An end of an era of incompetence
by schwim on Dec.16, 2008, under Software
No, I’m not talking about our government. It’s era will never end. I’m talking about my incompetence in regards to using linux as my desktop OS.
Last week, I began upgrading my work computer. Still using Fedora 7, I was longing for app upgrades that were no longer coming. I had tried F9, but found it such a step backwards, I kept the F7 install for another dev cycle. I figured F10 was going to be my saving grace.
After over a week and over 50 support posts, I’ve got a working computer again. Unfortunately, it’s running XP. My head is still spinning from the whole process, but in the end, my desire to feed my family won out over open source zealotry. Grub’s inability to work with my mainboard, X’s inability to create two independent desktops, PulseAudio’s crackling every time a window was minimized or maximized, and my continued 4 year attempt to get Samba to mount my network drives finally pissed me off enough to take such a drastic measure.
I have to admit, I’m fairly pissed about the whole affair, but comparing the two OS installs, I can’t really fault myself:
| Action: | Windows | Linux |
| Install | 1 hour | 3 days of work. Grub would not find drive on MSI P965 Neo mainboard. |
| Dualhead | 5 minutes to use the config panel, then download an app to add a second taskbar. | N/A. Spent 4 days on problem but it never worked. Twinview and Xinerama gave me a wide single DE and a second DE, respectively, but no independence to them. |
| Networking | < 1 minute. Right click network drive, choose “Map network drive” and assign a drive letter. | N/A Worked on this for over 3 years. Samba would view and retrieve, but could not save to drive without errors, causing me to have to use USB sticks to transfer data. |
I’m so bummed about this, as there’s so many things I dislike about Windows XP. Linux had to work very hard to do it, but they finally succeeded in making the experience less pleasurable than Windows.
That’s no easy feat.
December 17th, 2008 on 12:44 am
That’s a bummer. I stuck with F8 to avoid numerous F9 issues – I’m still waiting for F10 to settle down, but I may end up going with something else. At the risk of teaching you to suck eggs, if you don’t need exotic apps, CentOS may be an option – the look and feel you’re used to, but very stable and a bit quicker IMHO. Or there’s Debian (stable) of course – rock solid and with every app under the sun supported in their repos. Or maybe Mint, if you want more of the “works out of the box” experience – everybody seems to be raving about it.
After you’ve had a rest, and re-convinced yourself that Windows is too yucky, maybe give another distro a go.
December 17th, 2008 on 1:19 am
Heya Bert,
It doesn’t take long to remember all that I didn’t like about Windows, but it’s nice to be able to save files remotely, set up printers, video, sound, etc without infinite config file edits, etc.
I’ve got CentOS, Mint and pcBSD install cd’s on my desk. It’s going to take me a bit to get my panties out of a wad, and I will NEVER attempt an upgrade of linux install on a computer that I make a living on again. Christ himself couldn’t guarantee compatibility on even the most vanilla of systems.
I hope I get over it soon. I’ve already begun hating the lack of configurability.
I’m such a fucking whiner.
December 17th, 2008 on 11:11 am
Ah ha! I should have expected that you’d already have it figured out. I recently read that Debian has ported their utilities and apps to a FreeBSD kernel. It’s still a work in progress, but if you’re interested in going that way, you might want to look at: http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/
December 17th, 2008 on 1:46 pm
Already missing the “infinite config file edits”, eh?
December 17th, 2008 on 1:50 pm
Thanks Bert. I’ll add it to my growing list of potential installs
I’m saddest about Amarok, I think but am liking foobar 2000 quite a bit. It dulls the pain
December 17th, 2008 on 1:51 pm
Adrian, what I hope to leave the world for it’s betterment when I’m dead and gone is a single GUI app that will configure everything in the world.
Everything.
December 17th, 2008 on 4:36 pm
I’m still mourning the loss of Amarok… Denial has worked well for me these last few weeks, but now you’ve gone and mentioned its name! I think I will need Prozac or something to get over this one. What the bloody hell were they thinking? Why did they have to go and ruin my beloved Ama?
December 18th, 2008 on 8:22 pm
OOOOO! Lookie! Amarok 2 was released today! http://maketecheasier.com/amarok-2-brings-fresh-changes/2008/12/18 Boy, I’d sure hate to be without a linux distro at a time like this!
Schwim, Fedora 10′s working fine for me, although 9 was a bust. However, with a testing distro, it’s always a crap shoot. Debian’s a solid option, but I’m sure you already know that. XP is somewhat it’s equivalent – plenty of support and years of development and also boring as hell.
December 20th, 2008 on 2:57 am
Haha, you really know how to kick a guy
I miss it so. Maybe in another year, I’ll try it again. I have all the stable flavors on disk, I just don’t look forward to them like I do the zoomy installs. My problem is this:
I have the wonder of a 5 year old.
With the competence to match.