I hate to compare Redhat and Mandrake, but Redhat 9 seemed to have better hardware detection.

I have a SIIG Ultra ATA 133 PCI controller card, and upon installing Redhat the card was detected, but with Mandrake 9 and 10 community, it was not detected. I might have to install a driver. But the point is that Mandrake boasts 'unsurpassed hardware detection' and yet this hardware was not detected. If I have to install the driver to get Linux to even SEE the card?

With Redhat I did not have to install any driver at all, I just installed and it worked fine. Originally I have the hard drive connected to the Ultra 133 card and successfully installed Rehat, but when I tried to install Mandrake, the hard drive 'was not found' LOL!!! You've got to be kidding me, right?

I went to the website and there is no driver available for Linux. So, my question is, excuse my French, but

WHY THE HELL DOES MANDRAKE NOT DETECT THIS HARDWARE BUT REDHAT DOES?

What is the difference, why not kepp the same hardware support for both distributions.

This is why Linux is free...who would pay for such a second-rate operating system if it does not even detect simple hardware. The developers must spend all their time making insignificant programs that maybe only 1-2% of the users would ever need, and neglect the MOST IMPORTANT of the aspects, such as hardware detection and user-friendlyness.

"This is why Linux is free...who would pay for such a second-rate operating system if it does not even detect simple hardware"

If you don't like it that much. GO AWAY. God, I hate people like you. People who cant take the 5 minutes to check a simple list of supported hardware and find out if its gonna work before they go about installing everything.

Did it ever occur to you that the particular card you are trying to use might not work because the hardware manufacturer didnt release a driver for it? Because someone didnt have time to hack together something for it? Maybe redhat supports it because redhat didnt go backrupt last year!

Get a clue!

Do I come over to whatever forums you visit for ms advice and ask for help, then complain about an OS? Maybe if you used your head, for one moment, and asked, gee, why did red hat 9 detect this and not mandrake? Did it ever occur to you that since red hat has a driver, then there is obviously a driver for your ata card floating around. Common sense, look at the chipset then google. Edit your makefile then compile and install. Modprobe it and your problem would be fixed.

But thats a wee bit too much time for the "point and click" ms users. Ever think maybe, just maybe linux was made for people who want control over there system? Again, using your head, to be point click user friendly as you wish it was, means one size fits all. As you can see by my sig, some of us need a bit more control and scalabilty than you. With control comes responsibilty and some work. Maybe you should fork out $200-300 for a legal copy of xp save the headache? Too cheap? Then start using some common sense or you wont get far in linux land.

Maybe because Redhat and Mandrake are different distros made by two different companies? Ya, Mandrake is very similar to Redhat, but that does not mean that it will work exactly like Redhat.

Second-rate? I think not. I prefer to use Linux rather than Windoze any day. And the developers worked hard to make a great system, and you go complaining that it lacks stuff. Sure, not every system has exactly what you want. Besides, Linux is not point-and-click-and-it-somehow-magically-works.

Why bother going ranting? Sure, it does take some anger off, but it won't help you in the long run. Just my two cents.