Heartfelt message to any new Linux user

[Bladeforger]

I know that "bashing" threads are not appropriate, and I'm not going to make this a 'Spire-bashing thread. I do want to voice my experience with Freespire for anyone who might find themselves in the same boat.

I have a smart, dedicated, hardworking computer guy who encouraged me to install Freespire on my computer. He sells Linspire, and he wanted me to use Linspire; however, I was resistant. This is for a computer that used to be a Windows box and needed a new motherboard. He's also building me a new Linux-only box... which will also become a Ubuntu distro computer.

As many of you already know, a new motherboard means a reinstall of Windows... and I didn't want to go through that torture, yet again.

I came home last night with Freespire on the computer because it was plug-and-play... which my computer guy demonstrated by the simple device of running Freespire from CD--the video drivers that come with Freespire are great, and the monitor was perfectly visible.

Today I spent 8-10 hours using Freespire. And I hated it. Why?

• Konquerer wouldn't let me add a directory to the slave drive.
• CNR didn't display Wine.
• CNR didn't display Synaptic.
• Apt-get update was slow and lots of stuff was missing (apparently due to a repository problem).
• Apt-get wouldn't get Wine.
• Apt-get wouldn't get Gnome!!!
• Apt-get wouldn't get Synaptic.

I gave up and installed Ubuntu. Of course, because Ubuntu is weak in the video-driver field, my monitor displayed a screen in rather large type that would have required a large-screen television to see. The computer guy is closed for the weekend. I went to Circuit City, Best Buy, Office Max, and finally Office Depot looking for a reasonable video card. (The unrecognized video adapter was part of the new motherboard.) $55.00 later I have the card back home and installed in the computer. Ubuntu booted and recognized it. Hallelulah!!!!

If Freespire were the only Linux distro out there, I would bite the bullet and stick with Windows. I disliked it that much.

Fortunately, Linux comes in many flavors. In just a few hours, I got Ubuntu up and cooking with Gnome, which I like better than KDE, with Wine installed and ready to play with tomorrow, with Snyaptic going (of course--how I got Wine), and with Firefox 2 (my favorite version) configured and working perfectly. I can find all my files and I can make a directory. YEA!!!

So, rather than bash, which I don't mean to do, I want to sincerely encourage anyone who tries Freespire and does NOT like it to please, PLEASE, PLEASE!!! take the time to try another distro. Maybe you got pushed into the Linspire / Freespire game by a well-meaning friend, a colleague, or a comuter guy.

Meanwhile, I don't want to discourage anyone from trying Freespire or Linspire. My computer guy loves it. He's figured out all the workarounds, and he uses Win4Lin to run Windows apps as well. His systems walk and talk and work great--for him. There are a few nice things about the KDE desktop, and the K3b is a reasonable free substitute for Nero.

Bottom line: if you are trying Freespire or Linspire and aren't happy, and if you don't mind reading a bit and doing some more work, don't go back to Windows... try another distro of Linux.

Hope the mods approve. I've tried to be sincere and thorough and post a message that will be helpful to some folks.

Thanks,
Keith

[rh8807]

Glad you found a distro you like, im am currently downloading Ubuntu to try it on a live cd, or on a flash drive. Im trying it cause all the good things I hear. I went from a win98 box to Pclinux2007, over the past few months, I have really began to get comfy with PCLOS, it is KDE, but thats all I have tried so far is kde os's. for me PCLOS has been great, it supports old and new hardware. My system is kinda older, KTS motherboard running amd athlon xp 2700+ 768MB ram, and for internet I run my sprint mobile broadband data card using a pci to pcmcia adapter, and pretty much set that up with PCLOS without a glitch, a little reading of different posts to figure out what the /dev was for it.

I am curious to see what ubuntu is like, although, its taking forever to download, I keep aving to leave the house, and for some reason, when Ieave the download fails cause my internet connection times out...maybe due to a inactivity timer...But anyway, glad you got things running!

[L4Linux]

I disagree with "bashing threads", because they could be abused by trolls to spread FUD about Linux.
For example first hit Ubuntu, then Fedora, etc...Users should try a few distros and select the one they like more
(unlike windows, where they choose the version they hate less)
Good to hear though, that you found a distro you liked.

[Bladeforger]

I am curious to see what ubuntu is like, although, its taking forever to download, I keep aving to leave the house, and for some reason, when Ieave the download fails cause my internet connection times out...maybe due to a inactivity timer...But anyway, glad you got things running!

Don't know if you're near a bookstore, but there are some books out there with the live CD as part of the book. With DSL, the ISO download for either Freespire Feisty Fawn 2..0.8 or for Ubuntu Hardy Heron is going to take you about an hour or so. The book by Brian Proffitt has Ubuntu Feisty Fawn on it. I think it will update online after installation. (Still to new to know if major updates happen online automatically.)

By the way, the names don't indicate that one distro is "behind" another--only the order of release relative to the longevity of the distro. I think Red Hat and Fedora are waaay up there near the end of the alphabet. Ubuntu's about to come out with Intrepid; and Linspire / Freespire is a newer distro--thus Feisty Fawn is the latest. Still based on Debian.

I see that you've been using KDE. Be sure to give Gnome a go--I like Gnome from using the live CD on my work computer a little bit here and there over time. You can, in theory, download either and use it as an alternative to the other. (In theory because I couldn't download Gnome for Freespire yesterday; however, that might just be a temporary problem with the repositories. Anyway, Gnome is pretty cool!!

Good luck to you!

Keith

[waterhead]

The main part of all Linux distros is the Linux kernel. Different distros will have different kernel versions. They usually use the most recent stable version that is available when the distro is finalized.

The kernel can easily be updated after the distro is installed. In my experience, Fedora starts out with the newest kernel, and it also can easily be updated. Some distros only patch the same kernel with updates, and offer that as an updated kernel. Fedora seems to offer the latest kernel, not a patched one.

Clear as mud?

As for distro bashing. If this thread gets out of hand with bashing, the mods will take care of it. Bashing is not allowed, but everyone gets frustrated and sometimes need to vent a little.

[rh8807]

Well, I got ubuntu downloaded to a flash drive, its cool, but cant get online cause I cant get my sprint mobile broadband card set up, I tried following some directions I found elsewhere and create a chat script, but so far unsuccesful. I will play with it later, for now, still sold on PCLOS. Happy Sunday!

[rh8807]

Im not sure this is the forum this belongs in at this point, but just wanted to add that I got ubuntu online, I like it a little more now, still like PCLOS, but now that im online with ubuntu, I can experience it a little more.

My problem getting online was that the dev is different for ubuntu then it is for PCLOS, my sprint bropadband card is /dev/ttyUSB3 on ubuntu, on PCLOS its /dev/ttyACM0 I figured that out by running wvdialconf from the command line which seems to probe for all available modems, it was showing Pantech PX500 found on /dev/ttyUSB3. then when I tried to change to that under network admin manual settings it didnt wanna change, I had to delete the old connection and start over, then I heard the hard drive make some noise and I tried to pull google and wahla, there it was. Dang, if I keep figuring things out, eventually I will be able to help newbies and not be the newbie needing help all the time heehee

[waterhead]

Glad to hear that you have some success.

You're correct about it being in the wrong place, since this thread started out as a bit of a rant.

I don't believe that we have any good threads on your type of connection. If you would like to start one, and give details on how you configured it, that would be great. Be sure to give all the hardware and IP provider info too.

You could start it in the wireless or network sections, either one will be OK.

Thanks!

[thorpe@gte.net]

I know that "bashing" threads are not appropriate, and I'm not going to make this a 'Spire-bashing thread. I do want to voice my experience with Freespire for anyone who might find themselves in the same boat.

I have a smart, dedicated, hardworking computer guy who encouraged me to install Freespire on my computer. He sells Linspire, and he wanted me to use Linspire; however, I was resistant. This is for a computer that used to be a Windows box and needed a new motherboard. He's also building me a new Linux-only box... which will also become a Ubuntu distro computer.

As many of you already know, a new motherboard means a reinstall of Windows... and I didn't want to go through that torture, yet again.

I came home last night with Freespire on the computer because it was plug-and-play... which my computer guy demonstrated by the simple device of running Freespire from CD--the video drivers that come with Freespire are great, and the monitor was perfectly visible.

Today I spent 8-10 hours using Freespire. And I hated it. Why?

• Konquerer wouldn't let me add a directory to the slave drive.
• CNR didn't display Wine.
• CNR didn't display Synaptic.
• Apt-get update was slow and lots of stuff was missing (apparently due to a repository problem).
• Apt-get wouldn't get Wine.
• Apt-get wouldn't get Gnome!!!
• Apt-get wouldn't get Synaptic.

I gave up and installed Ubuntu. Of course, because Ubuntu is weak in the video-driver field, my monitor displayed a screen in rather large type that would have required a large-screen television to see. The computer guy is closed for the weekend. I went to Circuit City, Best Buy, Office Max, and finally Office Depot looking for a reasonable video card. (The unrecognized video adapter was part of the new motherboard.) $55.00 later I have the card back home and installed in the computer. Ubuntu booted and recognized it. Hallelulah!!!!

If Freespire were the only Linux distro out there, I would bite the bullet and stick with Windows. I disliked it that much.

Fortunately, Linux comes in many flavors. In just a few hours, I got Ubuntu up and cooking with Gnome, which I like better than KDE, with Wine installed and ready to play with tomorrow, with Snyaptic going (of course--how I got Wine), and with Firefox 2 (my favorite version) configured and working perfectly. I can find all my files and I can make a directory. YEA!!!

So, rather than bash, which I don't mean to do, I want to sincerely encourage anyone who tries Freespire and does NOT like it to please, PLEASE, PLEASE!!! take the time to try another distro. Maybe you got pushed into the Linspire / Freespire game by a well-meaning friend, a colleague, or a comuter guy.

Meanwhile, I don't want to discourage anyone from trying Freespire or Linspire. My computer guy loves it. He's figured out all the workarounds, and he uses Win4Lin to run Windows apps as well. His systems walk and talk and work great--for him. There are a few nice things about the KDE desktop, and the K3b is a reasonable free substitute for Nero.

Bottom line: if you are trying Freespire or Linspire and aren't happy, and if you don't mind reading a bit and doing some more work, don't go back to Windows... try another distro of Linux.

Hope the mods approve. I've tried to be sincere and thorough and post a message that will be helpful to some folks.

Thanks,
Keith

This is a followup to this post addressing the problems encountered by Keith using Freespire:

1) Konqueror will let you add a directory to the slave drive; I tried it numerous times with a copy of his Drive, since I am the Computer tech working on his Computer and have a copy of his drive. You have to use SUDO. It will not work without sudo.

2) CNR does display wine: Wine | One-click download at CNR.com. | X-CNR-Virtualization Settings Emulator Application X-CNR-SoftwareUtilities System Utilities Utility

As you can see wine is available in CNR. I installed it and was able to install Windows XP version of Invoices & Estimates as well as Quicken with no problems.

3) CNR does display synaptic: synaptic | One-click download at CNR.com. | PackageManager Settings Application GTK Applications System

As you can see synaptic is available in CNR. In installed it and tried downloading some programs and it works flawlessly.

4) apt-get is not slow, it just not working at the moment: XANDROS engineering is working on that, so on that note Keith was correct. They
are working on that at the moment.

5) Gnome installs fine using cnr and can be located here:

ubuntu-desktop | One-click download at CNR.com. |

The reason I post this response is so people don't get the wrong idea about Freespire/Linspire based on incorrect facts.
Keith situation is he did not know how to do the above items, and unfortunately he gave up and went to Ubuntu and bought an older ATI 32 mb video card, so Ubuntu would work on his system.
Also Keith did not like KDE, and did not know how to put Gnome in Freespire.
As you can see Freespire can handle all the above things he tried to do. I always tell people if you cant figure it out, just try out the Linspire/Freespire forums here: Forums - Powered by vBulletin
I am a moderator there and there are tons of community members that go above and beyond to help other Freespire/Linspire users with any questions they may have.
I wish Keith best of luck with Ubuntu.

If anyone has questions I can be reached here: Forums - Powered by vBulletin and my user id is thorpe.
I very rarely visit these forums, but I will try to make a habit of visiting
every now and then.
At any rate whatever distribution you choose just do the research in the appropriate forums before making a decision.

Thanks

Ray...

[smolloy]

Thanks for the reply thorpe. We appreciate your input.

I think this thread has reached a pretty good conclusion, so I'm going to lock it now to prevent any unfair flaming of particular distros.