Win98 -- all kidding aside

[Jimmy Montague]

On Wed, 2008-07-30 at 13:23 -0400, Rashkae wrote:
> Jimmy Montague wrote:
> 
> > I remember being in a computer shop in 1993 or 94 (I forget just which)
> > and seeing Linux for sale on CD for an insignifican amount, like $1.69
> > or some such. 
> > 
> > CDs were new at the time. I remember I didn't yet have a CD drive on my
> > big, snortin' 12-mhz, 286 w/16 mb of RAM and a 40 mb hdd. I wanted to
> > try it, but I was told this "Linux thing" wouldn't run on a 286. I had
> > to have a 386 if I wanted to run Linux.
> > 
> > So Linux had been released to the public at that time. It was in
> > development at that time. And at that time, floppy drives were as common
> > as the fleas in your underwear, Mr. Silverstrim. The floppy was then and
> > remained for several years thereafter the most common means of getting
> > data in and out of a PC.
> > 
> > And so I say: Linux should from the very first have mastered the art of
> > controlling a floppy drive. As far as I can tell, Linux has never done
> > so. Having tried several flavors of Linux over the years (Red Hat,
> > Mandrake, Mandriva, Xandros, Caldera, several other flavors whose names
> > I cannot recall, Ubuntu, Kbuntu, and now Ubuntu again), I can also say
> > that I'm unaware of any Linux distro that ever handled floppy drives
> > with the ease that MacIntosh (another Unix system) and the PC have
> > always accomplished that chore.
> > 
> 
> Every linux version I've ever tried handles floppies just fine.  Before
> the days of automount, you were expected to use the mount command (or
> some mount widget on your desktop GUI if you were a gui person.) This
> was different than Windows, but no less functional
> 
> > If YOU know how to make Ubuntu 8.04 perform with floppies, Mr.
> > Silverstrim, I'd suggest you explain how to do so rather than autoboot
> > into a state of denial or start throwing rhetorical sandbags about how
> > wonderful Linux is and how unreasonable I am to ask a modern OS to
> > perform a task that ought to be so simple. As far as I can tell, my
> > asking Ubuntu to manage floppies is like asking Einstein to manage a
> > ball-peen hammer.
> >
> 
> And as far as I can tell, from reading previous threads, the only
> problem you have with Hardy is that the floppy device gets renamed to
> the disk label of the first disk you use.  An interesting bug to be
> sure, but nothing that stops you from using your floppy drive.

The GUI tells me that disk utilites are installed, but won't let me
access those utilities or use them to format floppy disks.

> 
> I don't know why I'm even replying to you.. from the very first message
> you had about floppies you've only ever been able to express your
> questions and concerns in flames and insults.  (Hint: I've never had
> this kind of trouble in Windows is not the right way to start a question
>  on a support list.  The answer then is automatically 'then use Windows.')
> 

No. The message is "use another system." The Mac, for example, handles
floppies with ease. But your response probably indicates why Linux does
not.

> On behalf of the developers and volunteers who labour to make Linux and
> Ubuntu as great as it is, I apologize that your experience was
> frustrating and thank you for bringing a new problem to people's
> attention.  That being said, I will no longer bother answering or
> reading this crap you throw around.
> 
There it is. That's the Linux help system I remember of old.