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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
I agree with Ross Marven; Linux can be a significanr challenge to install on some systems.
However, I've also had the same experience with Windows XP on some systems. On a laptop with a damaged OEM install CD, I had to use a retail copy of Windows XP. It constantly hung during detection of the hard drive. I was finally able to get past that by using a bootable Linux CD to reformat the drive. After that, Windows proceeded with the installation, and completed. However the machine would not boot, always hanging at the logo. I was able to boot and install Linux.
The point of my post is not to indicate that Linux is better; just that some machines are more "standard" than others. End-user installation of an OS, even when that end-user is experienced, can be difficult. That's why pre-installs came about in the first place.
Users should be able to buy their machines with the OS of their choice pre-installed. Thanks to Dell, and now several other PC vendors, that is a reality. Getting past the hardest part of using any OS is now just a matter of pushing the power switch.
Posted by Mace Moneta | June 29, 2007 1:47 AM
I tried Puppylinux which I downloaded from www.puppylinux.com It is less than 100 MB in size and very easy to install. You can load it into the harddisk or CD or a USB drive. Contains almost all applications that you normally use. And if you need you can download any from the net. The above mentioned site has all the support you need.
Posted by Feby | July 1, 2007 3:30 AM
The majority of hardware problems under linux aren't due to linux being the problem they are because some hardware vendors don't bother to support linux, choosing microsoft instead, how many people blame microsoft when a vista driver isn't available?
Another possible problem is that many people choose redhat or ubuntu for their first foray into the linux environment. By far the better distro is Opensuse for a first time linux user and buy a copy, it's about £45 and comes with 90 days installation support, also opensuse seems to have better hardware support than any other distro out of the box, including some support for wifi. I am a linux user, I don't use microsoft at all and I have tried both redhat (fedora) and ubuntu and I found both difficult to start with. Finally everyone seems to think that Linux will work the same as Microsoft, it doesn't you have to spend time to learn how to use it, just like you did when you first started using windows, then you will realise that it's just as easy.
Posted by Terry Pike | July 6, 2007 6:40 PM
At last !
I'm typing this into Konqueror !
The solution - buy a new wireless network card (tried OpenSuse - took ages to download and didn't do any better than Kubuntu with my old card).
I found a link to a way to get my printer working but the instructions seem based on Red Hat (rpm) not Adept Package Manager so I can't overcome lots of failed dependencies.
Still, one step at a time !
Posted by Ross Marven | August 25, 2007 6:35 PM
Instead of trying to replace one OS with another, use both!
Run TEENpup 2008 with flash, java, realmedia, quicktime and more already installed "Live" while surfing the Virus infected internet and Windows when your not on the internet.
Simple really!
Try it free now what do you have to lose!
Posted by TEENpup 2008 | April 6, 2008 2:21 AM
Instead of trying to replace one OS with another, use both!
Run TEENpup 2008 with flash, java, realmedia, quicktime and more already installed "Live" while surfing the Virus infected internet and Windows when your not on the internet.
Simple really!
Try it free now what do you have to lose!
Posted by TEENpup 2008 | April 6, 2008 2:22 AM