Journal OMNIpotusCOM's Journal: Make Linux work for me!
I'm a semi-intelligent, computer-literate, able to learn, non-dependant human being, but I can't get Linux to work. I have never had an issue with popping the Windows CD in the drive and getting something to work. Sure, sometimes the drivers are great and you have to download something, and sometimes you have to wait hours upon hours to install it (especially back in the day), and of course it's what I'm used to, but it works damnit. The moment that Linux will do the same I will switch over.
But wait, there's more. I don't just want it to work. I want it to work without looking up some bass ackwards command line bullshit. I want it to work with the shit that I've already purchased (mostly just the games, don't take away my games!). I don't want to have to learn sudo, pstree, cp, mv, rm, or any of that bullshit. Call me lazy, but I'm above average here people, and if I'm not sold I can't imagine that there are a lot of people who are.
Ubuntu worked, eventually. I had some weird BIOS problem dealing with the boot order on my ISA hard drive... some shit. Took me about 3 months to find out that I press F6 on the boot screen for Ubuntu and type "force irqcheck" or some such thing before Ubuntu would actually see my drive. And I'm not just talking about it took me that long to find the command. That command was found, like all the others, after trying so many different websites that I lost count. It's not a problem of the information not being there, it's a problem that I don't know how to fucking describe it. "I want to install this" doesn't always cut it, and "it won't find my hard drive" is apparently more common than it should be.
So it installs, things work, there's updates immediately, yay. Things are great. Now, I realize it's going to be more work than it's worth to use MS Office and I may have to convert my WMAs to play them properly. I know this going in, so when things like that pop up I'm prepared. I also realize that I'm going to have to read up on configuration files for firewalls, Apache, Samba, etc... I'm fine with that too. All I want to do that I was pretty sure I'd have problems was play my games, and the only game I really want to play is Team Fortress 2.
Before even getting the Ubuntu distro I checked to see if people were running Steam and TF2. A pleasant surprise was that Wine was having good luck with Steam and TF, so there was a good chance it would work for me and my little GeForce 6600. That was not the case.
Wine didn't run most of what I wanted to run. The Steam installer ran fine, but I couldn't read anything on the screen. Like the buttons and everything was there, but there was no text what-so-ever. I normally would have just trudged my way through and guessed what they wanted (username, password, etc... but there were options I didn't remember from the Windows side, so back to the net I went. Turns out that Steam uses the Tahoma font, which is licensed by Microsoft (or some such thing), and there were a couple fixes.
Anyway, long story short I got it running but it was slow as hell. Looked on the Wine support site and there was some uber complex way to fix it. Someone posted under it something to the effect of "Ok, but what does that all mean?" and the fucker running the site replied (paraphrased) "We offer the support, we don't hold your hand." Congratulations, fucktards, you support the geek elite and cut off the people who will actually donate to you or spread word of your project.
Someone said that using NoScript was like slogging through the mud, and I found that to be majoritively true. It was more work to explain to my wife how to use it instead of just disabling it and dealing with this popup or whatever else it would protect me from. That's the way Linux is; it's just more trouble than it's worth for 90% of the population. If that means I need to turn in my nerd card, then so be it. I can play TF without it.
But wait, there's more. I don't just want it to work. I want it to work without looking up some bass ackwards command line bullshit. I want it to work with the shit that I've already purchased (mostly just the games, don't take away my games!). I don't want to have to learn sudo, pstree, cp, mv, rm, or any of that bullshit. Call me lazy, but I'm above average here people, and if I'm not sold I can't imagine that there are a lot of people who are.
Ubuntu worked, eventually. I had some weird BIOS problem dealing with the boot order on my ISA hard drive... some shit. Took me about 3 months to find out that I press F6 on the boot screen for Ubuntu and type "force irqcheck" or some such thing before Ubuntu would actually see my drive. And I'm not just talking about it took me that long to find the command. That command was found, like all the others, after trying so many different websites that I lost count. It's not a problem of the information not being there, it's a problem that I don't know how to fucking describe it. "I want to install this" doesn't always cut it, and "it won't find my hard drive" is apparently more common than it should be.
So it installs, things work, there's updates immediately, yay. Things are great. Now, I realize it's going to be more work than it's worth to use MS Office and I may have to convert my WMAs to play them properly. I know this going in, so when things like that pop up I'm prepared. I also realize that I'm going to have to read up on configuration files for firewalls, Apache, Samba, etc... I'm fine with that too. All I want to do that I was pretty sure I'd have problems was play my games, and the only game I really want to play is Team Fortress 2.
Before even getting the Ubuntu distro I checked to see if people were running Steam and TF2. A pleasant surprise was that Wine was having good luck with Steam and TF, so there was a good chance it would work for me and my little GeForce 6600. That was not the case.
Wine didn't run most of what I wanted to run. The Steam installer ran fine, but I couldn't read anything on the screen. Like the buttons and everything was there, but there was no text what-so-ever. I normally would have just trudged my way through and guessed what they wanted (username, password, etc... but there were options I didn't remember from the Windows side, so back to the net I went. Turns out that Steam uses the Tahoma font, which is licensed by Microsoft (or some such thing), and there were a couple fixes.
Anyway, long story short I got it running but it was slow as hell. Looked on the Wine support site and there was some uber complex way to fix it. Someone posted under it something to the effect of "Ok, but what does that all mean?" and the fucker running the site replied (paraphrased) "We offer the support, we don't hold your hand." Congratulations, fucktards, you support the geek elite and cut off the people who will actually donate to you or spread word of your project.
Someone said that using NoScript was like slogging through the mud, and I found that to be majoritively true. It was more work to explain to my wife how to use it instead of just disabling it and dealing with this popup or whatever else it would protect me from. That's the way Linux is; it's just more trouble than it's worth for 90% of the population. If that means I need to turn in my nerd card, then so be it. I can play TF without it.
Make Linux work for me! More Login
Make Linux work for me!
Slashdot Top Deals