Why Linux, Why?!

[dark_flame]

I have been convinced that Linux was put on this earth to frustrate man to no end.

Installation. Ooooo, I am getting excited with all the pretty new themes that Fedora Core 6 has to offer. I go through and select all the packages I want to include in my install (being the majority of them) and begin my install. Half way through the installation I have to restart due to a transaction compilation error and conflicts in the packages chosen. Oh joy. Oh well, it will all be worth it soon. I do it again same thing. Now I try select less packages, same thing (bare in mind I scanned the DVD for any corruptions). Now I deselect all packages and have a barebone system. No biggy, I can install anything once I have it up and running. I finally get to my desktop, yay, this looks nice. What shall I do first? Maybe watch some videos?

I try to watch some videos on youtube, nope, linux has other plans for me. I have to manually install it through throguh source. Why you ask? because installing it through the browser doesn't work. Hmmm, it says it does, but I guess linux is just have a joke with me. I can appreciate a sense of humour. So now once I am done installing through source... guess what! It still doesn't work! Yay! More adventure into the magnificent world of linux for me. So, after an hour of googling and through hundreds of tutorials none work.... Now folks I am willing to subscribe to the idea I am just dumb, that could be a possibility, but I am more willing to accept the fact that my OS is out to kill me. Alright enough is enough, videos aren't worth this. Let's play a game linux! Oh yes, we're going to play a game, but not the one I inteded.

So I figure there is no way I am going to get CS up and running through Wine, as it seems I can not even run the simplest of windows apps with it without some random error followed by a crash. Lucky me, my favourite open source game ET comes native on linux, this should be a piece of cake to install.... Wrong. So I fetch my Nvidia driver which also comes native on linux, and after another half hour of googling I am ready to install. I spend about 15 minutes in the blackness of the linux terminal (which doesn't really bother me if it would work how it's suppose to) and finally start the install. ERROR. Oh goody another random error it's my lucky day. Says something about not having kernel source, why don't I have it? Well a little reason that was discussed in the begginnig during install. So I rush to get my source and install it with minimal hassle (compared to every other christ thing I try to do) and try the driver install again. YAY! It still won't work, thanks linux, this was a fun game. So I try install ET anway, maybe I can play it with horrible FPS. Guess what! It installs, this is a first. I run it... It freezes and crashes my computer. Oh you're a tricky little bugger you are linux.

Well, let me just relax with some music. What's this XMMS doens't support MP3's? I need to install codecs you say? Guess I will just google another 2 hours for the holy codecs. Well no, I am pretty pissed off now. And... this isn't funny... no amount of sarcasm could make this situation any prettier.

There's only one way out, back to the safe (sometimes stressful and lacking) haven of Windows. But linux seems to be fond of me and doesn't want to stop playing. After popping in my Windows CD and having the boot device priority set to CD Drive first I wait. Here it comes the detecting devices screen.... Soon I will be back to the nice little enviroment I left in promise of a new and better one. HOLY ****! It froze! Now really... what is that? I try it again, same thing, and again, and again, and again, with the same results. Guess Linux is jealous.... Now then, I have two choices: Smash my harddrive or wipe everything on it with DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke). Thank you linux. You have renewed my faith in the open source community.

PS.

Please do not take this as a flame, just my bad experience. I am willing to subscribe to the fact I am a linux noob.

[antidrugue]

I had somewhat bad experiences with Fedora Core too. Not the most stable distro around that's for sure.

Try something else perhaps (as a liveCD if you don't want to install anymore).

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/
http://www.distrowatch.com

You know, you can ask a few questions here if you want too, it may speed up the learning process.

[antidrugue]

After popping in my Windows CD and having the boot device priority set to CD Drive first I wait. Here it comes the detecting devices screen.... Soon I will be back to the nice little enviroment I left in promise of a new and better one. HOLY ****! It froze! Now really... what is that? I try it again, same thing, and again, and again, and again, with the same results. Guess Linux is jealous....

That's a common problem too, Windows is sometimes alergic to the MBR (first sector of the drive) behing occupied by something else than itself.

Check out this post for more info :
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/385491-post6.html

Plus, I advice you to dual-boot (if you ever want to try Linux again), instead of just diving head first like that.

Good luck !

[dark_flame]

That's a common problem too, Windows is sometimes alergic to the MBR (first sector of the drive) behing occupied by something else than itself.

Check out this post for more info :
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/385491-post6.html

Plus, I advice you to dual-boot (if you ever want to try Linux again), instead of just diving head first like that.

Good luck !

Would you recommend any particular rescue disc to fix the MBR or would Knoppix work fine?

[antidrugue]

Would you recommend any particular rescue disc to fix the MBR or would Knoppix work fine?

Simply typing

linux rescue

after booting from the Fedora Core 6 CD/DVD () should be enough.

[genesus]

Hate to hijack, and I'm not sure if its just a brainfart, but what is ET?

[dark_flame]

Hate to hijack, and I'm not sure if its just a brainfart, but what is ET?

Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. It's a really good FPS gane available for free download.

[Juan Pablo]

You are in the hardest part of linux learning, just try to forget everything you learned on windows, it won't work anymore. I would suggest a web page to get started with most things you may want:

www.fedorafaq.org

it is mostly copy and paste in the terminal, it will also help you to get familiar with new concepts. If you have some extra time sometimes try to understand those commands and what they are doing.

Usually you need to be a bit creative when using Linux, do some research yourself on your own system, find specific instructions for your distro.
It may sound scary but it's not, in fact it is great fun for me and maybe for you also.

Linux would include a lot more useful things by defaults, but licenses here and there keep getting in front of distributors.

[da420]

Yeap, sounds just a little bit worse than my experience, but I'm just glad I was able to reinstall Windows. Decided to read up more about it, learned more about Linux and started off with a distro more aimed at newbs. I tried Ubuntu, and have since to moved on to other distros. So far I have tried 4 Distro's... Ubuntu, Mandriva, OpenSUSE, and FC6... still looking for the one I feel most confident and comfortable with. Have a lot more to try, yet.

[fingal]

Hi - I think we've all had negative Linux experiences, but you move on eventually. I've been using Mandriva 2006 for a while now, and I've got it doing most of what I want. Notice I said 'most' .

I'm not anxious to move away from using something this stable, which I've tweaked so much. Like other people have said, you need to find the distro which is right for you. One thing I've learned is, if you can possibly avoid compiling from source do so... It can work out, but sometimes it just won't.

It is possible to do all the things you've mentioned - and much more - but not if your distro is doing your head in. Speaking personally, to get mp3s and videos working, I've been through a rather long learning curve ... installing libraries from scratch (usually from source as it happens) and sym-linking them to other directories ... learning how to use a command line again (I was a DOS user once ) and generally getting my knickers in a twist. Now everything is so stable and usable it's frankly boring. Apart from poor games support and a low FPS from my video card/driver. I think I'd need another box for that!