[Gllug] Whinge

[Dan Kolb]

On 30 Aug 2001, Jon Masters wrote:

> > I am not bashing Linux here, I am just saying that it is generally easier to
> > install programs on windows especially for a novice.
> 
> Oh sure, excuse me while I laugh loudly.

Um, no. With Windows, you tend to double-click the setup.exe file, and
click through the installer. All done, nice-'n'-easy. Now, let's compare
with Linux, then:

Know whether you're using an RPM-based distribution, a .DEB-based
distribution, or another one. If you're using an RPM-based one, you need
to get packages appropriate to that distribution. Then, of course, you
need to get the one most appropriate for your architecture. And how many
novices are going to know why they should get a .i686.rpm instead of a
.i586.rpm? Chances are, though, if you're not using RedHat or Mandrake (or
possibly SuSE), you're not going to have an RPM of $SOFTWARE_PACKAGE. So
you need to know which distro yours is most similar to. With
Debian(-based) it's probably slightly simpler, with an 'apt-get install
$PACKAGE'. But you'd still need to know the name of the package to
install. Chances are, of course, that a lot of novices haven't heard of
Debian. If you're using a non-(RPM|DEB) distribution, you'll most likely
have to compile from source, so let's assume most novies don't use one of
these (Slackware, ROCK).

> So basically you're saying that sometimes there will be problems and
> that we should all be happy lusers and accept it? Sorry, under no
> conditions am I prepared to accept an ``Operating System''
> re-installation as a "fix".

I'm sure there were problems with Linux (kernel), in that it caused
various data corruption in some circumstances. And you have to either, a)
accept it, b) wait for the next release, or c) use an older release
(unless you have the time / knowledge to kix it yourself). And yet you're
still using Linux after these problems? Why? Why didn't you switch to,
say, FreeBSD which didn't have those particular problems?

Dan
-- 
dankolb at ox.compsoc.net

--I reserve the right to be completely wrong about any comments or 
  opinions expressed; don't trust everything you read above--


-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at linux.co.uk
http://list.ftech.net/mailman/listinfo/gllug