I have been posting here on and off for the last six months. I ran Fedora Core 7 on a IBM T42 then T43.

I knew FC7 was rather bleeding edge but I figured I could get things working in a translation from windows to Linux. I had previously worked for almost 2years on SuSE so I considered myself able to get Fedora to accomplish what I needed.


I still consider Linux to the As of last week I decided to move back to Windows XP for the following reasons (in order of importance)

1) IPSoftphone - A VOIP product which runs on windows only. It uses a H323 protocol base but Avaya has torqued it enough to be unusable with any standard Open source VOIP client. This meant that I could not use my office number readily when I was at sites which had Internet access but cell was not allowed or able to get signel. I paided for to try to get this application up, but they NEVER responded to my request to become an advocate for the software package nor did they provide any response to request for help on getting the TAPI interface built. I also tried VMWare Server. I run the XP host VM on a windows system with the SoftPhone and the mic and headphones work fine, but I xfer that VM to Linux and their is no mic support through to the VM. I posted this as a bug to vmware but it is low in their priority

2) Intel Video - I use dual monitors a lot and find it very helpful to do my job. I had a T41 where dual monitors (spanned or split desktops) worked fine. I upgraded to a T43 and had a bug where It would hang Linux if I tried to do dual monitors. This is noted on a bug I posted to bugzilla which was accepted and assigned but NEVER replied to any of my tickles on the bug. This does not seem critical, but it was a loss of functionality and is hard to get around the loss when you run as many virtual machines as I do.

3)USB device mounting - I found that if I attached a USB key 1/2 the time I would have to revert to command line shell to get the device to mount. This was highly inconvenient as most of the time I had to do these USB keys was in midst of presentations where someone was giving me quick data that I needed to correct a chart, fill in some imporant details etc.... and when I was always praying that it would work, I consider this lost functionality. Some of it was people providing USB devices with NTFS format, I had installed drivers etc where I could mount NTFS RW and it worked. Most of those times the device was pulled from XP and so was noted as not being a clean eject and it wanted to stop me to "make sure" I really wanted to force a mount. This is not Linux's fault but again... it cost me time. But even on small keys with FAT it would seem that many times the UDEV system would see the device and not mount it and /var/log/messages would provide nothing more then "new device found at /dev/sdb" kind of messages but no reason why auto mounter failed.

4)Printing - I installed printers such as a HP4050 and things would work fine but I installed a multifunction Xerox WorkCentre Pro 232 and I don't know if it was the driver or CUPS havening funkiness but the whole print system became inconsistent if it would print. I could ping and telnet into the LPD port of the printer so I knew that it was my local host issue (plus my windows VM could print fine).

5) PDF Printer - Printing a document to PDF was setup within linux and some applications would get the option to choose that as a target print location, but most applications would simply provide the drop down list for the three printers I had installed. I tried to dig into this to root cause it so as to submit a bug... but was more focused on job/Errors 1-2
6) KDE Network Manager No dialup - I posted a bug where their was no ability to manage dialup sessions with KNetworkmanager. This was not critical but was another feature loss.
6) IBM Tools - I have to use a few IBM tools (SSCT requires .NET 2.0 and eConfig requires Trilogy Engine)


I will miss many things in Linux and am already remembering how many things I have to install to get all my functionality back within Windows. I look forward to going back to Linux, but it will be a while due to the above. Once I get them to work within my Fedora VM... I will consider the leap back.

And may that day come sooner then later.....

Since you already decided to ditch GNU/Linux based on (amongst other things) reasoning that has nothing to do with GNU/Linux or F7 (like your choice for proprietary products or protocols), and this thread not being F7 specific, I move this thread to /General.

unSpawn,


I will respectfully disagree with you and your choice to move this thread. The topic was related to fedora in the fact that I ran fedora 7 for six months or so in a "production" mode. The details included in the thread were related to Fedora and as such by moving this thread you limit someone's search ability on Fedora in relation to the issues I expressed that caused me to have to move back to Windows. I intended to enable this thread as reference that as issues are solved.... or if they were slated to be solved (had already been solved) in Fedora 8 then they could be noted by those who also have to deal with corporate systems.

Your statement that I choose to use proprietary protocols demonstrates why Fedora and the infusion of Linux on a corporate level will be impeded. I realize that Avaya has decided to implement a proprietary implementation of the H323 Protocol stack, but that is the corporate standard for many companies. If we are to provide Linux as a viable desktop in those environments we can either walk in with blind eyes to the issue that may induce, or have discussed it as a community and know their are issues.



I also have to make an addendum to my reasoning (any may add others of VALUE) later on.

Reason 2.1 ( it was high on importance but slipped my mind)

I posted that for some strange reason I could use my Linux CDMA device (cell phone) to get onto the internet fine, but that for some reason that Pidgin could not connect any of the IM protocols. I have a post on it I am not able to find on it atm. In that it works fine with XP, it would appear that some component of Fedora was the issue.. though I have very limited ability to root cause it at this time.

Hmmm--if you are moving back to Windows, why would you be concerned about where LQ keeps this thread??? I for one will read it even if they put it under Mainframes--->Cobol.

Also, I would not expend significant energy trying to convince us of the rightness of your decision. We respect your decision, but it highly unlikely that your reasons will match any of our realities. For myself, I am 100% Linux at work (7000+ employees, massive institutional bureaucracy) and at home. YMMV

Well said.

As someone who has been using Linux since 1999, it annoys me when people who consider themselves to be somehow "ahead of the pack," post crud like this.

Have you tried any other distros besides Fedora 7, its like ditching cars after you have only tried a ford. I would not give up on linux until I had tried a few distros, at least.

Windows is easier in this regard only because most of the time you purchase a box that has windows already installed. Hence all the work is done for you.

Try building a box from pieces some time, and installing windows. You won't find it to be any easier than a latter-day linux install.

Wait, wasn't fedora 7 released officially May 24...that wasn't six months ago, and if fedora 7 was indeed run starting six months ago, that would have been a test 2 or 3 release, and counting on a test release for a production environment doesn't make much sense.

Cyberman, with your issue you're drawing attention away from the issues the OP posted about which basically means you hijacked his thread. It's rude. I've asked for your and related posts to be moved to a new thread where you can rant at will.

FUP posters: respect your fellow LQ members and please wait until the posts are pruned (if you want to reply to Cyberman's rant, that is).

Thanks in advance.

Thanks for all the replies. In retrospect I do not care if this is moved back to Fedora Thread.

My primary reasoning for the post (as stated) was a reference. It was a itemization of the functional losses with my transition to Linux, under the bundling of the Fedora OSS suite of packages. The statement:
is only valid under the context that those packages are not portions and bunded (in their specific versions)into the distro we call Fedora.


Some of thehe mention of tools like crossover, I agree, are not directly related to the Fedora project, but was the best tool I found after getting Wine (Fedora package) to work with Micosoft Outlook, and found it lacking. Codeweavers has fixed a few bugs that were helpful. True OSS products like Evolution to provide that funtional equivalent are completely unstable as I have discussed with the SuSE Evolution team as a separate forum.

pixellany wrote:
This is fine for your application base required to work in your environment. But I have a company who choose to work with Avaya phone system. That software is Windows only. Codeweavers and Wine teams know of it and know that it will take major C programing to get it to run in a Linux Distro. AKA.. phone is kinda important theirfore I have lost functionality. The tread was to note that catch for a corporate user looking to move to Linux, not to make a blanket statement about linux in the corp world. I ran suse for 2years as my system till I hit a bug with Lotus Notes client mucking with data, which forced me back to XP. Now that we are being pushed to use VOIP solutions and eliminate phones off our desks, I have hit a new wall with Linux that at this time I can not overcome (unless their is a C coder out their willing to help me get IP Softphone TAPI interfaces built within WINE as noted on the WINE forum).


AceofSpades19
Yes. Fedora6 was my first rebuild of laptop. Issues with Video and wireless (hardware bug related on T41) so I moved to Fedora7 which fixed the immediate wireless bug, and video. Then had to move to T43(long story of corp politics) which broke my video. Tried SuSE desktop which was fine but did not fix the other primary issues. The were note Distro bugs but as noted "proprietary protocol" issues such as .NET 2.0, Trilogy DB engine, and VOIP via Avaya working under GNU Linux.

Cyberman
Amen... see above.
I agree. Had I known that I would have lost video functionality which may have allowed me to bide more time with the other issues and keep my productivity high, I may have made the seemingly insane request to delay my system being upgraded. The hardware was not linux friendly and so would impact my selection. If it were a roleout then you settle on a hardware platform and Linux is better, hands down, install to admin. BUT what you said is right, it has a bit(as even windows has issues also) more of a difficult time selecting a valid unit as a base.



Summery:
1) This post is for reference. If someone knows how to get the above listed issues to work under any distro, then please post so I can replicate and prepare to move back to Linux.
2) I hope that their are enough people wanting to do migrations to Linux from Windows but have the above issues, that a quorum can be reached and the community can find resolution.
3) I post this so that those who are working in an IT environment similar to mine and thinking about Linux on their desktop/laptop will be informed, and when they make the migration see what the community, with its current resources and software, can and can not offer. Example: If they have Avaya phone system, then they MUST ask if their company has or will soon be having their SIP gateway installed. If not then H323 gateway will not work.

PS: Total side note... I just have to say that Linux definantly rocks in one MAJOR aspect. I mentioned above that I moved from Fedora 6 to Fedora 7 Test2, 3, etc.... and then moved from T41 NVidia PIV Single core to totally diff architecture T43 Intel Video system and not once did I have to worry about user settings etc. No reload of the hardware, no HAL changes etc. That was a major time-saver when you could rebuild your desktop system with a new platform and be productive again in 1/2 day. I have been installing for two weeks all the tools I need to get back to the level of functionality I need in the Windows world