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Linux reality check
Your Linux 'Hands On' column has recently written about the tedium involved with the Windows XP installation process (June 2007) 'requiring many driver installations to get the most basic hardware operating and frequent reboots in between'. The same column (August 2007) also sings the praises of the Ubuntu 7.04 installation process saying that the post installatio steps required to get a useful desktop up and running have been made 'about as simple as it can get'.
I have to disagree with these points of view as my experience is radically different:- I can install Windows XP Professional quite easily on my machine (have had to several times as a result of trying to install Linux). I admit it takes some time to load up from the CD and I have to load my SATA driver from floppy during this load but then I install 2 drivers (printer, wireless network) from CD and reboot and I have a working system with internet access.
With Linux I tried Fedora Core 6, answered the questions (including the technical ones about partitioning) correctly and was rewarded with a system that would not boot, giving some message about GRUB stage 2. Luckily I was able to find help (FIXBOOT & FIXMBR) on the Microsoft website so that I did
not have to reinstall Windows. (My data was backed up anyway but I avoided several hours of 'fun').
I next unplugged my SATA drive and plugged in an IDE drive to experiment more safely, firstly installing Windows as I want to get a dual boot system. Firstly I tried Fedora 6 again, with the same error. Mandriva 2007 seemed to work better but my wireless network would not enable from the GUI and gave
no error message as to why not. A number of people on linuxforums.org gave me advice which suggested Kubuntu 7.04 was the best route to try.
This, coupled with your praise of its close realtive Ubuntu 7.04, led to me installing that from your cover DVD. As the installation went well but was obvioulsy a minimal package (fitting on one CD) I decided to 'go for it' and downloaded the full DVD image and installed on my SATA drive. BIG mistake, a GRUB stage 1.5 error and a 'cock-up' somewhere in my use of the Windows Recovery Console meant I had a Windows system partition of an unknown type. I can now recommend MBRTOOL from diydatarecovery.nl which saved me from a Windows reinstall.
No more messing about, using Paragon Drive Manager 8SE (brilliant tool) from a recent cover disk I cloned my Windows installation onto my IDE drive and unplugged my SATA drive. I now have a dual boot system with XP & Kubuntu but that's about as far as it goes.
The Kubuntu installation is useles as it does not have a driver for my printer (Epson C900 colour laser), my scanner (HP Scanjet 5100C) or my wireless network (although the wireless network is recognised I am told the driver has a bug). I can find a printer driver on the web but the associated documentation lists about 5 modules I must have, one I must not have and multiple steps I must take - also I must have a CUPS environment, not an lpr one, whatever that means ('lpr' I recognise from using Unix for 15 years).
The scanner may have a driver on the web but it's very vague as to whether it will work or how to install it. For the wireless network I have two routes to follow from the helpful people on linuxforums but both require downloading stuff which means shifting the PC upstairs to hard wire to my router (and I'm not sure if that will work because the only network interface showing in Kubuntu is my wireless one so maybe the wired one is not installed ?).
Also Linux (Fedora or Kubuntu) and SATA appear to be incompatible, although they will load to the SATA drive they will not boot, Kubuntu will not even boot from the IDE drive with the SATA drive plugged in (although IDE is before SATA in the BIOS boot device list).
As for documentation under the 'Help' button, that is written around the commands available so unless you are already familiar with Linux it's no help whatsoever. This is a downside of having software engineers writing the documentation as well as the software - they know what they are talking
about and cannot present it in terms useful to the novice.
The final part of the rant (for such it seems to have become) comes from reading the fine print in your Ubuntu article - the software I want is not part of the default installation (Perl, Gimp, Apache...) so must be downloaded (over my dead wireless network ?).
Much as I would like Linux to be a success I have concluded there is a reason why Windows (XP) is so popular - it just works! Linux presumably is fine if you have the time, knowledge and desire to spend hours learning how to get it going on your hardware (or if you a a corporate user with an IT department paid to set it up for you) but it appears that it doesn't work 'out of the box' for people who are not familiar with it.
Ross Marven
