i fint it a little hard to believe that ppl are quibbling over prices for Linux.
So go back to XP, oh, it's too eXPensive.

If it was the same price as XP it would be a steal.

That is indeed, fair comment.

But I'd counter that with, If you go shopping, and you buy product A, in shop A, you then go 2 miles down the road and find product A, in shop B, almost 20 percent cheaper, then you often feel exploited/ripped off etc, especially as you'd be more than happy to buy product's C, D, E, F, etc etc from shop A, if they didn't have prices 20% above shop B - it's closer.

I appreciate that you get what you can for your product, but to blatently offer if for 2 different prices on the same website, smacks of "rip off".

I wouldn't question your point on "value for money". I've been happy, thus far, to pay that little extra for the power pack's as they do make life that much easier, and in my little way, it's put a few extra quid in Mandrake's pocket. Now that there's such a considerable difference between 79 euro and 79 $US, and that their website only seems to want to offer it to me in euro's, I'm not sure that I want to pay, what I consider an unfair premium for an identical product.

It still remains just about the easiest distro for newbies to get into linux with. Though if I decide, in the long term to drop mandrake, I'll just do a hard disc install of Knoppix (which I'd be happy to buy), the hard disc install of knoppix, is almost as easy as mandrake. Also it's debian based, so benefit's from the superior package manager (better than rpm and mandrakes urpmi IMO).

regards

John

p.s. though I'd also point out that version 10, does look like it has the makings of a "real goodie"!

yipp

can't wait for mandy 10
unfortunately i have the i810 chipset so the beta i downloaded black screens on me on reboot

i think RC1 has sorted this problem out

if we could get off our collective back sides and get involved in europe we would be using euro's too
it's a little daft to expect a european country to offer goods in £'s though, we's the only ones using it now

price differences are a drag, I paid £3 for my mandrake 9.2, i thought it was a bargain,
no mention was made on the site i bought it from that none of that money would make it to mandrake, that was left to a small notice printed on the cd

i didn't realise that mandrake were offering the same product at two different prices though
that does seem a little silly

I've also got the i810 based chipset Sal, I haven't seen anything about problems though - the version 10 b2 screwed my system, and I thought it was me, but if it's not quite ready for brookdale or whatever it's called chipsets.

The i810 thing was one of the reasons that I disabled the onboard sound chip. It was a total pig to config - So I just spent £40 at PCworld for a soundblaster live! 5.1 digital - it's made life so much easier.

You mention paying £3 for you 9.2, well whether it's from a "cheap disc place" or a friend, that suggests that it's a download version. And my moan was based on getting "boxed set" disc's from mandrake direct - I don't mind paying the price but etc etc (as in all the earlier posting in respect of the 2 prices when converting the currency).

In fact, I'm not sure as to whether they're actually breaking EU reg's in offering the "product" for 2 prices in the same location ??? but, as we seem to have agreed, the finished version 10 - hum!

though I suspect that I'll have to wait, because again, I'll probably go for a boxed set powerpack, to save any potential messing around in respect of 2.6 kernel's and nvidia drivers.

regards

John

Known troubles:

- The i810 installation seems to fail in graphic mode

http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/100beta.php3

yupp
the download version it is indeed

I'm sorry to say that my experience of Mandrake is very much the same as yours

Mandrake is to put it simple:

Worthless!

I'm sorry to say that my experience of Mandrake is very much the same as yours

Mandrake is to put it simple:

Worthless!

Everyone. Don't feed the trolls...

mandrake is NOT worthless,

it is by far and away the best OS I have ever seen

it knocks redhat into a cocked hat
it's way better than slackware (boy that one is gonna draw some flak)
and way better than suse

the bugs in 9.2 aren't as bad as on first experience
and if you get the xfree86 updates and the kde updates the problems almost completely disappear

but that's just my opinion

i am very happy with mandrake and will stick with it/them as long as I can

I'm sorry to say that I just can't get it to work on my PC. When i run the installationprogram, it don't recognize the the graphic card and it don't recognize the sound card, and it is impossibke to configure them after the installation is finished.

And to get an answer from Mandrake support?
Forget that!

Instead I took a CD that came with a magazin, a CD with Knoppix (Debian).
It worked like a blitz!

And it was free ;-)

yupp
it's somewhat curious the way one version doesn't work yet another does


at least you found one that worked

Tell you what wmbean,

Mandrake IS good, when it comes to hardware detection, but Knoppix is better.

It's arguable, but I don't know of any distro that has hardware detection as good as Knoppix.

If it saw all your hardware, and you could get everything configured, then there's only one thing to do

sudo knx-hdinstall




regards

John

I'm sorry, but Mandrake 9.2, and it's support site does not follow through for the "PAID" support. If I wanted to spend time searching for the answers, and checking back every hour, then YES, I would have paid for the .99 version. NO, I wouldn't have wasted hours downloading it when I can get it shipped USPS 5 days for less than $5. But, I do not want to waste time figuring out how to get the operating system to work. I want it TO work! I do not use Windows XP, because I have Windows ME, which has gone down in the past, but by purchasing a RAM manager tool, it has yet to crash! I have heard all the craze about how supurb Linux was, and wanted to give it a try. But to have a system that works right out of the box like Windows, I don't think you could purchase a Linux system for twice the price of Windows XP. You would be better off with MacOS. When MacOS becomes available on Intel platforms, Linux will be just like the BeOS projects, because of forums like this.
ps. If people were not interested in purchasing the Mandrake Box set, since it is available free online, then why are they not out of business? Because there are people interested in paying for the time saved in having to re-configure their systems to enjoy computing.

well it works out of the box for me
but for every "i'm so happy now" story i've heard, there's a story like yours

this i guess is why Linux is a way off from universal acceptance

though i have heard the odd story about xp that's the same
but not as many times

sorry to hear that it's worked out like this for you

there are other distros
do NOT make the mistake of thinking that because mandrake didn't work that all other distros are the same

apparently the best hardware recognition comes with knoppix
which also runs from the cd
allowing for use without installation (though it can be installed)

hope it works out for you

I'm a newbie also in the Linux Mandrake world, and although I can understand your frunstration with the paid support, just dishing complaint after complaint does not serve any purpose here, which then gives forth the question:

What is your objective in posting this issue here? since I don't know you, but I want to give you the benefit of the doudbt here, we can all see that you are upset because you feel cheated by Mandrake. That is understandable (again, if that is the reason for your visit to this forum).

But here is the 64k (insert local currency here): now what? you can keep on ranting about the problem, maybe you would get somebody to send the cd's to but you will still have your problem with Mandrake. As you said you can use another distro and that is fine.

Mandrake , Red Hat, and for that matter all Linux distros have their pross and cons. I remember a couple of years ago playing with a distro of mandrake that came in a magazine......it is like night and day compared to the distro today (9.2, 10 RC2, etc.). We are all here to learn and chare our knowledge. I use windows 2000 in the office and windows XP and Mandrake at home....Linux is still not ready for the average Joe because it still does not have the easiness that Aunt Lilly needs to in order to get her email and navigate the web. someday it will and when that happens, some will stay and some will deviate from the norm, looking for a new challenge.

Conclusion: move on.....you made your point about the support but thats it....I honestly don't think that people here will change their wayt of thinking because of your bad experience.

My point is:
If a product states that it is as easy for Aunt Lilly as Windows, then shouldn't it be?