However, the hardware fails miserably under Linux. I’m on an ancient ICH-4 laptop, using a Pentium M CPU (Dothan 1.7).

I *need* undervolt. On Windows, it’s a 5 min task with RmClock. On Linux, it’s ridiculous… rebuild kernel, patch, download driver, load module, configuration (text-only, argh)… then you do some magic voodoo on the command line praying for it to work.

And it’s *old* hardware, 5-6 years old.

I don’t even need to add *no* newer hardware of mine works (DSLR camera, camcorder etc. etc.).

Really, the lack of hardware support is killing it, like it’s not dead enough already LOL!

I’m on Ubuntu 9.10 just now. Loving it, but with a hot hot laptop, so let me go back to the viruses, please! :-P

As much as I hate MS myself, I will be forced to stick with them until they can push a linux distro that doesn’t require 6 months of reading and learning just to install a update or driver properly.

There is also the continued lack of gaming support.

Excitement did not last long since the wireless card did not work. Now that’s a serious issue… Not because the card doesn’t work, but because releasing a software to production and marketing it as “Most user friendly Linux distribution” is simply not OK if you cannot automatically recognize a wireless card in a 2 year old brand name laptop. Troubleshooting gets really annoying if I have to troubleshoot a very simple thing.

This break was longer. I didn’t touch any Linux distro for about 3 years (except at work a few times where I had to test stuff)… I decided to give a try to Fedora when XP started acting funky on my Laptop (not my main machine for work). I decided to do Fedora instead of reloading XP and be forced to use it at least for night time browsing. I did, and I even liked it. I still had to troubleshoot stuff but wasn’t too bad. This was until yesterday which is when open office stopped working. The icon would just jump for a while when I try to launch it and then disappear being tired of jumping. I Googled a little bit with not much luck so I decided to uninstall it and give Go-oo a try instead. I got a message – “Unable to remove, a dependency is missing”.

What? I am trying to friggin uninstall an application. Who cares if the dependency is missing? That stupid dependency is probably why my icon keeps jumping and not launch and I am stuck with it even when I try uninstalling. I am sure there is a logical explanation why it cannot be uninstalled without that dependency, but come on!

I think I am quitting again and this time it may be for longer, as I write these lines from my fresh Windows 7 installation. Sorry to say as I am really for Open Source and the community, but Windows 7 answers my daily needs much better than Linux does. And don’t bring the “free” thing please, I earn my bread out of this device and don’t mind paying a couple hundered bucks every 3-4 years or so for upgrading.

Why nobody complains about cars getting old?

* Have you even tried it to begin it with . I hear people say they need hours of reading to even know how to install linux . Let me ask have you ever felt installing Windows difficult if not you wouldn’t feel installing linux difficult too . And there are 100s of places where you can get support for linux . So shut it will ya .
@ Simple Guy , even though this is a late post what difficulty did you have that made you say so . Which distro do you use . And as far as I can tell and what I heard from those who have ACTUALLY USED LINUX it provides stability as well ease of use compared to some other well known operating system .
@ssh , have you ever thought of filing and bug in the respective bugzilla . And if yes what was the response .
@pete , well in todays society Internet is an important factor and you can’t deny it . And there are viruses (produced accidentally maybe as the windows geeks say) even in one of the most trusted sites . Ok now you have to bring another Anti virus pack where you spend a lot of dollars and buying a key for it once in a while is much bigger work than of getting rid of virus . But where as in linux even if a virus is detected it would be taken care of ( i do mean it ) as it is open source.

Guys what makes linux tough is that you make it sound tough . Most of them who discouraged linux here may not have even used it once in a while . And installing is quite easy as installing windows .
WAKE UP thats what I’d like to say from the old prison of windows .

Reality is, Windows has no real issue if the user doesn’t do stupid stuff… Crud, Linux has the same problems in reality because you’re opening the users files up to being deleted or stolen just by giving them full control over them and that’s the part that this Open Source Community Seems to Forget…

I’ve watched your video and guess what? I’m one of those people that wants Photoshop before I’ll switch and what’s sad is that the only piece of hardware that wouldn’t work, with the lastest installs of Linux I’ve tried, was my HDTV Tuner and ultimately, it sent me to the Windows 7 RC to learn that as opposed to giving Linux a real go (with Photoshop under Wine because GIMP just sucks).

My experience, for over two decades, has been with DOS, MacOS, Win32, Unix (Solaris) and Linux (RH and Fedora 4), and Mac OS X. I’ve done programming, graphics, and many other things using computers. Like a lot of geeks, I’ve complained about Windows for a long time, as I was interested in learning more about how things were working, and it’s kinda fashionable to complain about Windows. But the fact is, Windows usually works fairly well for nearly anything you want to get done in the real world, and when it does hang, it’s easy to figure out why. Mac OS X takes things to the next level, and is just a wonder to use and get things done, a highly polished diamond of simplicity and “just works”-ness. Furthermore, getting to know how things work has accomplished its goal. I know.

So yes, Linux absolutely sucks. It can be fun while its sucking, that’s for sure, but unless you’re running a server, one whose hardware is not going to change very often, you’re far better off avoiding the uncountable lost hours you’re going to give over learning “how computers work” by debugging someone else’s lousy code, tracking down every little error Linux makes, from dependencies to poorly documented goofs, to stuff that just don’t f-ing work. If you really enjoy Googling for hours to find out why something doesn’t work, especially on those not-so-rare occasions when you still can’t get it fixed even after all the attempts, then Linux is for you. It will be great fun for a while, as you learn the hard way and play with it, and make no mistake, some things will simply, inexplicably, moronically, just not work.

Eventually, though, you will need stop thinking about how to debug the computer so you can do something WITH the computer, rather than doing stuff TO it.

Most of us are neither dumb nor lazy – that’s a copout from many Linux geeks. I’m a geek (sometimes a Linux geek), but I’m friggin sick of debugging Linux all the time! The only time Linux is trustworthy is when you don’t change anything, so if you’re lucky enough to have a Linux box which runs, by all means don’t change it, don’t get a new motherboard, or try to update the OS or the various “packages”. Leave it frozen in whatever year you were lucky enough to get it running, as a reminder of what your mind was like then. Only then can you enjoy the subculture which is Linux. Otherwise, you’ll always be Googling, searching and digging, hoping to figure out why something won’t work, even when someone else has it working just fine. The answer could be a click away, as you use your Windows machine to search for the answer, or you could waste another evening on Linux.

Using Mac OS X, with the incredibly powerful but equally simple way it has, reminds me day after day that it’s not about the computer, but the work I have to get done, and my work is not about debugging and fixing computers all day and night. I simply need my computers to do the task, whether holding data as I write a paper, draw to the screen as I design a complex graphic, or transfer bytes as I backup files from one drive to another. What’s wrong with a geek using a computer to do something other than fix the computer?

So, why the hell can’t Linux be like Mac OS X?

What distro did you use recently?
I’m not one of those pain the ass Linux fan boys, and I do think user friendliness is still lacking, but Linux has definitely come a LONG way in a few years.
I haven’t needed to compile anything or install something in the terminal for ages, most things now are all in binary form (.deb & .rpm)
KDE 4.2 has been released, which looks great, what a modern OS should be like, although some people have had a few problems with bugs, mine has been fine.
Install was pathetically easy, a lot more so than Windows.
I think Linux will be the answer, guess time will tell.

Tried it many years ago, fiddled with it again recently, was shocked (although shouldn’t have been) and disgusted to see how little actual progress was made. Sad state of affairs. I hate Microsoft and Macs alike but unfortunately Linux isn’t and never will be the answer.

And exactly what Linux distribution are you talking about? How can the Linux kernel suck?

Again: you hate what you don’t know; you pretend to know what you hate.

“Linux sucks!” – that sentence exposes a lot of your ignorance and that’s inexcusable. Go back to your pricey Mac that you keep trying to value or your pirated Windows XP/Vista OS.

Ken
IT Director
Melbourne

i wrote this after half bottle of rum so take no charge at it as is..linux is better concept YOU cannot argue with that (opensource)…best way to settle this is for windows to be open source aswell and everything would be jelly…but no money as the most stupid invention of all kind is dirigating this world…humans are stupid and lat’s face it everything in this worl first beginning with society is based on the fact that a man is stupid…

And to get to to beginning of this post; niels bohr sad that the expert is a man that have done all mistakes in a very narrow field…don’t just read it understand it

kind regards

vedran galeta

sweden and croatia

sudo aptitude install

This is how you install stuff on the most popular distributions of linux…

To upgrade?
sudo aptitude upgrade

or

sudo apt upgrade safe

YEAAAAAA HOW DIFFICULT…Personnaly I installed my graphic card and wifi card in minute with the windows drivers…Work perfectly…

And for the average people…There is a grapical user interface for installing programs..Im not talking about compiling here or anything…

In ubuntu,just click you .deb synaptic package and it will install..Just has easy then windows..And you know what?Something that makes linux much more secure is that many programs and kept in a repository wich are virus free…And if you have any issue,there is a huge community of expert to help you to get rid of your problems…

Well this may not be for all linux distribution,but it is for ubuntu.And you can order a cd by mail for free,they pay the mail charges.