Throwing in the towel

[davebardsley]

pajamabama , perhaps you'll appreciate the following wisdom, "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." (Lao Tzu) or perhaps less abstract and more to the point "It matters not what road we take but rather what we become on the journey." (Michael E. Angier).

Seriously evaluate what it is that you do with your valuable spare time. Being in the workforce and out of school, I spend my lunch breaks and a goodly portion of my off-time tinkering with my GNU/Linux boxes to advance my skill to such a level that I'll be able to effectively contribute back to community in the same spirit as it has provided me... and to achieve a commercial gain for me and my employer! Call it enlightened self-interest or whatever you like but in the short time that I've chosen freedom I've already been able to achieve advances in my work place due solely to spin-offs garnered through experimenting with GNU/Linux and "the UNIX way." Of course it helps that I'm an Electrical Engineer and design and code embedded communication systems so in my case there is a direct relationship there that may not apply in you or your housemate's cases.

If you simply want a multi-media web/email box and want to spend you spare time playing games (I wasn't always old and grumpy, I used to play doom and mech warrior, and watch pirated movies into the wee hours of th emorning!) and don't want to spend your time administering and tuning your OS, then GNU/Linux probably isn't for you.

[deek]

pajamabama, I, for one, do appreciate this type of post and for exactly the reason you say. If someone is leaving for a reason, I would like to know so as to recognize where the frustration points are in the linux community. I didn't mean to be hard on you, and after your last post, I understand what you said and what you meant, didn't exactly come out to the same result...

Personally, I can't say I have given much back to the linux community besides advice and troubleshooting to questions on this forum, so dave, you are one big step ahead of me!!! Hopefully, someday, I can give more back, but until then, i will just be happy to keep linux at home and devote a portion of my free time continuing to grow and learn!

[carlosponti]

I'm not doing CS for my masters.

me either and i have alot of hobbies. so linux is kinda a thing i am going to get away from the stuff i have dealth with in my computing experience. and in the time i am not building rc airplanes, spending time with my new bride, building stuff in my garage and taking care of the homestead i play with computers and linux. you dont necesarily have to be on top of the game just to be able to play is good enough. dividing time is tough let me tell you. when you are a serial hobbiest like myself it gets difficult when you have other stuff you want to get done. but when you do get it running oh boy the reward is enjoyable. plus with being a programmer i am comfortable with dual support when implementing new systems. we are often implementing new systems and having users spend a little time doing dual entry until the go live date. that is the way i have dealt with linux at home. i have windows still and i run linux on machines that either dont need to have windows like a notebook to surf the internet on in the living room or i dual boot and try to get the same functionality out of one OS that i get with the other. even if you dont have time dual booting is a good option because you might have a free afternoon or two to play with getting the same types of things working on linux that work on windows. at least having the option there is nice if you dont even try dual booting if an afternoon comes free you wont have the option of tinkering. that is how i deal with my hobbies in escence. deal with life then when life gives me a break i tinker. ill repeat what i said earlier that saying it here is not really good enough you have to go to iRiver and deman better support or go to ATI and Demand better support. companies dont support linux because they dont think the user base is big enough but if enough people start asking for the kinda support freely given to windows it is only a matter of time before they start answering back with better support.

[fyrephlie]

ps. and for the record again, XP has frozen on me twice this morning alone. WTF?

the answer is in your sig... dell inspiron

[chopin1810]

Well boys (and I don't get the impression there are too many girls here), I hate to say it but I'm crossing over. I wiped my hd and put XP on it. It all finally came down to support issues. Basically I kept finding things that I was trying to do that weren't really supported under linux. No matter what I tried I couldn't print to the printer sitting 5 feet from my desk (it's on a Windows server). I also had issues connecting to my network drive space (also a Windows server).

Xandros is probably the best Linux I've found for Windows network/server/domain connectivity.

I couldn't use the new iRiver T10 I just bought because they've switched to a totally managed file structure (although I bought it because of it's reputed Linux-friendlyness).

I would have suggested an iPod. Most of my Linuxes handle all my iPods just fine, particularly SuSE.

Why didn't you just lock this? I don't see the point in these threads.

[borromini]

Thanks for being so supportive, chopin .

[davebardsley]

chopin1810

Why didn't you just lock this? I don't see the point in these threads.

We're partaking in a civil conversation over coffee and doughnuts. It isn't as if this thread is taking pace in a technical portion of the site or is turning into a flame war.

A member of our community is lamenting a decision and is reaching out for encouragement.

[anomie]

For once I agree with chopin1810. These threads are useless.

If you're going to go, then go. No need to make a big dramatic scene. If you're going to persist and continue to learn about Linux, then stay.

[techieMoe]

I have to agree with the sentiments posted above. I think all useful discussion that could have come out of this thread has ceased.