My Linux reviews and what it must do for me

[robisc]

My impressions of the new Nixes and what I personally think they have to do in order to make me use them as my primary OS.

First of all let me say that I have tried Linux since way back when during the 5.XX versions but I am by no means a guru in Linux, I just like to play with it and have been eager to see how it has improved and progressed since the early days, but IMO it still has a long way to go to impress me "out of the box" (like BeOS 5 did FWIW).

I have been using SuSe 8.0 on my laptop which has been a dual boot setup with XP, it seems to come "out of the box" with better support than the other versions I have tried including the 2 new big boys Mandrake 9 and Redhat 8. I installed Mandrake first on my laptop with no problems during install and once I launched it I liked what I saw, with Openoffice already configured but I was disappointed still for the lack of support for thinks like my soundcard. The menus are clean and not overkill like earlier versions of Linux which may have a distro specific menu of apps and also a Gnome and KDE version, also the system configuration is easy with this version, in the past the extra menus are overkill and confusing but with these new versions they are getting better. When Redhat came out a couple days ago I installed it on both my laptop and Linux only desktop machine blowing away Mandrake in both cases, I liked the Mandrake installer better and Mandrake installed faster than Redhat too, but once Redhat loaded I like the way the default desktop looks with the Blue?? whatever they call it desktop theme that everyone was so up in the air about, but I decided to make KDE my desktop default, it is what I am used to. The biggest advantage of Redhat over Mandrake that I see is speed, Redhat is much faster on both systems, 1 system is a 1.3 ghz Celeron the other is an Athlon XP 1700, both have 512mb RAM. Redhat loads the programs faster and all the menus refresh and open faster than Drake. As for the Redhat downfalls the one thing that I can't get Radhat to do is mount my FAT32 Windows partition on my laptop Mandrake did. Redhat did instantly find my USB mouse when I plugged it in and I was able to use both the touchpad and optical mouse on my laptop, the same goes for my USB floppy drive, I was able to mount it right after I plugged it in, Mandrake did neither of these functions for me. Bottom line is both distros look good and have a lot of apps and tools but IMO they are still lacking some primary things that a desktop OS must provide "out of the box", now before someone replies back about how I can recompile this and configure that in order to get this and that to work remember these are the things I think are necessary for ME as a relative "noobie" and also a lot of other folks that may be looking at an alternative OS. I can and probably will fix some of these shortcomings hopefully with some of you guys? help here.

Here is what is necessary for me as a primary OS.

Easy install: Linux is now easier and faster than an XP install IMO.

Hardware support: Still shaky, I have had to do a lot of playing around to get my video right and haven't even tried to get sound working.

The ability to "map" to my Windows shares, there is SAMBA I know but this has never worked for me.

Ease of admin: They are getting there, there is now less editing from console and a lot of config tools are in the GUI menus.

802.11 wireless support: I NEED this to work, I know there are packages from HP-WLAN project but that is foreign to me as I have tried to install it with SuSE all to no avail.

Sound: I have had no luck in the past with most soundcards using both ALSA and OSS.

Palm OS PDA support, it would be nice to be able to get my Clie to sync with Linux, I have tried in the past with a Visor also with no luck.

Laptop Power Management or ACPI, I know there is also a how to on this but it too is foreign to me and should work after a default install.

DVD playback, I have tried XINE in the past and haven't been able to get it to work.


This is about all I can think of right now, I'm sure there is more I could list but I won't. Also realize that I am not blasting Linux just posting my $.02 about what I would like to see, also note that I understand most of these shortcomings are probably being worked on and will be fixed it's just that these are my limitations of this OS for now. So please no flames or mention that this is a geekier OS than Windows and that if I would have RTFM I could have gotten this and that working it's just that I have an haven't done so with these new distros, I haven't yet had time to try and get this stuff working but I will. Also note that I have tried the "dumbed" down versions like Lindows and Lycoris and didn't like them.

 

[PG]

First of all let me say that I have tried Linux since way back when during the 5.XX versions

There's no such thing as a 5.XX version of Linux. Do you mean 5.XX versions of Red Hat?

I have had no luck in the past with most soundcards using both ALSA and OSS.

Which soundcards? Did you try the Mandrake control center? Just about any PCI soundcard should have drivers and work.

DVD playback, I have tried XINE in the past and haven't been able to get it to work.

That's an easy one. XINE by default cannot play back encrypted DVD's because it's illegal. But you can do a quick search and find an rpm or two that will allow those DVD's to play and installing rpm's is easy.

Palm OS PDA support, it would be nice to be able to get my Clie to sync with Linux, I have tried in the past with a Visor also with no luck.

Didn't you try KPilot?

 

[Need4Speed]

Ease of admin: They are getting there, there is now less editing from console and a lot of config tools are in the GUI menus.

This might apply to a workstation, but keep the GUI and silly config tools of my linux servers. It doesn't get any simplier than vi and a conf file.

 

[n0cmonkey]

I was going to post a response to what you said. Then I got to the part where you asked for no flames, so I decided not to.

 

[Nothinman]

The ability to "map" to my Windows shares, there is SAMBA I know but this has never worked for me.

You don't even have to configure samba before smbmount will work.

Ease of admin: They are getting there, there is now less editing from console and a lot of config tools are in the GUI menus.

Ease is relative, most of the 'ease' meaning clicking on buttons is what causes Windows boxes to still be running IIS with CodeRed infections. I personally find plain text files easier because I can copy them, edit them with any editor, process them with perl, edit them via ssh over a modem connection, etc. It takes a little more work in the beginning, but in the long run it's better.

802.11 wireless support: I NEED this to work, I know there are packages from HP-WLAN project but that is foreign to me as I have tried to install it with SuSE all to no avail.

Unless someone like RedHat starts including those patches this won't work out of the box until Linux 2.6 is released.

Sound: I have had no luck in the past with most soundcards using both ALSA and OSS.

I have gotten probably between 3-6 different sound cards to work in Linux, it just takes a little reading.

Laptop Power Management or ACPI, I know there is also a how to on this but it too is foreign to me and should work after a default install.

ACPI support in 2.4 is sort of half-done, 2.6 will be more complete.

Most of your problems seem to stem from not having enough time to learn Linux, but since you realize this why even post this? We don't need the forums filled with things people perceive wrong before they even know the system. Some of your complaints are valid (wlan support is ugly, ACPI is ugly, etc) but if you get to the point where you consider yourself proficient in Linux you'll realize a lot of them aren't and havn't been 'fixed' for a reason.

 

[robisc]

There's no such thing as a 5.XX version of Linux. Do you mean 5.XX versions of Red Hat?

Yes I did, actually I don't remember the Linux kernel versions, but the actual distros wre like Caldera Openlinux 2.xx

Which soundcards? Did you try the Mandrake control center? Just about any PCI soundcard should have drivers and work.

There have been multiple soundcards I couldn't get to work, the 2 recent one's in question both have AC'97 2.2 Audio CODEC Onboard chips

That's an easy one. XINE by default cannot play back encrypted DVD's because it's illegal. But you can do a quick search and find an rpm or two that will allow those DVD's to play and installing rpm's is easy.

This may be the case and I will get around to trying different players but my point was really that I haven't even gotten XINE to open without crashing, I should have been clearer.

Didn't you try KPilot?

I did and I also tried gnome-pilot and haven't been able to get either working with USB Palm devices

I was going to post a response to what you said. Then I got to the part where you asked for no flames, so I decided not to.

monkey thanks for that, I didn?t want a flamefest and wouldn?t think my ?review? and ?opinions? stated here should turn in to one, these are just as I already stated, my opinions about the present releases of Linux out of the box as they fit my personal uses and such. You know opinions are like they say in that old adage about us all having them just like, well you know the rest. So in saying this I really don?t know what you would flame here anyway since I am not speaking the gospel but in fact just stating my perceptions, comparisons and my opinion. 😉

Most of your problems seem to stem from not having enough time to learn Linux, but since you realize this why even post this? We don't need the forums filled with things people perceive wrong before they even know the system. Some of your complaints are valid (wlan support is ugly, ACPI is ugly, etc) but if you get to the point where you consider yourself proficient in Linux you'll realize a lot of them aren't and havn't been 'fixed' for a reason.

Nothinman thanks for the tips I will try them also I agree I haven?t spent the time I should have in trying to further my knowledge in Linux, nothing close to what I have learned in the past when I was studying to get my MCSE, but the reason I posted this was I thought just as my post was titled simply ?a review and what Linux must do for me?, exactly that and nothing more, it wasn?t intended to be written as the ?gospel? or end all also people didn?t buy a paper in order to read what I wrote. I though that?s what this and other bulletin type boards were for. I mean I read a lot of useless crap here some interesting some not, but if everything here was perfect and pleased everyone and was exactly what they wanted to read well this place wouldn?t be too interesting IMO. 😉

 

[Nothinman]

I though that?s what this and other bulletin type boards were for. I mean I read a lot of useless crap here some interesting some not, but if everything here was perfect and pleased everyone and was exactly what they wanted to read well this place wouldn?t be too interesting IMO.

There's a lot of useless crap here and everywhere. I don't care if the post pleases me or agrees with my point of view, I just don't see the point of your post. At the end of it all you said you weren't asking for help with anything and you didn't want flamed, that sort of rules out all the responses you'll get on this board =)

 

[robisc]

Nothinman sorry you don't see the point of my post it was nothing more than taking the time to post my opinion and findings, maybe I should be more sensitive to what I post next time huh? Even though I am sure that out of your 3940 posts all were well received and were full of info for everyone.

 

[Nothinman]

I won't lie and say all of my posts are thoughtfull or even 100% correct. But this is a 'discussion board', your post left nothing to discuss.