US woman says Ubuntu can't access internet
An American woman has told a TV station in Madison, Wisconsin that something called Ubuntu prevented her from joining online classes at her local technical college. According to WKOW TV, Abbie Schubert recently ordered a Dell laptop, expecting "your classic bread-and-butter computer." But when she unboxed the $1,100 machine that …
This topic is closed for new posts.
A few comments...
Some (all) of these may have been covered -- I didn't feel like wading through the nigh-endless iterations of "linux roolz", "linux sux", "stupid 'murricanz", to see if there was actually any information posted, so...
1 - To all of the "she should have just gone online and..." posters: Did you actually read the part about her not being able to run her ISP's install disk...? ...Hello-o-o-o-o...! (Yes, many public libraries have internet connections, but if you DON'T KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR, it's hardly useful, is it?)
2 - A Technical College is NOT a university and may not even be particularly "technical" in the sense that you're thinking of it. They often fall into a gray area between two-year junior/community colleges and full-service state universities. A friend of mine teaches at a technical college in a rural area which has degree courses in farm management, animal husbandry (keep it clean, you...!), veterinary science, etc. So, yeah, a lot of their incoming students aren't of "technical" mindsets.
3 - "'I'm extremely frustrated,' Schubert said. 'I wanted to get back to school, but I needed a computer to be able to do that.'" ...Stay-at-home-Mom who wants to get back into school now that the kids are in school...? Guess what: THESE are exactly the people that Linux needs to attract if it is ever to get out of being a Geeky, niche OS. If you really want Linux and OSS to conquer the world, you need to make it simple and intuitive enough that, when you demo its advantages at the local library or senior center YOU DON'T HAVE TO USE ANY WORDS THAT YOUR AUDIENCE DOESN'T ALREADY KNOW. If your presentation uses any words that start with "config" or "driver", you WILL lose them to Windows™ (or possibly Mac OS -- but, even then, if they've only been exposed to Windows, it can be a bit uphill).
wtf, rtfm
ive used ubuntu for two or so years no exclusively and if you cant figure out that oppen office is 100% compatible with ms office., you are a moron and dont deserve higher education. setting up pppoe for your dsl connection, I can only ask why she didn't google it. it works ive seen it. dropping out of two semesters tells me she was looking for an excuse to drop out.. The effort required to resolve her issues was minimal. Absolutely no sympathy from this college student, just a sense of security knowing that means more financial aid for the rest of us, and one less lazy idiot taking up a seat in a college classroom(online or not). I say good ridance and shw will not be missed by either ubuntu or the fine institie from which shee dropped out.
Linux for dumb college girls = ubuntu
Im a pc tech for an isp, one of my first calls ever was for this dumb college girl who had completely boched her dell with windos(big suprize). it woudn't do anything. feeling sorry for her i put ubuntu 8.04 on it cuz i had it in a cd case on me, setup her printer, showed her where everything was and i never heard another word, she got online checked her classes and exported a doc to word format all before i left. i would have put xp on it be she did not have the disks and i didn'ty have one with a valid license.
anyway i move that the story be stricken from the front page of the register and in its place a link to this thread, I move to petition.
..and then install a printer.
I've got a dual boot XP/Ubuntu system. I've got an Epson ALC1100 printer. To install it under XP, I get the driver off Epson, double click the .exe, and it's in.
For Ubuntu: Open a terminal and cd to the directory where you saved the filter package.
Extract the Package:
tar xvfz Epson-ALC1100-filter-1.0.tar.gz
cd Epson-ALC1100-filter-1.0
Install the filter :
./configure
make
sudo make install
Restart CUPS and install the printer :
sudo /etc/init.d/cupsys restart
lpadmin -p alc1100 -E -v usb:/dev/usb/lp0 -m Epson-AL-C1100-fm3.ppd
That isn't clever.
@Niall
Uh, OpenOffice DOES do Powerpoint.
If you're thinking OO.o is just writer, then MS Office doesn't do Powerpoint either (you can't use Word).
And Sarah, while you still don't have a male dumbass icon, you will continue to get women dipsticks used as the representation of ANY dumbass.
What a bunch of pricks...
Christ, I can't believe how many truly venomous c*nts there are on here.
Turn your lights on, stop building the latest kernel from source (or whatever it is you linux geeks do during your circle jerks) and spend some time in the real world. Some people can build skyscrapers, fly a plane or cook a 5 course meal for 500 people, you would probably fail spectacularly at any of these (and i'm sure in a lot of cases leaving the house or talking to people)
Windows is far from perfect but a huge majority of the time for your average user (email/internet/word) it works just fine and when it doesn't there a many more people available to help you out.
Linux is not ready for mainstream.. FACT.. and it's going to take a lot more than arrogant scorn from a few saddos to change that...
I'm out
Stupid is what Stupid Does
Everyone has pretty much covered this but I just want to add my 2-cents.
Ubuntu (or most Linux Distros) can run pretty much any 'office' app one would need. The great thing is, they are often included in the distro, have a link, or simply easily downloaded fore $FREE$ online.
As far as getting her Internet to work with Linux, I can't see how there would be a problem. If she's using a cable or DSL modem, she would either be using USB or Ethernet to connect to her modem. I'm sure Ubuntu has cable modem support through USB and if not, the Ethernet connection would have worked even easier. If it was DSL, still no problem and you can usually web-into your DSL modem and change settings if needed.
Someone mentioned that if she'd simply contacted the campus PC support group, she would have had some great support from at least someone who though it was great she was trying to use Linux. 1 less person to help with viruses.
DELL is a big problem. Sometimes they have a nice computer for sale but little support. I don't now if it's more frustrating for a tech savy person to talk to their support or someone who knows nothing. I think it is GREAT that Linux is available pre-installed on DELL computers. Many people get their PCs from DELL and having that option can help suport the Linux community and spread the Penguine Love!
RE@ AC @ myself
The person insisting on the use of powerpoint should be shot and that application should be confined to the depths of hell. In your case regarding the compulsory purchase of office, the college should not put you in that position.
We do our best to accomodate everyone. We have a number of virtual xp desktops on esx server with a connection broker that provides access through ssl. Our students can access the college and work on an xp desktop via a secure windows or java client and have access to the most commonly used apps including office. No extra costs for the parents or student and no licensing issues for us as the software remains on our campus. That way everybody is happy including those who run linux or have a Mac at home.
Maybe you should request a similar facility from your sons college, you never know they might listen.
@Niall Campbell
"Open Office does not do Powerpoint yet..."
From http://www.openoffice.org/product/impress.html: "Of course, you are free to use your old Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, or save your work in PowerPoint format for sending to people who are still locked into Microsoft products."
If you insist on making bold claims about never printing an untruth, you might benefit from indulging in a little bit of fact checking before you go about making claims about products you don't seem to know anything about.
This woman has my sympathy.
She is young and I am past my best-before date. But apart from this, I would have just as much trouble changing my operating system. Before someone calls me a Linux geek, let me say that, since I installed Ubuntu, I have forgotten just about everything I once knew about Linux.
Suppose I had to buy a Windows computer. It would come with Vista, which I have never used (unless I got one with the obsolete XP). I have never had to go through the dreaded authentication process (my present computer is built from hand-me-downs from my children - I gather MS does not like this as my hardware keeps changing). I have no idea about anti-virus and anti-spyware. I did once manage to remove a copy of Norton malware from an XP machine but I doubt if I could do it again (that age thing).
I know that it is dangerous to visit certain Internet sites with IE and I must never accept sweets from strangers who send me e-mails - but I think that I am getting too old to change my ways.
What would I do if I went to a W3-compliant site and I only had IE? How do I read (and edit) my ISO-standard word processed documents? If I was a bit younger, I suppose I could learn these things. De-fragging, cleaning registries, my head hurts.
Too many comments... so I'll add one more.
Can't read them all, but suspect someone has said this:
When I saw the headline, I thought it would be a story about some online college page demanding that you use IE or Silverlight or whatever.
Something stinks here, and it isn't the software... See, to get a Dell with Ubuntu, you have to spend quite some effort. Last time I checked (I haven't), Dells with Ubuntu were not being sold in regular brick-n-mortar stores. So she must have bought it from Dell's website.
1. Go to "Home & Home Office" page (so far, no problem).
2. Then go *all the way down* the page to the very last option "Open-Source PCs". After ignoring "Windows Vista", "Windows XP" and "Windows Vista 64-bit". Click on "Open-Source PCs" anyway even if you have no clue what that means (her case).
3. Then comes a nice page with a banner saying "Ubuntu, keeps getting better!" in big letters. Then some explanatory text, including a large "Not sure Open Source is for You?" and a warning that you're not getting Windows in these computers; click *here* to get one with Windows. Are you sure? OK.
4. Already an Open Source Fan? Then choose between FreeDOS and Ubuntu (small text blurbs explaining each).
How can someone just notice that they are getting this Ubuntu thing when they turn on the computer at home?
Being uninformed is one thing.
But it appears stupidity is the most parsimonious explanation here, really.
Or better yet, this is all BS.
Re: connecting... Well, I don't have Verizon, I have Comcast. And they use DHCP. And for BOTH Windows and Linux (any distro I've tried so far, which is 3 or 4) all you need to do is plug the cable modem in and turn on the computer. No need to install the crapware that comes in some CD. At least that's my experience with my computer (self installed OSs), but it's hard to see why the Dell would behave any different (supposing the drivers are installed correctly, which they should).
why so serious?
So she's entering a technical school to try to learn. Then it figures there's a lot she doesn't really know and it appears has not gotten any basics wrapped up before she started into this endeavour. Should she have gotten better help and preparation from someone before ordering the PC and trying to use it? Most likely. Hard to believe so many people are down on her about this when; guess what...we all started out somewhere and didn't know squat. Give her a break.
Regarding 'download driver for modem'
"She can't download the drivers. She CANT GET ON THE NET"
No... she can't connect to her WIRELESS with a Verizon connection. She CAN get on the University's Ethernet, so give us all a break.
Troubleshooters @ WKOW-TV
WKOW claims to troubleshoot problems for viewers. A claim that appears to have little basis in reality. The woman's problems were that her Verizon install disk for Windows wouldn't work in Ubuntu. Then there's the non-issue of lacking Word since MATC is willing to accept her homework no matter what program she uses to compose it.
Had WKOW wanted to actually solve her problem, they could have put her in contact with MADLUG, the local Linux user's group. Is there any doubt the LUG would have been more than willing to configure her Verizon internet connection and give her some Ubuntu tutorials in return for free publicity?
Instead, WKOW went for the FUD angle and blamed everyone in sight rather than trying to fix anything. Hardly surprising considering the level of talent to be found at a typical small market TV station in the US.
WKOW had the opportunity to solve this woman's problems. Instead they chose to make her, and themselves, laughingstocks in the tubes of "teh internets".
What should have happened
1. The Dell rep should have asked her what she wanted the computer for.
2. The woman should have looked at this link.
http://matc.edu/student/offerings/distance/computerreq.html
@ Ms Bee
Oh what I meant was I expected the first 50 post to say she is stupid
and that even a a brain dead comatose retard could use Linux.
Yeah glad to see not to many post by misogynist bastards that
couldn't get hooker with a $100 bill sticking out of their crotch .
If you referred to her as a bimbo / twat/ a word I cant used here or used her gender
for being stupid I'm talking about you..
Cleaned up per request. Cheers
I am reminded...
...of that Greek (or Roman, or Welsh) fable of the water beetle that tended the river reeds. He loved the river reeds and understood their nature and therefore their true beauty and he would tell everyone who would pass how beautiful the river reeds were but no-one would listen because he was just a water beetle and they were just river reeds. Occasionally someone would tell him about the other beautiful things around the river but this would only drive him into a fury of frustration and indignation
"The only beauty is in the river reeds!" he would yell, but they would often say "Beautiful, too, are the willow trees and the shiny river stones. Not to mention -" only to be interrupted by the little water beetle shrieking "Screw you, you are stupid!". Then they would just walk off to some other part of the river where occasional sounds of polite conversation and interchange of ideas could be heard. Glasses would clink. Sometimes laughter would ripple across the river and make the reeds stir in a wholly unpleasant way.
Eventually, though, the little water beetle understood. It wasn't just about his little part of the river. Upstream and downstream and in the surrounding fields and beyond, there was a great big world of amazing diversity all around him. And that world was entirely peopled by morons, women, and Americans. Then he got eaten by a trout - lonely, friendless, unloved, and having never been loved up by a proper girl that was really there and not only there when he closed his eyes really tight and thought of field hockey.
Re: Troubleshooters @ WKOW-TV
They actually have tried to help ...
"***THURSDAY MORNING UPDATE***
Tens of thousands of people have read and commented on this story, making it one of the most-read stories in the history of WKOWTV.COM. 27 News reporter Dan Cassuto will file an update on 27 News at 5:00 on Thursday. We'll review viewer comments, explain why this story is making some viewers so angry, and explore how quickly it's spreading around the internet."
"...27 News contacted Dell, but the company has not responded to us yet.
However, we think we've helped her get back to school.
Verizon says it will dispatch a technician to try to assist her accessing the internet without using the Windows-only installation disk. Verizon says its high-speed internet does indeed support Ubuntu, but some advanced features and installation disks clearly don't work with Linux.
MATC also says it promises to accept any of Schubert's papers or class documents using whatever software she has installed.
Schubert's computer came with Open Office, a word processing software package that is compatible with Microsoft Word. She says she wasn't aware it was compatible. MATC promised to show her how to save documents in compatible formats so she could enroll in online courses again."
http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9667184
Ummm....
I've got a question; how did he order the computer from Dell?
If she ordered over the internet, she had access to the internet before the Dell arrived (i.e before getting a computer) and could have possibly looked on Ubuntu forums or researched the problems via the internet. Dell seem to advise again Ubuntu with "It's not Windows", etc (when I looked at buying a Ubuntu laptop, it seemed a bit of an uphilll battle to get one on their website).
To be honest, I love using Ubuntu (I use Ubuntu Studio) and would recommend it but some people just can't grasp it - I have tried converting some people but only proper technical people (frustrated Windows techies) seem interested in taking the challenge. A lot of people see Windows as a "safety blanket" when in reality it isn't so different and seem to be scared of change. Windows can also be a problem with drivers - when it doesn't include a driver for the onboard graphics, NIC, etc (It might be good idea if Microsoft updated the Windows install CD with drivers by default every 6 months or so but then again they wouldn't do this for free).
It sounds as though she possibly gave up trying to get her modem working under Ubuntu. If she has little computer experience, she might have asked friends which may have either known little or had no idea (most people know a techie or a friend of a techie, etc but if this option isn't available then she may have just given up - they may have never used Ubuntu and could be just as clueless). She possibly phoned Dell thinking that they could talk her through it but she possibly couldn't explain the problem to the techie and the techie assumed she wanted to change to Windows just cause she wasn't use to it.
I think this problem is possibly a lack of computer experience on her part coupled with bad/unhelpful Dell customer support.
It would be an good idea if Dell talked to ISPs to find out which modems they give to their end users, Dell could then package their Ubuntu builds with these modules as standard (even discussing this with the Ubuntu developers they could possibly get these added to the released Ubuntu build). They could maybe even include documentation and support for the ISPs when the computer is being ordered.
I remember I had problems with Ubuntu 7.04 on a Tyan Tiger 230 (dual P3, VIA based motherboard) where it would crash for no reason on startup. The problem appeared to be a VIA driver issue but I gave up and stayed with 6.10 until 7.10 came out (7.10 resolved the problem - I could be assed to change as I used this machine as a overkill NAS/second machine and it had all my RAID arrays on it).
I'm trying to make a balanced arguement - whilst Windows is a pain (I hate having to reinstall WIndows every 6 months because something caused the registry to grow to an enourmous size and thus memory useage seems to go through the roof). Ubuntu cannot always be a great bundle of joy either though in my opinion - Ubuntu is a better system but then it depends what you want out of a system.
I personally think all hardware should be supported by the manufactures on every system or they should package it with what systems it won't work either or should list only the systems it is supported on.
Mike
Technical Collage you say?
So It Looks like she is studying computing at a Technical Collage. I Presume the person is over 18, If She is studying computing at a Tech Collage, how the hell can you not know what a Operating System is.
Secondly When buying the bloody PC If its your typical "Bread and Butter" Computer it would have windows stickers all over it and you are told about the operating system if it is not Windows when purchasing =/
Thirdly Ubuntu is a perfectly good operating system and has alternatives to Microsoft Word, Not all computers come with windows stuff on them =/
Sorry for any mistakes i may have made but im only young =)
No licence no problem
Sorry, you're at collage. DO YOU WANT TO LEARN OR NOT?
@ac who posted @ 16:06
Let's be honest of you want to use a Linux distribution it helps to actually helps if you are computer literate.
Sadly very few web designers are computer literate most are like secratarys, sub editors or cad tech they simply use the applications they are provided with. Some understand how to make the best use of a particular browser. Some even understand what is happening on their web servers.
But very few have any more knowledge than the average home user, unfortunitly even programmers are heading in the same direction :(
Wahahahaha
Best article in a long time - gratz El Reg!
Lady... I doubt you'll read this comment, seeing how your Verizon Inter doesn't net...
But you should thank Dell, and thank Ubuntu. They just saved you a lot of money you could have wasted trying to pass technical classes. FAIL!
An update
http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9682258&nav=menu1362_2
It appears the main lesson learned, from the reporter's point of view, is that Ubuntu is used by jerks.
Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is empowering
So many of the comments before me have lambasted other commenters using a comparison to some other technical field, such as internal combustion engines, home repair, etc. Most are in the form of "do you know anything about X?"
First, to these people I say, yes, why yes I do know about the workings of my car, I know how to frame a house, install insulation, wire it up, plumb it, etc. Do I do these things on a regular basis? No, I don't; they are not my job. Do I do them for myself? Yes, sometimes, though I do have to weigh the costs and benefits.
This lady is obviously ignorant. Stupid? Not certain, but seems probable. I have little sympathy for people who learn of their ignorance and still choose to do nothing about it. In my area we have recently had an influx of Burmese refugees, along with past influxes of various African refugess. Most of these people know nothing of western life when they get here. One of the Burmese ladies was afraid of an egg beater because of it's lethal-looking mechanical nature (ROTM will never happen if she has any say, I'd guess). Many of the Africans were illiterate or nearly so in their native language, much less English or Spanish (I'm in the US, so English is pretty important for everyday life, barring that Spanish makes a good fallback in my area). The Burmese, nearly every one, know how to read English, but cannot even pronounce a single word of it when they arrive - they learn from teachers who do not know how to speak the language. I could go on, but I'm sure you've all got the plot by now: life is difficult for them.
(New paragraph for those who got bored) And yet, nearly all of these refugees can pick up not only the basic skills they need to live (how to ride a bus, where and how to shop, how to operate egg-beaters), whatever skills are required for their new job (many of them slaughter chickens), but also sideline skills, such as how to operate a computer, at least well enough to have a harem of online girlfriends, how to do basic repairs on a car, etc.
If they can do all that, why can't this woman learn how to plug her Ethernet cable in (Verizon provides DSL, and having used it, I know that to get it running with Ubuntu you have to plug it in, and plug the Ethernet cable into the machine)? If she NEEDS MS Word (as in she is taking a class in MS Word, and therefore cannot actually use OpenOffice), then there are a variety of solutions; she could/should have explained to the Dell rep that she has to use MS Word, because the class is on that particular program. If she wanted to be even less ignorant, she could have done a bit of research - wine (which has Ubuntu packages) will install and run MS Office 2007 (which, if it is a class about Word, or Office, would be what is required) without a hitch. If she wanted a slightly different approach, she could have installed the free version of VirtualBox or VMWare and acquired a copy of Windows to install there (though this seems unlikely, since it implies she actually wants to learn something about one or both OSes).
This lady is just *trying* to remain ignorant, (since it is a blissful state), which means that she is trying not to learn - not the correct mental state for advanced schooling.
re: sexism = fail - Sarah Bee
> Of course. It just occurs rather often in expressed opinion that stupid blokes are stupid *and*
> male, and stupid women are stupid *because* they're female. Again, not much of it in this
> thread, though, so my inner feminazi is powered down. For now.
However, sometimes men are stupid BECAUSE they are men, and Women are stupid BECAUSE they are women.
In your above statement, you seem to imply that only men make this, or similar statements, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Women constantly says stuff like "men are so dumb," sometimes shortened to just "Men!" Usually referring to some particular area of interest, often with a human interrelational or emotional context. In fact, though women usually say these types of things to each other, I'd say that I have heard this at least an order of magnitude more often than I heard similar things from men.
Is this wrong? Probably not, it certainly doesn't activate my inner masculnazi (or maybe andronazi; it certainly sounds much better).
There are mental differences between men and women. They may be due to nature or nurture, or some combination thereof, but the fact remains that there are differences. In some cases these differences make it so that members of a given sex are predominantly disadvantaged when it comes to understanding a given subject.
Of course (men, women, other) are sometimes stupid and (male, female, other); feel free to combine any one from first collection with any one from second collection as may apply for a given case, as any similarity between the first choice and second is purely coincidental to the fact that they are idiots.
What a lot of crap
I thought Dell sold online - so she must have had a way to access the net?
AND its really, really hard to buy a linx based Dell on their site.
AFAIK the 'repair netqwork; does the equivalent of a dhclient <iface> i.e it drops your connection and gets a new DHCP lease. You could of course unplug and it would do tthe same.
Im quite happy with my Ubuntu install (Originally 4.10 - and seen every update since with no issues - how many windows systems can say that! ) But I now ~DualBot Vista and 8.10 as I got a new PC. Both run like a Dream - Vista is much much slower with file based tasks though.
She had plenty ways to get help and never pursued them - if I spent tha much on a laptop I sure as hell would. Its her own fault if she gets flamed here.
Nothing to do with OSs and computers
This is just a story about someone who seems incapable of taking responsibility for their own actions or decisions.
Gene pool, shallow end.
Somewhere out in Linux-land ...
Somewhere out in Linux-land there's a wikipedia-page missing (at last count) 252 editors keen to address the details but not the subject.
Young woman not good with computers.
Dell employ freetard-weenies on Helpdesk.
Media short of stories.
Ursine preferred defecation environment unchanged. Pope's religion persistently RC. IT website read by IT types. Paris more fun at night.
Publicity stunt
http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9682258&nav=menu1362_2
"The young woman also contacted 27 News to report she's being harassed on her Facebook account by Ubuntu users."
So she's technical enough to use facebook then.
This such a non-news story but it certainly did the job for the TV stations publicity. They've worked out how to troll then.
What makes this particular case any more special than others who may have the same problem?
They certainly did their job. Even made me post when I should have just given a rats-arse to the whole story.
This is the real news story
Clueless student can't make Ubuntu system work and drops out. How is that news?
Clues student buys Windows machine, nothing works, and drops out. That's news.
Oops, I have it backwards. It's the rare event that's news.
Online course requirements
There has been a lot of "she should have ask for the minimum requirements" comments
so here i will post them:
Operating System
* Windows 95+ or
* Mac OS 8
Hardware
* PC: Pentium 200, 64 MB RAM, SoundBlaster or compatible sound card and speakers, monitor capable of 16-bit color, 4x CD-ROM
* Mac: 150 MHz CPU, PowerPC or better, 64 MB RAM, speakers, CD-ROM drive, monitor capable of " thousands of colors" or better
Modem
* 36.8K
Web Browser
* Internet Explorer 5.01 or 5.5
* (Mac) Netscape Communicator 4.76 not 6.x
* (PC) Netscape Communicator 4.76 or 4.77 not 6.x
* AOL 5.0 or 6.0
Other Software may be required. Check with your instructor
* Adobe Photoshop
* Microsoft Excell
* Word 6.0 or 97
* Acrobat Reader
* Text editor (a word processor or Notepad/SimpleText)
* Sound player program (often comes with the sound card for your computer)
* Connection to Internet and e-mail capabilities
Last Modified: January 30, 2007
http://matcmadison.edu/matc/offerings/distancelearning/requirements.shtm
I think my cell phone has better specs than the crap needed to take classes there
I could have given her a "project computer" for free that would have been at least 3x better than what is stated as a requirement
Seriously its not a computer Issue
its a I dont want to go look up the answer problem
Which im sorry to tell you as a college student all you do is research and write papers. if she doesnt know how to do basic research and where to go to find answers or a basic problem solving technique she is not cut out for college
Would this have been pick up as news if it would have been College student uses Internet explorer catches a virus and has to drop out of college???
Probably not
@ John B
So you had to type a few commands in a terminal window to make something work ..... Big deal.
Look, you open the terminal window. You read what you're supposed to type. You type exactly what it says with no deviations (unless it specifically tells you to deviate e.g. "replace 'fred' with your own login name"). And it just works.
Wha exactly is the problem? You don't have to understand it, you just have to type it exactly as it's presented. Someone else has already done the "understanding" bit for you.
A long time ago,in a Country far away
I used to do sums in Surveying and Civil Engineering using Log tables and a Slide Rule.
I think that theFemale in this story would have had a hard job with those things as well.
Had to know where to put the decimal point. (Now don't be rude about this).
I do think Ubuntu is wonderful, my old worn out mind managed to download 8.04 and upgrade to 8.10.
Setting up my settings for the ISP was easy as the provider gave nice easy instructions.
Why even my mother could have done it.(Or is it Granny that is supposed to find it easy?
My icon shows I love women!
andy doesn't know what "fact!" means
Although maybe if you spell it FACT! it means "I said it and it's true and you aren't going to tell me any different".
You frigging moron, andy.
"...and just install the printer"
Wel, buy a printer that works with Ubuntu (just like you'd be hosed, no, MORE hosed, if you bought a printer with no windows driver). E.g. the routine for installing the drivers for the HP MFD printer:
1) Open Configure your computer
2) Click on Printers
3) Enter root password
4) Select HP from dropdown box
5) Fin
No need to hunt for the driver disk, it's on the installation of the OS, not to be lost.
Now, go find a printer that has no Windows driver disk for your version of Windows (e.g. a printer with no Win98 driver) and install it on Windows 98.
It works under windows, but not if it's windows 98...
configure/make/make install doesn't work!
You now have a nice avant-guard table centrepiece. Enjoy.
@Doug Glass
Well, lets look at what versions of Linux there are:
Red Hat
Slackware
DSL
Gentoo
Debian
These are the only ones where you will have to do something different to get it administrated. You have distros with GNOME or KDE or Other Only. Gentoo expects you to use source code all the time and Debian has apt.
A Red Hat RPM will work on any RPM based system with GNOME (including Mandrake/SuSE) as long as you have space for GNOME libraries too.
Debian uses apt and will work with Ubuntu et al too
etc.
Now, there are things on Vista that you CANNOT GET on XP, so there's two. The Home Basic and Starter editions are not interchangable and miss out on lots of things by the more expensive version (and cannot be upgraded without buying the upgrade license), that makes it four.
You need at least Premium or Workstation to get a small network going or to use a multi=processor box. So that's another two.
Ultimate to use more than 4 CPUs. Another two.
HPC is another two (Linux versions are HPC, support and aid configuring are payment options)
Cluster edition another two (Linux is already cluster ready, same as HPC).
So that's 4+2+2+2+2=12 versions.
Then there's Win2K, 2K3, 98SE, 95, though 95 is now probably down at the noise level, then again, probably no more than DSL and the other REALLY TINY Linux distributions. In workstation and server guises for the NT line, too.
About 20 versions.
Re: Publicity stunt
She may be able to use Facebook (which surely a lot of people who can't figure Ubuntu can), but she can't - or didn't think to - make her profile unsearchable.
re: From an "average thickie" perspective...
Well, you don't consider being free to use as being a benefit, maybe that's why you don't consider Open Source better than the closed source.
GIMP vs PS. Now if you want to edit photos and it's NOT YOUR ENTIRE JOB, what could you do with £700 that using GIMP would leave in your pocket? Is that not a LOT more useful than the cack-handed single document interface of PS? The need to BUY *more* plug-ins to get work done? The fact that out of the 1% of things you CAN'T do in GIMP there's 3% you can't do in PS but can in GIMP unless you pay more? And 1% that you can do in GIMP and can't in PS?
But you don't see any value in money, do you. And how the heck could we expect you to value freedom too?
Ubuntu is great
This is what always happen in our life. People don't want to be bothered by new things. I have been using ubuntu since gutsy gibbon, and now intrepid ibex. Good OS, even I'm waiting the upcoming version which will use ext4 filesystem.
Please, do not blame others and start to see it clearly. We have to learn new things even everyday.
I love ubuntu.
-Tjie Siong
Jakarta, Indonesia
in before the close
And wow 291 Posts
Im just gonna sit here and laugh at the woman
But i hate it when people try to sell you something cause they thinks its the best thing since sliced bread
Yeas Linux may be good, but not for everybody
oh and mac is bad for everybody !! ;)
I just tried Ubuntu 8.10 AMD64
Fucking great steaming turd heap. I would have looked for an alternative, but I had work to do, so I stuck XP on again.
1. Installer would not default to a safe screen resolution and refresh rate. Tried the text based install, but had the same problem upon booting to GUI. Tried editing xorg.conf, or whatever its called, from windows (so that I could browse the help forums) but to no avail.
Somehow, after having failed so many times, it just happened to boot from the live CD into a working GUI, just by chance.
2. Installing to nForce RAID 0. 30-odd nerve-racking steps (correcting a typo along the way!) and a manual grub installation later, it's up and running. Well, apart from a few devices...
3. Webcam just about sorta worked a bit having found custom homebrew drivers. Would I install homebrew hardware drivers from an obscure source on XP? Would I fsck! Kept crashing anyway.
4. Soundblaster XFi. Apparently it should work, having installed the creative labs driver. No such luck after several hours. Seemed to work just fine with the BackTrack live CD. Seemed like it should have made noise, according to all the mixer stuff (after a few more hours and a dozen more steps of fiddling), but no luck.
5. Software support was also a little patchy, and what there was, was generally a bit pants. Apps "greying out" and all that.
6. The Sun was coming up. Caffiene no longer having any effect. Still no sound, or decent torrent client.
7. Gave up.
I'm not laying blame anywhere in particular, and I'm certainly not blaming Linux in general, but think what that would have been like for someone who wasn't a technician, or even just your Average Joe MCSE? Remember that Ubuntu is the current darling of the "come on everybody give Lunux a go!" collective.
XP: It's not the best, but it Just Works(tm). Mostly, which is good enough.
The flameproof one that Just Fits(tm) me.
Well Done El Reg
You guys must have been waiting to kick of the new year with a good old fashioned vicious fanboy flame war. Only 16 days in to the year and mission accomplished!
This is going to be a good year!
PS: Any Linux fanboy who thinks that Linux is ever going to make it in the big time probably believes that the moon landing was faked, 911 was a CIA plot and Elvis is flipping burgers in Argentina
Just to tie a bow around all of this...
I think what everyone is trying to say is that this whole sad series of events can be likened to the rise of national socialism in nineteen thirties Germany and the subsequent state rejection of commonly held democratic and egalitarian principals.
With these words, I summon Godwin and beseech him to strike down this thread with his fiery sword of rhetorical determinism. All praise to Godwin.
Making a purchase with your eyes closed!!!
The only person at blame here is Abbie Schubert. She clearly didn't have an understanding of what she was purchasing, but nonetheless pressed the buy now button. I myself had to remortgage my property 6 months ago. Not having an understanding, I thought it best to seek advice in order to get the best product to suit my requirement.
I clearly would be in the gutter, if I had used the Abbie Schubert purchasing model (close your eyes, put your fingers in your ears and randomly head butt the keyboard)
My advice, is to seek advice!!!
IT has its share of dunderheads
This young person is no different to many (perhaps the majority) who are victims of the modern computer-obsessed education system. She's probably been educated to think that there is nothing other than Windows. She might not have been very smart in the way she handled this, but don't be so damned smug and nasty. The IT world is as bad as religion for obfuscation and zealotry.
I've found the IT industry to be largely devoid of people with the elementary analytical science and maths skills that are often needed to do their job properly. This is whitewashed over by so-called "skills" in clicking icons and writing bullshit.
(IT consultant - PhD Physics, 25+ years Unix and other macho operating systems, deep and dirty programmer, hardware hacker and all-round smart arse - but I get paid very well for it. Put that flame gun back in your pre-pubescent pants)
'The internet' doesn't work on Windows either
'"The internet"' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
I just tried Ubuntu 8.10 AMD64
Try with Vista.
find out your SoundXFi doesn't work.
"Linux may be good, but not for everybody"
And the same with Windows.
Why do people like you ALWAYS LEAVE THAT OUT????
This topic is closed for new posts.
