This question is the one that seems to jump into my head whenever I try and do anything.

I have spent quite sometime digging round this forum. I went out and pissed 20 pounds against the wall on a book that is "alledgedly" for dummies like me. And yes at the moment I appreciate that I am classified as a just another crappy windows drone.

All I want to do to start with is to try and do a few things that even the contents of my nose can do with windows. I don't think that it's such a big "want"!

I also want to be able to get away from windows. Again, not such a big "want".

So what would I like to do eh?

I would like to be able to listen to a cd. I would like to be able to surf the net and look at a few sites that amuse me e.g.
www.theregister.co.uk
www.therockalltimes.co.uk
www.theonion.com etc etc

Mainly, I would like to be able to get away from that good old boy billy "g" and his satans' software.

So why can't I eh?

So far, I have tried
(a) the red hat 7.0 that came with the "dummies" book. So I put it in the drive, and as well as being very F*****g slow to install, decides to give me a load of shit error messages. So, I thinks to myself i'll try that
(b) SuSE8.0 personal that a friend of mine has lent me. I put the disc(s) in as prompted, and yes, brilliant, it's installed but it decides that it doesn't like the onboard sound chip (intel i810 AC 97) and my dsl modem (speedtouch usb). I manage to convince my brother (IT grad and general linux nut) to help me and configure the modem. It only took him 4 hours but he got there. So ok thinks me, from what i've managed to glean from the net/SuSE manuals/etc I should be able to manage the sound problem. Ok I manage to find the info at suse, and try and do that but no it just manages to screw the installation that I had and cause me to have to re-install the windows that ran ok in the first place, so i can have yet another go, oh plus surf etc to try and find some sort of coherent guidance. After a while, I come to the conclusion, that maybe I should try mandrake since sources "In the know" seem to suggest that that is the easiest distro for "know nothings" like me. So
(c) mandrake 8.2 is downloaded, iso's burned etc etc, in go the discs, follow various prompts, read the install instruction as they come up yes all seems well. Maybe I should have tried this in the first place. Reboot. oh goody, there's the mandrake, oh, it doesn't like the modem. Not the end of the world i'll go back to windows and check out the advice. WRONG! the mandrake has decided to overwrite the windows boot record. Here we f*****g go again, re-install windows etc etc again.

To summarise, I have eventually managed to get the mandrake/xp dual boot going but I still can't get the dsl like up and running under mandrake, I still cant listen to an audio cd (but i seem to be able to use data cd's cos i managed to get the speedtouch rpm into the system but because even so called "easy" distributions expect phd level quantum physics it still won't run the modem).

So why is linux such a pile of dog shit unless you are an IT hobbyist/professional???.


END OF RANT END OF RANT END OF RANT END OF RANT


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

The bastard. Not again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edit 2 -
Right, now i have calmed down (prozac/alcohol/mellow music)

Could anyone tell me if there is a linux chatroom please?

Not necessary, our sewer_monkey is a physocologist and a biologist to be. one of my friend graduated with Civil Engineering but with extreme good experience of linux. Look, who is taking shit here? Just take your time to learn, good luck!

I can assure you, the earlier rant was not for the lack of trying, I have spent nearly a month (at least 2 hours a day) trying to get enough info to make sense of this linux thing, and after 3 different distro's (supposedly easy ones at that) and umpteen re-installs, reconfigurations, etc etc the just keep at it advice/suggestions are starting to wear a little thin and frustration/stress gets to you a bit!

ta for the reply though

Lets watch the language bud. Its ok to rant, but your title thread looks like a trolls thread.

Yeah, cosmic!

If you can't do it - forget about it. As easy as that - no need to get upset; it's only a stupid box with some circuits in it.

Yes crashmeister, you are right there, it's just a little frustrating that even though i've spent a fair it of time digging around to try and ascertain what seems to be the best distro for a newbie', I have come to understand that while there are some seriously knowledgeable people hereabouts, converting that knowledge into plain language doesn't come easily in the linux world.

I am a child of the Thatcher years (sorry, a very British phrase) suffice to say, frustration comes easy when instant results are few and far between. And despite the vast and excellent array of assistance available, a life on the road in a 44 tonne truck/semi doesn't exactly prepare one for linux. Also, right now, it seems that no amount of info/dictionaries/manuals etc are in plain enough English/whatever for me to be able to Sus this linux thing - perhaps i'm just stupid, but as i'm also stubborn, I might let it stress me out, but I won't let it beat me!

John

Brazil I note. Good luck 4 tomorrows match.

I have a degree in "Francophone Studies" - read sociolinguistics of French speaking Louisiana. A friend of mine got me hooked on Linux. Believe me the two seem worlds apart. This stuff just doesn't come easy to me.

Yes playing a CD and getting online - everything takes me countless hours. Just last night I stayed up till 4 just trying to install xv. I really don't even need it. I found another program that would get the job done. But I just couldn't let it go.

I spend alot more time in not understanding than I do understanding on this thing. But when you finally get it to work, and you know why and how, and could do it again - it's just a great feeling. I guess I'd have to admit that I actually kind of like when something doesn't work on my machine. Gives you and excuse to figure it out. Anyway...

I'm quite the newbie on Linux too, but have you considered buying or aquiring in some way a sound card that is KNOWN to work w/ Linux? Then just configure that in SUSE. Forget about your onboard sound. I got my Soundblaster Live for $35 US dollars and it works far better than my VIA onboard sound. I can't help your w/ your DSL problem but try posting more detailed descriptions of your errors. Something like: I downloaded this rpm for the modem, ran this command as root, got this resulting message and now how the hell do I configure it? The more detail, the better on this board. Also, have you looked for a LUG (Linux Users Group) nearby where you live? There just might be a Linux guy that lives close to you that will help you for beerjavascript:smilie('')
Newbie Good luck and stay stubborn!

I have to agree,there were lots of times I just got frustrated and went back to windows.I been using linux straight for about 6 months and that was after months and months of reading,posting and learning.I don't think theres anyone that starts to fully understand linux in just a month.I hardly consider myself an IT pro/hobbyist,just an average joe that had the motivation and time to concentrate on learning linux.Just give it more time and eventually the knowledge for it will start to sink in and when things start going your way,you'll definately start to love linux more.

i'm thatcher generation.. i rock. Also i never found linux particulary frsutrating, when i started out i didn't know what i was doing and i messed up lot of things, but i seldom got annoyed.

maybe it's that brighton air. or worthing or wherever. much nicer down the road in east sussex. except hastings, but everyone knows that.

It might stress me, but it won't beat me
It might stress me, but it won't beat me
It might stress me, but it won't beat me
etc etc etc.........

The main thing that I don't follow, is that if some people in the linux world seriously want it to compete with windows, why doesn't someone release a distro that starts out as just a "windows replacement" but within the distro have the various elements required to be able to learn linux as well.

For example, in between popping back to see if some of you reckon that my initial frustrated rant was valid, I have been once again trying to understand the various bits of included "documentation" with the mandrake 8.2 download i.e. the mandrake bits and the HOWTO's.

It might seem to be straight forward to people who have had long term involvement but in my current outsider position, it comes across as total gibberish.

Yes, I also appreciate that various differing applications have been developed by different groups in varying locations, at various times.

Even I as the newcomer understand and appreciate this. But the total lack of coordination will also always guarantee to leave friend gates and co laughing all the way to the bank.

I am a great believer in trade unions, and the analogy of "united we stand, devided we fall."

From my section of the fence, the devided bit is very in evidence.

And just for info, baxs' comment about my sound device impotence, my onboard device is the intel i810 series 82810BA/BAM AC97 which has support in the 2.4.18 kernel/version/whatever you would call it (thats as far as I can sus out anyway) i have yet to work out the where/how of the mandrake 8.2 and then if I manage to confirm/deny that, I then have to learn some scripting stuff to make it work.

See what I mean in the earlier post. Lack of coordination. Linux might have all the choice but gates has all the $£$£$£$£$ etc. I don't care at the moment whether I use kscd/xmms/whatever I just want to be able to listen to my cd's.

well the "windows replacement"s would be lindows and lycoris/redmond. both pretty nasty experiences in most peoples opinion. but fundamentally linux as a whole does not say "Yeah! We're not windows!!" it says "Yeah!! We're US!" ... erm.. kinda. most of the gibberish is simply from a windows established rut. the conventions that linux follows in general have been around longer than windows, and are not far from the mess that was MS-DOS.

yes linux, as a modular operating system does have an amount of difficulty in allowing a simple user to see the overall picture, but then if you paint a picture you're then less free to interpret it. if a picture paints a thousand words, a picture also destroys a thousand thoughts.

Linux generally is written by it's target audience. people write nix software because they want it themselves. unlike a lame M$ think tank that decideds what people should want.

but anyway, i still rock. as does linux.

oh, and it's divided, not devided

I bought connectiva - didn't work for me;not enough of a manual.Then i bought Suse for the manuals. I don't care what anybody says but the Suse manuals that came with 7.3 are first rate for getting aquainted with linux.Use debian now and tried to get a plotter running going google and here and,and,and.Finally looked at the manuals and got it to work.Most problems with setup exist only because people too cheap to get some info (buy a box set with books or books or whatever).Thats ok - but i personally value my private time too much to screw around with some stuff i could have read up for 50 bucks.

They gonna kick their ass tomorrow 3:1