I'd like to 2nd that motion.

Why are we responding to this guy? You dont get anywhere in life if you dont try (believe me, im very lazy), and he'll be mature enough one day to realize that.

And if he wants everything done for him, why would you recommend he stays w/ Linux, he is the perfect candidate for Windows.


Thos MS links are funny. They give you detailed instructions on how to remove that evil Linux from your system, but when it says "installing Linux AND Windows" , see 3rd party documentation, I love that.

I have two computers that have video cards with nVidia chipsets that are running Linux. On both computers the Red Hat Linux installation program automatically identified what videocard chipset it had and installed a driver for me. The old computer has an STB AGP card that uses the nVidia Riva 128 chipset with 4 Mb. The newer computer uses a Verto AGP card that uses the nVidia Gforce2 MX 400 chipset with 64 Mb. At one point on the newer computer I switched video cards, rebooted and Red Hat Linux 9 automatically noticed the change and changed drivers for me.

Mandake is a good easy to install distro but if it is not working properly, I would suggest trying Red Hat SuSE instead. For me, Windows ME recently went bad and I spent two days trying to get the Win 2000 upgrade disk to install properly. I finally succeded, but but Windows and Linux can both sometimes be difficult.

Hahahaha its nice to see a thread like this evolve to something completely new... i just can say to jabbermacy: Give it up! Quit, be a whimp. Use windows. Better yet: use a pencil and a piece of paper!
It's nothing personal, but if everyone would learn linux and everyone became an expert in computers, the guys on the helpdesk, heck, even the guys from this forum would NOT be happy: that way a lot of people would become jobless....

So jabbermacy: you're right..... Give it up! Don't waste your time learning something new... Don't take the challenge. stay safe at the side of the road while the world runs you by....
Or maybe: In a happy future we will all run linux (or something alike) and you missed out on the oppertunity to be one of the hapy people who tried it....

Whatever, choice is up to you, but my piece of advice (as if you were interested) is don't give up. The feeling of overcoming all these small troubles is worth it.

greets from a happy linux-newbie......

That is actually somewhat of an advantage in this case!!! I.e. you didn't acquire many of the 'bad habits' of doing things and especially conceptualising things in the windows way.

Why do people quit when they get frustrated?

My first experience with linux was not easy, but are the good things in life easy?

Mandrake didn't like my old Nvidia TNT2 m64, either. After getting with a friend that knows Redhat 8 we found a solution. I am using a geforce driver. it works.

too bad. If you get frustrated and quit. Like giving large amounts of money to Emperor Gates? I don't. Run away. Hide. Do what you do best.

Just remember, When you come back (and you will) and you get into trouble just come here for help. These people are the best. And they will forget your comments in a month or so.

nothing worth doing is easy. If it was, we would all be rich, healthy and happy!

well, theres just some people who are plain LAZY....

all of the linux users here has had different problems specially if their just starting... but they are patient enough to learn and fix their mistakes....

it's a defense m* for an ego. by blaming something else, in this case linux, instead of admitting ones own short comings it feels safer.

those that try harder and more often will always fail more than others.

they will also WIN more often than others.

to be a winner you will need to fail more than others.

it's a number game in life.


don't be such a bitch ass pussy. put that linux cd back in the cd drive and get the damn driver to work.

I wish more people had DiZASTiX's tenacity for solving a problem(including me).

Id just like to say that I am running Windows XP on my main system and RedHat on my wireless access point(ask me about it). I am quite happy with both of them. XP works very well.

Why is it always assumed that everyone wants to know everything about their computer and OS? I agree that this statement is true, but to try to use it as an excuse to continue using Linux? I see this at least once in every post where someone vents frustration about Linux. For some it is a good reason, for others... it isn't. Some people would just like it to work without spending countless hours configuring and reading redundant man pages for those two sentences that MAY actually help.

I wish the poster the best of luck. I'm sure many people here know how he feels, I know I do. I've wiped Linux from my system several times, however, I always kept watching the forums and distros to see how it's progressing and I always came back to try again. Linux isn't for everyone, isn't even close to being ready for many people. For others, it's everything they need, for some, they spend time trying to convince themselves it's everything they need by telling others how great it is.

I tried my first Linux distro almost 5 years ago.. I hated it, even though I hated it, I saw lots of potential in it. For those of you that tried Linux several years ago, you may know what I'm talking about.. hardware support was practically non-existant, you had to configure just about everything. Software installation sucked, if you did manage to get something installed without something else breaking because you had to update a lib, good luck finding where it installed to. Damn it was archaic.. wait, nothings really changed there, still archaic as all hell.

Linux has come a LONG way since then.. except for software installation. Still, for many, it can't replace Windows. Bash Windows all you want, hell, you'll gets lots of Windows users who agree with you. Still, for most, it can do and do easily what Linux can't do anywhere nearly as easily, and if you don't set it up right or choose the right app from the hundred that all do about the same thing, it won't do it as well either.

I fall into that group for the most part. I have found some apps in Linux I really like, some better than I do the Windows counterparts, others I may like but can't figure out where they installed to and can't remember the names to try to find them. For the most part, I honestly believe Linux is a superior OS... though with subpar software.. which for many is more important than the OS. Not many people want to go through the truoble of trying to find a replacement of their Windows software, install it, and then try to convince themselves it's as good. As I said though, sometimes it is as good or better, just takes a little time to adjust, to learn how to do things different, but it's not always as good. Not everyone believes that everything remotely related to Windows is bad and everything about Linux is good. Personally I think they both have some very strong points and some very weak ones, I'm not going to try to live an irrational delusion simply because I hate Microsoft.

Damn, sorry about the rant, just start typing and everything starts flowing out.

Anyway, to the poster and anyone else who is considering quitting. Linux may not be for you and/or you may not be for Linux...yet. I would recommend not giving up entirely. Linux is a great OS, it does take some work but no one says you have to do it all right away. Learn it at your own pace. Dual boot and play around with it sometimes. You don't have to allocate lots of space to it and with hard drives today, sparing a few gigs is hardly noticable.

I spend probably less than 5% of my total computer time in Linux. I play games in Windows and do all my real work in it. When I get ambitious or I just want to do nothing in particular, I boot into Linux, and I learn something almost every time. The problem is remembering what I did. Few things are as rewarding as finally getting one of those many problems solved, and few things are as irritating as forgetting what you just did... then hosing your system because you installed something and it upgraded some libs and don't know how to fix it or tried to fix something else with drastically less success. At which point you fix it the windows way.. reinstall and hope you can fumble your way through those problems again.

The biggest mistakes anyone new to Linux could make.. expecting it to be exactly like Windows, and expecting it to be perfect..and easy.

Either way, best of Luck and if you decide to try again, Linux and the community will still be here for you.

When I bought a computer, I wanted it to work and I wish that the included OS (Windows 98SE) would just work. I read endless pages whthout success.

I found lots of info about this OS called Linux in my investigations, though. I installed, the man pages do have the 2 sentances I need to configure.

Now I get bored because it just sits here working it's little cpu off without fail. When I get tired of blowing my pipes, I type stupid replies to Linux vs Windows threads.

I must be built backwards. My nose runs and my feet smell....

Linux isnt trying to be a Windows replacement. It is a niche OS in the sense that it doesnt try to do everything for everyone w/o any human intervention. People who believe that linux is being made "for them" and not for servers, workstations, etc, is extremely stuck up and needs to get over themselves.

EVERYTHING DOESNT HAVE TO BE WINDOWS.

And everyone complains about software installation. You know why its harder? Because you get to compile your software by hand. MANY people would consider this an advantage, I consider it one.

"Build an OS that even fools can use, and only fools will want to use it."

Of course linux is trying to become easier, but it gets to the point that they wont sacrafice stability,security, and customizability just to appease some people who want a Computer to be a telelvision or toaster.


</rant>

I must admit, I am wondering about the 'joys' of Linux, but ain't ready to quit just yet...

I am very familiar with Windows - my installations of Windows 98SE are very stable (the only BSODs I've had have been when a CDROM gets ejected whilst running a programme from it). To be honest, though, to get windows like this, you need to give it the same attention as a Linux install. However, I have noticed several big differences, which I'll come back to in a bit.

My experience with Linux.
I have a spare old PC:
mainboard: ASUS SP97V
processor: 333MHz AMD K6-2
RAM: 64MB (72 pin SIMM)
HDD: 14GB IBM Deskstar

A while ago, I though I would learn Linux by installing a very basic distribution, i.e. command line, then build it up. i.e. add the HW drivers, add a GUI, add applications (OpenOffice, GIMP etc etc).
I installed TinyLinux - however, I was told, the kernal was too old, go for something newer. The only real basic installs seemed to be based on older versions. I also tried BasicLinux. That installed OK, but wouldn't boot - it got to the point where it would normally start to run the OS, but lock up.

So, I thought I would try a ready made distro.
RedHat8. Installed fine, ran OK ...ish, well, I wouldn't say ran, more like shuffled along slowly, admiring the view. But, it still did what it said on the tin, & give RedHat credit, it needs more resouces.
The I read that SuSE was supposed to be good for older HW & was aimed at the desktop. However, to get a distribution, without broadband, or say wget, results in RSI to the wrist. But I then got SuSE8.1 off of PCPlus cover DVD.
It seemed to install OK, bu tthen returned errors on the kernal and Yast, & on reboot, froze at the HW check.

After wasting several CDROMs copying the iso on different CD witers, all with the same result, and not finding the problem mentioned on the PCPlus forums, I guess SuSE wasn't for my PC.

I tried Mandrake 9.1. It installed OK, and appeared to run OK. But, some apllications, such as KWord, GIMP, etc wouldn't run. The application Window would briefly pop up but then dissappear. I friend suggested running "firstboot", but this seems to be a RedHat thing & I couldn't find any equivilent in Mandrake.

Then I read that Slackware was good for older PCs with less RAM.
So I got that. It seemed to install OK, I was familiar with the process as both Tiny & Basic use Slackeware as the base.
But, when it came to run the OS, the HDD grinds away & all that happens is I get rows of '99's ie.: 99 99 99 99 99 99 for about five or sixe lines, then PRESS ANY KEY TO REBOOT

A VectorLinux disc is sitting on my desk looking worried...

Back to Windows. This PC has had Windows 98SE and NT4 running just fine. OK, in both cases, I tweak the installations, but they install & run at the first attempt. Even when I got a new IBM, which had a a dodgy recovery CD (Windows 98 crashed every 15 - 20 minutes), it still installed OK, and I could run Norton's WinDoctor (which found 148 problems, 114 listed as "could cause your PC to crash" - it fixed them & Windows ran for about a week before the first BSOD). This was back in '99, & it's when I started to learn about the real workings of Windows.

So, todate, the only good experience I've had with Linux is with TinyLinux & RedHat. Unfortunately, Tiny was too basic for my level of experience (though I'm tempted to go back) and RedHat just couldn't handle such a low spec PC.

If it weren't for a stubborn streak (I wasted f ck knows how many CDs), Iwould have didtched Linux long ago.

Question:

Why is it that all the people who give up on Linux feel the need to tell all the Linux users that they are going back to Windows? I didn't feel the need to go to a Microsoft forum and say "Farewell suckers!".