My 3rd Linux experience
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Yesterday I tried the new Debian stable Sarge linux distro... But wait, first my two prior Linux experiences: The first Linux system I tried was a Suse distro a few years ago (v7 or so?). I was impressed by the graphical installer, but later more and more problems came up. I wanted to change the crappy black mouse cursor to a white one, like Windows has. But think of what? I couldn't find any dialog in KDE where you could configure the mouse cursor. I searched around in the internet a bit and found a detailed tutorial on how to set new mouse cursors. I downloaded a mouse cursor package having a neat white one and followed all steps in the tutorial. Guess what? Exactly nothing happened, it just ignored what I did. A bit later, I thought about installing a graphics card driver for my card. I downloaded the Linux driver from the NVidia page and started the installer. Unfortunately, it couldn't install the driver, since it didn't have the kernel sources (I know, such drivers are compiled into the kernel on Linux somehow)... So I went to the Suse package wizard and tried to install the kernel sources, which of course, failed... So, live without smooth videos and even forget about any 3D games. Yet a bit later I found a nice program I wanted to try. I downloaded the package and tried to install it. It failed because of some other missing libraries (not many, just 4 or so). I downloaded those 4 and tried to install them, they are based on some other ones... A bit nervous, I downloaded those others too and tried to install those. Guess what? Version conflict. Some time after this, I tried a new distribution: Debian testing. As I've read, the testing edition shouldn't be that unstable and should have a nice package management system (APT), so I downloaded it and tried it. Its installer wasn't that nice like the Suse ones, but I don't care much about this anyway. After having installed KDE and Gnome by hand using apt-get (I like this package management system of Debian!), I first tried Gnome. Actually Gnome seems to be just a limited KDE... Of course, it was pretty fast, but just about everything was missing or not there, where it should be (for example, almost no configuration options??). I just didn't like it. So, tried KDE again. Unfortunately, the whole new KDE was pretty unstable. When you tried the "quick directory browser" in the KDE start menu, it just hangs when you don't connect to the internet. I don't always want to be online, just to have that crappy directory browser working... Related to this, I could on
I will agree with you that Linux is much harder to setup than Windows, but its because it appeals to a different crowd. If Linux were designed for Grandma's everywhere, then it would be as easy to install as Windows. I think Fedora does a good job, every time I've set it up I've had few problems. I use Gentoo on my machines however. Once you get linux setup, I perfer it much more to Windows. There are no CD's to find, install, you just download the latest version from the internet via a simple command (emerge program_name). You can update your whole collection in one command and you get free software that rivials products for Windows. Linux is great for development too, I think the IDE is good, not quite all of the features of VS.NET, but most places are still using VS98, which Kdevelop easily beats. Plus there are so many available libraries and programs to build your code more quickly. You look on this site and you will see lots of SMTP code... not needed on Linux, just use sendmail. Linux runs much faster than Windows (except for some bloated distros like Fedora, my kernel is 2 mb in Gentoo vs 66 mb in Fedora), especially once you get your spyware and oversized registry on there. On best thing about Linux though, is the Wireless support. It is a pain in the ass to setup, but once you set it up it works. Unlike my Windows XP which would randomly connect distant access points it couldn't get any reception to and then kill my internet leaving my trying reconfigure for my old access point. In Linux I just tell is my essid and it connects and stays connected. Plus I don't have the anoying hiss on my portable phones that Windows XP causes when it randomly searches for weaker access points. Another great thing is how modular it is. In KDE every program uses KIOSlaves for reading. Which means ANY kde program can open files directly off of FTP sites, webdav, etc. Which makes it great for editing, and you can use your favourite editor not some crappy program you live with because of one feature. One that sticks out in my head is how Interdev has replace in files support and MSDEV does not. I have opened Interdev to get this feature for C++ projects enough times! Oh and I don't have to talk to some stupid dog everytime I want to search. And when I say don't save my password, it uh.. doesn't save my password *cough*msn*cough*.
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I will agree with you that Linux is much harder to setup than Windows, but its because it appeals to a different crowd. If Linux were designed for Grandma's everywhere, then it would be as easy to install as Windows. I think Fedora does a good job, every time I've set it up I've had few problems. I use Gentoo on my machines however. Once you get linux setup, I perfer it much more to Windows. There are no CD's to find, install, you just download the latest version from the internet via a simple command (emerge program_name). You can update your whole collection in one command and you get free software that rivials products for Windows. Linux is great for development too, I think the IDE is good, not quite all of the features of VS.NET, but most places are still using VS98, which Kdevelop easily beats. Plus there are so many available libraries and programs to build your code more quickly. You look on this site and you will see lots of SMTP code... not needed on Linux, just use sendmail. Linux runs much faster than Windows (except for some bloated distros like Fedora, my kernel is 2 mb in Gentoo vs 66 mb in Fedora), especially once you get your spyware and oversized registry on there. On best thing about Linux though, is the Wireless support. It is a pain in the ass to setup, but once you set it up it works. Unlike my Windows XP which would randomly connect distant access points it couldn't get any reception to and then kill my internet leaving my trying reconfigure for my old access point. In Linux I just tell is my essid and it connects and stays connected. Plus I don't have the anoying hiss on my portable phones that Windows XP causes when it randomly searches for weaker access points. Another great thing is how modular it is. In KDE every program uses KIOSlaves for reading. Which means ANY kde program can open files directly off of FTP sites, webdav, etc. Which makes it great for editing, and you can use your favourite editor not some crappy program you live with because of one feature. One that sticks out in my head is how Interdev has replace in files support and MSDEV does not. I have opened Interdev to get this feature for C++ projects enough times! Oh and I don't have to talk to some stupid dog everytime I want to search. And when I say don't save my password, it uh.. doesn't save my password *cough*msn*cough*.
I'm curious as to why people keep saying Windows is easy to set up. The proverbial parental unit's parent would not be able to install Windows either. Mention the term driver to one of them and they'll ask why you're talking about golf when you're working on the computer. For myself, I find Linux easier to set up, especially on hardware that's 6 months+ old. At that point, nearly all the drivers you need are built into a current distro, and you're off and running. With Windows, I wind up using another PC to download an ethernet driver. Then I can get online to download my video driver, but the screen's still in some ridiculously low resolution so web surfing is oh so fun. Then I can get everything else normally. Oh, but then I still have to install all my programs, which under Linux I could've done as part of the base install. I'm not saying Linux is the end all be all (that's OS X j/k, sort-of ;-) ), but I do think you need to really compare it without the preset mind of how things "should be" based on using Windows (*cough* white cursor *cough* :-D ). Look at Linux from the point of view of someone who doesn't know Windows computers inside and out, then look at Windows the same way, and I'll bet your opinions might change a bit.