Installed FC 8 - clean install. Wiped FC 5 installation as advised
briefly on other thread.
What I liked about the install:
1. used FC 8 installation DVD and was able to get full install. S/w
dev, etc. No need for large file downloads from repositories to
get full system.
2. went cleanly.
3. step backward from FC 5 installation. Under FC 5, the installation
process gave me the option of several installations
configurations. FC 8 only gives me the option of s/w developer and
server. Is that really the only options needed???
What I really disliked about the install:
1. knows nothing about other operating systems on computer. Had
installed Kubuntu Gutsy prior to FC 8. Kubuntu recognized ALL OSs
on the system and set them up in GRUB. No problem. So I know that
it can be done and done transparently to user during installation.
FC 5 recognized the Windows P installation also. FC 8 is a huge
step backwards in this respect.
2. FC 8 installation nuked my Windows XP boot. Can no longer boot
Windows XP. THIS IS EXTREMELY BAD AND TOTALLY UN-NECESSARY.
Kubuntu respected the Windows XP boot and left it intact while
installing Kubuntu and GRUB. The fact that FC 8 nuked the Windows
XP boot files and made it unbootable and hence USELESS is
UNFORGIVABLE. All those Windows XP programs that are necessary are
totally unavailable now. FC 5 respected Windows XP, so it can be
done and was done in the past by FC 5 also. FC 8 was installed
over the FC 5 installation.
3. FC 8 install program recognizes only Fedora Core OS. This also is
totally un-necessary and unforgivable. FC 5 recognized and
respected my Windows XP installation and left is intact. FC 8 has
taken a HUGE step backwards in this regard. Shades of MicroSoft -
FC 8 recognizes only Fedora Core installations and leaves all
others out in the cold and in this instance renders one
un-bootable. If Fedora Core controlled 90% market share, I could
understand this behavior, I could not condone it, but I could
understand it as I understand MicroSofts behavior, but do not
condone. Their behavior is the huge reason I switched 99% of my
computing to Linux and Fedora Core. Is Fedora Core trying hard to
emulate MS in all things. Too bad. If you do not want to recognize
other OSs, as least please respect their presence on the computer
and DO NOT COMPROMISE their operation.
4. Only Gnome was installed from the DVD. This may be because the
provider of the DVD only installed Gnome on the DVD without saying
so. Has Fedora Core switched entirely to Gnome? This wouldn't be
too bad except for the next item on the list.
5. After re-booting from the install, s/w updates needed to be
applied. Accepted the option to do that. Download operation was
reported as OK. s/w update then started and progressed until 1/2
done - the update app then hung halfway through the update
process. Gnome then terminated the update process as
non-responding. This seems to have screwed the database royally.
This was a really bad problem for me on FC 5 - the rpm database
was constantly corrupted by the rpm software to update and install
programs. It appears this has not been fixed 3 releases later in
FC 8. I had hoped, but apparently to no avail.
On second re-boot, notified that security updates were available.
In checking the dependencies, a package, gnome-python2 =
2.20.0-1.fc8, was not installed. Booted the add/remove app and the
package was reported as installed. Then searched for Thunderbird
(I MUCH prefer Thunderbird over Evolution), and clicked to have it
installed. Clicked on "apply" and Thunderbird was downloaded and
installed.
BUT NOW the add/remove app is no longer available. The place where
it resided on the pull down menus is NO LONGER there.
I was going to use the app to download and install KDE so that I
could use KDE which I much prefer over Gnome.
I can no longer do that.
How do I at least get the add/remove app back so that I can download and
install KDE??????
If that is not possible, do I have to re-install FC 8?
If that is the option, then I will probably abandon Fedora Core as I do
not want to risk screwing the Windows Vista boot also.
By the way, the way I got the other OSs back in the GRUB boot menu that
FC 8 created --- I found out how to mount the Kubuntu disk and
partition. I then opened the GRUB boot menu file created by Kubuntu,
"/boot/grub/menu.lst" file there and compared to the
"/boot/grub/menu.lst" file (actually /boot/grub/grub.conf" file) and
modified the Fedora Core created fileto accomodate the OSs listed in the
Kubuntu file. This "restored" my ability to boot an OS besides Fedora
Core 8. God help anybody that installs Fedora Core with first installing
Kubuntu.
