After a month of testing I say *Linux Sucks!!!*

Here is my story.
I tried the following distros:

Mandrake 10.1 Official
Fedora Core 3
Fedora Core 4
SuSE 9.1 Personal
Ark Linux
Red Hat 9
Linspire
Knoppix
Xandros

with
Intel P4 1.6 (Williamette)
256 MB DDR 266Mhz RAM
ATI Radeon 9200SE
Biostar P4TGV-R v7.x Motherboard

Here is what I got

Mandrake 10.1:
1. Good Installation.
2. Console mode sucks.
3. Difficult to install ATI Drivers.
4. Even after installing drivers could get rid of Mesa.
5. Couldn't use BT Dongle easily.
6. Sound config problems.
7. Had to download 100s of MBs of programs just to satisfy dependencies.

Hardware Support: 5 out of 100
Software Installation: 18 out of 100
Ease Of Use: 39 out of 100
Updating: 13 out of 100
Stability: 79 out of 100
Reliability: 2 out of 100

Fedora Core 3:
1. Very good Installation.
2. As soon as I asked linux to boot. My PC restarted for no reason at Uncompressing Linux. Only once in twenty times could I proceed and after using some random arrow keys while booting.
3. Difficult to install ATI Drivers.
4. Even after installing drivers could get rid of Mesa.
5. No MP3 Support.
6. Loads of Software but no good package management software.
7. Too many problems configuring Graphics Card.

Hardware Support: 16 out of 100
Software Installation: 15 out of 100
Ease Of Use: 34 out of 100
Updating: 17 out of 100
Stability: 86 out of 100
Reliability: 5 out of 100

Fedora Core 4:
1. Installation as usual was a Breeze.
2 Couldn't just boot into it. All I got was a Call Trace error. Changing to Onboard 845 Intel Graphics didn't help. No way I could proceed. Had to quit testing FC4 here.
3. No result.

SuSE 9.1 Personal:
1. Best Installation.
2. Couldn't boot into it. Gave error messages like Couldn't enter runlevel 5 respawning for 5 minutes. Nothing Happens after that. Keep getting the same messages again and again.
3. But from previous experiences on another PC this is the best Distro and also the easiest one to use.
4. But loses in the shootout as no result.

Ark Linux:
1. Installation sucks. It asks for the whole hard disk. There is another option but it was disabled. As I don't want to risk other OSs on HD I didn't proceed.
2. Ran it in VM and found that it was an OK distro.
3. But as couldn't run it in real environment it gets a zero.

RedHat 9:
1. Installation was good.
2. Had a good experience with it.
3 No MP3 support. Could get OpenGL support. No BT drivers.
4. Overall like a prison.

Hardware Support: 25 out of 100
Software Installation: 15 out of 100
Ease Of Use: 38 out of 100
Updating: 11 out of 100
Stability: 77 out of 100
Reliability: 13 out of 100

Linspire:
1. Had its Live CD. Tried booting multiple times but it took 1hr 14 mins to boot. CPU temp rose to 48 degree C. It sucked.

Knoppix:
1. Very good LiveCD.
2. Ran it without HD and found it very useful.
3. Again not much to write home about as no support for ATI.
4. Configuration difficult.

Hardware Support: 54 out of 100
Software Installation: 2 out of 100
Ease Of Use: 45 out of 100
Updating: 0 out of 100
Stability: 50 out of 100
Reliability: 95 out of 100

Xandros:
1. Just Couldn't boot. Hardware problem.

Windows XP Pro:
1. Average Installation. 3 reboots. Not too inituative.
2. Fast bootup.
3. A good wizard starts and asks to set up Users.
4. All Hardware detected and Installed automatically.
5 WebCam detected and a wizard welcomes me and asks for CD.
6. No problem with any Hardware. Connection to Net was a breeze.
7. Installation and removal of software was all as easy as a pie and I never had to open CMD.

Hardware Support: 99 out of 100
Software Installation: 100 out of 100
Ease Of Use: 93 out of 100
Updating: 100 out of 100
Stability: 85 out of 100
Reliability: 90 out of 100

Here is the Winner: Windows XP Pro

Bought a Winxp copy today.
Am Satisfied and I am writing this from Windows.
I searched all the forums and readmes for help.
But couldn't do anything.
Now I am happy playing GTA San Andreas at 36 FPS. TuxRacer gave me 2 FPS.


All Anti Windows people believe that Linux is free and hence is the best.
Linux is free because no one will use it even if one gets it a 1$. MS knows that Windows is a quality product and hence deserves a price. Look at the scores. This is the result of testing the OSs past one month.
Believe me. Just give Windows a try in Virtual Machine and you will love it.
It has support for all Hardware as well as software and it simply Beats the Sucking Console in Linux.

All those who don't want to buy Windows can basically live with the fact that they don't want to buy it
You know, Rules are made so that they can be Broken.

Who said that GNU/Linux is easy when you don't try?
Honesly, how much time did you spend whit each of these distros you are talking about?
Insted of trying about 10 distros, pick one, stick to it and LEARN it.
I tried Fc3 for about a month myself, and I expected everything to run "out of the box".
Yes, I was disepointed, but no, I did not give up.
I bought a book: "Slackware - The Essentials"
Now I'm LOVING Linux, and running VL and Slackware.

Don't make the other newbies here quit Linux by posting that kind of "bull".

I don't know for what reason I still love linux and I am going to try Mandrake 9.1 now.

I spent 8 days with linux and 15 hours each day. Sometimes 30 Hours at stretch. I didn't sleep for two days .

But I couldn't help it. Nothing seems to work. This post was just for Linux newbies who are shifting to Linux just because it is being talked about. This will tell them what awaits them and how unpredictable results can be.

As for spending time with Linux, I sorted out all the problems except ATI one and also Kernel 2.6.10 and above do not allow me to boot into Linux.
For that I have to disable Lan, Audio, USB, Bios Shadowing, Caching and a whole lot of functions. Only then it boots but then is there anything left after disbaling all these functions.

Usually people from India love linux because they are not wealthy and
rather willing to learn.

Man, you need some patience and determination to get used to Linux. I spent weeks trying to learn the basics of Linux alone with no help, stuck to it although I've been dual booting for a couple of months, and reached a point where I removed Windows because I got used to Linux so much.

Let me tell you a couple of things about Linux:

Getting MP3 support for Red Hat and Fedora is easy as pie. If you're using XMMS and searched google for a plugin, you'll get it instantly.

Software installation? No problem. Using any package managing software like Yum/Yum Extender or Apt/Synaptic makes life good. Compiling from source? Easy, just follow the readme file supplied with the archive you download. And it almost always the same steps you have to follow. And you said FC3 has no good package management software. One command in the terminal: "$ yum install yumex", voila: you have a graphical interface for yum, a great package management program that you don't seem to have noticed.

Finding software? Really easy via Sourceforge.net, Yum Extender or Synaptic.

Hardware support? I never had any problems with hardware support. And it's possible to get almost anything to work. Really.

Ease of use? Desktop environments like Gnome or KDE are easy to use. Period.

Updating? Much better than Windows will EVER be.

Stability? My system never crashed in 10 months of constant Linux usage. Maybe some program would hang once in a while, but I never needed to do a hard reset. Other than the Windows crashing frequency of once every day or 2 (not exaggerating here).

Reliability? There's nothing I haven't been able to do on Linux that Windows could do. Yes, even playing decent games (e.g. Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2)

Let me guess, you probably didn't have anyone to teach you how to use Linux? Learning it alone isn't easy, but once you get over it by searching and experimenting you won't go back. Personally I'm not installing Windows here ever again.

-A

Hello,

Usually people from India love linux because they are not wealthy and rather willing to learn.

It isn't exactly true. I think People from India love linux because they want to learn, saying that "because they are not wealthy" isn't true.


jagjitnatt,
You have tried a lot of distros. but gave insufficient time (approx 150 hours). I am using linux from 1 year and had tried mandrake 9 & 10.1 , ubuntu, knoppix, suse 9.1, Red hat 9, elx, Fedora 3 and some others too. with each distro I faced some problems. some distro lacks softwares which i want, some distro don't support my sound card etc..

But there is a solution for each problem and I found that. What we need is searching on net, reading manuals and will to do so. Its what I think.

Thanks,
Kirtimaan.

is it worse to sign up to a linux site just to slag it off, or to fall into the trap that that guy sets for you...

people, get over it, he's a troll who can't even figure out fedora... move on.

All those who don't want to buy Windows can get a pirated version of it.

I'd rather not break the law to use a computer nor do I want to spend thousands of dollars for software. I will do these things if I HAVE to but I don't have to do I? There are alternatives.

If you're happy with Windows, good for you. Stick with it. Linux does not suck and I'm sure quite a few people on this very website will back me on that opinion. If your Linux install isn't working the way you'd like it to, you CAN fix it or change it. Windows does not allow you this option. At least not legally or without charging you more money for something that should have been included with the OS you paid too much money for. Just my 2 cents here...

Originally posted by acid_kewpie is it worse to sign up to a linux site just to slag it off, or to fall into the trap that that guy sets for you... people, get over it, he's a troll who can't even figure out fedora... move on.

Chris,

Sometimes you're just such a cynic Keep up the good work mate, you're probably spot on (again! )

regards

John

Originally posted by jagjitnatt This post was just for Linux newbies who are shifting to Linux just because it is being talked about. This will tell them what awaits them and how unpredictable results can be.

All of my results have been very predictable: it either worked out of the box or it didn't and I had to search/ask for an answer.

You need to try something like Ubuntu. Also you're unlucky because i never had problems with the distros you had
I wish you good luck and keep loving Linux

HE IS RIGHT !!!

Win XP or 2000 Pro are better for what they are meant to be. They are cheaper provided you will loose lesser time at the very beginning and they DO NOT COST much. You have also to consider Win XP Home which is nearly costless.
However, compared to the cost of Windows Server and the whole thing getting harder to configure and hardware with less support, Linux will be better there, except when some Windows only software is invlolved (there loosing time to make it run on Wine or on another windows server linked to the Linuw server will favor Windows again).

You have to consider some things about Win 2000 pro/XP Pro/Home : MS limits their power that you can manage (unlawfully) to get back and use.

Win XP Home is by license forbidden to be used in networks of more than 10. Read your klicense, it is there, even on Windows 95 ! I think that some of those Win9x/ME/XP Home I don't rememeber had also a license about 5 only.
Just think about those companies that use Home on laptops that can be easily attacked by MS.
Then Windows 2000 Pro and XP have Raid 1 and 5 implemented from the very beginning but deactivated. They have Raid 0 standard.
Everybody can reactivate that software raid 1 and 5 in a breeze, but then, stay away from Windows upgrade, and it's still considered very illegal and written in the license agreement (not allowed to modify the software and keep it as is).
That Raid feature makes the pro version with Win32 ported server software like Apache or MySQL or other a brilliant contender against any other Server solution, at the cheapest price possible, including time consuming, so not cheaper Linux.

My preference for Linux is Mandrake, for Desktop and some basic server in a breeze, and Slackware for Server solution. XP pro against Mandrake will win because of some kernel/boot problems especially regarding software Raid and better Windows support for some CAD and professional software.

ack! he doesn't need to try anything, he's just winding you lot up.

Originally posted by jagjitnatt Windows XP Pro: 1. Average Installation. 3 reboots. Not too inituative. 2. Fast bootup. 3. A good wizard starts and asks to set up Users. 4. All Hardware detected and Installed automatically. 5 WebCam detected and a wizard welcomes me and asks for CD. 6. No problem with any Hardware. Connection to Net was a breeze. 7. Installation and removal of software was all as easy as a pie and I never had to open CMD. Hardware Support: 99 out of 100 Software Installation: 100 out of 100 Ease Of Use: 93 out of 100 Updating: 100 out of 100 Stability: 85 out of 100 Reliability: 90 out of 100

Hahahahaha, you know nothing. I'll just demolish your first point and leave it at that.

Install - first reboot
Video driver - second reboot
Audio, webcam, scanner, printer and some devices i'm forgetting - > 4 reboots
Windows update - omg I only have ten fingers.
Directx - ok, you're already at maximum stupidity

Try and install more then one driver for fun and learn to never do it again (unless you like random surprises).


edit. Oh and: Linux rocks! (also every piece of software written for it)

Well, I got to say this:

I got very tired of Windows crashing the whole time and hence why I decided to switch to Linux.

How successful you are with Linux depends upon how you go about it.

The first thing I did was to ask other Linux users which distro's were best for a newbie. This resulted in Debian and Ubuntu being recommended.

I was told that Debian is a little bit more challenging than Ubuntu, so I decided to go with Debian, as I like a little bit of a challange, (I have a brain so I may aswell use the darn thing).

I am reasonbly satisfied so far with Debian. Its not all that hard, and as I learn each application, I find I also learn how the technologies that we deal with day to day work.

For instance today I solved a problem with burning Audio CD's and thus I also learnt a lot about how the entire process works, which led me to understand why sometimes under windows I would burn a CD and every now and then one song on a CD would only play half way. NOW I KNOW WHY!

Linux does take a little more patience than Windows for you to learn it, sure, however you will not only be enlightened, but you will have acheived something, and thats satisfying in itself.

WIndows is for the braindead, and this is clearly demonstrated by the amount of Windows users who have spyware, viruses, trojans and the list goes on...

Thank you for reading.