dunbar

I was all but forced to hang up Mandriva 2008 x86_64 DVD 2008 (whatever happened to simple names like 'Mandrake x.x"?).

I couldn't get Flash installed properly, even following the directions.

I couldn't edit mime types.

The browser that was included could not be upgraded by browsers within the repositories - some kind of permissions thing.

It was slow as molasses on my Celeron D 3.33GHz system.

I had once been pointed towards ...

Ok, the world is a WEB based world. Lets give up on documents that have been cut and pasted for a few years in a row. After all, I'm probably going to hear from someone in the Mandriva camp, they'll probably be all nutty about the lack of help and all.

Lets open the index.htm file. In FireFox 2.0.0.7, which is the latest version of the browser. The one on the DVD which I burned, so I can install Mandriva.

Titlebar of new browser tab reads "WELCOME - Mandriva Linux ...

Part two....

I downloaded the ISO. Why? Because I've used Linux since Mandrake 7.2 came with Maximum Linux magazine (defunct, Feb 2001).

I checked the MD5SUM; what I downloaded to my XP64 system has the same MD5SUM as the sum posted on 2 different mirrors for the same ISO. Why 2 different mirrors? Long story, no benefit to tell it here and now.

I managed to burn the DVD ISO. I have a DVDRW, which SOME of us know is the same as a CDROM that was required ...

Fair warning: I probably won't be speaking kindly about the generous efforts put forth by the Linux/FOSS community; I consider the document creators as important as the coders. Equal to the coders, in fact. Before you discredit me, think about what I might already know. Think about my history, which will be revealed as I go. I believe there is a lot of sincere effort being put forth in developing FOSS. I also think that any bum off the street is absolutely NOT qualified to create accurate and thorough ...

I know that my Windows version of 'Adobe Reader' (I'm stopping at 7.0) offers useless (to me) stuff like 'speak out loud', 'Internet Printing', 'comments lists'.... this program used to be called a READER, but now it is more of a HANDLER. But I didn't ask for these features; I'm the victim of enforced bloat.

I think that Adobe needs to 'rethink' the complexity of their current approach.

I'm now more in favor of other fixed and open document formats like JPEG or RTF..... ...