[loft306]

Technology - washingtonpost.com
Linux, Still an Awkward Alternative

Sun Jul 4, 2:37 AM ET

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By Rob Pegoraro, The Washington Post

The choice of software to run our computers can get awfully depressing. On one hand, there's Windows XP (news - web sites) -- expensive and woefully insecure, but it works on almost every machine out there. On the other, there's Mac OS X (news - web sites) -- far more secure, but also expensive and restricted to Apple's own computers.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...25137_2004jul3

[lakerdonald]

that guy is a moron then. wah linux takes hours to install wah i have to configure something myself wah. idiot.
LINUX RULEZ
lol
-lakerdonald

[scientica]

Originally Posted by loft306

On one hand, there's Windows XP (news - web sites) -- expensive and woefully insecure, but it works on almost every machine out there.

Ok, let's send a shuttle with 100 geologists to mars, but if the shuttle crashes on the surface it still works, since it landed on the surface of mars with the geologist!
( ^ pun intended - my appologies to the family and friends of the geologists)
Serioulsy, if you say that windows works you can be correct, but my definition is more like "doesn't crash when I'm not doing something uttely dumb" (like trying to see what happens when you ignite a fork bomd, "rm -fr /" (though, actually, linux doesn't crash, just get's awfully crippled all of a sudden - yes, I have tried it (with and UML kernel)) or "rmdir %WINDIR%", write an app to test if you can allocate and write to 4TB memory more than avalible in RAM+swap or stress test the boxen (or boxens if you got a cluster <-- subliminal ad for openMosix) -- or all four at once) - so to me the expression "windows works" evaluates/expands to false.

[variant]

I really used to get all upset about that kind of article.. all the inacuracies (i like how he points out that single click instead of double click is "confusing" - is the guy a chimp? anyway double clicking is patented now:/) But now I _really_ couldnt care less about spazzy idiots and their 'shocking experiences with linux' because I found gentoo. it has put me on a higher plain of being. I am at peace with my self and the world (not bill gates though.. he still rubs my nuts the wrong way)

[Dolda2000]

Originally Posted by lakerdonald

that guy is a moron then. wah linux takes hours to install wah i have to configure something myself wah. idiot.

While I can actually agree with that to a very great extent, the fact remains that that is actually a very important point for many people.
For example, an author doesn't really desire to know how a computer works - (s)he just wants a word processor. It is quite important for that author that there is an operating system that supports that philosophy against computers. (For some reason, when I say author, I just can't help thinking of the Read or Die TV series... =/ )

Not least, I can agree with that philosophy myself to a certain extent. Everything that at all can be automized should be, isn't that true? That's what still annoys me a bit with Linux, actually. I mean, it's not like it's a problem for me to configure and mount my USB memsticks myself, but I shouldn't have to, since it's a very mechanical and automizable process.
In particular, now that we have the 2.6 kernel and its wonderful /sys filesystem, it should be less than a problem to actually automize that kind of things. I don't really understand why the userspace side of those things hasn't been written yet.

[lakerdonald]

You are absolutely right dolda. This is something that can and should be done. My point to the author of that article is this: if you are such an expert with computers, instead of complaining do something about it! Submit a piece of code or write a patch instead of *****ing about it endlessly. I'm not really directing this at the author anymore but more at society today. when something goes wrong we don't do anything about it, we whine and complain until somebody else does it for us.
-lakerdonald

[Muser]

and installs don't take endless hours, that's total crap. when i installed mandrake (both 9.2 and 10) they both installed or in 10's case updated in about an hour. no problem. so for he(r) to make a generalization like that is wrong, cuz yes, ppl do have problems, but some don't and the number that don't is increasing.

[Dolda2000]

Yeah - I would write that userspace support myself, if only I had the time. Unfortunately I have other projects that I have to prioritize for the time being.

[zeeone]

Easy Gang,

#1 This info is coming from the Washington Post and yes, they only hire chimps to wriite.

#2 And the chimp is right, a standard Linux distro does take longer to load then Winblows does.

#3 But chimps can not count pass 10, so they did not know that you get much more stuff with the Linux distro, than Winblows.

#4 And I would bet the chimp has a pre-loaded WinDell, so how would it know which is a faster load?

[Belboz99]

Hey all, first post!

I'd just like to share my first real Linux experience.

I dowloaded the two disks for Slackware 10 about two weeks ago. I only burned one of them, big mistake. I had no idea that there were actually OSes that requiered more than one disk!

About two days later, after much frustration, I had Slackware 10 installed. Then, I missed out on two minor details. One, I had chosen the "standard" linux format because I had no idea what "journaling" was. And second, I did not know that I needed to shutdown the OS. I come from Dos where once your in DOS there is no reason to shutdown, you just press the button.

So, I boot the computer the next day and the whole partion has gone all to hell. So, I reinstalled Slackware. It took me about half an hour to do the slow format to check for errors, then it only took me about another 20-30 minutes and I was back in! It didn't take long before I had sound and video working, and the next day I got my printer working.

The point is, if you've never touched Linux, a distro like Slackware can be a real challenge. But once you know the basics, it's quite easy, and fast.

I would like to ditch Windows, but unfortunatley, I run a Minolta Scan Dual (the SCSI version) and Paint Shop Pro, neither of which are compatable with Linux.

However, I am now using Linux the majority of the time. I'm still learning the basics, but I can now do most things on my own without chatting or doing too much research on the net.

Dan O.