Reply to: Don't wannabee a linux guru

[Cliphead]

I moved to Linux Mint which is based on Ubuntu but ALL the bits work.

Linky

[darmstadt]

Try Kubuntu - All the benefits of Ubuntu but with the KDE desktop..

Installed that this weekend in VMWare under Vista (just for test purposes.) Took about an hour overall before I could log in but am still trying to work out how to install VMTools...

[KevinS]

Try Kubuntu - All the benefits of Ubuntu but with the KDE desktop..

[TimberWolf]

The soft-modems (win-modems) are not well supported on any distribution. The soft-modem hardware is cheap as chips (thats why they use'em); since a lot of the functionality is delegated to driver software including signal processing (with-out detailed data-sheets drivers probably difficult to produce).

Likewise with broadband; buy a separate modem/router box (e.g. Netgear DG834G). Avoid Linksys.

Okay, thanks for the tips. I guess it’s about time I upgraded my el-cheapo steam-driven USB modem to an ethernet wireless jobbie. I’m not sure whether I’ll use Ubuntu though, unless it turns out to be faster and less hassle than Windows. Just ordered a DG834G.

[expat]

Sounds like what you're asking for is an OS that runs with all the advantages of Windows without the miriad disadvantages.

Got it in one!

SueEllen, I do actually know what "root" and "mount" mean, having spent most of the last 10 years on unix systems at work. I just don't want playing a music CD or browsing my photos to feel like being "at work". I want it to happen like it happens on Windows XP. So maybe sticking with XP is the way.

[Addanc]

I suggest openSUSE. Very good hardware detection (RaLink and Intel wireless chipsets run out of the box, Atheros wireless chipset easy to set-up through MadwifI driver, should be possible to set-up any other wireless chipsets (assuming availability of windows drivers) through Ndiswrapper). Not found an ethernet NIC that doesn't work under Linux out of the box. Nvidia graphics cards easy to set-up with Nvidia driver so that you can get all the wonderful accelerated 3d. The equivalent of Control-Panel i.e. YAST is very easy to use. I would also recommend the KDE desktop, lot more intuitive than Gnome.

The soft-modems (win-modems) are not well supported on any distribution. The soft-modem hardware is cheap as chips (thats why they use'em); since a lot of the functionality is delegated to driver software including signal processing (with-out detailed data-sheets drivers probably difficult to produce).

Likewise with broadband; buy a separate modem/router box (e.g. Netgear DG834G). Avoid Linksys.

[SueEllen]

The main issue with linux is the time taken to learn everything to work in your particular situation. However seeing people who are logical and less technically orientated use MS Windows over the years I can see that any OS can be hard for some one to use what ever their profession.

For example words like "root" and "mount" aren't hard to understand. You just need to go to www.google.com put in the words "linux root" or "linux mount" and you get a nice link to what the term means.

With internal modems unfortunately there has been an on going problems for years due to the manufacturers of them writing closed source device drivers, which no linux distribution will distribute. Therefore you have to either:
1. fiddle around with mailing lists and searching to find the driver and instructions on how to install it
2. buy an external modem
3. avoid the issue altogether by using broadband
I've tried all off the over the years and 3 is the easiest option.

Oh and if the fonts are terrible on your desktop you can easily download the windows fonts and play around with your desktop until you get the appearance you want. Most distributions seem to allow you to update your packages and include this in the download if they don't come with the fonts already.

[tim123]

and I mean without ever having heard the words "root" and "mount". I also mean without being helpfully advised (as I have been) that I am not fit to use a computer and certainly can't call myself an IT professional....
.

Standard Unix Bollocks that geeks subscribe to.

And FWIW I don't call myself an IT professional, I call myself an engineer.

The mark of a poor engineer is someone who produces output which cannot easily be understood. Writing code which leaves undocumented traps for the next user to fall into is POOR engineering, not good engineering. If a Structural Engineer produced designs which could not easily be 100% validated by (a random) one of his peers he would be out of work promto. I see no reason at all why the opposite is supposed to be good in the Unix world.

tim

[VectraMan]

I do have it running in Virtual PC. It mostly sits there being brown and not doing things I want it to do. I don't know to what extent these problems are caused by VPC, but straight off you notice the fonts don't look as good as Windows, and neither do things like radio buttons and combo boxes in web pages. I can't use it full screen because it won't support 1280x1024, and the mouse wheel won't work which means I can't even use it for web browsing.

And after trying to set 1280x1024, and breaking everything including the display config app, I've already had the experience of trawling the web trying to find out what magical command line I have to run to get it to redetect the graphics settings.

5 or 6 years ago I tried installing RedHat, and I remember having the same graphics issue amongst others. Without wanting to seem cynical about it, I'm genuinely suprised that it doesn't seem to have improved.

[TimberWolf]

I installed Ubuntu and it more or less worked out of the box. There was a bit of fiddling creating a boot image disk etc initially though (which meant finding and downloading software to do it), so not a 5-minute job. The install set up a dual boot system using some product that comes with it whose name I forget now, and that works well. If I don’t touch anything it automatically boots into windows after 8 seconds, so just adds 10 seconds or so to bootup. No big deal.

The showstopper I have with Ubuntu is that there’s no driver for my modem, which means no Internet and so Ubuntu is hardly used. It worked and looked quite promising apart from that. The solution for me, after trawling the boards for hours is to buy a new hardware modem, but I couldn’t be arsed as yet.

[BrilloPad]

Or install Linux as the main OS and then run Windows under VM Ware, or vice versa. I hated dual boot. VM Ware rocks

I only read this thread as I saw an admin post - I assumed there was trouble. I am a bit disappointed now...

[administrator]

Or install Linux as the main OS and then run Windows under VM Ware, or vice versa. I hated dual boot. VM Ware rocks

[Cheshire Cat]

Sounds like what you're asking for is an OS that runs with all the advantages of Windows without the miriad disadvantages.
Unfortunately, even the best Linux flavours I've used will have trouble with at least one "core" function that you perhaps take for granted on Windows.
E.g. In my personal experience some versions of Linux are great at everything except dealing with peripherals (printers, external drives, Wifi etc). Whilst you CAN get them to work, it involves an afternoon of trail and error taking advice from strangers on a IRC chatboard, and very probably being flamed for not wanting to use something so arty as a GUI, or daring to ask for a simple function, such as ripping a DVD, without the need to write your own driver.


Anyway, I think my experience of Linux sounds similar to yours. I would LOVE to ditch windows forever on my home laptop, but for all it's faults (mega hungry OS, terrible innate security, etc) it's the path of least resistance, and I can do most things straight from the get-go with Windows without having to guess a specific glitch or feature of the specific version of Linux I'm using, or know when something like connecting my wireless printer, or running a rarely used Word/OpenOffice feature isn't going to work.

My advice, FWIW, is install Ubuntu or similar over the top of your XP/Vista and run as a dual boot. Become more familiar with Linux, but leave yourself the old security net of Windows to fall back, for when you just can't get something to work. This will hopefully prevent you from lobbing the PC out of the window.

[expat]

Ubuntu

I've been using it for over 2 years now. It keeps getting better with every release.

It has a good reputation. I did try it once but it met a wall at something. By that time I had had enough so I didn't even note down what the problem was. Maybe it's better now.

Oh, I did have problems with Java-based software:
- on Windows XP, was offered option to install Java, took it, it worked.
- on Ubuntu, was told No Java Run-time environment found. That was all. Surly.

[expat]

It's hard to define "really just works" without going into the detail of what you're trying to accomplish.

Indeed. I mean things like these, which have all failed for me on one or other supposedly user-friendly linux:

1. put a DVD in the drive and watch a movie.
2. put a blank CD in the drive and burn it, as data or music.
3. plug an external DVD writer into a usb port and use it.

and I mean without ever having heard the words "root" and "mount". I also mean without being helpfully advised (as I have been) that I am not fit to use a computer and certainly can't call myself an IT professional....

Edit: when I specify my needs to myself, it's much like your list. But when I try it, I find there's more.... it's not what I want to do that causes trouble, it's what I take for granted, that doesn't work.