Vista Is Bad But Linux Is Horrendous!!!!

I've spent the last 3 days attempting to upgrade 4 Windows-XP systems
to Vista and have had various problems with software compatability.
I've spent countless hours on the phone and technical support websites
and finally after 3 days I have everything working.
This fiasco has left me with some doubt as to whether or not Microsoft
has the ability to maintain it's position as the defacto standard in
operating systems.

After reading about Linux I decided to give it a try on another system
which is an older P4 2.4G system based around an Asus board.
I downloaded Fedora and attempted to install.

First problem, my SATA drives were not found.

Google time >>>> 2 hours later <<<< I found the solution which was a
Custom Install Option.

(After a few cryptic questions and a partition manager that was
convoluted and potentially very dangerous in the hands of a new user,
Fedora was installed)

Second Problem, the system would not boot after install. I got a Grub
Error 15 message.

Google Time>>>>>>> 5 Hours Later <<<<.. Oh boy I found lots of
information on this puppy. About 5 hours later I fixed the problem
which involved copying a know working Grub configuration file from
some kind soul on the net, modifying it for my particular system and
replacing the one already installed. I did this with a Knoppix LiveCD.

So now I can boot the system, but my display image is shifted way off
the screen and too low to click on anything.

Google Time >>>>>> 2 hours later <<<< Ok I learned how to boot to a
command line and edit the Xorg file to fix the entries that were
incorrect for my common Nvidia card.
So now I could see my desktop, but it was at 1024x768 and what
appeared to be 16 colors.

Google Time >>> 3 hours later <<< I discovered that there is no
apparent way to get 32bpp, 3D acceleration, 85hz and 1280x1024 all at
the same time like I have with Windows.
Bummer.
I settled for 1280x1024 24bpp and no 3d because I don't use it and
Linux doesn't appear to have any games written for Linux anyhow.

So now I have the system up, am surfing the net and things look pretty
good.
Time to add a printer.
I go to the control panel and click on printers and peruse the list
but I don't see my Lexmark Multifunction listed?
I do see a similar model however so I decide to try this.
It installs easy enough, but when I go to print I get one line of
gibberish on the top of the page, the page ejects and the next page
does the same thing over and over and over again.
Rebooting the system does no good because the printer, like a mad
beast, starts right up again wasting my paper.
Finally I turn the damm thing off while I.....................

Google Time << 4 hours >>> I discover Print Ques, printer names and
the wonderful account called root. I finally figure out how to purge
this thing and with some trepidation I turn the printer on and
thankfully it behaves.

Oh well, I don't need to print right now anyhow so on to my network.
The problem is, I can't see my other 3 Windows Vista machines.
And now it's.........
you guessed it!

GOOGLE TIME << infinite >>> I discover something called Samba, but I
also learn that Microsoft Vista and Samba are not friends but only
after a day and a hlf of playing with a smb.conf file and reading
maybe a hundred web pages devoted to helping people get Samba working,
and this is with Windows XP which supposedly plays nicely with Samba.
I wouldn't know know, I never got Samba working.

At this point, I took the Linux CD's, all 6 of them including the
rescue CD which seems useless BTW and tossed them, violently I might
add, into the dustbin.

I have wasted far too much time with this Linux crap and I don't
intend to waste another millisecond trying to shoehorn this pile of
garbage into my systems.

I can see why Linux is free.
It doesn't work!

I can also see why it is not even making the slightest ding in
Microsoft's armour:
It, Linux, doesn't work.

I'm not sure, but if the Linux users expect people, ordinary people,
to spend their lives Googling in order to make Linux work, they are
daft.

Maybe in 10 years Linux might be able to install and work properly,
but for now Linux is too difficult and too buggy for the average user.

Karla

My new 160G laptop HD arrived a few days ago. Two hours after it arrived
I'd installed Ubuntu + the hundreds of applications that are part of the
default install + a few hundred more of my own favorite apps + did a
full update of the OS and all applications + had the system fully
and completely configured to my liking.

Windows isn't even in the ballpark anymore.




A few hundred apps and then a few hundred more? Amazed that you find so
many, and the time to use them all..

Alias <aka@masked&anonymous.es> writes:

> karla.bonerstein@yahoo.com wrote:
> Funny, I installed Ubuntu in less than half an hour. Try
> Ubuntu. www.ubuntu.com Order the 6.06 CD. They send it to you free and
> pay the postage.
>
> Alias

What is it with you Linux geeks and "free".

Here's a better idea - download the bloody thing and help save the planet.

On Feb 22, 12:22 pm, "Brian W" <brian.wescombeSOD...@ntlSPAMworld.com>
wrote:
> "Alias" <aka@masked&anonymous.es> wrote in message
>
> news:%23sTgXPqVHHA.4964@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>
>
>
> > Funny, I installed Ubuntu in less than half an hour. Try Ubuntu.
> >www.ubuntu.comOrder the 6.06 CD. They send it to you free and pay the
> > postage.
>
> That's still more time than I ever plan to spend installing it on my system


The problem with Linux is that while the postage may be free, the time
required to make Linux work is astronomical. Sure the Linux pundits
will cry "it works fine for me" and blame the user, but the internet
is chock full of Linux horror stories.

I've always wondered what "works for me" actually means when spoken by
a Linux zealot.
Does it mean the system boots?
Does it mean 640x480 on the screen?
Does it mean their Epson 9 pin printer works?
Their Soundblaster 8 bit or Adlib card (remember those?) makes noise?

It sure seems that "works" takes on a totally different meaning when
Linux is involved.
Maybe the standard that Linux has to meet is just much lower and the
people using Linux don't mind doing without modern conviences?

I've tried Linux, including Ubuntu, and while it may ok for a techie I
would never let it anywhere near a common user because I know my phone
would not stop ringing.

So you have no OS ? I know of no recent OS that takes less than 30
minutes to install on a PC. When you consider that Linux also installs
many applications, which require a separate and also long installation
on other OS's. Thus you are saying that the fastest installing OS is
too slow for you, so you are going to use a slower one.

Not only that, but if you go with a pre-installed OS, then you are
likely going to end up re-installing the OS several times, as even the
experts who promote that OS suggest an re-install at least annually,
and perhaps more often for power users.

Abort, Retry, Fail, Reboot, Reinstall, Remit all of your money to
Redmond. Smile, you are one of those people Stalin called "useful".

warpsix wrote:
>
>> Funny, I installed Ubuntu in less than half an hour. Try Ubuntu.
>> www.ubuntu.com Order the 6.06 CD. They send it to you free and pay the
>> postage.
>>
>> Alias
>
> I just went to that site and read "Linux for human beings"
> your a troll so why are you pitching a product that doesn't even want
> you? my advice is for you to take a pill and go to your happy place

Another typical response from an MS fanboi, an insult and no response to
content. Boring.

Alias

On Feb 22, 1:11 pm, "Gary" <G...@somewhere.usa> wrote:
> Its not how long it takes to install that counts. Its how long it takes you
> to get it to work that really counts.
> Vista a few hours. Linux days, months, years.

Ubuntu worked fine for me right after the install. The last version I
had that took more than a few hours was Slackware 3.0, but that was a
long time ago, and the then current Windows version (95) took longer
to set up even with the vaunted "plug and play", which didn't really
work.

Also, Linux does far more out of the box. People like to compare a
full distro of Linux to a bare OS install of Linux. Yes, maybe Windows
is installed and "working", but you still can't do anything. Ubuntu,
on the other hand, is ready to go with applications. You "working"
Windows box still needs more work. It takes far longer to install
Windows AND the equivalent applications. Hopefully Vista will do away
with the Windows Multiple Reboot Boogie, but I wouldn't count on it.

Dean G.