If I recall correctly SCMS is investigating a move from Slackware to a different distro due to its fading support. However that's not something to take lightly, and the number of different services that SCMS support staff have to deal with means a change won't be for a while yet. Plus there's the old saying to bear in mind: if it works and ain't broke - leave it alone

Jodi

------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------- Jodi W. Anderson, Mr (BA, A+, MCP) - Computer Systems Consultant Waikato University Library - Computing Operations Group Ph: +64 7 838 4323 email: jodi@waikato.ac.nz

"Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before."

-----Original Message----- From: Kim Shepherd [mailto:kims@waikato.ac.nz] Sent: Tuesday, 9 September 2003 10:16 a.m. To: wlug@list.waikato.ac.nz Subject: Re: [wlug] Waikato University Linux

On Mon, Sep 08, 2003 at 08:31:01PM +1200, Edward Murrell wrote:

...

I was discussing the use of Linux at uni today. One of the

main points

...

I was asked to defend was essentially; "Why does Linux

sucks so much?"

...

This persons experience with Linux had pretty much centred

round the R

...

block, and G basement computers at uni - and I can't say I disagree with her. As far as I can make out, those computers are

running some

...

ancient version of Slackware (I think?) with GNOME 1.4, and

KDE2. Most

...

of the other WMs seem to be broken. Fonts are abysmal, and

the default

...

browser is Netscape 4. The CDRom/fstab is only correctly

setup on some

...

of the machines.

Frankly, it's embarrassing. While I can understand that the

uni staff

...

don't exactly have time to be reinstalling Linux every six

months, and

...

that stability is very important, this is the same config

that I was

...

using when I attempted second year for the first time back in 2001.

...

From a brief poke around the /proc/ fs, it's clear the machines are

easily capable of running something far more up to date. I would really like to see something along the lines of GNOME 2.X, KDE3, a fairly recent version of say Mozilla, Galeon, or Konqueror, and for the love of god, decent fonts.

Given the varsity centric nature of the WLUG, I'm hoping

someone can

...

tell me why the Linux machines are in such as sad state. Do

the admins

...

not care? Or have they simply forgotten what's running there.

Regards Edward

Do the people raising these issues have student home directories? Do they browse the web using their student account? Do they print to charged print queues? Do they ever use www.waikato.ac.nz? Or igate? Do they use University mailing lists?

There are a myriad of other services running solely on Linux, of course.. these are just the ones that I can think of right now.

Then again, you're probably talking about SCMS lab PCs, which I've never seen, and SCMS don't use a bunch of our services anyway.

-k. _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list wlug@list.waikato.ac.nz http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlu%3E g