Oh yes!! People usually know me as a Linux fan that likes the freedom of open-source, and the customization abilities of Linux. But as Faris says, "there comes a time in the life of every man [insert comment here]". My comment is "to rant about Linux".
For this two, I'll rant about two favourites, namely Kubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (the KDE flavor of Ubuntu) and PCLinuxOS 2007.
Ok.. so I got myself a fresh copy of Kubuntu Gutsy. It's so flaming new that I could see the gloss while downloading the ISO. Ok.. it was just the Vista effects. Anyways, I was going to test it on my Vaio Laptop, which is quite recent. After burning the ISO and all the blablas I was into Kubuntu.
At first sight, nothing had changed. KDE was still fat and heavy, and the wallpaper is still blue. The menu had changed in simple ways, like the Find Files and Folders had been changed. And some other random stuff. I loved Feisty Fawn which unfortunately didn't work on my laptop due to that weird "Cannot access TTY: Job control turned off" error message. Gutsy booted fine, so I proceeded to install. That, as usual, was a breeze. Nothing bad till now. Now the evil awoke.
I rebooted into the installed system and started browsing around. I started by testing Dolphin, the new file browser. First thing that pops-up to my face.. "XYZ file in ABC path is not writable: Permission denied". I got like 5 of these at once. WTF? How can a path in my home directory not be writable? Anyways, I was still in a good mood, and decided to set [all] the permissions right. Took me some time to do these files individually. Ok.. Dolphin worked. Time to get my WLAN settings up.
NetworkManager said it detected WLan0, which is cool. Funny thing is, my LED indicator for WLAN on refused to light up on Linux. Strange.. Anyways, I proceeded to configure it with Static IP and the other settings. After iwlist scan and all, it still refused to work. Now, I was starting to get frustrated.
I got my laptop plugged in on cable, configured settings, leeched NDisWrapper off the repositories, and installed my windows driver for my WLAN. Tada! It worked! FOR ONCE ONLY! After a reboot, it decided not to work again. I had it correctly configured and all, loaded as module and whatnot. Hours of Ubuntu-forums searching yielded nothing new. I gave up on WLAN.
Now I wanted to send some files to my main PC. I got SAMBA and installed it for file sharing with windows. I configured it, share-level security and all. What happened? Darn thing asks me for a Login/PWord combination. I gave for root then for myself. Nothing worked. XP couldn't access Kubuntu. I tried to self-connect from Kubuntu. Same thing. Login/PW, nothing got accepted. That was weird. I reviewed smb.conf, and all. It seemed to be in order. Testparm said nothing. Duh. I even copied off a guy's smb.conf and amended it. Nothing could make SAMBA not ask for a Login/PW. Now I got pissed off. I logged off and decided to go try another distro.
PCLinuxOS it was. Again, DL the ISO, burn, boot, but no install. I got pissed off at the beginning itself. My display driver for Intel GMA 965 was not supported. I was stuck at 1024x768 instead of 1280x800. Duh.. PCLinuxOS seemed to have many good things to use.. like pre-installed Firefox and codecs. It played MP3s and most movies out-of-the-box. But 1024 is just too much of a pain to use on widescreen.
And so, after my epic journey through Linux, I was safely back to my comfort zone called Vista. Poor me. That was a tough night.
What I meant to say is.. Linux is still not ready to be a normal-user's Desktop OS. One simple example would be the Dolphin permissions crisis. When I open My Computer, I don't get errors like "Permission Denied" on first use. Vista recognized my WLAN on first run. Same for my Display. Ok, these are driver-related issues, and Linux cannot be blamed. Manufacturers should. But still, it makes Linux a tedious experience. Mind you, I won't back down from using my Fav OS. But it can make life tough when it wants, particularly when you want to have things "simply work". Like.. why the hell does Samba keep asking for a damn password? I said don't ask, so DON'T! These kinds of things are what keep Linux from being adopted as a friendly OS.
Much progress has been made since the times of CLIs, I can't deny that. But there is still way to go for Linux to be able to claim to be as user-friendly as Windows. Maybe in 5 years. For now, it remains a geek's toy.
I await your flames and comment. Go wild but NO SPAM! :)
Labels: Linux
I'm sorry to hear about your difficulty. I thought for sure PCLinuxOS would shine. Dolphin is part of KDE4 which is still in beta. I would expect to have troubles with it. Did Konqueror give you the same troubles? My suggestion would be to try another distribution but you've just tried the two most hardware friendly distros I know. You nailed the real problem as being hardware drivers, not Linux. But to say Linux isn't ready for the non-technical masses is a bit of a stretch. Right now Linux boxes are flying off the shelves, virtual and otherwise, at Wal-Mart in the form of the gPC.
Once the majority of retailers realize they can make more money selling Linux computers than they would paying tribute to Microsoft, the only drivers to concern the owners of those computers will be designated drivers.
WTF is that? Everythings works fine with mine. I am using Gutsy. Though, I am still a virgin in Linux, I have been able to solve almost every stuff. As for you, this level, I have not yet reached. I am off with samba right now.
Hmmmm... nice analysis to keep noobs away from Linux!
But i haven't really "tried" installing it Linux... since i don't want to mess up my single HD.
But the day i get another one... i won't rest until i get Kubuntu fully running!(Vista as well!)
:)
At first sight, nothing had changed. KDE was still fat and heavy, and the wallpaper is still blue.
KDE isn't linux, KDE is just an interface, linux is the kernel only, GNU is the system, you wanted KDE, so you chose Kubuntu :p.
First thing that pops-up to my face.. "XYZ file in ABC path is not writable: Permission denied"
Are you sure you logged in as the user owning that home folder?
Are you sure that you didn't create that file and set permission by yourself?
Are you sure that this file or folder isn't a mounted partition which you mounted inside your home folder? if that's the case, it is perfectly legit that it is denying you write abilities :p.
NetworkManager said it detected WLan0, which is cool. Funny thing is, my LED indicator for WLAN on refused to light up on Linux. Strange..
Same problem here, it is because driver manufacturers don't release their drivers, besides those buttons don't seem to be generating a unique key signal, so unless there's a technical documentation of those cards, people won't be able to implement the driver for every functionality of that driver (specially when its new.. blame the manufacturers).. you want freedom.. you get freedom drivers, you want non free content? use ndis wrapper and windows drivers :)
decided not to work again. I had it correctly configured and all, loaded as module and whatno
You may have missed a step... you sure you load the module everytime the machine starts automatically?
Darn thing asks me for a Login/PWord combination. I gave for root then for myself. Nothing worked.
Weird, coz i never got thart problem, actually, i even found sharing folders on gutsy is easier than windows... truly.
I didn't even have to check smb.conf!
Who is the owner of that folder you are sharing?
PCLinuxOS it was. Again, DL the ISO, burn, boot, but no install. I got pissed off at the beginning itself. My display driver for Intel GMA 965 was not supported. I was stuck at 1024x768 instead of 1280x800.
Driver problems sux.. if you have an nvidia card on linux, then everything works great, but most other cards, specially ATI drivers doesn't work... blame manufacturers.. know on who you need to throw the stones :p.
This driver problem pisses me off a lot :p..
And so, after my epic journey through Linux, I was safely back to my comfort zone called Vista. Poor me. That was a tough night.
LOL, many windows entuthiast found that vista is bad :p.
Vista recognized my WLAN on first run.
Manufacturers makes windows drivers :p
I have started using Ubuntu for some while now (i am mostly a FreeBSD guy, but for the sake of univ i had to use ubuntu), sincerely, ubuntu great :p ohh well, i never believed that gnome could kick as as much as that, definitely, gnome seems to kick ass and in ubuntu gutsy gibbons, lots of small tools exist that just makes things easy...
+$3|v3n
i forgot to add, i mosto f the time give honesty opinions and try to be neutral, whenever i can say windows has this which is great and linux has that which is great, i will say it...
so what i said in the previous post really is true.. GNU/linux is great (though not as great as FreeBSD), but nevertheless its great, ubuntu, Fedora etc.. are doing great progress :p
Hehehe! That's some tasty comments here. And a new face too. Welcome Kozmcrae. Keep reading! :P
And Carrot. I have both Vista and Kubuntu running fine on my laptop. Nothing got messed up. I have Vista, Kubuntu, Files, Swap partitions. Nothing got messed up. Do try it. Partitioning is really easy when using the GUI installer of K/Ubuntu. Do try it. Manually edit the partition table though. Gives more control.
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Selven posted an in-depth analysis of my post. So I'll do same:
At first sight, nothing had changed. KDE was still fat and heavy, and the wallpaper is still blue.
I know KDE isn't Linux. Just an interface. It wasn't a rant. I like KDE and its cool look and customisability. What I meant is that the look didn't change. Better luck with 4.0 I hope..
First thing that pops-up to my face.. "XYZ file in ABC path is not writable: Permission denied"
No sir. I checked. The permissions in question were allocated to the .kde folder within my home folder. My own home folder. That's why it was weird to have permissions problem.
NetworkManager said it detected WLan0, which is cool. Funny thing is, my LED indicator for WLAN on refused to light up on Linux. Strange..
PCLinuxOS it was. Again, DL the ISO, burn, boot, but no install. I got pissed off at the beginning itself. My display driver for Intel GMA 965 was not supported. I was stuck at 1024x768 instead of 1280x800.
Drivers. Always drivers. We were talking about that, remember? I don't blame Linux here. In fact, I need to thank the poor people spending sleepless nights trying to reverse-engineer drivers and all. It's appreciable. Hats off to them. What I meant is that it's time manufacturers start noticing that users want alternatives to Windows and start offering drivers. Dell started shipping Laptops with Ubuntu. Others are following. It's high time they start popping out drivers too.
decided not to work again. I had it correctly configured and all, loaded as module and whatno
I was following a guide from ubuntu forums. I tried ndiswrapper -m and all. Including putting ndiswrapper in a file. (forgot the name, ended with 'modules'). It works 3/4 of the time, just like yours Selven. :)
Darn thing asks me for a Login/PWord combination. I gave for root then for myself. Nothing worked.
Second time I got that. First was on Dapper. After loads of messing up, it stopped asking for PW. I don't remember what I did back there. I should give it some time some of these days. Maybe during hols.
Random things on Vista
Lol! I know.. Manufacturers support Vista and all. And Vista developers get paid massively to develop software as opposed to community-driven Linux. Comparison is impossible.
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Anyways, I wanted to rant a bit. It doesn't mean that I'll stop using Linux. In fact, it's incentive. Solving problems and all, that's fun to do. And I think I should really give some big clapping to the developers. They are trying their best to make an originally-unfriendly software into something even novices can use. This is awesome. Go Tux! Own the Orb!
Yeah, ive tried to partition it... but too many bad sectors...
Formatting my HD would mean reinstalling everything(drivers, apps... too much to install)
I don't think bad sectors will be corrected even if you format. These arise when your disk is damaged or has some troubles.
know KDE isn't Linux. Just an interface. It wasn't a rant. I like KDE and its cool look and customisability. What I meant is that the look didn't change. Better luck with 4.0 I hope..
indeed :p.
No sir. I checked. The permissions in question were allocated to the .kde folder within my home folder. My own home folder. That's why it was weird to have permissions problem.
Interesting problem then, has this bug been reported to the kde bug tracking system?
Drivers. Always drivers.
Dumb manufacturers.
I was following a guide from ubuntu forums. I tried ndiswrapper -m and all. Including putting ndiswrapper in a file. (forgot the name, ended with 'modules'). It works 3/4 of the time, just like yours Selven. :)
The thing is... i don't use ndiswrapper :p coz i never put my laptop in battery saving mode anymore.
ps. linux's fdisk is way better (and easier) than that gui partitionner :p
+$3|v3n
Selven:
- cfdisk is easier for me imho..
- Nope.. I didn't have time to report to KDE. I dunno if I'm the only one facing that prob anyways. Better wait for a bit.. :P