An idiots view on linux after using it for a fortnite

[jheel]

I used Linux (Red hat, don't remember the version) once before, when i was 16, I'm 24 now. Things have changed, so has Linux. I'm back on Linux a little more than the last couple of weeks now. And i would like to share my views of this OS with the others who might be thinking of a switch. By Linux, I imply openSUSE 10.3 all thru this writing, I understand this would be technically incorrect, and a novice should not presume Linux=openSUSE. However, this is the only flavor I smelled lately. First off, it's tremendously windows-like with KDE, I've not tried gnome yet. Bundled software work great. One should not have much difficulties with getting their business done from the default selection of packages, assuming you're not a scientist or bionics engineer. However, a look at the available software is highly recommended. Last time I used Linux, I was dilling up to my ISP using my home phone line over a 56 k modem. Now I'm dialing up to ISP thru my cell phone, using my operator's EDGE services, over bluetooth. And believe it or not, it was easier to set this up on Linux compared to windows. In windows, I had to load the phone vendor's drivers. In Linux, I have to edit a file and paste a few lines from a forum page. And I don't even have to restart. I was disappointed on the multimedia front. My installation included some high quality players, but lacked the required codecs. I could not play any video. Later on I learned from the web that this was due to copyright restrictions. openSUSE is not the bad guy here. some additional work for a person who is new to Linux and has just installed it and isn't very comfortable with trying to play with a system he doesn't know how to fix. However, it wasn't very difficult to download the codecs, I'm yet to add .wma support to my system, everything else seems to play now. from my experiences over the last 15 days or so, this one thing I know for sure-Linux is 200 times easier to handle now, compared to what it used to be 8 years back. Things are pretty easy to install, and uninstall, using the integrated yast2 utility. yast crashed on me a couple of times (faulty rpm?) without any warning message. it simply went off the display. Hope this is fixed in the next release. I'm yet to find a free download accelerator software for my Linux system. I've to fall back on the browser's download manager. And downloads are slower compared to what it used to be with download accelerator plus for windows.

And this particularly reminds me of my sweet 16s- to dial up to the Internet, I have to type

jheel@UNIX:~> su
Password:
UNIX:/home/jheel # rfcomm bind 0 00:1B:EE:95:80:52 2
UNIX:/home/jheel # sudo wvdial EDGE

Couldn't there be an easier solution?
One thing that would instantly catch a users eye was the completeness of the operating system as a suite. One would find all types of software on the installation DVD, ranging from servers, to the ones that let me connect to the yahoo messenger. To sum it up, things might be difficult at the beginning, but once you get it going, it never runs out of gas.Once i got everything set up properly all the required software installed,I've never had an application crash, a slowdown, a virus attack or something like “xyz.dll” not found. I don't think I would switch back to my old operating system . It started as an experiment, and as I see it now, my computer's become my addiction. I'm loving it.

Ahemmm,,, .wma fix anyone please?

[waterhead]

For the wma codec, go to this site and scroll down to the "Binary Codec Packages" section. Download the correct version for your PC. Unpack it, and read the README file for installation instructions. You should maybe install mplayer too. Use YaST for that, and install a mplayer frontend like smplayer.

MPlayer - The Movie Player

For your internet connection, you could put the commands into a script. You will still need root permissions to run it. You can use su or sudo for this.

#!/bin/bash
rfcomm bind 0 00:1B:EE:95:80:52 2
sudo wvdial EDGE

Give it a name, like edge, and make it executable.

chmod +x edge

Run it with the sudo command

sudo edge

You may need to add the path to the script, like ~/edge (if it is in your /home directory).