Unfair Reviews

[yankee495]

Hi all,

Without going into a crazy rant I'll just say I hate unfair reviews. There is a review, if you can call it that, where they say Mageia 3 is "Already Old".

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Mageia-3-Distro-Is-Out-and-It-s-Already-Old-Screenshot-Tour-354663.shtml

Ok, so it is an opinion. Just because you are not bleeding edge with bugs and all doesn't make you "old". He also doesn't elaborate on anything.

I do have a question...what is the alternatives to systemd? People seem to bash that too. I think Mageia is fantastic and I don't go around telling people my Linux is better than your Linux. I love MCC...I've used other distros, not many and a long time ago. When I seen ROSA in Mandriva 2011 I thought what am I gonna run now? Absolutely didn't like it. But I don't bash it everywhere I go and I'm sure there are plenty of people that do like it.

I'm old fashioned I guess in that I don't like change. Mageia is different but so much the same I love it. Mageia 2 was so good I debated whether to upgrade or not. I wanted to upgrade early to try and help others but it looks like there is not much help needed. I think people are not doing the research, like running urpmi --auto-update when upgrading from a DVD.

My friend done an online upgrade and said it went fine. He said it showed up as an update so I don't know if he ran the prepare etc. I guess Mint is pretty good and I don't remember what it was but i read something that made me not install it. Mandrake was #1 for a long time and I'd like to see Mageia become #1 and stay there. Steam my help that happen.

I'm picky to be certain, but you see people say "I've tried every distro there is and this one (any distro) is the worst". Really, I guess they just will never be happy. It would be nice if there was a 100% bug free distro that even had your favorite wallpaper but that isn't going to happen.

There was someone complaining about Mageia and I Googled their user name. Guess what? They complained about others too.

Great job Mageia! I'd rather have slightly older packages than a very buggy system. For the most part mine is trouble free, if you can keep me from messing it up that is.

[artificeprime]

At first I didn't get (the apparent negativity in) the reviewer's title as what little he presents all sounded positive, not much different from the official Mageia press, but when I got to the kernel line I understood (emphasis mine):

Linux kernel has been updated to version 3.8, which has become EOL – end of life – in the meantime

I don't really keep up with these developments, so I took a quick hop over to Wikipedia and what does the sidebar say in the Linux Kernel article?

Latest stable release Kernel: 3.9.3 (19 May 2013; 2 days ago)

But, but, I didn't even get Mageia 3 until 19 May. This just gives me that "aww shucks..." feeling.

Since the kernel is the "Linux" part of GNU/Linux, the reviewer is technically correct, but I agree with you that to call this out specifically is unfair. Looking back at the roadmap, Mageia 3 hit version freeze back on 9 January, at which time I trust kernel 3.8.13 was quite fresh. Its a sour dose of irony, but probably nothing different than has happened with many prior versions of Mageia or Mandriva.

Ultimately, I imagine the only users effected by this are those who bought new (and possibly only recently supported) hardware within the last 6 to 12 months. I have only older, longtime supported hardware and except for an ALSA anomaly (a regression of some sort which I've already worked around) and mild annoyance at the clearly "work-in-progress" state of whatever it is the KDE folks are doing with the screen locker/saver features, I'm quite satisfied with Mageia 3.

[jkerr82508]

3.8.12 was released earlier this month:

https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/5/8/12
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Linux-Ke ... 1437.shtml

I think that 3.8.13 includes a fix for a recently disclosed vulnerability.

It was updated on May 14th. https://ml.mageia.org/l/arc/changelog/2 ... 00299.html

The reviewer is not correct.

Jim

[yankee495]

There were several Kernel updates to Mageia 2 so we'll get it. I wasn't worried about it except for SSD caching...and not really worried about that.

My computer will bend your ears back! I plan on it lasting a good long time. But yeah, haters gonna hate and trolls gonna troll. There is another review about how Mint 15 is the best OS ever and instead of gushing all about how good it is the reviewer spends 95% of the review bashing Windows. Nothing said about Mint made me want to try it and I left with the impression he'd be happy with just about anything that is not Windows.

I forgot to mention several glowing reviews of Mageia, even a video one of Mageia 3 on youtube. The guy complains about a couple of things then talks about how easy it was to fix and pretty much gives it a 5 star rating. I'm sure the developers don't even read past the headline on that stuff. They know they're good and "best" will always be a matter of choice and opinion even if you are the best.

Movie reviewers are the worst, "Best movie of the year" and when I see it I wanna slap some stupid out of them! Best moive in 1913 maybe but not 2013!

Anyway, there is very little stuff yet on Mageia 3 and I read the stuff for bugs and work arounds mainly. I just roll my eyes and go on to the next whatever it is when I see stuff like that. Like I said, it was not really a review but an opinion and he is welcome to it.

[artificeprime]

The reviewer is not correct.

Okay, thanks for the links and straightening me out on this score, Jim. See? I've got no clue how the kernel ecosystem works.

But then neither it seems does that reviewer....

[doktor5000]

Well, it's just one minor point in the short review, but the general tone is OK if you ask me.

[ghmitch]

I think a real problem with these kinds of reviews is that they tend to be very superficial in a lot of ways. Mageia has a distinct tendancy to tread carefully when it comes to new releases. AND I like that approach. I KNOW that the the 3.9 kernel is considered stable already. But when a new kernel first comes out, there are still bugs to be worked out and those who jump in first will be the ones to pay the price for stomping out those elusive final bugs that always appear AFTER the stable release. In ALL things, I prefer stable to flashy. If a user wants flashy there are distros out there that satisfy that thirst. But my preference is for slow and dependable. Unfortunately though, few reviewers seem to value stability. Instead what usually rises to the top are the bells and whistles which are great for the "awesome" factor, but are not the kind of thing that gets the job done. I am sure that in a few weeks we will be getting the 3.9 kernel AFTER the bugs are worked out of it. I say that because that was my experience with Mageia 2. Some distros out there NEVER update. Others are ALWAYS updating in order to maintain a "bleeding edge" reputation. I prefer something in between. I could not have been more pleased with how Mageia 1 and Mageia 2 handled these issues. Updates appeared in a steady flow and they were solid, everyone of them and they never "broke" things, but were either invisible in their effect or added some degree of enhancement. That is what I have come to expect of Mageia and so far I have not been disappointed and that is to me a very valuable asset that can not be captured in a review that comes from a breif few days experience of sightseeing the distro. So just be patient and enjoy the ride. Over time Mageia will give you much to be thankful for. - George

[artificeprime]

...when a new kernel first comes out, there are still bugs to be worked out and those who jump in first will be the ones to pay the price for stomping out those elusive final bugs that always appear AFTER the stable release.

But by "paying that price" as you've suggested, these early adopters are performing a great service to you and me and to everyone else who, as you say, prefers their distro "slow and dependable". We persistently owe them a debt of gratitude for putting themselves on the front lines. For my own part, I often feel guilty for lacking the time and technical know-how to contribute back to the community more than I feel I take from it, which makes this paragraph as good a place as any to inject another big THANK YOU from me to everyone who dips into the Cauldron to make the next Mageia possible.

In ALL things, I prefer stable to flashy ... my preference is for slow and dependable. Unfortunately though, few reviewers seem to value stability. Instead what usually rises to the top are the bells and whistles which are great for the "awesome" factor, but are not the kind of thing that gets the job done.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. Up thread yankee495 drew a comparison to movie reviewers. Your remark above reminds me of my disdain for car reviewers. I drive a Toyota Yaris hatchback which (at the time I bought it) reviewed along the lines of "limited horsepower", "slow to accelerate", "hugs the road poorly on curves*", etc. My reaction to this was, that, um, well, it's a low-cost subcompact city car designed around fuel economy; these reviewers seemed to be comparing it to high-end, high-performance sports cars, which is just nuts. Ironically, these reviews actually solidified my decision to buy one. I don't need a flashy sports car to compensate for something — I have no problem picking up women — I just need a vehicle to get me from Point A to Point B. For that "slow and dependable" is more than satisfactory.

* I've never understood the curve-hugging thing (but admittedly never driven any sports cars to compare). It's not like the Yaris leans excessively or something and I'm not flung tumbling off the road while travelling at highway speeds, so I don't have a clue what they're talking about (I'm not a "car guy").

FWIW, I think the Mageia team has consistently put out distros that are quite aesthetically pleasing, KDE4 is plenty flashy, and for me the "awesome" factor is measured largely on stability.