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Weblog:   Seven iBook Logic Boards Later.. I'm Free
Subject:   Freedom and Knowledge
Date:   2004-01-28 08:34:58
From:   mcharpentier
Some years ago, I bought my second Linux (SCSI) machine - from SuSE.
The graphics card did not run under X11 - calling SuSE was of no use: no, no, we have checked everything, everything's ok, etc


After much scrutiny and quite a bit of luck - I am no hardware freak - we discovered that we had to set some jumpers on the card.


A year or so later, the logic board crashed. At the local repair shop, I naïvely asked if they could upgrade my machine to a bi-processor system.
Well, um, yes, but, Sir, we are no Linux-specialists.
A fortnight later, I got back my machine. It has never worked again. Sychronization (PIC) problems of the processors?
I could not complain as I was warned: they were no Linux-shop. And it was not cheap.


Summer 2002: I needed a new machine. No vendor-lockin: a great idea. I went to another computer shop: we build the computer YOU want.
Yes, I wanted a bi-processor machine with 1 G of memory.
Hard disk: unimportant. Graphics card: high quality in two dimensions. Well, ok, but we strongly discourage the use of a bi-processor system - we are no Linux shop, etc
I needed a new machine: OK then, no bi-processor.
They built the machine, I paid - the first time I tried to boot the system I was welcomed by the BIOS. Fascinating.
The local Linux/hardware guru saved me (a week later): he had to change some wiring on the logic board (RAID related) a fact which took him some time to discover.
Six months later, the 21 inch Iiyama monitor (3 years old) gave a sigh and stopped working.


Countless hours of fiddling and headscratching.
Thumbing through hardware guides about possible error sources.


Time lost - for nothing.
(And I am not telling you the stories about software problems like file system navigators which suddnly stopped working under a new SuSE release - of course, they knew about the problem and were working on it - as the automatic answer tried to convince me)
I'm using now an Apple bi-processor system, a UNIX system which let's me concentrate on my work - using all the free software I need day in day out: TeX, Metapost, Python, etc.


Yes, it's about freedom - not from hardware vendor lockin, but from trouble, random, peripheral problems.


Yes, it's about freedom - the freedom to be able to work on the problems which interest me and not being forced to lose my time on things which do not interest me.


Conclusion?
One needs a lot of knowledge, one must be ready to invest a big amount of time to achieve hardware indepence.
And that's for some of us another form of slavery.


Let us hope that the hardware gets more reliable and the vendors better behaved.
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  • Steve Mallett photo Freedom and Knowledge
    2004-01-28 12:29:48  Steve Mallett | O'Reilly Blogger [View]

    Amen.
    • Freedom and Knowledge
      2004-01-28 21:31:14  mcharpentier [View]

      Thanks for the sarkasm - but it does not address my main point:
      I "suffered" from "Linux lock-in".
      And had no one to blame.

      I buy a mainstream printer from HP - and have to resell it, because there are no GS-drivers for this model.

      I must run some specific Windows apps; trying to transform our Windows machine into a dual-booting system failed - the graphics card was "to new". Even with the new drivers from the graphics card vendor the machine had random lock-ups. But no problems on the Windows side.

      Those ridiculous experiences can't be described as "freedom".

      One could even say that I suffered from "OS lock-in".
      As Microsoft said in the context of the recent HP-Apple collaboration: "Windows is all about freedom of choice."
      Well ...
      • Steve Mallett photo Freedom and Knowledge
        2004-01-29 05:32:14  Steve Mallett | O'Reilly Blogger [View]

        Those ridiculous experiences can't be described as "freedom".

        Dude, you couldn't get it work.. how did it even have a chance to lock you in?? (You probably would have been alright using Mandrake.)

        Anyway, I think we're both arguing over how unreliable hardware is a pain. Mine ran OS X so instead of continuing I'm making it run something else so -when- the logic board dies an eighth time I know what I'll be using the next day.

        I'm solving the problem that I really can't reliable say what I'll be running from day to day.
        As of this morning it looks like Apple is going to be doing a lot of replacing. I'm super happy for that for all those folks who weren't getting their logic boards replaced.
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