities are hidden from us? This decision forces users back
> into CLI mode. Kind of defeats the whole GUI approach, doesn't it?
>
> Apologies to all who have put in so much hard work but this release
> looks like it was done by speed freaks with a mouse compulsion who love
> python, not because it's polymorphic, but because they don't have to pay
> attention to types, and since they don't have to pay attention to types
> then, what the hey, why pay attention to the differences between lists
> and dictionaries? (definitely a rant!)
>
> Enough for now. I have to figure out why I have two different versions
> of dbus with mangled dependencies (which cause pup to bomb). I'll also
> take a look at KDE to see if I have better luck there.
>
> I would be curious to hear from early adopters what their f(c)8
> experiences have been like.
>
> Thanks for listening to my $0.02,
> Mike Wright :m)
>
Hi Mike, if you want to stay with your known problems then do so. I
am not so sure the lack of updates will matter. You have a FC6 you put
together and know! It should run for years, until your hard drive quits.
I went from FC4 for about 4 years to F7 that was new and had many
bugs and then went to FC6 and later back to F7 where I am now. I plan to
upgrade to F8 when it comes available next month. This time I expect it
will be bad but get good as the updates come. I hope I can get nvidia to
work :-)
--
Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
Linux User
#450462 http://counter.li.org.
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