[Coco] Fedora 6 DVD ISO

[Joel Ewy]

Stephen Castello wrote:
> Now if Linux would figure out how to provide & install drivers as easy
> as Windows & Mac.  The last time I tried Linux on a Shuttle SN85G4V3
> with an old Nvidia 5500 agp.  The instructions: go to the web site and
> get it.  Instructions on web site: just compile it & install. Then it
> needed other bits that didn't exist. Around that time the GUI
> disappeared to the command prompt. The error message basically said to
> do a reinstall.  That ended that Linux attempt.  I forget which distro
> it was.
>
> >From a review of Ubuntu 7.04 on PCMag.com, Linux still can't install
> Nvidia drivers properly.
>
>   
The way I look at it is that Nvidia still won't provide proper
documentation for their hardware.  :)  If they did, every Linux distro
on the planet would have a packaged version of a GPL Nvidia driver next
month that would install seamlessly with yum, apt-get, rpm, synaptic
(heck, probably even "myDSL").  The problem is not that "Linux" can't
"figure out how to provide & install drivers as easy as Windows & Mac." 
If you're using a major distribution, any drivers that are provided and
officially supported by the distro's maintainers will in fact install as
easy as Windows or Mac drivers.  Modern distros do a good job of
automatically detecting and configuring almost all hardware that is
properly documented, and even a lot of hardware that has had to be
painstakingly reverse-engineered, under threat of DMCA violation and
GiTMO-ization.

The problem is that some hardware manufacturers (Nvidia figures
prominently among them) are apparently so ashamed of the inner workings
of their goods that they are embarrassed to let anybody see how they
work.  :)  Blaming Linux or Ubuntu for the infantile attitude of certain
hardware manufacturers is hardly fair.  Place the blame where it's
really due, and maybe even complain to those who deserve to hear a
complaint.  :)  And while there are certainly plenty of legitimate
complaints to be directed at maintainers of Linux distributions, this
one can't be laid at their feet.

JCE
> Stephen
>