[1fastbullet]

I'll have a Venti double mocha java latte jive with whole cream, please.

Hello to all. I am the 1fastbullet, residing in the birthplace of the Texas flag- Montgomery, Tx.

I've spent the last couple days reading the mail on the forums and I have to say I'm rather impressed with how some of the members really go to the wall to help others resolve their problems.
I also have to say that it truly is a shame that so much of the Linux operation is seemingly treated as an issue far above that of Nat'l security. I presume that, while there are a slew of well intentioned folks involved in helping others, the frustration factor of wading through the muck and mire is likely the largest reason Linux isn't the number one OS in the world. What say you?

I'm enjoying-at least for the most part- the, ah, challange, of making my (first) home rolled 'puter work with the Ubuntu Feisty Fawn distro, and I'm looking forward to baffling y'all with numerous silly, stupid and inane questions.
So, here we go...

[ozar]

Welcome to the forums!

Jump right in and enjoy that latte.

Hope Linux turns into a really fun experience for you.

[bigtomrodney]

Welcome 1fastbullet, glad to have you. Have you looked at Ubuntu Hardy Heron? It's the latest release and should have better hardware support.

See you around the forums

[1fastbullet]

Ordered the disk today, in fact, but already had the Feisty diask at hand and had to play w/ the new toy, don't ya know.

[bigtomrodney]

Oh I know all too well

Good luck with getting it running

[Manchunian]

Welcome to the forums and welcome to Linux,

I presume that, while there are a slew of well intentioned folks involved in helping others, the frustration factor of wading through the muck and mire is likely the largest reason Linux isn't the number one OS in the world.

Actually, it's a bit of a misconception that Linux is only a small player - in many ways it is the number one OS. Don't believe me? Well, take a look at your mobile phone - there's a good chance it's running on Linux; do you have a Wii, or a PS3 - it runs on Linux; what about the cash register tills in your local supermarket? your wristwatch? your washing machine? your bank ATM? your digital camera? Linux is the most widespread OS there is. However, where it isn't so common is on the desktop, and here it is making great inroads. As to why it isn't number 1? Well, go to your computer store and ask for a computer that doesn't run on Windows. If you're lucky, you may be presented with a Mac or two, and then be told that you shouldn't buy it because, um, because....it doesn't have Windows! Things were getting a little better for a while, with the ultra-small laptops all running Linux, but Big Bill saw the danger and sneaked his way onto that market too.

[1fastbullet]

You make valid points, indeed- only some of which I was aware of. The awareness factor, though, is an essential problem. I propose that, if more of the general public were made aware of the ubiquity of Linux, more would quite likely be inclined to investigate it as a primary OS.

Incidentally, already on two occasions, I have run into situations where the first response to my queries has been "We don't support Linux", or a variation thereof.
The first occassion was while requesting information from my ISP provider in the course of attempting to set up my network connetion.
The second, and much more disturbing incident, was when asking for support from the manufacturer of my motherboard. Interestingly enough, in my request for support, I stated that there was no OS installed on the machine but that it was my intention to install Ubuntu. The sum total of its "support" was:

ECS Support(USA) Posted : GMT 2008/06/21 00:39:30
Dear Mark,

We do not support Ubuntu.

The lovely part of this response is that it took ECS only six days to become this creative. For your further entertainment, I will attach my entire exchange with ECS. But be forewarned that I am guilty of having used some "colorful" language in response to the initial reply.

[Manchunian]

The more colourful the better as far as I'm concerned! I'll read it a bit later - can't wait!

[paprika27]

I see the problem with linux in it being so fully featured that one has to be totally aware of what he (she) is doing.
When I got into Linux about six months ago after getting totally pissed off by M$ (after using it for uhmmm... like always) I fooled with my fresh installation of Suse for couple of days, new way of doin' things you know, i screwed it up so badly that I had to reinstall it. Then the next big thing was getting my Logitech MX 518 with all buttons to work (which I still only accomplished for my web browsers), then the keyboard special keys...
Now I am trying for 2 days to get my WLAN USB stick to work after having tried for 1 day to reveal some data, deleted from a ext3 formatted hdd which i finally managed with a 100 $ program running on windows...

Many people want to use the computer for something, for us Linuxers the way is the goal^^
Often, people don't have the time and interest to spend so much time on the how.

The only reason for M$ crab still being bought is because it's easy. Because it is easy, anyone can use it without having to do or know alot. Because every one uses it, commercial programmers (that includes virus programmers) focus on windows applications to have a large number of potential customers. Because it is easy and it can be assumed that the user doesn't worry about the how a lot, M$ doesn't spend much time on making their system in-depth high quality, most users only see the desktop and nice graphical effects anyway. Because Windows is so widely used, the attempts of M$ to secure their system by putting standard security software in their OS have and always will fail, because them bad experts hack the M$ crab before it is even released.

I think it is from that point of view an advantage not to be the number one.
But that has also disadvantages especially when one tries to set things up. Once everything works fine, Linux is sooooo much better than M$. And that's worth the effort of setting it up.

hf, gl
:P

[Manchunian]

That's one hell of a first post, paprika27! I have to say though, that not everyone encounters as many problems as you did. It really depends on the hardware you've got. If you go for the latest and greatest, sure getting it up and running can be quite a challenge. But I think now that some versions of Linux (espeically Mint and Ubuntu) have achieved such a level of automation and user-frienliness, whilst Vista has gone in the opposite direction, that Linux is acually becoming easier than Windows, at least from a normal-user perspective.