Don't Trust 9.2 to update your smoothly running 9.1 system!!

[Gowator]

Good luck with your powerpack!!

 

Ive bought them since before you had a computer.

I also had the last 9.1 set which I bought from a store unusable. So I could buy direct BUT Mandrake can't get that right either! Plenty of people are waiting over 6 months for delivery!!!

 

Right now, im using a mag version becuase the Cd media were faulty on my PAID for powerpack!!!

 

The response of Mandrake was to join the club and seek help there!!! Its faulty media + I was a member of the club at the time!!!They just didn't bother to check. In fact thank goodness I was a club member - thats how I found this place!!!

 

This is just typical of Mandrake's customer relations, from people they fail to deliver to to my problem.

 

Sorry moderators?

Why, they don't work for Mandrake!

If they did instead of helping you with any probs they'd be telling you to go join the club!

 

I have no idea how many computers Ive built, perhaps 1000 perhaps more....

 

When I compare Mandrake to other vendors I compare them to Sun, SGI or IBM - not MS becuase these systems work, including the upgrade!

 

If I upgraded a solaris Box and Oracle stopped working I'd have a SUN technician in my office within 10 minutes!

Now I don't expect Mandrake to do this... but I do expect the upgrade to work and leave my installed stuff alone.

 

When I get mandrake out of the box I have to recompile the kernel and remove some stuff and add high mem support etc. Then i have to get drivers etc.

 

I don't mind once, I just don't see why I should have to do this every release.

 

If I rant and rave its because I see Mandrake driving itself into the ground.

Its really not a lot to ask that they turn off acpi in the installer by default!!!

 

I can rewrite the installer, give me 10 mins ... but so what because the problem is Mandrake won't use it. They will continue with their faulty install instead!!!

As you see 9.2 is currently trashing CD writers in the install. In 9.1 it was an infinite loop that ate cpu cycles and burnt out the CPU...

(On certain HW configs)

The problem I see is they continue shipping AFTER they know this!!! It would cost them <50c to add a CD1 with the corrected installer BUT they don't....

 

Do me a favour

Go to the mandrake site and post up the email address for complaints ... any one I don't care which becuase If you can find it your more resourceful than me...

 

Now unfortunately I have to go. Ive just recompiled a kernel with extra USB debugging so I can do some voluntary work for the linux xbox project!!!

 

Oh and oin answer to your question WHY?

Just luck, I have one box that hated every version of Mandrake after 8.1 ???

The same one runs RH installer fine ??

No doubt this laptop will have problems with other distro's.... its just luck!

[Guest Joe Noob]

6 months, thats not what I want to hear, I ordered mine two weeks ago.

One of the resons I ordered the power pack was because Im so happy with 9.1 which I picked up from Linux format. It was a DVD version and works great.

Mandrake says they'll start shipping the last week of this month so my fingures are crossed.

[bvc]

If w/o a doubt you want it quickly, never ever buy from ML directly. :roll:

[AussieJohn]

Maybe we are better served here in Australia than France and elsewhere (would not surprise me). We can buy the official Mandrake products and have them delivered within usually at the very most 72 hours for the most distant places in the nation and betwween 24 and 48 hours for most populous areas of Australia from a Melbourne business called Everything Linux Australia.

Everything Linux carry stock of just about every Linux OS in existance plus books and all kind of extras. They have been going for years so they are not a flybynight outfit and they export all over the world.

If anything is faulty it is replaced quickly. Australian law is extremely tough in this area I can assure you.

 

Maybe all you disaffecteds could do better for yourselves by buying the official products from them rather than from Mandrake directly.

Their Website is :- http://www.everythinglinux.com.au

 

 

Cheers. John

[Gowator]

Hey, thats the point.

Your local distributor can do it, I can buy a french linux mag with it (and the installer fixed) but Mandrake can't do it.

 

Again as it what hardware works this seems to be luck!

Lots of people have ended up with 9.1 for instance when they ordered 9.0 .... Sounds like a bargain but the 4-6 months they waited they had nothing.

 

It doesn't seem to be maliceousness on Mandrakes part, just incompetence.... and that's why I feel so strongly. Mandrake has some EXCELLENT technical people. It makes a great distro and then spoils it... with their managment.

 

What worries me is the recent trend ...

Lets say you do order direct....

You have NOWHERE to email or complain to if it doesn't arrive.

My CD's were physically faulty (fromt he box set)

I wasn't so much concerned about the Cd's (I can download or get a better 'fixed 'copy off a magazine) but I was concerned that they were turning out damaged CD's.

But I had nowhere to complain etc. eventuially I emailed customer services (we have a platinum membership at work i could have used) but that isn't really the point.

What I didn't like is that they are not interested...

 

Mandrake is making money (not very well I admit) from the work of hundreds of thousands of GPL programmers. OK it employs a few itself but mainly its repackaging other peoples work!

But thats fine.....

BUT it leaves Mandrake with a reposnsibility for all those programmers who's code they use and the whole of LINUX.

 

Mandrake is largely touted as the best noobie distro... and I agree but if someones first Linux experience is wiping out their harddisk then this in many cases can turn them off linux altogether.

 

When this is someone professional who thought they might see what it was all about this experience will just confirm what Microsoft have been telling them all along!!!

 

Negative experiences travel faster and further than positive ones. So Mandrake has to live up to its GPL responsibility too.

Not providing feedback or listening to the customers is not what the GPL is about, it about sharing.

 

Now many magazines etc. have fixed the installer problem. The machine that nearly lost a CPU to My Boxset installed a Magazine based 9.1 without a hickup.... Its not a big deal to change, in particualr the safe boot options are just one line of perl... I wasn't joking about it being 10 minutes work.... many mags actually fix this BUT Mandrake never does.

 

 

Maybe all you disaffecteds could do better for yourselves by buying the official products from them rather than from Mandrake directly. 

 

Unfortunately that seems to be the point. Buying direct is like a lottery. So we buy from 3rd parties and Mandrake gets less money.

If Im paying I'd like the money to go to them.....

 

I could have probably returned the disks to the store where I bought them BUT

1) It meant a long journey AFTER work.

2) I can download get the CD's elsewhere easier.

 

However, most importantly I bought from the store so that the store gets the message that selling Mandrake is viable...

I voted with my wallet for the store to continue to sell Mandrake....

 

Going back with the Cd's would only undermine this....

Bear in mind i bought the Boxset just to support Mandrake

I got the manuals etc. in french becuase Im in France and I prefer reading the documentation in english.....

So buying them was a pure act of philanthopy (and the fact I had NO home internet )Although I could have downloaded at a friends....

 

The reason I complain so bitterly is becuase Im throwing my money 'out of the window' as they say in French! Im trying to support them yet they are shooting themselves in the FOOT.

 

 

p.s.

On a personal note I think its great your getting into computers, wish my mum could grasp them....

The reason I quoted where I come from (linux wise) is that I do this for a job! I work with very nice stable OS's at work and I know what's possible and what isn't.

Mandrake doesn't need to even compete..... what Im saying is that if the UPGRADE option screws up 10% of the time it should be HIDDEN away for experiecned users only.

If they can't get it working then leave it out or leave it hidden.... but please don't make it the default option!

 

I was involved in beta testing 9.0 and a club member but Mandrake never listened .... A lot of developers and testers got disenchanted after 9.0 was finalised becuase a lot of us had the same views on certain things which Mandrake just ignored or made false statements about.

 

The software installer being one.

Many testers said the old one was better and having install/deinstall in the same place was sensible.

(This is a matter of debate ... )

However, Mandrakes answer was

The package has to be like that now becuase its been re-written in perl to make it more servicable.

 

The problem is that is just a misleading statement ....

Changing the language in which it was written doesn't mean the packages need to be seperate....

If the head of development beleives that (maybe the team had a problem they fixed that way) then they are in the wrong job!

 

If Mandrake had said, our programmers are having a problem getting it all in one... that would be honest.

But to claim it was becuase it was rewritten in Perl is just misleading.

 

Many of us here are capable of fixing parts of Mandrake and some superheroes like texstar and PLF are amazing BUT Mandrake seems incapable of assimilating this work.

 

My development time is now used elsewhere! As is the time of a lot of far more talented developers becuase they were rebuffed so many times by Mandrake.