Linux whining
Jan. 17th, 2008 17:57![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mapsedgeSo, I installed Mandriva on an extra computer here at home. My intent is to use that computer as a file server - take any extra hard drives I have laying around and plug them in for as much storage as I can muster. There's some glitch in the hardware that's preventing me from installing Windows 2000 - which would have been my first choice - but every Linux OS I've put in place goes with no problems. It's in the implentation phase that the rosey glow starts to tarnish.
I've tried five so far, in the hopes of finding one that would make me jump through fewer hoops and just let me get on with the business of ... my business. If there is anything that will ever prevent Linux from making it in the big leagues, that will be it.
Xandros. First one I tried, and worked straight out of the box as if I'd actually installed Windows. Very nice, but a week later Microsoft bought it. Out it went.
Ubuntu. Supposedly the friendliest of all the distros, but installing software is a bitch.
Kubuntu. Same as Ubuntu, but with the KDE desktop instead of Gnome. Nicer looking, but same issues as the other.
Knoppix. Too friendly, e.g. so ugly it's cute. No thanks.
Mandriva. The recommended OS for those coming from Windows. It's in, I've got my shares set up, but Christ on a Chrutch I had to jump through a bunch of hoops to get it there. I finally got it working this afternoon after finding, buried deep in someone's comments on a barely related post, that I had to unlock the firewall before the computer would accept connections.
I have a firewall and it's on by default? Okay, accepting the fact that Linux is by default more secure than Windows, I'm still coming from a Windows environment, so I'm not automatically geared to look for stuff that's got my PC all constipated. Windows warns me about my firewall. Linux doesn't do that.
My biggest frustration about Linux (every distro I've tried so far) can be summed up in one question: "And you were planning on sharing that essential piece of information when?"
The terminal services client sucks ass, but that's okay. The machine is stable and (finally) shared, and I can live with it.
I've tried five so far, in the hopes of finding one that would make me jump through fewer hoops and just let me get on with the business of ... my business. If there is anything that will ever prevent Linux from making it in the big leagues, that will be it.
Xandros. First one I tried, and worked straight out of the box as if I'd actually installed Windows. Very nice, but a week later Microsoft bought it. Out it went.
Ubuntu. Supposedly the friendliest of all the distros, but installing software is a bitch.
Kubuntu. Same as Ubuntu, but with the KDE desktop instead of Gnome. Nicer looking, but same issues as the other.
Knoppix. Too friendly, e.g. so ugly it's cute. No thanks.
Mandriva. The recommended OS for those coming from Windows. It's in, I've got my shares set up, but Christ on a Chrutch I had to jump through a bunch of hoops to get it there. I finally got it working this afternoon after finding, buried deep in someone's comments on a barely related post, that I had to unlock the firewall before the computer would accept connections.
I have a firewall and it's on by default? Okay, accepting the fact that Linux is by default more secure than Windows, I'm still coming from a Windows environment, so I'm not automatically geared to look for stuff that's got my PC all constipated. Windows warns me about my firewall. Linux doesn't do that.
My biggest frustration about Linux (every distro I've tried so far) can be summed up in one question: "And you were planning on sharing that essential piece of information when?"
The terminal services client sucks ass, but that's okay. The machine is stable and (finally) shared, and I can live with it.
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-18 22:04 (UTC)Distros typically differ by what they do by default (e.g. the firewall is enabled by default), what they include as default applications (e.g. one might use Firestarter as the firewall and another might use squid), and the flavor of the interface (which usually boils down to how Mac-like or PC-like it is... or how much it tells you about up front.) Most of them are just packages of applications and configuration. Apart from the most basic stuff, though, there is still an expectation that if you don't know something you know how to find it.
Some of them will make kernel tweaks for hardware compatibility and the like, but mostly the kernel is the kernel and differs very little from one distro on the same kernel as another. And, unlike windows, if you have sufficient bragadaccio and tolerance for pain you can always make your own kernel tweaks if you want.
Personally, I think changing OS (or programming language) is good every so often. Coming at the same problems from a different perspective (e.g. figuring out where things are) makes your rethink how you do things.... teaches you something about the guts of how things work. Builds character and all that. Seldom a bad thing.
- Jeho