[Tfug] ubuntu (troll?)

[Jim Secan]

Since this fellow took himself off the line I'll put up some defense for
his cause.  I doubt that he "knows" Windows to the level you posit, but his
point is that he doesn't think he should have to know Windows or Linux or
JCL (God forbid) or whatever any more than is needed to get his job done.
His job not being care-and-feeding of the OS.  This is why I don't use
Linux on the desktop myself.  Too much fiddling to get done what my REAL
job is.  I don't mind this for my heavy computing needs, because I need the
OS access that Linux provides so I put up with the admin load, but only
that needed for the guts, not Gnome or KDE or any desktop stuff.

This doesn't make Linux "evil" or bad in any way, just unsuited, at this
time, for the user who wants to work from the desktop with a minimum of
hassle and doesn't want to take the time to learn how to spika-da-linux.
Yes, Windows is a pain in the butt when it goes south on you, but with a
minimum of care that can usually be avoided or at least mitigated.  The
suggestion for this fellow to look into OS X and Mac is what I think he
should do.  Linux may get to where he wants in 3-7 years, but not yet.
Given an OS X background, when Linux gets the desktop to the point he can
use it the switch from OS X to Linux will be a lot easier than the jump
from Windows to either OS X or Linux.

Jim

At 02:33 PM 04/15/2008 -0700, Gene wrote:
>On 04/15/2008 11:23 AM, sitkaa at email.arizona.edu wrote:
>> I subscribed to TFUG to (yet again) try to learn more about 
>> linux.
>> 
>Have you installed Linux? You say you need someone to hold your 
>hand to get a dual boot working. Have you asked any of us on the 
>list to help you? Have you considered responding to any one of 
>the hundreds of giveaway emails on the list, where people were 
>giving away or selling for the cost of a haircut, low end used 
>computers? How about going to Worldcare and picking one up?
>
>You can't learn Linux on a Linux group without Linux! You might 
>learn *about* it, but you won't learn it.
>
>Until you have tried one of the above suggestions, I think you 
>should stop your whining. And no, we don't care what your 
>complaints are until you have either tried or asked for help.
>
>On another note, you say you *know* Windows, but I bet you don't. 
>You know how to use it to get tasks done, but I bet that's about 
>it. How about troubleshooting driver issues? Virtual Memory? 
>Failure to boot; don't have the provided recovery media; what do 
>you do? Fix registry issues? Dual boot Windows XP with Windows 
>Vista? If I am wrong, I will apologize publicly on the group.
>
>Most of the people running windows bought it with everything 
>pre-installed. If you were to buy the newest hardware and attempt 
>to install Win 98 on it, you would have to go find all the 
>drivers and install them manually; and believe me there are a lot 
>more drivers than just video, network, and audio. And there's no 
>guarantee that you would get it to work.
>
>There is a stark difference between using an OS, and installing 
>an OS that did not come from a manufacturer with all the drivers 
>pre-loaded. If that's what you want, go buy a box with Linux 
>pre-installed.
>
>In my opinion, installing Ubuntu, PC-BSD, etc is normally easier 
>than installing *any* version of Windows; except maybe 3.1. ;-)
>
>-- 
>Glen 

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| Jim Secan           | Northwest Research Assoc, Inc |
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