Although LILO and the graphical boot interface both work perfectly, X.org would not. Eventually it proved possible to get back into X by changing from Radeon fglrx to Radeon, although this limited the resolution; now I am back at my normal (high) resolution and everything seems to be working fine . . . for now.

As usual, there seems to be a problem between ALSA, printing and the ATI interface. This does not prevent the system from working properly but occasionally there is some kind of "mismatch" in the software which prevents X working properly, at least in higher resolutions. Of course, this is a problem I would not have had under the "certain other OS" I have on my hard drive, but if I really loved that "certain" OS so much, I wouldn't feel happier in Mandriva, now would I? ^_^

This is sad, however, because it comes hot on the heels of what has proven, for me, to be a ground-breaking discovery. Working in South Korea, I wanted to be able to type in Korean, Japanese and Chinese characters within the same document alongside English, and what a surprise! I installed SCIM and I couldn't get it to work with OOo 1.1.3, 2.0 or even KOffice. I was surprised to find that it worked fine with a much simpler word processor called LeafPad, which I had discovered at the http://freshmeat.net/ web site, but which had really been intended for use by programmers (I just wanted a convenient replacement for N*tep*d). But this was far from perfect because - as far as I could tell - it would simply print things out without any real formatting.

So I looked at the list of installable rpms and there were a couple of alternatives - Yudit, which I tried but didn't really have the time to get hang of, and AbiWord. Yudit has East Asian language support native but didn't require SCIM; AbiWord is much simpler than OOo but it works really well with SCIM. So although I really prefer to use OOo, now I am using AbiWord + SCIM for document writing and formatting. It works fine with my Epson Stylus C43UX cheapo printer; the only real problem seems to be text-box anchoring on the page and unexpected text flows around the results . . . but I am impressed by AbiWord's capabilities.

I suppose that a lesser person than myself would have gone back to Windoze long ago after encountering troubles like these, but I suppose also that that's the real difference between such a person and someone like myself, who (a) has a genuine interest in alternatives to M$ and (b) realises that finding solutions to problems as trivial as a temporarily disabled X server makes you more experienced and, therefore, stronger. If you were to ask me whether I would prefer to be a Windoze "Power User" who can bore your pants off waxing lyrical about swing tables and font formatting but knows and cares nothing about computers or operating systems, or someone who wants to explore and be versatile across a range of OSes, then I would unhesitatingly recommend the latter lifestyle. I don't know if any of my readers here are familiar with the "Tenchi Muyo" anime from Japan but there is a song called "I'm a Pioneer" and although it seems really to be a song for children, the lyrics somehow seem applicable to someone in my position, working far from home in a foreign land and facing daily trials:

Did you know I am a pioneer?
I'm out on a secret mission
I travel the galaxy and far beyond

Can't you see that I am a pioneer
Unlocking the greatest mysteries
My key is a fearless heart
So pure and strong
People laugh when you are a pioneer
Not walking the straight and narrow
They tell you the way things are
They swear you're wrong

You can't be a hero
Hiding underneath your bed
Got to live the life
You create inside your head
So I opened the window
Caught the wind one night
Now I sail with the birds in their flight

If you're tired of ev'rything
Come hitch a ride with me
You'll cry out with joy
When you realize you're free
It's a trip like no other
For your heart and mind
Leaving all but the future far behind

Some will say you're safer here
Never mind them - be a pioneer!

Can't you see that you are a pioneer
Not one of the endless talkers
Who tell you the same old rules you've heard before?
I can tell that you are a pioneer
You want to be facing danger
Not happy to hide your secrets any more
You are a pioneer, the same as me!

-snipped-

Hand in hand we'll journey as pioneers
Unlocking the greatest mysteries
Don't listen to anyone
Who says we're wrong
They can't stop you when you're a pioneer
For truth is your greatest weapon,
Out there in the cosmos
Where we both belong
A place for pioneers
Like you and me

Through the ages we will be pioneers
We'll go out on secret missions
We'll travel the galaxy and far beyond
It's our destiny to be pioneers
We'll always be moving forward
Our courage is what we will be counting on
We will be pioneers forevermore

I really cannot express it better. Life beyond Micro$oft - pioneers forevermore.

You can find more information about "Tenchi Muyo" and song lyrics at:

http://www.washu.org/

From which one can only draw the lesson that when you start to give up on what you are doing, you start to die. Give up on Mandriva when you have trivial problems and you return weeping to the XP directory and all of the problems that go with it. Stick with Linux and you learn something new every day.