From reading various nerd websites over the years you really can't avoid the ravings about linux and how good it is compared to the flawed MS operating systems. Recently, a colleague has joined our company who's a real Linux nut. Personally, my choice of operating systems are OSX and XP SP2. I figured I'd go ahead and 'learn linux' by installing it on a secondary box.
In the past I have had limited use of linux including mandrake, knoppix, suse and I believe red hat at uni.
So, I downloaded Fedora Core 4, burnt it and performed a standard install, allowing it to make the majority of choices of what to install for a desktop workstation. The install went nicely and I was shortly up and running with a basic desktop environment. Neato.
Now, all I needed to do was find some drivers. The linux proponent at work said all I had to do was use the in-built updating app right there within Fedora. I fired it up, entered the root password and it began working. But this is where I hit the first issue: for a start, it didn't really tell you what these packages it was downloading really did. It used hugely complex filenames that just added to the confusion. I let it work away, but after 45 minutes of staring at the hour glass and the progress bar not moving, I decided it had indeed failed. Three repetitons of this confirmed it.
Never mind.
On to the display driver: it was running in software mode which isn't good. Off I went to the Nvidia website and saw a Linux driver. Awesome, I thought! So there it was downloaded on the desktop. Neat. I double click on it. Fedora tells me it has no clue what to do with the file. Damn, got to read the freaking manual!
OK, so it needed to be executed from the terminal command line (hmm, I thought to myself, is it 2005 or 1985?). Whoops! that's no good, I needed to be logged in as root, which I could understand - Linux is afterall very secure. Just being able to enter a password as per OSX would have been cool, though.
In I logged as root, fired up the terminal and started the installer. Damn. No good again... why not now?! Ah right, the GUI was running, and I needed to search for some obscure text file and change a value in there so that linux would boot into a command-line based mode as opposed to running a GUI (X-server). FFS!
So I change the value, reboot it into console mode and run the display driver for the fith or sixth time. Uh oh, No go. Why? something to do with CC or GCC not being found... no clue. I call my buddy who's doing a master's degree in software engineering at York. Apparantly it required some C compiler because the display driver doesn't come down compiled.
We try all sorts such as making links and even sym links to this CC folder we found, but after an hour we just gave up as it simply was not running.
Now, am I being unreasonable here when I state that Linux is wholly inappropriate for a home desktop? The maintenance time required to perform even the most basic functionality is astronomical and leaves the average user hugely frustrated. I've not even thought about the mobo drivers, let alone the TV card I want to put in there.
You need to spend weeks learning the whole structure of the OS and then walk the OS through every basic procedure. I doesn't appear to want to do anything for you...
Don't get me wrong, I understand that it is a very powerful OS and is great in a server, but as a home machine it really isn't for me I think. I like the OSX way of 'it just works'. I like to hit that power button, log in and use the computer. Not maintain it, or just get it running.
Cliffs:
-Linux is a pain in the ass to get running and it p!ssed me off really badly.
-Windows and OSX are hugely simpler to get up and running.
-Read the post you lazy buggers.
In the past I have had limited use of linux including mandrake, knoppix, suse and I believe red hat at uni.
So, I downloaded Fedora Core 4, burnt it and performed a standard install, allowing it to make the majority of choices of what to install for a desktop workstation. The install went nicely and I was shortly up and running with a basic desktop environment. Neato.
Now, all I needed to do was find some drivers. The linux proponent at work said all I had to do was use the in-built updating app right there within Fedora. I fired it up, entered the root password and it began working. But this is where I hit the first issue: for a start, it didn't really tell you what these packages it was downloading really did. It used hugely complex filenames that just added to the confusion. I let it work away, but after 45 minutes of staring at the hour glass and the progress bar not moving, I decided it had indeed failed. Three repetitons of this confirmed it.
Never mind.
On to the display driver: it was running in software mode which isn't good. Off I went to the Nvidia website and saw a Linux driver. Awesome, I thought! So there it was downloaded on the desktop. Neat. I double click on it. Fedora tells me it has no clue what to do with the file. Damn, got to read the freaking manual!
OK, so it needed to be executed from the terminal command line (hmm, I thought to myself, is it 2005 or 1985?). Whoops! that's no good, I needed to be logged in as root, which I could understand - Linux is afterall very secure. Just being able to enter a password as per OSX would have been cool, though.
In I logged as root, fired up the terminal and started the installer. Damn. No good again... why not now?! Ah right, the GUI was running, and I needed to search for some obscure text file and change a value in there so that linux would boot into a command-line based mode as opposed to running a GUI (X-server). FFS!
So I change the value, reboot it into console mode and run the display driver for the fith or sixth time. Uh oh, No go. Why? something to do with CC or GCC not being found... no clue. I call my buddy who's doing a master's degree in software engineering at York. Apparantly it required some C compiler because the display driver doesn't come down compiled.
We try all sorts such as making links and even sym links to this CC folder we found, but after an hour we just gave up as it simply was not running.
Now, am I being unreasonable here when I state that Linux is wholly inappropriate for a home desktop? The maintenance time required to perform even the most basic functionality is astronomical and leaves the average user hugely frustrated. I've not even thought about the mobo drivers, let alone the TV card I want to put in there.
You need to spend weeks learning the whole structure of the OS and then walk the OS through every basic procedure. I doesn't appear to want to do anything for you...
Don't get me wrong, I understand that it is a very powerful OS and is great in a server, but as a home machine it really isn't for me I think. I like the OSX way of 'it just works'. I like to hit that power button, log in and use the computer. Not maintain it, or just get it running.
Cliffs:
-Linux is a pain in the ass to get running and it p!ssed me off really badly.
-Windows and OSX are hugely simpler to get up and running.
-Read the post you lazy buggers.
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