@raised-in-a-box-id\ego\superego(jk i get it++) good point frustration goes in the blog;

I think most new users will teeter between window$ and Linux for years because of this, i did,,, many make it better.

My opinion is Linux is for learning, freedom and need but ʍıupoʍ$ is for $heep...and, VLC(player) works there too.

I just made the plunge into linux this past week. I wiped my server 2008R2 and installed CentOS (surprisingly no hardware issues on 2x 16 core opterons), wiped my main win7 desktop to Ubuntu, and put up mint 15 on my laptop. I started with CentOS figuring out kvm/selinux/samba shares which took some awesome google time, and I'm pretty sure my wife hated me last week.

Then I installed Ubuntu on my main deskop and wow was it freaking awesome after dealing with centos for a few days o.O.

Lastly I put linux mint on the laptop, and I have to say I'm not sold compared to the Ubuntu experience I've been having. Perhaps I didn't give mint a chance since I put it on the laptop and not my main workstation, but that's just my 2 cents. Try Ubuntu! Life seems a lot easier. Hey you can always install centos and play with it for a few days pulling hair out and then jump to Ubuntu. Maybe that will make it seem super easy . Worth a shot?

Woot knocked out my first posting. Feel free to flame

Try Debian, Fedora, PCLinux, PCBSD, +++ t∞ plus don't need to install to try...

Hello

For me, it's just the opposite and Windows is always the nightmare. If you tinker with Linux long enough to understand it, you'll probably find it easier to use than Windows. Experiment with Linux frequently and take plenty of notes logging the things you do, and steps you take. It shouldn't be long before you'll be well on your way to having fun with Linux. Good luck to you...

I will definitely give them a shot. I have a friend who swears by Debian. I have been warned to stay away from Fedora, as it seems (or so I'm told) to be Red Hats playground with constant changes? Perhaps those warnings were just meant for the production environments. I'll give Fedora a shot too . At this point I'm probably going to stick with Ubuntu on this workstation, but I really want to find the right version for my laptop. I'll create a bunch of live cd's and start playing with these. Thank you for the suggestions .

The part I don't get in this discussion is Skype. Last time I installed skype on Mint it was possible directly through the package manager. Zero downloading / fiddling required...

This thread intrigued me. My mum is constantly requesting help from me with computers. I am always trying to steer her on the right path to have better computer admin habits. God bless her, she's not great but she's trying, she's updated Windows 7 once since getting a new laptop; which is something she never did on her previous Windows XP laptop.
My mum agreed to do an experiment with me. I said pretend you'd heard about Ubuntu from a friend and you now wanted to download it to try it out and now you're going to go download the iso for the latest version of Ubuntu with no help from me.

She opened Firefox, went to Google, so far so good; ect ect. I had to stop her, as she was about to download 'ebunto [FullVersion]' from fileindexer.com.
This is what we're contending with here. People don't pay enough bloody attention. Granted she spelt Ubunut wrong; but why didn't she look for googles, "Did you mean: ubuntu download"?!, why would someone download a program that's not from the original web page!? It frustrates me so damn much!
I don't know... I watch my mum, and i think she has preconceived ideas that something on the computer is going to be hard, and thus subconsciously doesn't do the obvious things which then makes it hard.
Maybe i'm wrong and linux is for computer nerds; Windows is no different; it's for nerds too; but it seems to attract the much wider audience of idiots.

Sorry if this is deemed off topic unSpawn, but i don't think the OP is even interested in receiving help: and i couldn't restrain from sharing my frustration with people whom could relate to some degree. (I know no remotely computer savvy people off the computer).
've had enough tonight; i'm hitten the hay!

the environments (most installable later or pickable off the bat) make it better too...i like (check pic:) http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ml#post4947932
++lol And, yes, to Fedora tho...

unSpawn, I don't see, and apparently neither do many others in this thread, the frustration of the OP at all. Why? Because it appears as though the OP didn't follow directions on the originating websites. We have no information to go on so there is very little advice that can be given apart from say download from the page the originating website (i.e. http://www.linuxmint.com/ & then http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php) install the codecs version and don't go searching away from that.

I am still waiting for him to actually ask a help question so we can give him some help.

http://www.trollart.com/

aren't we all just a little...☠

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Did the OP actually ask any questions looking for help when he started this thread? I just looked back at the first post and it still looks like a garden variety rant against Linux to me. The only question I see is "Why is Linux a nightmare?" And followup posts have been pretty good at staying on topic - describing why it IS or IS NOT a nightmare. Of course the heavy leaning here is that it IS NOT a nightmare, but that should be expected from the experienced users that have responded. The OP did not chime in again until post #33, but still did not ask any questions or clarify what his problems are at that time. As a matter of fact, his post #33 appears to be an attempt to keep the thread focused on "Why is Linux a nightmare?" and avoid any technical questions/responses.

Here's what I think we know from the OP thus far: (1) Linux stinks. (2) Skype doesn't work. (3) USB doesn't work. (4) DVDs don't work. Neither the (5) software manager nor the (6) update manager work. (7) Flash doesn't work. (8) Youtube doesn't work. (9) The sound is rubbish. Apparently these problems occur in both (A) LinuxMint 14 and (B) Fedora 17.

We have no more details from the OP other than the above. Except for the details that (i) It took him two weeks to install a non-working Skype via commandline, and (ii) He needs this for work.

People have tried speculating: (I) Maybe the OP installed a "no codecs" version of LinuxMint? (II) Maybe the OP installed a Cinnamon version of LinuxMint and would do better with a simpler Xfce desktop? (III) Maybe the OP should go read the beginners guide at http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/ ?

Did I miss anything? Are any of the (1) - (9) above actual answerable questions? Personally I use LinuxMint14, just like the OP, and none of (1) - (9) apply to me except for (2). Yes, I will agree that Skype does not work. Actually, the best I can say is that it does not work FOR ME either, I can't say that it doesn't work in general. But then, all's I did was something like "apt-get install skype", and that only took me 10 seconds, not two weeks of commandline work. I gave it one attempt to work, it didn't, so I abandoned it thinking I would never use it anyway, so why bother troubleshooting?

If the OP will give some details of what exactly he's seeing that makes him think (1) - (9) do not work I might be able to help since I use the exact version of LinuxMint he is trying to use. Although mine is Xfce, and we don't yet know what desktop the OP is using. If it's a Cinnamon desktop issue, then I personally am probably not the one to help.

OP? Are you actually looking for help? If so, give us a few details describing what you are trying, and the (failed) results you are seeing, and maybe we can offer some help. "It doesn't work" is not descriptive enough for us to propose an answer.

Now that's funny! I hope it was intentional...

She is a Windows user. She doesn't use Gnu/Linux, or know the slightest thing about it. she was spelling it after i said it to her. She'd never heard of Ubuntu before and quite frankly it's an unusual word.