That was the problem. The assault was a complete success. The insertion and execution were planned and executed well. The problem was the extraction. They obviously didn't have a plan for what would happen if a helo got shot down or if the HMMWV's & 5-ton trucks got attacked. If the enemy elements in the area simply had AK-47's, that wouldn't have been a problem. But, as was very clear in the movie, every 5th guy had a damn RPG (rocket-propelled grenade). The commanders simply didn't take that into account or didn't take it very seriously. All it takes is one lucky asshole to ruin your whole day. When the first bird got shot down - that's where it all went to hell! They lost mobility and initiative in a single instant. What did the Army have going for them? The enemy couldn't shoot or coordinate his forces worth a damn. If the helo had never gone down, none of this would have happened. However, when it did go down, suddenly they were teathered to one spot with no support and no extraction. The fact that the enemy could not shoot or coordinate well didn't matter anymore. The Army forces were stuck there long enough that the enemy had ample opportunity to mass his forces and when you have that many bullets flying downrange, well suddenly marksmanship isn't really a factor. On the other hand, if the enemy had coordinated, even a little bit, they could have rushed the building and slaughtered the Rangers.
You saw how when the heavy armor rolled in, the situation was resolved quickly. That was the fatal flaw. The mission was planned well enough on the surface, but didn't have any failsafes planned. Simply put: they didn't expect the unexpected. The principle of overwhelming force is a crucial one in urban operations. The Army sent in what looked like a Delta Force squad with a Ranger infantry company to support them. The Marine Corps would have sent a FAST company or Force Recon platoon in with an entire MEU(SOC) (Marine Expeditionary Unit(Special Operations Capable)) supporting them. That's an infantry battalion, an air squadron, and all their organic support. Not all of them would have been out there, but they would have been instantly avalible for further support. Would the surrounding buildings been a problem after a few low-level bombing runs from F-18's with Harriers supporting them had turned them into a pile of rubble and blood? Hell no. Would the RPG's been a threat to the extraction vehicles if they were M1-A1 tanks instead of HMMVW's and 5-ton's? Hell no. Were American (and for that matter, Somali) lives needlessly lost because some commanders didn't understand the concept of combined arms and an overwhelming show of force? HELL YES.
I'm a Marine, so I just so happen to know a little something about this subject...
As far as I know, no one has an actual motto to that effect. If there is a unit, it would have to be a regiment or smaller, because I've never heard it. It's a standing tradition in the more elite of our country's forces. The Marines, SEAL's, Delta Force, Rangers, etc. all will never leave a man behind. It's not just about keeping the faith with a fallen comrade - it's about doing for others what you would want done for yourself. Through WWII we tended to bury the dead where they fell, Normandy being a perfect example. I think we did the same in Korea, though I'm not completely sure. In Vietnam, however, we started bringing all of our dead home. Who the hell would want to be buried in that shithole? Vietnam marked the point where the concept of never leaving a man behind became burned into the consciousness of the military. Nobody wanted to contemplate their body being left behind for the North Vietnamese to have fun with, therefore they were gonna make damn sure they didn't leave their buddies, either.
One thing I would like to point out to those without much understanding of military operational planning - this mission was a butt-fuck. Whoever planned it must have said - "I think I'll get a shitload of my men killed today!" Seriously, the Marine Corps would have never gone in there with that small of a contingent and that few supporting arms. They needed at least double to triple the infantry and an armored tank column. The commander should have refused anything less when he was told to go without armor. Once ashore in Somalia, the Corps never went anywhere without bringing at least a few tanks. Why? They were the one piece of equipment that scared the Somalians shitless. They also were pretty scared of us in general. They referred to the Marines as the "white-sleeves" and wouldn't attack us (we roll our cammie sleeves differently than the Army). "Green-sleeves" on the other hand, meant open-season because they usually didn't have tanks. Probably due to the fact that the Army has a chip on its shoulder and wanted to prove it could be as lightweight as the Marine Corps.
None of these were failures of those men on the ground, though. They were the incompetent betrayals of their commanders. Delta Force and the Rangers fought bravely and I have the deepest respect for them and their actions that day.
Fuck you. Honestly. Fuck you. What gives you the right to dictate how my tuition dollars should be spent? Are you paying for my tuition, room & board, fees, books, etc? No - I am. Not financial aid & not my parents - I am.
I'm a Systems Analysis major and do you know how many classes I have that have computers in them for the students? Zero. Not this semester at least, and I have two programming classes. Why not? Because we're doing a lot of theoretical stuff and discussion, rather than coding. Furthermore, why go to the library to get online, when I have a much faster computer in my room? And, email for file sharing??? What the hell planet are you on? First, most servers limit the size of attachments and second, it's inefficient as hell! Did it ever occur to you that all of this "ridiculous" file sharing, whether it be through Napster, Gnutella, or good ol' fashioned FTP, is useful to the learning process? Maybe a lot of the English majors who would otherwise only use word processing and email, now understand about file transferring, boolean searches, and general bandwidth issues a little bit better. Maybe I benefit from being able to run and FTP server and play around with it, and in doing so - learn about it.
Also, pherhaps it's nice for a poor college student to be able to entertain themselves with new and interesting things on a PC they've already paid for, through bandwidth they've already paid for. It beats getting yourself deeper into debt. Finally, if file sharing doesn't educate students about the ins-and-outs of copyright law and the ideas and concepts behind intellectual property, I don't know what will.
This comes right after the section on waiving the jury trials in the full license:
14.5 Severability. If any provision of this Agreement is held to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable for any reason, then such provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the remainder of the provisions of this Agreement will remain in full force and effect.
Uhhh... Shouldn't the last sentence read "See above paragraph for an example"? Seriously though, when I read it, I almost thought (hoped?) it was a hoax.
No, I wish I was very young, but that isn't so. I was exaggerating a bit when I said that.
However, I don't remeber anyone cheering for IE at first. Most of the people I knew either said "Why the hell is MS making a browser? (and giving it away for free - hmmm...)" or "Man, that IE is a real piece of crap, I'll stick with [Netscape, Mosaic, Spyglass, Chameleon Web Surfer, etc...]."
Would "gaining a business advantage first" do for a reason? Patent the improvements, refuse the license until you've gained a dominant market share and then release the innovation to the others. That's how business is done.
Microsoft has had a dominant business share for as long as I can remember. Furthermore, let me know when they license out Kerberos, Active Directory, ActiveX, ASP, DirectX, their Java extensions,.NET, or any other "improvement" or "innovation" of their for public use in Linux or FreeBSD or proprietary use in Unix or OSX. Their goal is still to lock in customers and stifle competition.
First, yes I know that this is probably a troll. However, on the off chance that it isn't, I have these questions for the AC.
1) If the public protocol is leaky, why not develop their own, totally different & competing protocol?
2) If they did care about the public domain issues and improvement, why not submit their improvements to the standards body to have their "improvements" included?
3) Failing or separate from this, why not license out their "improvements" to other software vendors? They would still make money, right?
I think the truth is that while it is possible that MS may have made a few small improvements (doubtful, but possible), their real goal is to ensnare new customers and to dig existing ones even deeper. If you still disagree, I would appreciate hearing any lucid arguments.
"Grace Murray Hopper, working in a temporary World War I building at Harvard University on the Mark II computer, found the first computer bug beaten to death in the jaws of a relay. She glued it into the logbook of the computer and thereafter when the machine stops (frequently) they tell Howard Aiken that they are "debugging" the computer. The very first bug still exists in the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution. The word bug and the concept of debugging had been used previously, perhaps by Edison, but this was probably the first verification that the concept applied to computers."
Sorry meant to list the frequency differences. ELF, or Extremely Low Frequency signals are between 30-3000 Hz. VLF, or Very Low Frequency signals are between 3-30 kHz. Imagine the world's biggest subwoofers. Wonder if the Navy even gets tempted to broadcast one of those Dr. Crankenstein Bass CD's on it.;-)
Yes, they are still in use. The primary is somewhere in the upper peninsula of Michigan. It can be received darn near anywhere. However, it transmits VERRRRY SLOOOOWLY. How slowly? I don't know the exact data rate, but to give you an idea, the Navy sends a three-letter code group that directs the sub to do whatever. Oftentimes it is to come to periscope depth, float the antenna, and copy the full message traffic from satelites. Nothing classified here, been public knowledge for years. The reason it's not a big secret is that any non-authorized ELF messages would be pretty easy to detect, and the Navy is surely changing around the groups and their lengths all the time. Watch The Hunt for the Red October and you'll hear them talking about it before they go to periscope depth to get the full message. None of the code groups can do anything wacky, like tell an SSBN (ballistic-missle sub) to nuke China, so the room for someone injecting sinister messages and the damage they could do is very minimal.
An even bigger mistake, he shipped it without those little shock-sensitive sticker things they have now, so you can just look at the box and if the shock sticker has gone off, you have evidence of what happened in transit.
I think it's more than safe to say that his packages sustained some shock...
Seriously, the Marine Corps has not only the smallest budget, but also the smallest per capita budget. We pride ourselves on doing more with less. The Marine Corps has been rapidly advancing towards the bleeding edge with computers over the last five years. You have the skills to write a program for Linux, Solaris, or Windows that will help or save money for the Corps? They'll pay your ass a bonus of up to (I believe) $20,000. It's a good way to test your skills in a place where it will be appreciated.
Want to know the best part of all? It doesn't matter if you're a damn PFC who drives a tank or a Seargent working in the military police. If your stuff is good, people will listen. And you can pick whatever random job you want to do for four years and then head into civlian life with even more options and management experience that money can't buy. Look into it (and all inter-service joking aside, shop around), it may not be for you... but then again, it might be exactly what you need in your life.
Okay... what you say might be true and I'm not on a quest to build up Dell here, but I have some questions...
1) Why didn't you test the first few you imaged, instead of doing all 100 & then saying "Oh shit, they're all jacked up!"?
2) We received Dell Premier Support, the same support that all businesses, school, and government institutions receive. Don't believe me? Go to Dell's Support Page and see how they're classified.
3) Regardless of that, we were covered under the support contract that came with the system that is separate from your status. It is determined by the contract under which you bought the system.
4) Furthermore, you imaged the disks from their original configs. Why should Dell have to reinstall Windows becuase you guys messed up? If the disks went physically bad, then they should replace them per the purchase service agreement. Otherwise, every OEM in the world will tell you to take a flying leap, unless you have a special clause in your contract.
5) Of course Dell's buying parts from IBM! They primarily build systems. For example, they buy memory from Siemens, HDD's from Maxtor, CD-ROM's from LG, etc. So again, your statement has no relevance that I can see.
6) Finally, I'm sorry, but I usually have trouble listening to ancedotal information from AC's. Why don't you log in? It's not like you were posting flamebait or offtopic, just incorrect information.
If you feel anything I said is wrong or being mis-percieved, feel free to correct me. Thanks.
I agree. I worked at one of the biggest bases (computer-wise) doing hardware support for a large government organization (HINT: Semper Fi!). We serviced everything under the sun (hehe - including Sun) and ran into every bizzare-ass situation with hardware imaginable.
Consistantly, one vendor was head and shoulders above the rest - Dell. We dealt with all the vendors on a daily basis and the only one we could depend on for outstanding and timely service every time was Dell. I really am *very* surprised by the submitter's problem. I've always built my own systems but I tell everyone that if I ever had to buy a pre-built, the only company I would ever consider was Dell. That's the result of my experiences. Compaq, OTOH, can burn a slow, painful death in the depths of Hell. Just my two cents...
I totally agree with you. However, to give you a little assist, Win2K is MUCH more stable with Service Pack 2. Anything less than that and you'll have a shitload of problems (usually).
The VIA chipsets are likely your problem. I've never once had a problem with SB Live. However, Mandrake and VIA have had problems together before (and I've seen that firsthand). Another thing is to make sure you check your md5sums. I couldn't figure out why 8.1 was having weird install problems, then I realized I had forgotten to check the ISO's. Guess what? All three were bad - DOH!
Yes, Mandrake has been including GRUB as an option along with old-school LILO and graphical LILO. Unfortunately, I can't remember which is default (even though I just installed a copy two hours ago *sigh*).
...Mandrake is important to gaining a foothold on the desktop and with the average user. Are they the most stable distro? No. Even though I love Mandrake, I won't even try to pretend otherwise on that issue. However, do they have a shit-hot installation routine, lots of pre-loaded goodies, excellent configuration tools, and a strong focus on giving the end user what they want/need? Hell yes.
I always hear Mandrake derided by a signifigant portion of the/. crowd, but for what faults it may have as a distro, it is also the missing link. RedHat will take servers, SuSE the scientific/engineering community, Debian the ubergeeks, and who on the desktop? That's right, Mandrake. This will help to increase the foothold they have already started. (Hopefully!)
Slashdot Mirror
That was the problem. The assault was a complete success. The insertion and execution were planned and executed well. The problem was the extraction. They obviously didn't have a plan for what would happen if a helo got shot down or if the HMMWV's & 5-ton trucks got attacked. If the enemy elements in the area simply had AK-47's, that wouldn't have been a problem. But, as was very clear in the movie, every 5th guy had a damn RPG (rocket-propelled grenade). The commanders simply didn't take that into account or didn't take it very seriously. All it takes is one lucky asshole to ruin your whole day. When the first bird got shot down - that's where it all went to hell! They lost mobility and initiative in a single instant. What did the Army have going for them? The enemy couldn't shoot or coordinate his forces worth a damn. If the helo had never gone down, none of this would have happened. However, when it did go down, suddenly they were teathered to one spot with no support and no extraction. The fact that the enemy could not shoot or coordinate well didn't matter anymore. The Army forces were stuck there long enough that the enemy had ample opportunity to mass his forces and when you have that many bullets flying downrange, well suddenly marksmanship isn't really a factor. On the other hand, if the enemy had coordinated, even a little bit, they could have rushed the building and slaughtered the Rangers.
You saw how when the heavy armor rolled in, the situation was resolved quickly. That was the fatal flaw. The mission was planned well enough on the surface, but didn't have any failsafes planned. Simply put: they didn't expect the unexpected. The principle of overwhelming force is a crucial one in urban operations. The Army sent in what looked like a Delta Force squad with a Ranger infantry company to support them. The Marine Corps would have sent a FAST company or Force Recon platoon in with an entire MEU(SOC) (Marine Expeditionary Unit(Special Operations Capable)) supporting them. That's an infantry battalion, an air squadron, and all their organic support. Not all of them would have been out there, but they would have been instantly avalible for further support. Would the surrounding buildings been a problem after a few low-level bombing runs from F-18's with Harriers supporting them had turned them into a pile of rubble and blood? Hell no. Would the RPG's been a threat to the extraction vehicles if they were M1-A1 tanks instead of HMMVW's and 5-ton's? Hell no. Were American (and for that matter, Somali) lives needlessly lost because some commanders didn't understand the concept of combined arms and an overwhelming show of force? HELL YES.
Semper Fidelis
I'm a Marine, so I just so happen to know a little something about this subject...
As far as I know, no one has an actual motto to that effect. If there is a unit, it would have to be a regiment or smaller, because I've never heard it. It's a standing tradition in the more elite of our country's forces. The Marines, SEAL's, Delta Force, Rangers, etc. all will never leave a man behind. It's not just about keeping the faith with a fallen comrade - it's about doing for others what you would want done for yourself. Through WWII we tended to bury the dead where they fell, Normandy being a perfect example. I think we did the same in Korea, though I'm not completely sure. In Vietnam, however, we started bringing all of our dead home. Who the hell would want to be buried in that shithole? Vietnam marked the point where the concept of never leaving a man behind became burned into the consciousness of the military. Nobody wanted to contemplate their body being left behind for the North Vietnamese to have fun with, therefore they were gonna make damn sure they didn't leave their buddies, either.
One thing I would like to point out to those without much understanding of military operational planning - this mission was a butt-fuck. Whoever planned it must have said - "I think I'll get a shitload of my men killed today!" Seriously, the Marine Corps would have never gone in there with that small of a contingent and that few supporting arms. They needed at least double to triple the infantry and an armored tank column. The commander should have refused anything less when he was told to go without armor. Once ashore in Somalia, the Corps never went anywhere without bringing at least a few tanks. Why? They were the one piece of equipment that scared the Somalians shitless. They also were pretty scared of us in general. They referred to the Marines as the "white-sleeves" and wouldn't attack us (we roll our cammie sleeves differently than the Army). "Green-sleeves" on the other hand, meant open-season because they usually didn't have tanks. Probably due to the fact that the Army has a chip on its shoulder and wanted to prove it could be as lightweight as the Marine Corps.
None of these were failures of those men on the ground, though. They were the incompetent betrayals of their commanders. Delta Force and the Rangers fought bravely and I have the deepest respect for them and their actions that day.
Fuck you. Honestly. Fuck you. What gives you the right to dictate how my tuition dollars should be spent? Are you paying for my tuition, room & board, fees, books, etc? No - I am. Not financial aid & not my parents - I am.
I'm a Systems Analysis major and do you know how many classes I have that have computers in them for the students? Zero. Not this semester at least, and I have two programming classes. Why not? Because we're doing a lot of theoretical stuff and discussion, rather than coding. Furthermore, why go to the library to get online, when I have a much faster computer in my room? And, email for file sharing??? What the hell planet are you on? First, most servers limit the size of attachments and second, it's inefficient as hell! Did it ever occur to you that all of this "ridiculous" file sharing, whether it be through Napster, Gnutella, or good ol' fashioned FTP, is useful to the learning process? Maybe a lot of the English majors who would otherwise only use word processing and email, now understand about file transferring, boolean searches, and general bandwidth issues a little bit better. Maybe I benefit from being able to run and FTP server and play around with it, and in doing so - learn about it.
Also, pherhaps it's nice for a poor college student to be able to entertain themselves with new and interesting things on a PC they've already paid for, through bandwidth they've already paid for. It beats getting yourself deeper into debt. Finally, if file sharing doesn't educate students about the ins-and-outs of copyright law and the ideas and concepts behind intellectual property, I don't know what will.
This comes right after the section on waiving the jury trials in the full license:
14.5 Severability. If any provision of this Agreement is held to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable for any reason, then such provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the remainder of the provisions of this Agreement will remain in full force and effect.
Uhhh... Shouldn't the last sentence read "See above paragraph for an example"? Seriously though, when I read it, I almost thought (hoped?) it was a hoax.
No, I wish I was very young, but that isn't so. I was exaggerating a bit when I said that.
However, I don't remeber anyone cheering for IE at first. Most of the people I knew either said "Why the hell is MS making a browser? (and giving it away for free - hmmm...)" or "Man, that IE is a real piece of crap, I'll stick with [Netscape, Mosaic, Spyglass, Chameleon Web Surfer, etc...]."
Great! What about Kerberos & Active Directory???
Fair enough on the first two, however...
.NET, or any other "improvement" or "innovation" of their for public use in Linux or FreeBSD or proprietary use in Unix or OSX. Their goal is still to lock in customers and stifle competition.
Would "gaining a business advantage first" do for a reason? Patent the improvements, refuse the license until you've gained a dominant market share and then release the innovation to the others. That's how business is done.
Microsoft has had a dominant business share for as long as I can remember. Furthermore, let me know when they license out Kerberos, Active Directory, ActiveX, ASP, DirectX, their Java extensions,
First, yes I know that this is probably a troll. However, on the off chance that it isn't, I have these questions for the AC.
1) If the public protocol is leaky, why not develop their own, totally different & competing protocol?
2) If they did care about the public domain issues and improvement, why not submit their improvements to the standards body to have their "improvements" included?
3) Failing or separate from this, why not license out their "improvements" to other software vendors? They would still make money, right?
I think the truth is that while it is possible that MS may have made a few small improvements (doubtful, but possible), their real goal is to ensnare new customers and to dig existing ones even deeper. If you still disagree, I would appreciate hearing any lucid arguments.
CNN has this quote under a picture near the bottom of the page:
;-)
The space rock 2001 YB5, identified by the arrow, could have wiped out France, according to a scientist in Britain.
Would the British really be all that upset about that?
I'm guessing it's because of the *supposed* beta release that's supposed to happen soon. But, we'll see...
See the page on 1945, where it says:
"Grace Murray Hopper, working in a temporary World War I building at Harvard University on the Mark II computer, found the first computer bug beaten to death in the jaws of a relay. She glued it into the logbook of the computer and thereafter when the machine stops (frequently) they tell Howard Aiken that they are "debugging" the computer. The very first bug still exists in the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution. The word bug and the concept of debugging had been used previously, perhaps by Edison, but this was probably the first verification that the concept applied to computers."
Sorry, I was trying to give people an idea of the frequency range. ELF is in the same frequency range as a sub.
Sorry meant to list the frequency differences. ELF, or Extremely Low Frequency signals are between 30-3000 Hz. VLF, or Very Low Frequency signals are between 3-30 kHz. Imagine the world's biggest subwoofers. Wonder if the Navy even gets tempted to broadcast one of those Dr. Crankenstein Bass CD's on it. ;-)
Yes, they are still in use. The primary is somewhere in the upper peninsula of Michigan. It can be received darn near anywhere. However, it transmits VERRRRY SLOOOOWLY. How slowly? I don't know the exact data rate, but to give you an idea, the Navy sends a three-letter code group that directs the sub to do whatever. Oftentimes it is to come to periscope depth, float the antenna, and copy the full message traffic from satelites. Nothing classified here, been public knowledge for years. The reason it's not a big secret is that any non-authorized ELF messages would be pretty easy to detect, and the Navy is surely changing around the groups and their lengths all the time. Watch The Hunt for the Red October and you'll hear them talking about it before they go to periscope depth to get the full message. None of the code groups can do anything wacky, like tell an SSBN (ballistic-missle sub) to nuke China, so the room for someone injecting sinister messages and the damage they could do is very minimal.
Didn't Cisco routers used to come with pail/bucket?
HUZZAH!!!
An even bigger mistake, he shipped it without those little shock-sensitive sticker things they have now, so you can just look at the box and if the shock sticker has gone off, you have evidence of what happened in transit.
I think it's more than safe to say that his packages sustained some shock...
Seriously, the Marine Corps has not only the smallest budget, but also the smallest per capita budget. We pride ourselves on doing more with less. The Marine Corps has been rapidly advancing towards the bleeding edge with computers over the last five years. You have the skills to write a program for Linux, Solaris, or Windows that will help or save money for the Corps? They'll pay your ass a bonus of up to (I believe) $20,000. It's a good way to test your skills in a place where it will be appreciated.
Want to know the best part of all? It doesn't matter if you're a damn PFC who drives a tank or a Seargent working in the military police. If your stuff is good, people will listen. And you can pick whatever random job you want to do for four years and then head into civlian life with even more options and management experience that money can't buy. Look into it (and all inter-service joking aside, shop around), it may not be for you... but then again, it might be exactly what you need in your life.
How could CmdrTaco have missed this?
;-)
You're new to the Slashdot community, aren't you?
Okay... what you say might be true and I'm not on a quest to build up Dell here, but I have some questions...
1) Why didn't you test the first few you imaged, instead of doing all 100 & then saying "Oh shit, they're all jacked up!"?
2) We received Dell Premier Support, the same support that all businesses, school, and government institutions receive. Don't believe me? Go to Dell's Support Page and see how they're classified.
3) Regardless of that, we were covered under the support contract that came with the system that is separate from your status. It is determined by the contract under which you bought the system.
4) Furthermore, you imaged the disks from their original configs. Why should Dell have to reinstall Windows becuase you guys messed up? If the disks went physically bad, then they should replace them per the purchase service agreement. Otherwise, every OEM in the world will tell you to take a flying leap, unless you have a special clause in your contract.
5) Of course Dell's buying parts from IBM! They primarily build systems. For example, they buy memory from Siemens, HDD's from Maxtor, CD-ROM's from LG, etc. So again, your statement has no relevance that I can see.
6) Finally, I'm sorry, but I usually have trouble listening to ancedotal information from AC's. Why don't you log in? It's not like you were posting flamebait or offtopic, just incorrect information.
If you feel anything I said is wrong or being mis-percieved, feel free to correct me. Thanks.
I agree. I worked at one of the biggest bases (computer-wise) doing hardware support for a large government organization (HINT: Semper Fi!). We serviced everything under the sun (hehe - including Sun) and ran into every bizzare-ass situation with hardware imaginable.
Consistantly, one vendor was head and shoulders above the rest - Dell. We dealt with all the vendors on a daily basis and the only one we could depend on for outstanding and timely service every time was Dell. I really am *very* surprised by the submitter's problem. I've always built my own systems but I tell everyone that if I ever had to buy a pre-built, the only company I would ever consider was Dell. That's the result of my experiences. Compaq, OTOH, can burn a slow, painful death in the depths of Hell. Just my two cents...
I totally agree with you. However, to give you a little assist, Win2K is MUCH more stable with Service Pack 2. Anything less than that and you'll have a shitload of problems (usually).
The VIA chipsets are likely your problem. I've never once had a problem with SB Live. However, Mandrake and VIA have had problems together before (and I've seen that firsthand). Another thing is to make sure you check your md5sums. I couldn't figure out why 8.1 was having weird install problems, then I realized I had forgotten to check the ISO's. Guess what? All three were bad - DOH!
Yes, Mandrake has been including GRUB as an option along with old-school LILO and graphical LILO. Unfortunately, I can't remember which is default (even though I just installed a copy two hours ago *sigh*).
I always hear Mandrake derided by a signifigant portion of the