The missing five-minute Linux manual for morons
It is time to wake up and smell the elephant in the room. Vista is struggling to achieve escape velocity. Microsoft finds itself the butt of an international joke, but does not seem able to get a grip. The issue of choice of platform is once more up for grabs. Of course there is an alternative; a popular computing platform …
Acrobat doesn't display PDFs correctly if it helps content creators to force document readers to hand type copied text rather than use the normal operating system copy and paste facility. See http://www.jerrybrito.com/tag/drm/ for a screenshot of how you can be denied access to copy and paste if you are a Microsoft/Adobe user and http://copsewood.net/tic/sectheory/drm/content_protection.html for a screenshot showing that Linux/Evince users are not restricted in this way.
1. Spotting the command prompt
2. Recompiling the kernel
:
8. Using vi (from hand-written crib sheet)
9. Learning vi
10. Hacking a device driver
11. Hacking the kernel
Cant wait for Haiku if the reports are for real - the blogs will be sooo short and sweet.
Which BSD package has even a fraction of the out-of-the-box usability that Ubuntu does, especially with a broad range of hardware? I agree FreeBSD is a superior, sleek and uber-stable package for those with a modicum of UNIX experience, but user-friendly it ain't. And saying it can run anything Linux can is an outright lie!
Paris because she needs all the user-friendliness she can get.
Esc Escape this
: colon thing,
q Quit and do
! NOT
Enter Return
Great article by the way.
As regards to this whole Windows vs Linux thing, I have never before spoken on this subject (at least not on the internet). I remember I read a software development book once that said there is really no *better* language than any other. It depends primarily on what you're trying to do and how well you know it.
While I personally have very little liking (or use) for Windows, I realize that Linux is not for everyone, any more than Windows is good for the clued individuals.
Remember, whatever a user can screw up, they will screw up. Time spent making software that aims toward user friendliness, is generally better spent making the user more computer literate.
"Dude, don't try to hard to sound hip and cool."
It's Verity.
You fail at Stob.
"I agree FreeBSD is a superior, sleek and uber-stable package for those with a modicum of UNIX experience, but user-friendly it ain't. And saying it can run anything Linux can is an outright lie!"
I don't use FreeBSD (I use OpenBSD) but to say it's not friendly is nonsense. You seem to be comparing it to Ubuntu, so what exactly is unfriendly about FreeBSD (or indeed any of the BSDs) compared to Ubuntu? Have you ever actually USED BSD?
As for it not being able to run anything Linux can, yes it can!!! BSD can run anything Linux can, either natively, or if the program you are referring to uses Linux-specific libraries that have not been ported to BSD, then usually via Linux emulation. What can't you run on BSD that you can run on Linux? Do you have an example? If it's something that's been written specifically for Linux and has just not been ported over yet, then I think you'll find that it can be (usually very easily) ported across. Currently, the OpenBSD "ports" collection presently contains about 4360 ready-to-run packages. That's pretty good :-) ...and certainly all the main programs that Jo User will want to use are there - office, editors, graphics stuff, CD burners etc etc...
I could be wrong, but I suspect you don't actually know what you are talking about.
How on the one hand 1/2 the people in this forum are saying Linux == Easy; then the other half are arguing about vi. Can't you see the irony. Yes, any geek worth their salt knows that :q (from command mode) will get you out of vi (unless you need :q!); but what about real people. Once you are into vi, unless you know some basic commands its impossible to get out. The same is true of emacs as well. The average Joe probably has a computer for a standard set of things: opening documents from work (probably in an MS Office file format); playing a few games; sorting out the pictures from the digital camera; and downloading a bit of pr0n. And without a doubt the best system to do that on remains Windows.
Mac fan-bois need not apply by the way. Providing a crippled OS with limited hardware compatibility doesn't even buy you a place on most trials.
Honestly, everything you've said there is akin to the bloke who told me that he doesn't like Java because it doesn't have generics. Please update your opinion!
Incidentally, comparing vi to notepad doesn't work as far as I'm concerned. I find vi incredibly useful for a lot of my quick data / script manipulation operations at work but notepad useful when I want to write blocks of unformatted text (which I'm invariably going to use somewhere else). I just consider them to be very different tools.
You WIMP !! VI works perfectly on my VT100 RIGHT NOW !! Millions of lines of code have been written using vi after the consumption of 10s of millions of cups of coffee and 100s of millions of cigarettes and millions of sp......never mind... !!
Aaaagh !! You kids know nothing about the glorious days of computing !! Now, it's all WIMPy stuff !!
REAL PROGRAMMERS DON'T NEED "HELP" BUTTONS !!
Stob, you lay off with them nasty cracks about Word !! Many's the day (and night) that I have slaved over a Word document that was need like yesterday and to be printed on an RX-80 which sounded like WW3 just started 6 inches from my ear !!
simple. because it has to make an entry in the wastebasket including details where the file resides ( the file does not get moved but the entire directory chain and a lot of other stuff get mrked in the wastebasbasket 'entry' so the file can be restored. as long as the file is in the wastebasket it can not be overwritten either. So the space isn't actually 'freed'.
want a simple solution ? hold down the <shift> key and then press <delete>. -klonk- ... file gone without the wastebasket. instantaneous
So, vi's big problem is that it's difficult with Dvorak keyboards? I've got news for you, if you cut all your fingers off and feed 'em through a mincer before using it it's bleedin' impossible.
But then, why would you want to.........?
Joking aside, the .exrc is your friend. I'll bet a quick search will find a nice pre-prepared one for you to play with.
Freetards,
Paytards,
Ubuntards,
Regtards,
Beardtards,
etc.
Thankyou, and good evening.
Its nice to see I'm not the only BSD and/or vi fan here!
vi is burnt in to my fingers (I tried emacs once or twice but like all drugs I shied away from it ... even though RMS wrote it, it still rots the brain 8-) and so its my editor of choice (in whatever new fangled flavour). I also speak fluent sed and awk and often write scripts using "cat > script.sh".
BSD is "the one true unix" (tm) and I cut my mid-range teeth on it back in '85 at Uni. Its been my bestest friend in computing ever since. I use Macs and OSX for the front-end gui stuff but the servers have FreeBSD 6.x/7.x ... have been known to sneak it in to work on the premise of a "pilot" or "proof of concept" solution and then have to "port" it to Red Hat (cp and make is all that is required with our POSIX friends) or a <big-iron>UNIX</big-iron> for production use 8-(
Have Linux on an eeePC and it has been annoying me by dropping the HSPDA modem connections and refusing to work again .. bleeding edge drivers is not always a good place to be.
Remember that Linux is actually Linux kernel + GNU/BSD FOSS ... so until I need device drivers that only work in a Linux kernel then I'll stick with *BSD ta.
:wq
Sorry. Don't know about the rest of the recommended links, but "Netscape/emacs legend Jamie Zawinski's famous rant about Linux video players" was a complete bore.
Sorry, I can't agree. Vi certainly is the same on all the OS mentioned in that it is equally PAINFUL on all! I have used vi for many years and I still detest it. I am sick and tired of hairy-chested masochistic Linux users telling me its the best thing since self-flagellation when it is basically cr*p and should have been ditched long ago. Even the old DOS EDIT was far superior.
Linux suffers from a multiple personality disorder, is it a command line hulk for suspendered unix geeks, a flashy hacker toy for web 2.0 geeks, or a cheap workhorse for IT geeks ? All of these questions contain the word "geek".
The new question does not have geek in it. Is Linux the best OS for the hot boxes, the subnotebook flash boxes, Eee, CloudBook, classMate, OLPC, or whatever the HP is called. These boxen are the future. The users are not geeks. They want a cheap, simple appliance. A sawed off Linux fits very well.
Windows, MacOX, and full strength Linux are too big, complex, and not worth the bother for most humans. And not reliable enough. And WAY too expensive, a $300 computer does not allow a $250 license fee. Or a $600 office suite.
Am I the only one who uses ZZ instead of :wq?
:x is the same.
Always more than one way...
The linux distro used on the eee is okay (xandros I think) and for most people should just work ... I've only had a problem with the HSDPA 3G networking side not with the rest of the distro.
Out of the box the eee "just works" with linux and with the packages included is actually very useful; OpenOffice lets me work on MSWord documents, Firefox lets me log in to corporate webmail with no issues, and I've just found the "Planetarium" package which excellent and very useful to have on a tiny portable as you can be out and about at night and when looking up know what you are looking at 8-)
I'm not sure what, if anything, they have "sawed off" of Linux (the kernel that is) but the applications are only limited by the available disk space as its [almost] easy to add extra onces from outside the Asus eee distribution.
I tried Ubuntu on my Dell 9600. I wiped the HD, and started with a clean install. It didn't take me very long to get things up to snuff -just had to find and update a few drivers, tweak some settings, download some of the apps I like, etc. At the end of a week, I had a perfectly usable computer for surfing the web, email, document creation, etc (although the touch pad was hyper sensitive and the front sound control buttons didn't work).
Then I tried installing my games. Nothing I play ran.
NADA.
After a another week of suffering from cool game withdrawal I wiped the HD and reinstalled XP.
Alternate OS's are fine for some people, but not for gamers. (And no, running it in Wine doesn't count).
May have to cancel and do it again, as Billware will "helpfully" offer to place in wastebasket anyway.
I must be doing something wrong... I've been using Linux now since 1999 and I have never yet had to recompile a kernel... or resort to a MAN page...
Go google "linux is not windows". Scroll down to the section "Problem #7..."
A quote:
Linux is not interested in market share. Linux does not have customers. Linux does not have shareholders, or a responsibility to the bottom line. Linux was not created to make money. Linux does not have the goal of being the most popular and widespread OS on the planet.
All the Linux community wants is to create a really good, fully-featured, free operating system. If that results in Linux becoming a hugely popular OS, then that's great. If that results in Linux having the most intuitive, user-friendly interface ever created, then that's great. If that results in Linux becoming the basis of a multi-billion dollar industry, then that's great.
-end quote-
Don't like it? Go use something else.
Sorry,
After constantly picking up malware under Windows while surfing for pr0n, and ZERO under Ubuntu - the obvious choice is .... Linux
The problem isn't that quality of the OS, it's the stuff behind it.
As a tech savvy Windows user, I can happily walk up to a Mac user and give them support. Personally I can't stand the overpriced arogant pieces of shit (or the machine), but it's GUI is pretty good and the jargon used on a Mac is the same as what is used in Windows - English.
There's no "Yum". There's Apple Updater and Windows Updates. WTF is "Yum"?
And, my lovely Penguin hugging friends, average people like me do need to recompile Kernels. Had a great little XP box working till just over a year ago. It had a NetGear wireless card in and worked just fine. Thought I'd try out Linux (again, after the last time when it shat its "user friendly" and "out of the box it just works" CLI on my cause I changed the resolution!!!!).
No drivers, no way of getting around it. Then of course there is something called NDISWrapper but to be honest I'd rather look into quantum mechanics or something less geeky.
I want an OS that works out of the box, that when it breaks (through drivers, software etc.) I DON'T get dumped to some stupid command line, that doesn't have 400 different distro's and I don't want to have to reinstall the bloody thing every 6 months to keep up to date.
Linux is a great OS, and I love it for running websites and also for firewalls. Also rocks in purpose built-appliances (again, F/W, SSL-VPN devices, eeePC etc.).
But stop kidding yourselves. Until the community grows up with stupid fucking names for applications that Mac and Windows users take for granted (The update example) and have a decent way of recovering a system that's logical for most people to follow without having a piss-smelling, bearded geek connected using serial to Bash, then it's not going to take over the world.
MS's market share won't dip below 50% until at least 2018. You've been harping on about Linux on the desktop since 2000 and earlier. "This is the year" they cry. Each year a massive failure.
I'm not against the idea of it, but your kidding yourselves if you really think Linux is going to get anything more than a 1% growth in the next few years in terms of desktop market share.
Sort out the stupid number of distro's, remove the kiddy and geek names please, and for the love of God don't shove me into a fucking CLI when you crash. You're pretending to be Windows remember - Kernel panic, followed by a reboot, followed by a list of options (Safe Mode, Last Known Good Config, AutoRepair, System Restore).
Stop harping on about it and fucking do it.
Linux - the little boys OS
before i start : i have issues with windows too. There is no way vista gets on my machines .
a couple of problems i encountered using Linux ( Ubuntu )
1) apt-get a package and install. No shortcuts created in the start menu. Where the hell is the thing ?
2) apt-get prompts : prerequisites blablabla. Do the prerequisites. Other stuf fno longer works. ( Updated python , updated mysql , installed new apache which lost all settings ( settings should be transferred .. )
And here is the kicker for me : what good is a 'perfect' operating system if there is no software for it ? For me an operating system is a layer on top of the hardware that allows you to run applications. For what i need/want to do at HOME ( i am not talking work that has $$$ to buy software ) i simply can't find the software. Where is a Photoshop , Adobe Premiere ( both Elements and the full blown one ) equivalent for Linux/BSD ? Please save me 'The Gimp' . I tried it. Doesn't even come close to photoshop. How about paintshop or photoalbum ? How about blu-ray player software or writing program ? Lightscribe program ? How about a simple program like a nice label editor to print cd and dvd-labels Lets say something like Surething Labelmaker ? How about the drivers for my 4 printers that lets me use the built in scanner, fax cd printer, wide format photoprinter? (no linux drivers for those things....) Let's see what else do i use frequently. Ah yes. A BASIC compiler for Linux .. How about an excel compatible spreadsheets that can actually run the VB macros ?
All i see coming from the Linux world is endless discussions about colorscemes , vi vs emacs, gnome vs kde. Even microsoft updates their desktop look only once every five years or so ... I don't need this glitzy eye-candy. All i want is a button to click that does things.
Enough with all the distros, desktops, and editors. Build some applications for crying out loud ! Applications that work and that are functionally equivalent, with what we have on Windows, uncluding method of deployment and ease of use.
I do run linux at home as well, but it's bloody hard to figure out sometimes. Twenty years ago i wrote TSR's under DOS4.1 using TASM ( Turbo Assembler ) .. Today ? I'm not interested anymore. I don't care about the 'operating system' anymore. I use applications. Depending on the applications i want to run i will select the OS that has the best apps. Right now That is windows for 95 % of my stuff. and Linux for 5% (My little LAMP installation for my own webserver, and my 2 NAS boxes ) Life is too short to sit inside fiddling with command prompts. The sun is shining outside ! let's go to the beach . Play ball, Surf , have a barbeque with friends. Snap some fotos or shoot some video. Load it on the computer , tweak them , make a nice photo album , slideshow or home-movie. Add some effects , title, print them in full color or burn them onto a DVD or Blu-ray disk and print a label for them ( or print directly to disk ). Post them to my webserver so i , family and frinds can relive it and think back at the fun we had. And i prefer to do all that with no command prompt ! And i don't care if it was done with windows, Linux , BSD , MacOS , Solaris or Irix. Easiest does it.
I don't like to post a somewhat serious response to a fun article but as a recovering Windows support tech who has read lots of packet sniff collections of MS network cruft, I can't stand to see someone experiencing the prod and wait phenomenon without sharing some common causes.
Some common causes are:
1. MS Outlook - No surprise there, but MS Outlook is a network pig that insists on sending out a horrible number of "are you still there" minimum size packets to the MS Exchange server. If the MS Exchanger server is slow or is accessed over a WAN link, then MS Outlook will slow down the entire OS. Easiest way to fix is turn on the "Connect to my Exchange mailbox using HTTP" option. It is a much more sane way for Outlook to jabber at the Exchange server.
2. Shortcuts to files on servers on the other side of a WAN link - If you are the kind of person with shortcuts littered throughout the desktop and start menu, this will slow down the entire OS because almost every time you ask the OS to do something, it will send out 'are you there' minimum sized packets to all the servers where you have shortcuts before it does what you want it do. Seems insane, but there you have it. Best way to fix it is to not have shortcuts that point to servers that are not on your LAN.
3. Shortcuts to files that don't exist - See point 2 but multiply the effect by about 10 because the file is not there, which means more jabbering (are you really, really, really not there?). The fix is to clean up your shortcuts.
4. Some turd decided to redirect your 'My Documents' to a file server that is on the other side of a WAN - See point 2 but now add in even more 'are you there' packets because the one folder the OS must see is on the other side of WAN link. This is hard to fix because 9 times out of 10, a MS drone has set this configuration up centrally and is managing your desktop :p
These problems are common in business networks where servers have been consolidated into a couple of data centers (who knows where) but the MS drones have not consulted the network folks on the impact of latency introduced by *all* WAN links on the OS's that are used. The fact is, Windows is set up for LAN latencies and even an extra 5 ms of latency causes the Windows OS's to pause when poked. It can't be fixed by buying more bandwidth. It is a function of latency. Try searching the interweb for Big Fat Pipes if you want an eye opener on the subject.
MS Windows can be modified somewhat via the registry to reduce the impact of latency higher than LAN latency, but for that, you must do more research (and not be locked out of it by the MS drones).
...VI. Nothing more. Nothing less. It has been that way since I started using it on a System 3 machine back in the 80's. If you want another editor, feel free to write it and have your fun. VI for all its uglyness (it has lots) seems to work OK. It also has the advantage that it is everywhere. Even on the silly HP/UX box. Yes, it is some junky variant that does some things a little bit differently, but it is VI through and through. As for the Windows people, if you want an editor, go back to EDLIN and cry there. Yes, it was everywhere (still is on XP).
As for editors, my personal favorite was EDT for DEC boxes. It worked quite well, and even was modeless. At least we aren't talking about EMACS which one can genuinely get LOST in. It probably has a mode that figures out your taxes (being April 15 is tomorrow).
I'm downloading ubuntu right now for my first attempt to build a Linux box.
Can I get the swearing file in a .txt file so I don't run out or repeat obscenities?
Seriously, thanks for the checksum remider
then perhaps it is time to look for an alternative line in work
and who is this Mr Stob? I am sure Verity Stob is female
Anyone who has mentioned, or intends to mention, either vi or emacs is hereby banned for life from commenting on usability or quality or anything else that normal humans look for in any product.
@Steven Hewittt: I agree completely re the stupid names. A name should give some idea of the function! Enough! Grow Up! And that cutesy penguin belongs at Toys'R'Us.
Ubuntu gets a lot of press but it always craps out for me. Mandriva, on the other hand, never ever fails to work perfectly right out of the box.
Great, very funny article by Verity. Got some nice shots in at everyone.
(Linux lover here)
@Binary turd - its called a "coredump" anyway, isn't it? It takes a dump ;)
@Dave, using ZZ - I didn't know that shortcut until I started working with some old school UNIXers. Much quicker than :x (my previous usage)
@BSDers, general - What the hell is wrong with you guys? One of the main reasons I don't even try BSD is *because* of BSDites throwing crap against Linux, Linux users, whatever. One of the reasons FOSS solutions are sometimes not considered is because some businesses think FOSS is all about bragging "my wang is larger than your wang" or "my BSD totally 0wns j00r Linux for faggots" talk. IIRC, BSD's have strayed away from the Unix98 PTYs, instead using the ugly /dev/ttyXX convention; and consider some POSIX stuff a mistake (google for POSIX_MISTAKE flags.)
Zealots are also the main reason I have not re-embraced the Macintosh. Think about it.
Do have a look at Tiddlywiki before getting too committed to mediawiki.
Loved the article. "Wake up and smell the elephant in the room" is a classic.
Paris looking sad hearing about a tiddler.
It's getting as bad as the "Jesus Phone" flypaper in the hardware section.
"Hello? Mr. Maliki? Yeah, I have got some kind of insurgents here at map coordinates V-STOB, could you please tell your Big Daddy?"
And WHO has time enough to seriously try several OSs and then give an opinion about it? Do you guys have several lifetimes stashed away or what?
Note to self: Never, Never, NEVER read Stob while drinking tea - it's seriously bad for your monitor.
That had me in stitches for an embarrassingly long time.
Linux, or more specifically, GNOME does have a registry of sorts. It's a by-product of some misguided developers (probably previously associated with Ximian) who actually think it's a good idea to imitate what Microsoft does.
I have dabbled in Linux in various flavors and its fiddly to set up programs/drivers depending what typw you use compiling programs to get them to run is a no starter for the none technical.
So that leaves mac or windows PCs (Ihave both) there are killer apps on Windows that make it a must have for me
Ho and leave out on the Vista Bashing its getting old
And they're like, "it's better than yours"
Damn right, it's better than yours
I could teach you, but I'd have to charge
Yeah, bring on the airstrike, these comments are up to nerd factor 12 now and it's beyond a joke.
I think this is the first El Reg article that I have had uncontrollable fits of laughter at. Ubuntu on my shoe? LOL
I agree that Linux is still a little way away from being a perfect desktop OS, but it wipes the floor with MS on the server side.
As I dont know Chinese i find it very difficult to use.
In reality, I suppose it is not more difficult than any other language.
It is the same thing with Editors either you know them or not.
Vi is such an Editor. It is easy, it is fast, and works (fast) with very large files.
The Vi editors of to day, however, are not the same programs as you found on HP/UX, Sco, ForPro etc. long ago.
Vim, for instance has many additional features but understands "old" vi commands.
Lack of speed will make any program worthless.
Swithing between the NT and different Unix boxes during the same day I found that it was faster to move large files from the NT to a Unix box and use Unix scripts and Vi for the editing and then move them back to the NT.
Those Windows persons who never used any real intellingent scripting will not understand much about such things.
Vi is an editor not a "writer", a tool for editing texts, substitutions and things like that, and part of a scripting world.
And about the the different "flavors" of Chinese I suppose it has to be the worlds best language if you think the different flavors of Windows makes it the best OS in the world because of its market share.
And then we have the CLI, very often it is faster than a GUI. And when it is, it is simply better. If not then use a GUI.
First off, congrats Verity on one extremely hilarious article.
Windows tends to pause on registry action a lot. As Windows ages it builds up a whole lot of links within the registry which often lead it in awesome little loops. I've seen a single right-click action spawn ~50k registry actions before the menu pops up. Same goes for more or less any other action. Some of the problem here is that the registry was a bad idea from the start, but mostly it's from extensions to the original functionality. Something like the registry needs a lot of hacking to add functions, and it hasn't fared well.
Also, whats wrong with compiling kernels? First off, you only rarely need to actually do it, mostly because the kernel that your distro comes with wasn't complete. I personally customize all of my kernels to support only the hardware that they need to, to make them nice and small. It is irritating to use distros that have patched up their kernels, since you have more or less no idea what the hell is going on with that.
Vim is awesome. Sure it's more complex than notepad, but gods is it faster. If you use it for a bit you might realize that the commands aren't just nonsense, but rather a combinations of actions and specification of where the actions should act. You can just slowly learn new actions and region designations, then mix them together and get some awesomeness going on. Plus, as others have noted, it's trivial to get the exact same editor on any platform you use, which is a complete plus.
Linux isn't Windows. Which is why I like it. I can't stand wizards and config menus for OS and daemon configuration. Text files for configs, if they are properly commented (Any decent distro should have comments in the default configs, otherwise it isn't worth using at all) are completely easy to use. You can search, and change config settings with just a few keystrokes. And you can do it trivially from across the globe.
How much easier is it to write out firewall rules in a bash script than going through a wizard for each and every one? I can open 15 ports in 45 seconds in iptables, or about 10 minutes with the built in Windows firewall, which is completely primitive.
I don't use repositories at all, and the vast majority of the software that I install works with a simple script that downloads, untars, configures, compiles, and installs. I just have to pass a url to a short command and it's done.
Feel free to stick with Windows if you like the way it operates. If you want something that doesn't quite suck so hard, then try something different. I kinda feel like distros lose a lot of their useability if they pander too hard to the Windows users out there.
Lots of people have this thinking that "The Windows way is the easy way," when Windows can easily take far more time and effort, just less brain power. I find Slackware to be simple for everything that I want to do, which is why I run it on my laptop, fileserver, router, htpc, mini-itx machine, my parents' htpc, my work desktop, and whatever computer people let me get my hands on. Of course I'm still bound to Windows on my desktop thanks to CAD software that refuses to run well virtualized...
Now that Teco has been ported to Linux why would you use anything else?
Maybe I'm just some kind of geek or something but I've installed Linux on all sorts of hardware, a lot of it crap, and "it just works". Linux is relatively weak with multimedia and game support but I don't use my PC as a TV or games console, I just use it for work and stuff -- looking things up, mail, that sort of thing.
It could also be years of putting computers into things....there's a reason why you don't come across Embedded Windows that often (and when you do its usually in the form of a crashed ATM or self-checkout). I get the same sort of FUD in the embedded space, though -- apparently something can't be 'professional' unless it comes with a big price tag and has a number of obscure bugs that 'the supplier's working on'.
Thank you Verity, again, for a wonderful read.
Your sense of humor is excellent, your thoughts are really great, and if there was 1 IT columnist I could meet it would be you! (Yes I even have the best of... book)
I also have to thank Dan Haworth, for saving me asking the same questions about this anonymous idiot that seems convinced that Linux is still as it was 10 years ago.
Damn Billware fans....
J
After the first eight languages, I realized that all languages are similar.
After the first seven O/Ss, I figured the same thing out. Check your IEEE; there are only so many things a chip can do. There are only so many peripherals. There are only so many tasks.
This tired, weak argument reminds me of the grammar-school fights over meaningless stuff by combatants who don't know what they are talking about.
There are more operating systems out there than dreamt of in your philosophy, zealot. Get over it. There is none best. There are none better, unless you include context -- which includes users and uses. If anyone is comfortable in three versions of -ux AND a mainframe OS AND Windows (servers and desktop) AND doesn't care which one the client suggests...
Then my son, you are a professional.
I feel like starting an argument over my favorite pizza or ice cream. It is just as meaningful as arguing over whether bill is evil or linus is a deity. It depends on your measure, doesn't it?
Regardless of your own limited judgement, it is necessary to know enough about platforms to suggest the right one to your client, regardless of your own petty and unsubstantiated opinions. Whether an OS is "hard" to install or not is irrelevant in a business. Whether it is the best solution for the problem in the business domain is the most important thing.
It is, in every case, important to know the unique and identifiable characteristics of every operating system. This is important information when implementing them. One approach under *ux is deadly under Windows is twice the work under VMS is ... well, you should get the idea. If you aren't comfortable in all of them, how can you make the best decisions under any of them?
How many of the zealots can actually say they have implemented Red Hat for one client and Windows 2003 for another and upgraded an RPG application under AS400? How many have actually chosen the stack for the problem set? How many of you complained bitterly while doing it?
Who of you could open-mindedly analyze an automated solution in an "inferior" operating system architecture without sneering at the architecture first? From what I've seen, none. None at all.
There is a reason business professional look down on IT professionals. Maybe it is because there is nothing "professional" about your demeanor or behavior. Just because you know "stuff" doesn't mean I have to tolerate your poor behavior and attitude.
As a matter of fact, most business professionals would rather be wrong -- and know they're wrong -- than to have to listen to the rot most IT school-children spew regarding their opinions.
Opinions, as they say, are like operating systems. Everybody has one and all the other stink.
Now go away and impress your friends with more misinformation and prejudices.
This view of linux is out of date and old it could be carbon dated.
I think you need to give the astroturf a mow, it is starting to grow a bit long.
Did someone say haiku? Don't you mean faiku?
PCBSD installed and has run very nicely for me.
Also, running a Slackware desktop distro called Absolute, I like 'em both and they're both pretty easy to use.
And that's a good thing for me. :)
I have it from a friend inside M$ about the new innovative, cutting edge “modular” version of windows. It is very hush hush but there is great buzz at M$ as they feel this release will skyrocket them back to the top and once again be the true and sole innovators of the software industry. It will have various types to choose from, more focused on the hardware you use. The most basic, cheapest will have software to only set up hardware and then provide the user with a prompt, similar to the old DOS prompt. In the windows world this is called a 'crust', thus you will have a 'crust prompt'.
From there you can via the net install your choice of windows, basic windows for low end hardware, with a fairly crude interface, up to more advanced ones with 3D effects for fast machines.
One truly revolutionary feature is the new way of getting software. You will install software from a tool in windows which lists all the MS approved software. It uses a new type of file called a 'mpm' (microsoft program manager) file.
My friend says those inside M$ are astounded by the scope and innovativeness of this new windows. They liken it to the Terminator movie where the chips makers get that chip from the future. My friend, somewhat tongue in cheek, thinks that something similar has happened here, that have somehow gotten a OS from the future on a DVD and this what they are basing the revolution on.
So be scared all you linsux fanboys. Although I have never ever used linsux, when this supreme, innovative edition of windows coming up next year (as Bill promised us recently), I will never think of touching linsux. Good luck with cloning and copying all the innovations like you have in the past for your pathetic OS.
FreeBSD didn't like this old laptop at all, for some reason. I ended up trying Ubuntu instead.
So far it's working pretty well. I ripped out Evolution and installed Claws instead, installed Epiphany (I like it better than Firefox for some reason), and have been tweaking things all day.
Easier than Windows? Not really, but it installed a lot of things automatically, and so far I've installed everything I need via the included package handler. It's a throw-away system, only needed for a week or so while my MacBook is in the shop, but it's running pretty sweet for a Celeron 400. :)
Well, all I really need it for is IM, e-mail, web browsing, and leaving smarmy comments to El Reg articles. So I consider it a qualified success. It'll get me through a visit to my girlfriend.
My experience with the BSDs is that they require more savvy to install, and that's what a lot of this is about. On the other hand, if it comes pre-installed on a machine, the auto-detection stuff won't matter, eh? But a simple interactive package handler is good for the unwashed masses.
As for compiling the kernel -- haven't had to do that for this machine. But <i>I can if I want to</i>. And, yes, right after installed I got a bunch of updates, including a kernel update. Which is so inferior to a new Windows install because... um... because Windows wants to do updates, too, right. Never mind.
I'm not even sure if I can install XP on this machine. Win2000 probably, it'll be a bit slow -- celeron 400, 192 meg, 10g hard drive. In either case I'll need to generate boot floppies. Vista is out of the question.
But the latest release of Ubuntu? I installed it on another machine that could boot from CDROM and then moved the hard drive over. Had to force a re-detect of the video hardware, and after that it's been pretty good. It can even read my external Mac-formatted drive. And my external Windows-formatted drive. I've been plugging stuff in and it Just Works. Only fly in the ointment is the ACPI problem, and I can live without Suspend mode for two weeks.
