[GRLUG] Hey look! A linux topic!

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Wed, 2008-12-31 at 09:51 -0500, John-Thomas Richards wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 04:42:48PM -0500, Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
> > > > I am really disappointed with linux for not support my PC! I did run
> > > > Fedora.....I got WSOD (White Screen of Death) and nothing appear....I
> > > > have 64bit hardware, top video card of ATI, I stuck with Windows until
> > > > Linux build new cure for my PC
> > > You give up too easily.  Have you tried other distros?  Perhaps you
> > > should download a live CD of Linux and boot from it.  It sounds like a
> > > configuration issue more than a hardware incompatibility (although I'm
> > > not sure I've ever heard of a WSOD).
> > I think this a recipe for frustration (especially given that distros of
> > the same vintage are 94% the same);  the purpose of a system is to run
> > software. The better approach, if you want/need to run LINUX, is to
> > specifically buy hardware this is supported.
> Yes, most Linux distros are essentially the same, but the hardware
> detection at installation can vary widely, hence my question.  I would
> prefer to help someone diagnose the problem rather than avoid (via a
> different distro) but we work with what we have (and who).

Ditto, I'm strongly anti-distro-hop.  While something may get detected
in one installer vs. another my experience is that twitchilly supported
hardware will eventually bite you one way or another;  as the result of
some upgrade, crash, etc...

> > I'm aware of numerous problems using ATI video cards with X, at least
> > until the most recent versions of X.  For using ATI with openSUSE see
> > <http://en.opensuse.org/ATI> as there is a special repository you need
> > to subscribe to.
> Hopefully this will soon pass as AMD is releasing the code for the
> drivers as open source.

I'd expect it to take many months for it to to get integrated into
X.org, then the packages, and then into the distros.

> > There's roughly 200,000 people *in* Grand Rapids, but there are ~1.3
> > million in the metropolitan area.  Given that about 12 in 1,000 people
> > have early-onset hearing loss that nets out to about 16,000 people.
> I was only including GR and its suburbs.  There are roughly 600,000 in
> Kent County.  To get to the 1,000,000+ figure you have to go out quite a
> ways from Grand Rapids.

I just enjoy demographics;  the 1.3 million number comes from the
government's definition of "greater metropolitan area" which is really
the tri-city area defined as Grand Rapids, Muskegon, & Holland.  But it
seems reasonable to be as all these three are all fairly integrated and
there is massive "commute" traffic within that zone.

> > I've lost over half my hearing in one ear and I hardly know any of
> > you! :)
> That's because we rarely have meetings and only have them on the same
> day each time.  :-(

Yep,  I've been to exactly one.