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	Rex Ballard - Director of Electronic Distribution
	Standard & Poor's/McGraw-Hill
	Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect
	the Management of the McGraw-Hill Companies.
	http://cnj.digex.net/~rballard


On Fri, 5 Jul 1996, Anthony D. Tribelli wrote:

> A Shelton (ashelton@yallara.cs.rmit.EDU.AU) wrote:
> : adt@netcom.com (Anthony D. Tribelli) writes:
> : >A Shelton (ashelton@yallara.cs.rmit.EDU.AU) wrote:
> : >: dleblanc@mindspring.com (David LeBlanc) writes:
> 
> : >: >Speaking of X, Xfree86 toasted my 1024x768 video mode on my monitor...
> : >:
> : >: X-Free to the best of my knowledge does nothing you don't
> : >: tell it to do.

There is a warning in the set-up documentation that you should not try to
push your monitor beyond it's limits.  It even points out that you can
cause the monitor to burst into flames by demanding too high a vertical or
horizontal frequency.  If you insisted on getting 1024x768 with 90 hz
refresh, you got it.  I generally go for the lowest refresh rate possible.

> : >This is the sort of attitude that keeps linux from expanding very far 
> : >beyond the technically inclined. ;-)

It really is inappropriate.  In one of the technical service groups, he
should have gotten a more considerate response.  Advocacy groups often get
so caught up in the heat of the debate they lose track of the goal of
serving the customer.

> : snipe..snipe...snipe    You never have anything useful to add do you?
> 
> I would suggest that pointing out a weakness that limits the proliferation
> of linux is a useful thing. I'd like to see linux be more successful, you
> do not? 

Linux does have several weak areas, especially in the area of set-up and
configuration.  There was once a time when it was extremely difficult to
configure X11 at all.  Several video cards weren't supporte, and several
monitors were torched because installers would "tune" to the highest
possible resolution at the highest possible refresh rate.  I used to run
1100x800 myself.  I didn't have enough ram on my video card to go 1280 x
1024.

> : the top of the post said XFree86 != Linux, and that still holds...
> 
> When most people speak of linux there are referring to a distribution not
> merely the kernel, a product not a component. If X screws up people will
> bad mouth the linux product and the acceptance of this product will be
> slowed. 

Actually, you are right Tony.  Much of the attraction of Linux is that you
can get this huge bundle of software for next to nothing.  There are
"hotter" (better supported) versions of X11 server, and other commercial
products that are intended to fill the void between what the standard
distributions provide, and what the unsophisticated customer will need.

As Linux Advocates, we must remember that it is we, not 1-900 number that
support the Linux user community.

> Tony
> -- 
> ------------------
> Tony Tribelli
> adtribelli@acm.org
> 
> 
	Rex Ballard
	http://cnj.digex.net/~rballard



From rballard@cnj.digex.net Fri Jul  5 17:25:10 1996
Status: O
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Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy