Linux and future.
Arne B. Henriksen
A few words from an old man (53 years old (or young))...
After trying out, failing, fiddling and getting grey hair throughout many
years (since -7.2), I can finally say that I'm not going back to windows
any more. The exception is at work, where they still use wi.
I have all my equipment working from the box, and some are really
impressive. My portable usb2 Sony DVD Writer works right out of the box.
I connected it, and my Suse recognized it right the way and the icon for
it popped up on the screen right the way. The same with K3B. Recognized
right the way, without any fiddling or configuration.
Even my Sony DV video camera are connected through the Firewire connection.
One thing with that though, every time i connect it I have to activate the
firewire driver manually. That's not a problem though.
I need to add that my main computer is a hp omnibook xe3 laptop, and that
the usb and firewire connections are pcmcia cards. And all recognized
right the way without any extra drivers added.
The same is for my usb2 hub. Works right out of the box.
Did I have problems at all???
Not really, but a novice would, maybe...
I bought a new printer in January. A HP Deskjet 5655. To get that to work,
I had to install drivers. That is something that needs to be worked on.
My opinion, drivers should be available as RPM's, or updates to RPM's. That
would make it easier for novices.
Internet shearing???
As I have a family with two boys (18 and 16), I wanted to share my internet
connection with them. That was not supposed to be any problem using
firewall 2. Well, I tried. Believe me, something that should work out of
the box, did'nt work at all. Actually, when I connected my computer at
first (with isdn), it worked the first time, I got connected and it was all
ok. Then I closed down and tried again... and that was it. It never
worked again.
What did I do...
I installed Smoothwall 2.0 on an old p133 computer. Set that one up as a
router with dhcp server (on the smoothwall), and now everything works as a
dream.
What if i only had one computer to connect to internet, and run into the
same problem.
Everything are supposed to work out of the box, isn't it. That means Linux
still has some way to go.
AH
bo...@xxblnv.com
|still has some way to go.
Sure, but computers in general have some way to go. You're dreaming if
you expect Windows to work out of the box also. Even those firmware
routers don't work first time all the time.
--
Dharmananda
> Hi everyone...
>
> A few words from an old man (53 years old (or young))...
>
> After trying out, failing, fiddling and getting grey hair throughout many
> years (since -7.2), I can finally say that I'm not going back to windows
> any more. The exception is at work, where they still use wi.
>
> I have all my equipment working from the box, and some are really
> impressive. My portable usb2 Sony DVD Writer works right out of the box.
> I connected it, and my Suse recognized it right the way and the icon for
> it popped up on the screen right the way. The same with K3B. Recognized
> right the way, without any fiddling or configuration.
>
> Even my Sony DV video camera are connected through the Firewire
> connection. One thing with that though, every time i connect it I have to
> activate the
> firewire driver manually. That's not a problem though.
>
> I need to add that my main computer is a hp omnibook xe3 laptop, and that
> the usb and firewire connections are pcmcia cards. And all recognized
> right the way without any extra drivers added.
>
> The same is for my usb2 hub. Works right out of the box.
hello,
I'm your age group, I finally got up on a 9.0 installation, after years of
dealing with Windows and hating it, and I tend to agree with your other
respondant.
I've been through a real fit adapting to a Unix-world OS, and I feel your
pain. But it just does take time to learn a whole new OS, and it's worth
it.
Windows has just given us all bad habits. just for one example, in this
other open-source world, the documentation actually tells you how things
work, and it actually pays to RTFM. Major big-time revelation!
What I love about Linux is that I actually feel safe with the thing, for the
first time in years. It tells me when cookies are trying to glom onto my
machine, it smells malicious email right 'out of the box', and it ships
with an integral firewall.
And I do love being root. Running a grown-up OS has its advantages.
What I gather from reading the mainstream reviews of Linux distributions is
that in just about a year, Linux will be on a functionality par with
Windows, for the ordinary user. That agrees with my intuition about it.
Being ahead of the wave also has its advantages, particularly for those
with marketing skills.
dharma
Charles Prince
<snip>
>
> What if i only had one computer to connect to internet, and run into the
> same problem.
>
The you'd go and get a external router that does the NAT'ing and
firewall'ing for you :-)
Seriously you could go the trouble of learning how to configure iptables
yourself and then setup the firewall manually. I usually find that most
of the firewall offerings that come as part of the distro (which ever
distro you are using at any time) leave a lot to be desired.
> Everything are supposed to work out of the box, isn't it. That means Linux
> still has some way to go.
>
> AH
I do agree that the linux world still has some way to go in order to
entice the average windows users.
One issue that is going to be hard to address, is the fact that you can
either install software through your distro's package system or from
tarballs. Obviously it is usually fairly easy to install via a package
system but can become quite tricky when installing from tarballs,
especially source tarballs.
I think it is unfortunate, where newbies are concerned, that installing
applications from tarball's is considered a normal way of installing
software in linux. I'm not saying it is wrong or that it should not be
done or that it would be hard for a competent linux user, just that for a
average windows user it is usually a show stopper as they are used to just
clicking a install shield executable to install software and I doubt that
the average windows user has ever had to build a software package that
they loaded on their system.
R.F. Pels
> Internet shearing???
>
> As I have a family with two boys (18 and 16), I wanted to share my
> internet connection with them. That was not supposed to be any problem
> using firewall 2. Well, I tried. Believe me, something that should work
> out of the box, did'nt work at all. Actually, when I connected my
> computer at first (with isdn), it worked the first time, I got connected
> and it was all ok. Then I closed down and tried again... and that was it.
> It never worked again.
Hmmm. I'm not too fond of SuSEFirewall2. Actually, I handcrafted my firewall
script and started that on boot. The easiest way however is to just go out
and buy yourself a hardware router cum ISDN modem.
> What if i only had one computer to connect to internet, and run into the
> same problem.
>
> Everything are supposed to work out of the box, isn't it. That means
> Linux still has some way to go.
True. Printers and firewalling are still grey areas...
--
Ruurd
.o.
..o
ooo
bs...@uncqqf.com
|applications from tarball's is considered a normal way of installing
|software in linux.
Not in my book it isn't. People shouldn't have to face source tarballs
unless they want to. I can build from source, but I don't expect others
to and I don't consider it normal. Maybe years ago, when Linux was the
province of enthusiasts, but it has a larger constituency now.
--
Joel Carlson
Keith Clark
bill
> Arne B. Henriksen wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone...
>>
>> A few words from an old man (53 years old (or young))...
>>
>> After trying out, failing, fiddling and getting grey hair throughout many
>> years (since -7.2), I can finally say that I'm not going back to windows
>> any more. The exception is at work, where they still use wi.
>>
>> I have all my equipment working from the box, and some are really
>> impressive. My portable usb2 Sony DVD Writer works right out of the box.
>> I connected it, and my Suse recognized it right the way and the icon for
>> it popped up on the screen right the way. The same with K3B. Recognized
>> right the way, without any fiddling or configuration.
>>
>> Even my Sony DV video camera are connected through the Firewire
>> connection. One thing with that though, every time i connect it I have to
>> activate the
>> firewire driver manually. That's not a problem though.
>>
>> I need to add that my main computer is a hp omnibook xe3 laptop, and that
>> the usb and firewire connections are pcmcia cards. And all recognized
>> right the way without any extra drivers added.
>>
>> The same is for my usb2 hub. Works right out of the box.
snip-snip
At age 74, and less than six months with Linux, I find SuSE boring as hell!
I maintain a website, listen to streaming radio, launch thousands of
emails daily, browse the Net, watch the news, play/burn cds, etc.,
buglessly and boringly. Thank goodness for nvidia nforce drivers.
Sometimes, after an update, they offer a tad of transitory excitement.
For real excitement, however, you simply cannot beat Windows XP!
Mysterious crashes, data loss, strange cryptic messages, spyware,
pornware, gatesware, all abound. And if you listen attentively,
you can hear viruses, worms, and Trojan horses stampeding through
the registry. Or simply use Outlook email client as instructed, and
you'll be able to see the little buggers...right on your screen. And any
update is an adrenalin-pumper. Egads, I miss it!
No, Linux's future is mighty bleak. It's just too damn boring!
Bill
Popeye 'Bailo' Doyle
> At age 74, and less than six months with Linux, I find SuSE boring as
> hell! I maintain a website, listen to streaming radio, launch thousands of
> emails daily, browse the Net, watch the news, play/burn cds, etc.,
> buglessly and boringly. Thank goodness for nvidia nforce drivers.
> Sometimes, after an update, they offer a tad of transitory excitement.
>
> For real excitement, however, you simply cannot beat Windows XP!
> Mysterious crashes, data loss, strange cryptic messages, spyware,
> pornware, gatesware, all abound. And if you listen attentively,
> you can hear viruses, worms, and Trojan horses stampeding through
> the registry. Or simply use Outlook email client as instructed, and
> you'll be able to see the little buggers...right on your screen. And any
> update is an adrenalin-pumper. Egads, I miss it!
>
> No, Linux's future is mighty bleak. It's just too damn boring!
>
> Bill
obviously, you don't know how to /connect/
if it weren't for all the install problems of windos, they would realize
they don't know either...
Synchrodude
I try and keep myself busy and create my own problems to remind me of the
good ole days of reinstalling windows every 3 or 4 months :)
--
Synchrodude the Legend
You only have too much fuel if you are on fire!
Dharmananda
Thanks for sharing, Bill.
You could try responding to the post you're talking to, instead
of snipping me out of the thread. SOME people would consider that less
boring than what you're doing.
When you're retired, you probably don't have to care about the privacy
and copyright violations, character assassination, miscellaneous slander,
denial-of-service-attacks, forgery, identity theft, outright robbery,
outright fraud, sexual exploitation, corruption of minors, offensive
worm-driven spam, and other random abuse that is made inevitable by a
certain pile of badly-written code that is going the way of the dodo bird
as we write.
dharma