Ian Malone wrote:
On 16/11/06, Andy Green <andy@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi folks -
The new issue of Linux Format (a fairly high circulation UK magazine)
has FC6 all over the cover and six pages inside about it, including
interviews.
There's another two pages comparing it to Ubuntu, it seems by someone
who really liked Ubuntu. FC6 -> 8/10, Ubuntu -> 9/10.
I've just been looking through it in Waterstones (although I
got Linux Magazine for the FC6 DVD in the end). While I
didn't read the FC6 features, I did look at Fedora vs Ubuntu.
Overall they scored Fedora lower on usability although, as
usual on reading the article, I got the impression that the
stuff you are expected to do on Ubuntu is easier and
anything else is harder. There were a few of interesting
points, mainly about the install, and all of which sound
slightly familiar:
1. They complained that pirut is yum based and infuriatingly
slow.
"infuriatingly slow" is a valid statement if indeed they had a slow
experience, however "yum based" does not hold any validity in my
eyes.
2. Anaconda apparently doesn't allow partitioning of discs
(?!!!, either something has changed since FC5 or they
couldn't find the feature, in which case it needs to be
easier to find doesn't it?)
Pure total bullshit. Partitioning is right where it always was,
and it works just fine. Anyone who is unable to find it, should
actually read the screens in the installer, and not just blindly
click "Next" by smashing the enter key with their forehead. It
is done exactly the same way as in any previous release, using
disk druid after clicking the appropriate choices in anaconda.
While I wouldn't expect Grandma to figure it out, I certainly would
fully expect anyone doing any form of public review to have at least
that much technical ability to be able to read a screen, review
the choices available, and select the choice that matches their
expectations.
3. They describe finding out whether FC6 will run on your
machine as 'suck it and see'.
That however is accurate as it ever was for any Linux distribution
including Fedora, or even Windows for that matter. FC6 installs
fine on one local system, but the kernel explodes on another machine
for me. It's likely to install and work for the majority of
systems out there, or else something would be gravely wrong, however
there will always be bugs in computer software, whether it is
proprietary or open source, whether it is Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian,
or whatever.
It is impossible to ever know 100% whether any OS will install
on any computer, until you actually do it - period. Anything else
is speculation, with or without probabilities...
