Linux 3.0 347
An anonymous reader writes "In a post to the kernel mailing list, Rob Landley, sitting in for the floating Linus, cracks the whip over what will be in Linux 3.0. His orders are on Linux and main."
White dwarf seeks red giant for binary relationship.
The floating Linus? (Score:5, Funny)
He's achieved a transcendental state now? What are the kernel people going to do when he finally ascends to Nirvana?
Cheers,
Ian
Re:The floating Linus? (Score:5, Funny)
For those wondering, he's on a boat.
Either way, he doesn't exactly have his feet planted firmly on the ground...
They were just making a point (Score:2)
Damn. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Damn. (Score:2)
Re:Damn. (Score:2)
You ever compiled windows?
Yeah. It only took a couple of hours on an 8-way dell box that cost my yearly salary. To be fair, this was a few years back, right after I graduated.
Re:Damn. (Score:4, Funny)
Ah,those newbies. Next time RTFM !
3.0? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:3.0? (Score:3, Informative)
No, the article says "3.0-pre (or 2.6-pre) series". And what's the big deal after all ?. Call it 2.6, 3.0, whatever :-)
Re:3.0? (Score:5, Funny)
Of course there's long been a convention in Linux land that less stable development kernels have odd numbers like 2.1, 2.3 and 2.5, while even numbers denote the stable series meant for pedestrian users. [Although many could argue that the VM switch during 2.4 did not exactly belong to a stable series.]
Anyway, if we're going to have an odd number major version, then all I can say is
Re:3.0? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:3.0? (Score:2)
Re:3.0? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:3.0? (Score:4, Informative)
It was not. Linus will decide that, not Rob Landry.
3.0? bah (Score:2, Funny)
Re:3.0? bah (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:3.0? bah (Score:4, Informative)
Windows 95 = Windows 4.0.950
Windows 95B = Windows 4.0.1111
Windows 98 = Windows 4.1.1998
Windows 98 SE = Windows 4.1.2222
Windows ME = Windows 4.9.3000
NT-Based Windows versions:
Windows 2000 = Windows 5.0.2195
Windows XP = Windows 5.1.2600
HTH.
Re:3.0? bah (Score:2, Insightful)
98SE and 2000 (4.1.2222 and 5.0.2195).
Re:3.0? bah (Score:3, Interesting)
98SE and 2000 (4.1.2222 and 5.0.2195).
Actually I agree with you. 95 is best left to die. 98 is decent.
What the hell are you guys smoking?! : )
Win2k is great, and NT4 OK, comparitively speaking. But ALL of the DOS based Windows suck severely. I've been supporting them all since 3.0, I'm amazed there is *anyone* who thinks 98 is at all decent.
XP is just incredible. Decent foundation with 95 stability and quirks. I fail to see how MS could possibly have made it so damn bad.
My most anticipated feature (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:My most anticipated feature (Score:5, Funny)
Re:My most anticipated feature (Score:5, Funny)
Posted by Cowboyneal on Sunday October 20, @11:16AM
from the yippee-new-windows-features! dept.
In a surprise announcement today, Microsoft President Steve Ballmer revealed that the Redmond based company will allow computer resellers and end-users to customize the appearance of the Blue Screen of Death (abbreviated BSOD), the screen that displays when the Windows operating system crashes.
The move comes as the result of numerous focus groups and customer surveys done by Microsoft. Thousands of Microsoft customers were asked, "What do you spend the most time doing on your computer?" A surprising number of respondents said, "Staring at a Blue Screen of Death". At 54 percent, it was the top answer, beating the second place answer "Downloading Pornography" by an easy 12 points.
"We immediately recognized this as a great opportunity for ourselves, our channel partners, and especially our customers." explained the excited Ballmer to a room full of reporters.
Immense video displays were used to show images of the new customizable BSOD screen side-by-side with the older static version. Users can select from a collection of "BSOD Themes", allowing them to instead have a Mauve Screen of Death or even a Paisley Screen of Death. Graphics and multimedia content can now be incorporated into the screen, making the BSOD the perfect conduit for delivering product information and entertainment to Windows users.
The Blue Screen of Death is by far the most recognized feature of the Windows (tm) operating system, and as a result, Microsoft has historically insisted on total control over its look-and-feel. This recent departure from that policy reflects Microsoft's recognition of the Windows desktop itself as the "ultimate information portal." By default, the new BSOD will be configured to show a random selection of Microsoft product information whenever the system crashes. Microsoft channel partners can negotiate with Microsoft for the right to customize the BSOD on systems they ship.
Major computer resellers such as Compaq, Gateway, and Dell are already lining up for premier placement on the new and improved BSOD.
Ballmer concluded by getting a dig in against the Open Source community. "This just goes to show that Microsoft continues to innovate at a much faster pace than open source. I have yet to see any evidence that Linux even has a BSOD, let alone a customizable one."
Already has this feature, has had it for years. (Score:2)
"MessageBackColor=8 To specify the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) background (screen) color. Default is blue (1). See "BLUE (OR ANY OTHER COLOR) SCREEN OF DEATH", also in TIPS95.TXT [part of W95-11D.ZIP], or in MYTIPS31.TXT [part of W31-11D.ZIP], for complete details.
MessageTextColor=C To specify the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) foreground (text) color. Default is bright white (F). See "BLUE (OR ANY OTHER COLOR) SCREEN OF DEATH", also in TIPS95.TXT [part of W95-11D.ZIP], or in MYTIPS31.TXT [part of W31-11D.ZIP], for complete details."
Oh well, nice attempt
Why aren't Oopses dumped to swap? (Score:2)
Dumping the panic to swap seems more sensible than allocating another partition. This is how other OSes do it.
Re:Why aren't Oopses dumped to swap? (Score:2, Interesting)
This seems like the safest option, because it's isolated from the Linux system at any other point, but it would be nice to get the swap option as well for people who aren't interested in the fancy stuff unless something goes seriously wrong.
Re:My most anticipated feature (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course, stupid mistakes in Solaris or HP-UX kills their kernel and results in waiting for the machine to reboot. Stupid mistakes in Linux results in a kernel panic with the output sent to the syslog (9 times out of 10 bad code doesn't kill the entire Kernel, so no waiting on the machine to restart), so I definately think that Linux has the upper hand as far as handling poor kernel space code.
WhooHoo (Score:3, Interesting)
This one specifically should significantly help Linux take off on more devices.
Linux 3.0 (Score:4, Funny)
How about:
Linux IS (For those unbelievers...)
Linux ME (friendlier, bloatier, used like a verb)
Linux XL (for those kernel with everything)
or
Linux ** (just take care of all the letter names at once)
Re:Linux 3.0 (Score:4, Funny)
Sincerely,
RMS
Re:Linux 3.0 (Score:5, Informative)
If you are talking about the Operating System, you should address it as GNU/Linux (same as you have GNU/Mach).
e.g. Debian, SuSE, Redhat,
You must have amnesia RMS, since you learnt us to cite:
GNU is the operating system and Linux is one of its kernels
Re:Linux 3.0 (Score:3, Informative)
I'd remark on how the kernel increasing influence on userland makes the notion of "GNU/Linux" obsolete... but I'll leave it at that to minimize flames.
Re:Linux 3.0 (Score:5, Funny)
If you only want to take care of two letter tags, shouldn't that be:
Linux ??
Re:Linux 3.0 (Score:4, Funny)
A proper RegEx (Score:2)
or
'Linux [[:alpha:]]{2}'
or even more flexibly
'Linux
Why do i care? (Score:5, Interesting)
What i have now works great, give me concrete reasons i should worry about a new release.
Now as a developer i DO care.. I'm just looking at this from the stand point of a normal user ( my customers ) who hear the same stuff from M$ or apple.. 'new and improved, you must upgrade now'... And we used that as a selling point for Linux..
Re:Why do i care? (Score:2)
Perhaps Steven Spielberg should not care about the latest developments in movie cameras beccause I can't tell the difference?
Re:Why do i care? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you don't care, then:
1) You do not belong here. Go find yourself a different news source.
2) Change your account settings to hide Linux-related stories.
Re:Why do i care? (Score:2)
If as you claim , you are a developer, then you know full bloody well the importance of keeping up to date with operating systems.
And as for "go away". It's only as rude as "I don't care"(Which is code for "shutup" when you think about it).
And Duh... This *is* a linux orientated site. That's why linux news is important.
And when your users systems get ripped to shit by hackers because Redhat 5.2 was still "working for them", what do you usually explain to them?
Re:Why do i care? (Score:5, Insightful)
The kernel is the framework that connects to the hardware. Its like the chassis on your car, designed to give all components a secure mounting point to connect to each other. Without the kernel, all your component software would still be functional, but not to useful as they would be laying on the ground in a proof of concept state. The kernel supplies all the hardware to hook things up and make them into a fully functional machine.
The init process and scripts, libraries, and applications are the engine, powertrain components, interior, and all the other details to make a complete operating system. The kernel is simply the framework and body to make it all possible. Compile options allow you to have lightweight race car or a dumptruck.
Re:Why do i care? (Score:4, Interesting)
The upside with Linux is that with every new version, you usually don't have to upgrade hardware all that much or at least as much as say Windows.
My only complaint.....some installers now (Red Hat's and Mandrake's in particular) won't let you install on a low end machine ( I know there may be other versions, but I am talking about the default installer.....). By low end, I mean 486 and Pentium (No Bloody II, !!! or 4). Granted, this don't hurt many, because those in the know can just get Debian and install it.....but what makes Red Hat and Mandrake so certain that you can't get something to run on those machines? It seems, to me, that maybe if they had one low end image that let you just install it anyway and just deal with the circumstances afterwards would be a better thing to do. Like I said, for most, it doesn't matter. You can pick up Pentium II's (old machines) for peanuts now, so that guy can go and upgrade that decrepit Pentium 100. But my point is, why be like Microsoft and force ANY upgrade? At some point, you could drop that support, but there are alot of those machines laying around yet and they can serve a purpose before going to the landfill.
Re:Why do i care? (Score:3, Informative)
>with any OS, after 3.0 or 2.6 whatever it's going
>to be called comes out, then bug fixes may not be
>done for that much longer to the 2.4 series.
You'd have to worry more about new features and hardware support getting in than bug fixes. The 2.0 kernel is still being maintained and its over six years old.
>After a while, you will probably want to upgrade
>anyway especially if your company pays for >support from Red Hat or whoever.
If you're paying for support from a company, you'd probably be best off running whatever kernel that's current for the distribution, unless you have some specific reason to deviate. And with the lengthened life cycle of products like Advanced Server, the likelyhood of having to move to a new kernel for support reasons is even lower.
Matt
roadmap? (Score:2)
kernel.org doesn't have any info on this...
does anybody know of a roadmap (iirc, there is no official one)
or good guess as to when 3.0 (or 2.6) will be released?
Re:roadmap? (Score:2, Informative)
Everyone, especially Linus, hopes that the 2.6 (or 3.0) series has a more stable start than the 2.4 series did.
The real answer is when Linus and the core kernel developers believe it is ready, and there is no schedule, because they don't know when that will be. The answer I believe everyone is hoping for, is by the end of the year, since that will let it be included in the next release cycle by the major distributions (Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake), who are probably targeting releases late in the first quarter of the year.
Let me be the first to come out with the bad joke (Score:5, Funny)
Ok, lets all acknowledge the obvious cracks at 3.11 (like what happened with Windows). Let's sort of communally agree that we're not going to find 'em funny, before a really dumb thread enters the picture, okay?
Re:Let me be the first to come out with the bad jo (Score:2)
Re:Let me be the first to come out with the bad jo (Score:2)
Not Version Bloat. (Score:5, Informative)
There have been MAJOR features added to this Kernel.
Including
- UML
- New VM
- New Scheduler
- Finer SMP Locking
- At least 2 new Journaled FS (Reiserfs4 and XFS?)
- A new POSIX thread library/API.
Does anyone know if ALSA will be included?
We will finally be able to forget about the 1980's style
--
Matt
Re:Not Version Bloat. (Score:4, Informative)
Resier4 isn't in yet.. but he plans on submitting it on the 27th.. at least thats what his last email said.
XFS is already in there though
Re:Not Version Bloat. (Score:4, Funny)
But I liked the 80's style. I haven't worn out my baggy denim jacket yet and my spike hanging in there as good as ever. On a sidenote, to you men with big bald spots, I've been told that a spike is one way to conceal a growing bald spot. Become a PHB now! I want my IIe back.
Re:Not Version Bloat. (Score:2)
What about ACPI support? (Score:2)
With automatic hardware detection and configuration of peripherals in a standardized manner, maybe it might convince peripheral manufacturers to write Linux drivers en masse.
Re:Not Version Bloat. (Score:5, Informative)
BTW, I have to love a community where this sort of thing is discussed on a site called KernelNewbies:)
cruise (Score:3, Funny)
Re:cruise (Score:2)
Re:cruise (Score:2)
Is media automount in the kernel yet? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Is media automount in the kernel yet? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Is media automount in the kernel yet? (Score:3, Informative)
In my Red Hat servers I do this with the autofs daemon. I've used it successfully with both CD-ROM and ZIP drives, and had no problems sharing automounted drives with Samba.
Mandrake has for years now (with the exception of the 8.1 release, I believe) gone one step further by using a kernel patched with "Supermount", which is a "true" automount like you are probably thinking of.
So in fact, Linux has had this ability for quite some time now.
agreed (Score:2)
Re:agreed (Score:2, Informative)
anyone that has used a MAC or any other proper system that uses a powered eject or locking media like it is supposed to be so that you dont trash the filesystem on the disc.
Re:agreed (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Is media automount in the kernel yet? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Is media automount in the kernel yet? (Score:2, Informative)
What are you going off about? How can having a CD automount give way to having "information leaks" (on a read only media?!?) or "trash the system"?? In order to do this you would have to run something on the CD, which is a totally different point of security. You're rambling about nothing.
Re:Is media automount in the kernel yet? (Score:4, Informative)
Other example. Mr. A. H. Wannabeahacker has an account in some machine. He inserts the super-pupper CD - CrACkZ, hACKz and SuXXs. Plays a little bit and turns the server into a washing machine. Another true story. Those who work at University computer classes may have seen this a few times...
So people. I know that the autofs features are pretty cool. I do use them. But in user workstations ONLY! The lack of automount in a desktop station is a distro problem not a kernel one. All the basic infrastructure for automount is in the kernel already. However there should be some more tweaking on it, as certain types of ZIPs, CDs and HDDs may seriously influence the performance of the kernel while being mounted. It would be great to see some some kind of double checking of errors so that certain cascades wouldn't happen.
Ever heard of /dev and suid? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Is media automount in the kernel yet? (Score:2)
Re:Is media automount in the kernel yet? (Score:2)
B. The majority of admins comes from old damn good Win9x times.
C. This majority has a tendency to make things MazDie alike.
D. So they put autofs even in some major server.
E. I have can only two hands, two eyes and two ears (well something more but that's superfluous here).
F. I have one head only. And my head is frequently on heatsinker.
G. Certain distros love features. Like giving supermount from start. But if its not there, the guys in B. do everything to put it.
So what do you think? I know... "#brain$ rm -rf nerves ; echo "YOU LAMERZ!!!" ; cat "Why *NIX doesn't autofs from start - 10th edition""
DOS didn't have automount. (Score:5, Interesting)
Windows emulates its behaviour towards floppy disk drives, as you will find out very painfully if you click on the A: on a computer without a floppy drive (which, for me, is all of them), or without a disk in the drive.
Automount only works on hardware that gives feedback on when media is inserted (such as a CDROM drive). To prevent Badness (TM) in the blocklayer, the automount has traditionally been eschewed in favour of explicit mount. Why? Try removing a CD that's being read from in Win9x, and watch the blue-screen "Please insert CD labelled
Of course, many distributions include the (separate) automount patch anyways, and people who want this behaviour won't be rolling their own kernels any time soon.
Re:DOS didn't have automount. (Score:3, Insightful)
Point taken on the blue screen, but how about in Linux when a process running off the CD freezes your console, adn the only way to get around it is to reboot (since you can't just open the CD and have the process die like in windows)? This has happened to me several times in the past. Nont to mention the number of time sI was in windows and wanted to read a serial # off of the cd, so I just open it, blue screen appears, write it down, put it back in, hit enter. No harm done. I construe the opening of cd == death to be a feature, not a detriment.
Re:DOS didn't have automount. (Score:2)
It seems the only thing that locks my windows. The whole damn machine just falls asleep while waiting for CD seek. Same with debian. On almost any pc it's the same.
Do OS's traditionally implement these crappily or is it in the implementations in modern ide/mobo/cdrom hardware?
Re:DOS didn't have automount. (Score:2)
-Paul Komarek
Re:DOS didn't have automount. (Score:2)
rpm -e magicdev
-Paul Komarek
Re:DOS didn't have automount. (Score:2, Informative)
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:\dir a:
The device is not ready.
Your system must have something mine doesn't. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Is media automount in the kernel yet? (Score:2)
Reiser4 (Score:5, Interesting)
I *sooooo* hope the Hans gets off his butt and gets ReiserFS 4 in this one. If you follow the LKML closely (or just read the Kernel Traffic, http://kt.zork.net/kernel-traffic/latest.html [zork.net]) then you may have heard he's sweating a bit on getting it in.
Reiser4 may just revolutionize the way the some people do stuff. I mean, next system I want to be able to do:
All that *and* have transactional data commits with a very small performance hit!
(ReiserFS Trolls: Go ahead, bring it on!)
Re:Reiser4 (Score:3, Interesting)
All your software are belong to Lucent (Score:2)
take a look at Plan 9
Lucent's Plan 9 operating system has a bug in its license:
This effectively gives the Plan 9 contributors an unlimited non-exclusive license to use any copyright, patent, or trademark belonging to any licensee. For instance, if you install Plan 9, the license gives Lucent the right to violate the GPL on all software that you have developed, to pirate music you've written and recorded, and to pass off its products as yours.
Read more about the bugs in Plan 9 [gnu.org]
Re:Reiser4 (Score:2)
He's supposedly in the first major "cleaning-up" stage with basic stability already reasonably taken care of.
That being said, I think Hans has always been pretty good about limiting what he tries to do to small bite-size chunks, so I don't worry too much.
Re:Reiser4 (Score:5, Informative)
The feature he's referring to is the ability to treat files also as directories, and it promises to be a majorly cool enhancement to Linux that rewrites one of the most basic assumptions of OS design. The idea is that by improving the power of the filing system layer, and boosting the performance of the FS for small files, the need to have databases layered on top (and even /etc/passwd is a database) is eliminated. This in turn leads to a more powerful OS as that power is made generic, so being available to everything. It's better explained by Reiser himself.
One problem - 2.6/3.0 won't have that ability. What it will have is a special system call reiser4() that Hans can play with. You won't be able to "cat /etc/passwd/mike/group" anytime soon, unfortunately, this kind of major change takes a long time to work its way though the system. The reiser4 call will allow Hans to experiment with the new semantics before we even start to think about merging with the actual kernel.
Why is small file performance so important (this is the area where RFS kicks the ass of, well, pretty much everything else)? Because there are quite a lot of files out there which would actually be better stored as lots of small files. /etc/passwd is one good example, there are others. The reason they aren't currently stored as files is because traditionally filing systems have sucked when you have lots and lots of very small files, and we're talking like perhaps 5 byte files here. Reiser4 has some extremely clever algorithms in it, which mean it's good at small files but also large files too.
Of course, this is just the start of a much bigger picture, that'll see the filing system become something akin to a searchable knowledge store. Unfortunately, it's not going to happen quickly. For starters, if you were to suggest to the maintainer of app foo that they should store their data as lots of small files, they's say "no way, some of my users are on ext3, or xfs, or jfs" etc. Reiser has great vision, but he's not the only player in this field, and I have a nasty suspicion that the goal of exploding out large files into filing system structures could prove to be difficult while other filing systems are prevalent. Let's hope not, eh?
Can't help but notice... (Score:4, Funny)
Guess we know which kernel guru has started taking $ from Google!
New console layer (Score:5, Interesting)
this seems a bit premature (Score:4, Insightful)
This is about 1 of 3 different posts talking about 'what needs to be shown to linus when he gets back'
This is also the very first post of this one thread specific.. theres been about 5 or 6 more major things added to the list that people are hoping to get in
Also.. it seems noone on the list is sure whether this will be 3.0 or 2.6 at least noones given any real definate answer as far as I could see..
the lastest version of this list is here.. which compiles all the other threads in one.. is here [iu.edu]
Linux version names (Score:4, Funny)
obvious missing patches... (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, not seeing all the bootup messages is not highly important... but to a timid user that freaks when the computer beeps it is important. (I agree, people like that need to be kept away from technology... but these people here HAVE to work.)
Linux's acceptance on the desktop needs to have "eye-candy" like this that doesnt lower performance.
AOL??? (Score:4, Interesting)
There are still 7 days till the end of Linus's cruise, but that's not much time to get guinea pigs to publicly pipe up with a hearty "AOL!" of support for your work...
I didn't think a hearty endorsement by AOL would be good news for anything!
Re:AOL??? (Score:2)
"AOL!" in this context means "Me Too!" It came about because people associated replies (usenet, web discussion boards) that had "Me Too!" and no useful content with newbies, e.g. AOL users.
Always messes me up. I always think "Army Of Light"...
What should be embedded into Linux kernel 3.0 (Score:5, Funny)
Internet Explorer.
GUI.
The Eternal Flat Desktop for dummies.
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Solitaire.
Palladin
WYSINAWYG
WYGINAWYW
Easter Eggs
Make desktop "user ready". Forget the flame.
Forget the bugs, claim the features.
Add 100Kb EULA into the kernel itself.
Sell it and yourself to Bill Gates.
Rename it to Windows.
Sell it for $400 and threaten everyone who will not follow you.
Write a small text, anonymously authored - "Why I switched from Linux to Windows" and claim how your customers are deeply satisfied.
More complete list (Score:5, Informative)
http://kernelnewbies.org/status/latest.html [kernelnewbies.org]
Prepare to reboot your box next year... (Score:5, Funny)
You should be able to starting with 3.0 (2.6) (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Already got a beta version.... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Already got a beta version.... (Score:2)
Just how insane would this be? Anyone know?
And don't forget: (Score:4, Funny)
LinuxXX (Score:3, Funny)
Re:We Want Linux 4.0 (Score:2)
Re:OK, that's it, I'm 'switching' (Score:2, Informative)
Ive tried Red Hat but personally prefer Mandrake 9.0. Checkout Linux.com [linux.com] & for any hints tips / tutorials Google is always the best bet.
Re:OK, that's it, I'm 'switching' (Score:3, Informative)
Welllll, if it's 3.0 that you want to try, I'd wait a few months (at least). For starters, most of the major commercial distros (and for a beginner, you want a commercial distro) have just had major revs and so won't be upgrading their kernels for a while. Linux 3 will a lot of testing before all the wrinkles are ironed out, even after release, so when you start seeing companies like RedHat, Mandrake and SuSE (the one I use) shipping with a 2.6/3.0 based kernel, then you know it'll be ready.
On the other hand, if this story just piqued your interest, and you want to try anyway (2.4.18 is pretty good) then head over to linux.com where they have a good newbie article and a ton of links to help you out. A good boxed commercial distro will come with printed manuals to get you started, and if you get stuck, want to know a command etc (and you will) come say hi to us all on irc://irc.freenode.net/#linuxhelp
Linux is what you want it to be (Score:2, Insightful)
What a bunch of garbage. Who the hell said that Linux is supposed to be hard? Why? So you can be an 3!337 hacker when you get it installed? That attitude is why linux doesn't take off on the desktop - because when newbies interested in it look for help, all they hear is "RTFM." Yeah, those manuals are real easy to read.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that linux is a religion, and that we should all be bowing down to the Great God Penguin. Crap on that. Me personally, I'm not looking for an OS to become my hobby. I'm not looking to spend hours installing a damned window manager.
All I'm looking for is an OS that works, that I can customize aspects of if I like, that comes with a good compiler, that doesn't crash, and that isn't too bloated. Linux fits all of these requirements. I personally use Slackware, which was because I wanted to learn some about the guts of Linux, but I also wanted intelligent default configurations.
However, none of this gives me, you, or anyone else the right to insult someone because they don't want to spend hours, or days, on an install. Some people have jobs, and social lives, that together preclude spending such time on an OS. For people who want an OS that just WORKS and gives them the flexibility to do what they nead to do, a distro like Mandrake may make sense. This doesn't mean that they're less "linux" than you.
I think some people need to re-evaluate why they use linux in the first place. Is it because they are using it as a replacement for a social life? A replacement for religion? An outlet for M$ hatred? Because they like hacking open OS's? Or because it just does what they want it to? Personally, I'm of the opinion that the first three groups can just piss off.
Re:Not quite (Score:2)
If Battlefield Earth were attributed to me, I'd want people to think I had actually been dead before it was written!