What is Digg?151 Comments
- duest, on 10/12/2007, -7/+65Myth: The kernel can be unpacked in a microwave.
All it did was pop.
There were penguin guts everywhere.
I cried. - FunkyWitDaSysTm, on 10/12/2007, -19/+68another myth: linux is difficult to use
- akuaku, on 10/12/2007, -14/+46It's also a myth, that Linux is difficult to install.
Most distro's come with an installer, that is on an equal level as, or superior than the Debian Installer. Many Distros even have their installers in a Live-CD environment, which is far more convenient, than any other OS may offer in the future(Maybe Apple, but they have limited hardware to support; as for Microsoft, well I cant even plug my HD into on other PC with out complaining)
While the trend moves to Live-CD-Installs, because the installers can be programmed by application-programmers, which leads to easier and faster installers, the old fashioned installers (as the one from Debian) are superior to the windows-installer, because they work better and are more reliable than that: I had to reset more than 15 times during my windows-installation, because my Laptop-CD-Drive became unreliable after 10-15 minutes of reading.
In contrast to that, I can do an installation from a USB stick with most Linux-distros.
PS: Maybe in future we'll get some installers, that work under Windows or OSX, so that users would think, that they are only installing a Program, instead of having to change the Bios settings to boot from CD - babbling, on 10/12/2007, -7/+38Installing Ubuntu is far, far easier and faster than installing Windows XP or any other operating system.
In fact, I think installing Ubuntu is probably easier than operating most electronic devices or installing most programs. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+25Myth: When you use Linux you support Communism.
Damn, if Communism give you this much freedom, sign me up.
- merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -7/+30These days, installing linux is at least as easy as installing windows.
Hell, I'd never touched linux in my life, and I managed to install redhat 5.1 back when it had a really ugly installer -- better part of a decade ago. I bought a boxed copy for $40, and read the manual a couple times. - merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -3/+23Windows has dependancy issues too. For example, try to run a VB6 app without the runtime installed. All you get is a dialog declaring that vbrun600.dll is missing.
Tell me what about that is intuitive or easy to use?
If windows had a package manager (1) you wouldn't have to run through a different install process for every app (2) it would automatically fetch dependancies for you. Yes, having dependancy conflicts is a PITA. Windows, on the other hand, just starts ***** up if you install conflicting software.
The only reason we think windows is easy to use is we're used to the ways in which it ***** up. - Buelldozer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20I'd like to point out that "new last week hardware" isn't going to work on WINDOWS either. Heck, sometimes "new four years ago hardware" isn't going to work on Windows!
Here's a challenge for you. Install Windows XP to a new computer with SATA drives but no floppy drive.
No fair cheating and slip-streaming the SATA drivers onto the Win XP CD either since Joe Six Pack can't do that. - mooninite, on 10/12/2007, -4/+22User error is no excuse. Software Engineer? ... for what?
I plugged in a USB mouse and it was autodetected. Mouse wheel worked without configuration.
Where you using the 2.2 kernel with the original X or something? - EdLesMann, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15"I'd like to point out that "new last week hardware" isn't going to work on WINDOWS either. Heck, sometimes "new four years ago hardware" isn't going to work on Windows!"
How True!
My friend just bought a Gateway Laptop (64bit AMD dual core ) that the windows drivers for the network card are generic drivers that wont get 100MB connection. It only does 10MB Full at the most. We called up Gateway and they told us that the laptop is too new and the makers of that network card dont have full support for windows 64bit XP. So we installed Debian and he now has his hardware working.
BTW: I still have a old 3dfx vid card that XP cant get above 16bit 800x600 resolution on. Debian runs full res at 1024x768 (the cards native setting). - Buelldozer, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18"What's the point though, when Windows does everything without any compatibility issues?"
BWUA HA HA HA HA!!! Seriously, those are some good drugs you're on!
Just today I tried to install a program called SASSI to a W2K3 server running Terminal Services and Citrix Presentation Server 4.
I started the install and got this nice little message "Installation Error: runtime support for Microsoft Visual FoxPro not found.". It took me over an hour to figure out what files I needed to copy into the system directory just so that this program would INSTALL.
That's real awesome compability.
Oh, oh, I know. Let's talk about printer drivers and video drivers that can leave every operating system that Microsoft has ever built in an un-bootable state!
How about Windows 2000 server has SERIOUS SMB signing issues when used against Windows XP Pro? Is it compatibility when two products from the same company can't network together without major issues?
Wait wait, don't leave me just yet...How about the compatiblity problems of opening old versions of Office documents with a newer version?
Face the truth, Microsoft "compatability" is meaningless and to use it against Linux just tells me that you don't play on a high enough level to understand what is really going on.
Besides, I can't remember the last time I had to "compile my own installer" under Kubuntu. Almost everything I want is a "sudo apt-get install xxxxx" away. Even if you DO have to "compile your own installers" how difficult is exactly for you to type in make / make install ??? - cr3ative, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17It's all very well saying that, but your average desktop user isn't used to having to read anything to make stuff work.
That's just my two cents. Posted from ubuntu, so I'm fairly impartial. - Dracker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Just yesterday I installed Services for UNIX on my Windows XP desktop.
The installer blue screened. Irony? - flake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13I've observed that most people don't read instructions for anything *at* *all* In fact, the more complex the instructions, the less likely they are to be read.
Before there were automatic time setting clocks, all you saw was blinking 12:00. People don't read instructions. - Dracker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Linux is bad because it isn't Windows? I hope you'll learning to think outside the box and keep an open mind soon; you'll be in college before you know it and they are skills that really help a lot in life.
- merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16"but your average desktop user isn't used to having to read anything to make stuff work."
And yet every single piece of hardware (even non-computer hardware) and software on the shelf comes with a manual.
If a $3 egg timer comes with a manual, why wouldn't you read the manuals for a $2,000 computer? - Dracker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11@dshPls
Please bear with me, for I use Gentoo, arguably one of the hardest linux distros to install and set up, so these commands may be overly complicated.
"consider that I cant view any flash movies"
# emerge mozilla-firefox-bin netscape-flash
What's the problem?
"or play any new computer games"
# emerge wine
Not an ideal solution admittedly, but there are plenty of games supported natively or running through wine. I'm a console gamer myself, however, so I don't even use wine, just vmware. vmware-server is free, by the way.
"I know, I can use a ***** third tier OpenOffice style program"
OpenOffice, Abiword, KOffice are *great* apps. I have been frustrated many MANY more times by MS Office. Microsoft is even beginning to support ODF. It's great now (Don't even THINK of saying MS Office is better), just imagine what the future holds
"I use GIMP, another ***** wad of a program"
Photoshop runs in wine and vmware if you cannot stand to separate from your favorite application. Also, krita is an alternative to gimp that is making great progress, overtaking it in many regards. Both are a lot slimmer and faster than Photoshop, and even have a lot of features photoshop lacks.
"Linux is never on the bleeding edge of technology"
Look at reiser4. Look at ZFS. Look at NPTL. Look at GCC4. Look at XGL. Look at swsusp2. Look at init-ng. ........
"maybe that POS you bought at a yard sale will do good with it, but when you need to actually do work in a professional environment, it's a joke to use a opensource program"
If it runs well even on a POS, imagine how well it will run on a production server! DId you know that Digg is hosted on Debian Linux? - plncrzy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11>It wasn't enough like Windows.
Um, yeah... that's kinda the point.
If you like Windows, fine, but don't say Linux is inferior becasue it isn't "enough like Windows." - Buelldozer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13@robwistar,
I'll bet you $100 dollars that if you plug that Canon printer of yours into a Windows XP Pro box with every service pack and hotfix that it still won't work until you load the drivers for it and configure Windows to work with it.
So tell me, what's the difference?
Besides, what you are describing isn't a problem with LINUX exactly but a problem with a lack of support from the manufacturer, in this Canon. Call and bitch THEM out for not providing proper driver support for your Operating System. - moojuece, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14try adding this to your X config
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
I guess if you type really slow you can make it take a week - warmcat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11No they arguably are illegal. The concept is that if the resulting combination of the kernel binary module is a "dervied work" (see, eg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_work ) then the result must be licensed in a way that is compatible with the terms of all the parts. The kernel insists that its sources must be handed out to anyone with the binary that asks, that is not the case with a binary blob, so there is conflict.
nVidia drivers and so on were originally 'tolerated' on the basis that the nVidia driver code did not require to be combined with linux specifically, for example something largely the same could combine with the Windows kernel. There seems to have been a tightening of what is acceptable the last year or so and now the party line is that because nVidia do not themselves perform the combining action, they should not be attacked and must continue to be tolerated. - starquake, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11i prefer being part of sharing community to enlarge my ePenis then to use stuff that a certain company likes to keep to itself and shrink my Microsoft Wallet (TM)
- CircleFusion, on 10/12/2007, -12/+21I understand if you are a fan of Linux and want to support it, and I am definitely someone who is interested in Linux and I plan to learn to use desktop linux more in the future.
However, how can you guys completely ignore the many people who give examples of having difficulty setting up Linux? I've installed windows on countless machines, and I've installed Linux on about 10 machines, includ linux flavors such as Suse, Redhat, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Gentoo...and while I can say that the inital install was usually as easy as Windows (as long as I didn't have to enter screen refresh rates), actually making changes AFTER the initial install, such as installing certain software, setting up multimedia capability or upgrading packages, proved to be a pain in the ass in almost every instance.
Why? Because you have to find the repositories and figure out how to set them up beforerunning the GUI package manager and it doesn't take long until you run into your first dependancy issue, and when you look for instructions on how to setup X on linux flavor Y, you can only find confusing command-line instructions, or outdated instructions, that don't always work because of version differences or something is not installed on your system that makes it different than that of the document's author. After a while of googling, you then decide to go to the IRC rooms where you will be treated like a complete idiot (it is a requirement, evidently) until someone finally answers your question with a heavy amount of disgust and lecturing about how to google for answers (Why are those people even offering help is beyond me). But of course you can't complain because they are volunteers...
If you can handle verbal lashings from some egotistical linux expert, hours later, you may finally have a system that is functional in the way that you want. Then you dare not try to do anything else to the system...and the system goes stale as you become hesitant to do any upgrades for fear of having to repeat the process again.
Sure, you learn as you go and eventually start to pick up learn the best practices for learning linux (that won't result in people belittling you on IRC channels) and you learn the best resources for help and documentation...
--- B u t t h a t p r o c e s s i s v e r y p a i n f u l ---
So...
Do you just choose to ignore stories like this? Do you pass it off as "well, he is just an idiot, he doesn't count"? Does it matter that I've been using computers for 18 years and I have been a PC tech for 10 of those years? I started off learning at the command line in MS-DOS at age 13, so you can't just claim that I'm some idiot who thinks that the CD tray is a coffee cup holder.
How do you process this feedback and then still conclude that Linux is not difficult to configure for many newcomers? You have to be honest before any change can take place. And if you have the attitude of "if you don't like it..then don't use it"...then you must realize that you are completely sidestepping the issue. That is a copout of the argument.
Please, I really would like to understand the methods of this Linux madness, because it is really getting in the way of me becoming a fulltime Linux desktop user. - Tweekster, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10You are correct, then again they dont have the time to figure out windows either and that is why God made the geeky next door neighbor.
Most people are not gonna install a printer themselves in windows, why would they in linux. They will ask the kid next door.
and about the installing of linux, people dont install windows either, it comes preloaded, or if they need to upgrade, they have the kid next door do it. People simply dont do those tasks, they have someone else do it for them. Dont try to change the playing field, xyz is sooo hard in linux, yeah well its hard in windows and that doesnt prevent it from working because SOMEONE else will do it for the average user. - vectorprime, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Ummm, mature? Are we talking about the same slashdot?
And besides, it seems like the community's pretty receptive to calm, well argued dissent. Most of the pro-windows and/or anti-linux modded down comments seem to be in one of two forms.
Juvenile: "L1n|_|x sux!!!!111oneoneeleven" "Windows is bettar because Linux is for fagz" etc.
Untrue or unfair: "Linux is worse because it doesn't work exactly like windows" "You can't do anything in Linux without learning the command line" "Even though I had to manually install 7 drivers to get windows usable, Linux is worse because it didn't instantly recognize my printer after I installed it." etc.
I'm a long time Linux user, and I know as well as anyone that it still has issues (flash support springs painfully to mind). We're generally willing to talk about it, but we like our sacred cows, and if they need to be gored we'd at least like it done in a calm, civilized manner. - ajc30, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"I'd like to point out that 'new last week hardware' isn't going to work on WINDOWS either. Heck, sometimes 'new four years ago hardware' isn't going to work on Windows!"
How true, the Net Gear GA 621 card doesn't work under Windows XP 64 but works fine under Linux. That's the problem with closed source drivers, the product get's EOLed and next time the driver ABI changes you are hosed. - n0xie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"Linux "developers" (hobbyists) must pretty much reverse-engineer hardware support, because if device manufacturers release Linux drivers, doing so inherently reveals proprietary (trade secret) information to the open source community, which means anybody gets to see and mess with the driver source code, which makes an inconvenient and costly mess."
I advice you to read up on stuff before making bold statements like that in particular the Cathedral and the Bazar, in which your 'costly mess' is described as one of the most efficient ways for software engineers to write code that works in the smallest amount of time.
And guess what... they do it for free.
So how again is that costly? - Buelldozer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Codecs and 3D under Ubuntu? Install EasyUbuntu and quit your bitching.
What exactly is it that you DO every day that is so difficult to setup under Ubuntu? - nazadus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Myth: Linux is better than Windows
Myth: Windows is better than Linux
Truth: They are good at certain thing. Imagine it like a tool box. You have a screw driver and a hammer. They both are tools that serve the same purpose (building something / fixing something / taking apart something).
I once had someone tell me vi sucked. I asked him how long did his trial last, he said 30 minutes. Ok, right. So you judge something after using it for 30 minutes. How about actually learning about it.
I can do things in Windows no Linux hippie could do. I can do things in Linux that no Windows zealot could do. I do things with OpenBSD (audience gasps) that neither Linux nor Windows has to offer (real security! I don't want to patch every 30 days (windows), every week (linux)).
To anyone who says one is completly better than the other, I call you a blind fool. Someone willing to take a tool out of your toolbox because of your pride (usually). - Dracker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I'm in favor of showing a user the facts and letting them make up their own mind as for what to use.
I do not recommend linux to most of my friends. A lot of folks depend on Windows-only apps and that's fine. I do, however, burn DVDs for them with software that corrects many of the flaws in Windows. (several of the updates enabled by default in Autopatcher but not in Windows Update, for example).
You can't generalize linux users as zealots. - dobesov, on 10/12/2007, -16/+23I am a windows user and off and on over the past 8 years i have tried different Linux distros. I have seen Linux grow from something that was in fact confusing to install to something simple and pretty automated. However i have to agree with the notion that once installed it is still confusing and persnickety to actually change ones configuration or add new programs. Dependencies can still be a real nightmare. Removing things automatically install by the distro can be a real pain too. Too many times have I installed/compiled something only to realize that i have no idea where it is or how to run it. Package management and linux's file structure makes me long for the days of DOS installers who basically asked what directory do you want me to put the files in.
Linux has made great strides, but i truly believe that the dependency system and package management needs to be... revised. Too many files needed for files needed for files needed for file to make little program x work. This is of course a symptom of the open source system and not having a monolithic controller, so i am not really sure it it will ever be fixed. sorry, not fixed, its not broken its just disorganized. - plncrzy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8@dshPls
Wow, that was quite possibly one of the most incredibly uninsightful, ill-informed, and ignorance-ridden posts I've seen in quite some time.
Odd how some of us seem to have no problems whatsoever running Linux on modern machines, and being able to do productive work with it. My laptop is hardly a "yard sale POS" and I find that Linux runs quite well on it. In fact, my touch pad, wireless, graphics, and sound all work without a hitch.
"I know, I can use a ***** third tier OpenOffice style program, put that on my resume"
If your resume really hinges on which office suite you put on there, you probably have bigger problems than getting over your irrational hate for open source software. - tommasz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Being no harder to install Linux than Windows doesn't mean anything in a world of pre-loaded machines. Most Windows users never install Windows. It comes already installed and configured (or partially configured). If something goes wrong, they take it back to the place they bought it from and a tech re-installs it for them.
Having a choice of "5 browsers, 5 email clients, desktops, themes..." is simply overkill for people who've never used anything but Internet Explorer and Hotmail. Not everyone views choice as a desirable thing and some actually fear it. Give them an install CD and all they want is to stick it in a drive and let it run.
Where Windows (and this goes for Mac OS X, too) succeeds (most of the time) is hiding the complexity from the user. Linux doesn't do this very well at all, and that's pretty much intentional (some desktops do a fair job of it, but it's a layer on top, not a default). But Joe Average PC User doesn't want to know about how complex things are on the inside. Until Linux is able to isolate users from the gritty details of installation and operation, it's going to remain outside the desktop mainstream. - warmcat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Heh... that bunch of slime is all you got in there?
There are many more people just using their box for browsing (and maybe email if it isn't web-based for them already) than there are people doing anything else with it. I'm thinking about boxes at granny's house, nontechnical lower income families and so on. Linux is clearly better for such tasks and has been for a year or two.
As for lying, it's not the Linux people I see throwing mud, but two sorts who are anti-FOSS: paid-for astroturfers, who will say whatever falsehoods are needed to suck down money from the proprietary alternatives, and the more sad sort, which are folks who are too deeply invested in the proprietary companies, languages or products to feel they can even take on learning and using the FOSS alternatives alongside what they know. They'll use any logic to trash talk what they can't bear to think on. - mooninite, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Linux installers are just as easy. Pop each CD in. Press ENTER on each CD to start setup. Use a few clicks of the mouse and install. I imagine the Linux distro will install faster and provide more programs (say OO, 5 browsers, 5 email clients, desktops, themes... where's this with a Windows install?).
- mooninite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Exactly, Buelldozer.
robwistar, Canon makes Linux drivers! I use a Canon i860 on my server that is shared by several computers. I also have 5 different printers (all Laser) hooked up and shared via Samba at work. PPD files for laser = text file for a driver. Linux is so easy. - Dracker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Windows is often just as hard and frustrating. It's mostly that people have by necessity done the research to accomodate Windows's quirks, and when something similar happens on a foreign platform it is seen as a Windows advantage.
- Dracker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Hive mentality is strong anywhere, any topic. It's inevitable in democracy. Sometimes it's in favor of one side, sometimes another. It's unfortunate, and I bet I'll be dugg down for saying it, but it's something that cannot be avoided.
- EdLesMann, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8"So the person that makes the (extremely funny) joke gets tons of diggs while the people that applaud his joke get modded down? What's up with that?"
I think it has to do about how useful a comment can be. At least that is how I view the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons.
Seeing "loljkbrbhahahaha!!1", "Linux/Windows/Apple is teh sux0rz/rulz", or any other kind of flamebate is NOT useful at all to the converstation. Thumbs down.
On the other hand a valid question, interesting point, or some kind of insite is useful to the conversation. Thumbs up!
If you liked the joke, mod it up! Dont post worthless comments that dont further the conversation.
If you read the comment and think, "that was a complete waste of time, space, and bandwith" mod it down. - EdLesMann, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7"Give your average mother a "nix" Installation CD and ask her to install it."
Does grandmother count? If so, check
"Now give your average mother a windows XP installation CD and ask her to install it."
Does grandmother count? If so, check
"Which do you think she'll prefer to use without help to find cooking recipe's on the internets?"
Linux. She didnt know how to get the network card drivers for XP. Even if she knew how to google for them, she didnt have a network connection.
BTW this is the woman that opens just about anything you send her via email. She has about 200 ppl on her contact list and is involved in many online groups that correspond via email. Guess how many virii she had in a month when her antivirus subscription ran out? (3) Guess how much spam/adware/spyware she had? (according to spybot it was in the high hundreds)? Guess how much she has under Linux? Go ahead...take a wild guess ;-) - dvdsmith, on 10/12/2007, -7/+13I just setup my Digg login, I hope it wasn't a waste of time. The basic pattern I'm seeing here is;
Tow the party line (Linux rocks, Windows sucks), diggs
Point out where Linux could use some improvements and get -diggs
Am I missing the point or isn't a discussion forum for "discussing"? I'd get less attitude arguing for Pro-Choice at a Christian Conservative conference.
Just my 2 cents :) - warmcat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@ firephoto (my goodness Digg needs a Web 2.1 with more than one thread level)
Yes, not only agreed, but that is what I said at the end. nVidia do not distribute the combined animal and as you say it is the enduser that does it.
On the nVidia binary, I have used it in the past and it did make some features like Twinview and 3D work that I couldn't get working otherwise. But the FOSS "nv" driver is actually very good for everything but those two features, it has xv for example, and is mighty stable. If you are not using multimonitor or 3D, there is no reason I could see to use the binary blob, and given the regular instability of the blob, reasons not to use it.
On "GPL purists", hum there are zero advantages to the nVidia driver coming as a binary blob. I mean if it was available through your distro as FOSS, along with the kernel and nicely precompiled at the same distro-based kernel compile action, okay. But nobody would turn their back on that to have the current system instead where an unrelated chunk of precooked binary is merged. So "GPL purists" are in a practical sense correct, it is very ugly to merge nVidia's precooked lump and there is no technical rationale for it, only legal and commercial ones on nVidia's part and those considerations are aimed only with nVidia's benefit in mind. So without even getting into the philosophical aspects, seems to me a "GPL purist" would be right in this case about how things should be only even looking at the technical considerations. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5It's got to the stage that you don't nee to read the manual at all - Knoppix showed the way with brilliant hardware discovery routines, and now Ubuntu carries on with the easiest install of all - definately simpler than Windows - and leaves the user with a fast, stable, secure system that is really easy to use (even for beginners).
- EdLesMann, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6wow...I just open synaptic and click update. much easier and GUI too!
- danz23, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I was at one time a "normal" windows user. Linux was just as easy for me to learn as Windows was. Keep an open mind, don't expect things to work like windows, and be willing to read.
It really is that easy. - Dracker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Compare and contrast hardware support out-of-the-box with a knoppix disc and a Windows install disc. Unless the Windows installer was provided by the manufacturer of that computer model, you are going to get a lot of "unknown devices" right off the bat. Most likely many more than Knoppix won't recognize.
Unrecognized hardware is one of the top reasons for frustration for non-technical users.
Unfortunately, my father gave my grandmother a WIndows XP computer with AOL. She's had nothing but problems with this "easy" software, even doing nothing more than simple web browsing, word processing, and email. I am astonished at how much adware there is out there that can affect someone doing nearly nothing with a computer. - Dracker, on 10/12/2007, -10/+15Closed source modules are sub-optimal. Binary blobs SUCK, they are a horrible idea, and the companies producing them would be much better off releasing the code (For example, xorg-server 7.1 ABI changes broke NVIDIA/ATi modules. This would not have happened with open source mods).
But they are not illegal.
And it *is* hard to get code into the main kernel tree. But this isn't *bad* it just means the code that *does* get in is better quality. Let me emphasize what this article posted:
Documentation/HOWTO
If you're willing to RTFM, Linux is EASY to use and most distros are not difficult to set up. - khyberkitsune, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6@karmakillernz
There is *NO* standard XP w/SP2 disc. those are slipstream installs. nForce came out well AFTER SP2, so guess what? You're using a slipstreamed, copied, pirated version of Windows - BUSTED! - vanadaar, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8The truth of the matter is that for your everyday user Linux is both easy to install and easy to use.
To those that bitch that you have to compile installers.... your everyday user will not need to do this. I experimented with my wife and her laptop, and she is still a happy Linux user (even though I doubt she even knows the difference) Bottom line is if you have to compile anything then you are not what over 80% of the consumer market is going for. Your average John/Jane Doe is not going to be compiling Apache etc...
Also the only hardware that has problems is bottom of the barrel, or just released last week hardware. Most people do not have this. If you go into a store and buy the $2 keyboard expect to have problems. I haven't had a compatibility issue with Ubuntu for over 2 years. You make your hardware choices the same as if you were running windows, I'm not going to buy a mac keyboard for a Windows install. Same with Linux.
Shame on you if you don't research your hardware purchases. - danz23, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8digg is a cesspool. enjoy your stay.
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