Friendly Linux
Have been playing with few Linux distros I have figured out what stop people (and maybe me as well) from migrating to Linux.
Given all those credits to Linux and critics to Windows I can't understand why Linux developers don't focus on those two things first. We have so many distros yet none of them implement a user-friendly hardware and software installation as what Windows implemented. I am not either in favour of Linux or Windows. I really want to use Linux but it is just too hard. GUI-wise, I like Linux as few distros (like SUSE) has come up with a very nice GUI... but when it comes to install something... Ehm... that's just my thought. |
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Oh, and I disagree with everything you just said about Software. I can open a command line and type "apt-get install gimp", or "emerge gaim" or "urpmi gftp" and I get everything downloaded, installed and properly configured to me without even opening a web-browser, going to the vendors site, download the .exe and click on it, then click on > next > next and reboot the system. Again, I don't agree with you on the Software part. It may sound difficult for you because you still don't know how to configure your distro to install things the easy way. If it's SuSE, check this thread I wrote out: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...postid=1087289 About hardware... sorry, but I also disagree. Linux is today more plug and play then Windows is. I had to actually install drivers for my sATA, Sound Blaster and scanner (as example) in Windows, whereas in Linux, all works out of the box. The difference is that hardware vendors usually provide drivers for their hardware, Windows-only. All you've to do is to open a browser, go the the vendors web-site, download the driver, double-click, then "next >> next >> next >> agree with license", reboot. For my scanner, I do "modprobe scanner", done. With Linux, most of the times you have to wait till the community can get a piece of hardware to work, which is no easy task either, since most vendors don't give any hardware specifications of their product... If you still don't link Linux.. well, ask for the money you've paid for it back :) Regards! P.S: if this is another of those Linux Vs Windows, please, collaborate with existent threads. If it's not, give more details of your problems, distributions and how you are trying to install software so peoples can help you. I've no idea about your network issues since I don't have such a device. |
sounds like a troll thread, but in case you're not trolling, which distros have you tried? in my experience, software is much easier to install in linux than in windows. in linux, you can use package managers like apt-get, portage, yum, etc. which do everything for you, including download the software.
in windows, you have to find it and download it yourself (or load the CDRom and wait for it to start) then you have to tell it where to install, make directories, unzip packages, etc. and sometimes you have to select all sorts of options that waste your time and go through registration screens, not to mention having to reboot one or more times, or worse, having the computer just reboot automatically without even any warning after you press "finished." it sucks and it's a major pain in the butt. on distros like slack where you sometimes have to compile your own stuff you might have to download and untar some files, but it's really no harder than in windows once you know how to do it. and if you get .tgzs, you just have to install them. no doubt about it, linux wins hands down over windows for ease of use in installing software. if it doesn't, you're just using the wrong distro. ;) i could also give you tons of windows software/hardware horror stories, like doing a complete fresh windows install for someone, going through an hour or more of installing software, and then suddenly on one of the many reboots, the CDROM drive just disappears, with the littel yellow circle and exclamation mark (!) over it in the hardware manager. removing it multiple times and doing "hardware wizard" or whatever didn't work at all (said it was installed and rebooted, only to have it non-functional on reboot). the only remedy was starting completely over from scratch. turns out some media software was screwing something up, and it didn't even work after removing the software. only thing to do was reinstall. no doubt about it, windows sucks. i'm glad i don't use that POS software, but it causes enough headaches when friends have problems and they all come running to you to fix it. :rolleyes: |
Linux is a community dependent project. All you need to do is simply jump in an help the project by working to get the features you want implemented. Linux is what we make it.
Now as far as your complaints. 1. Many things are plug and play, and the list is growing everyday. 2. Why compile versus an EXE-like file? Because we want to be able to compile the program for our specific system. It generates a more effcient program and a smaller install. Some distros use what is an exe-like file. RPM for one. In Red Hat systems you can simply double click the file and the installation starts, or so you hope. The disadvantages are numerous, but the main one is simply, the code is most likely not optimized for your system. And finally you might want to read... Linux is not Windows |
Don't forget that you can help the community effort :-) by offering your services.
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I like compiling software from source. I can see what's in it, learn how to do new things in my own programming and change games so I start on a higher level :D :D
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Oopss. I didn't expect that my post would invite such replies.
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Thanks for your replies... and I hope this encourages some Linux Developers to make Linux even more friendly. I am sure that what has been done with LinSpire can be pushed further. |
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as for software installs, if you are running a source based distro like slax or slackware or gentoo you will already know enough about linux that installing a file from source is not hard for you. if that is more then you want to deal with, then try out a debian based or rpm based distro: Ubunto, Kubunto, Knoppix, Debian, Fedora Core, SuSe Pro, etc... all provide a very powerful tool (yum or apt-get) for installing software they also have rpm -ivh or dpkg -i for installing something that is not in a respository or that does not need a respository. those are as easy as: yum install kde or apt-get install kde and after X amount of time depending on your internet connection and a few other varables you now have a full GUI installed on your system. try that with windows some time... good luck, will not work like that. FYI last i checked KDE was in excess of 390 individual packages and files that need to be downloaded, configured, and installed. so in the windows world that would be roughly 390 double clicks to do the exact same thing that yum install or apt-get install accomplished. there are also self installers like the nvidia drivers that just require a sh /path/to/file/name/file.sh and away it runs. that is just as easy as going into the CMD prompt in win2k/XP and typing notepad.exe after navigating to the correct path to run that executable and faster if you know exactly were the file is stored. rpm will go one step further and alow you to install a package from the internet: rpm -ivh http://URL.com/filename.rpm rpm will first download the file, then due to the v argument it will verify that it is correct and has the correct MDK5sum, then it will display a set of #### with a % due to the h arguement as it installs the package you just told your system to install. windows has nothing even remotely close to that kind of power or versatility in installing ANYTHING. windows does a few things better then linux, but that is not due to anything other then the mafia like strong arm tactics the MS has employed over the past few decades that have gotten it in trouble with both the US gov. and the EU. if you do a little research before you buy hardware for a system and see if it will work in linux then you will have nothing to worry about. heck you even really should do this in windows as i have lost count how many video or sound cards have conflicts with specific motherboards in windows over the years. is linux perfect, nope, but then again neither is windows. |
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As for the hardware if your hardware is detected automatically by your distro installation is easier than in Windows - you usually don't have to do anything. If not then it can become quite problematic. But the real problem isn't really ease of installation (drivers can be packaged in RPM packages for one-click installs like mentioned above) but lack of drivers and hardware support. If you weren't using a distro that has a GUI package management program, so you don't have to compile from source, or automatic hardware detection (and modern kernels and modules so more hardware is supported) then you've used the wrong distro for what you want and you should look at distros like Mandriva, Suse, Ubuntu etc. |
Can you believe I already responded to you months before you typed your post?
http://www.psychocats.net/essays/linuxdesktop.php http://www.psychocats.net/essays/winuxinstall.php |
I gotta say Gentoo's emerge makes it far easier to update and install things then anything in windows. You also get the advantage of having custom compiled code for your machine which results in faster software.
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