Saturday, September 25, 2004
No wonder people use Windows
For a long time, I have been having conversations with people about whether Windows or Linux is better and the conversation almost always leads, after the intial wandering around the linux-is-free and Bill Gates-is-a-bad-man areas, to one of three issues, support, security and stability.
Support: Linux supporters say that Linux is much better supported than Windows. If something goes wrong in Windows, you need to pay Bill Gates (who by the way is a very bad man) a lot of money to enroll in a support program. Linux, however is, wonder of wonders, free. So is support in linux. There are a million users who are just waiting to solve your problems with forums and discussion groups.
Security: Now WHO would ever want to launch a nuclear attack using my 486 is beyond me, but Linux, they say, is much much more secure than Windows. You don't have viruses in Linux. Ofcourse you don't harldy any one uses Linux... who would spend effort writing viruses for something that no one uses ?
Stability : Linux is way more stable than windows. Look at crash histories (not those crashes, computer crashes)
OK. So i said to myself last week, enough is enough. I decided to install Linux.
Linux ? What is that ? There are more than 300 varities available, each with its own feature sets, each a different OS in itself. Do you want, Fedora, Debian, Redhat, Suse, Mandrake .... ? Ok trouble number 1, which do I pick. I pick Fedora because it has the most rave reviews. I decide to download Fedora. It comes in 4 CD's. Wait a minute, did I say 4? Yes four.. FOUR!!!! what on earth could be so big ? Well Fedora for one. So I spend the better half of my morning (which is a pretty big amount to spend, considering I have only half a morning to begin with) downloading 4*700 MB of stuff. (my first comparison : Windows install : - 1CD, around 400MB) Then I decide to install. The installation process was pretty steady, well more like SLOW and steady (install time 2.4 hours : comparison 2 : windows xp : 34 minutes).
OK... So now we are installed. So what is new ? Well for starters it will not play mp3's . Great. Now how do I get it to play mp3's ? Well there are these people just waiting to help me out there, so let us go talk to them... Google, here I come...
1 hour on Google later, I find out that Fedora doesn't support MP3's.
"Not to worry!" , says the forum. Just install this plugin for that player.
...How do I do that ?
Well, there is a program called up2dater
...which doesn't work .... google here I come
1 more hour later
Up2dater is not up2date, so it won't work
...Gr8 NOW what do I do,
well there is a text version, called yum
...yum ???? who on earth would name a file that way... anyways
so I run YUM and all it seems to be doing hour after hour is to download headers ... google here I come
1/2 hour later
yes YUM will do that. It needs to download headers each time
....EACH TIME ??
well not really. After the first, it will just download the new ones
... well how many new ones every day ?
Hmm.. around a 100 ?
... So that is 100 new headers each day ?
Well, if you run it more than once a day ?
... But I would hardly install anything more than once a day
You should really spend more time installing stuff on your computer !!!
Anyways 2/3 hours later Yum is done and I can hear music. Praise be to the lord. I log off and go to sleep.
2 hours later ...
I log in, I can't access the network.
I restart
I log in I CAN access the network
I log out
I log in, I can't access the network
I restart... you get the picture...
Google here I come...
1 hour
I have no idea what the problem is... Sorry... but try this.. this and that...
2 hours
I have no idea what the problem is... Sorry... but try this.. this and that...
5 hours
I have no idea what the problem is... Sorry... but try this.. this and that...
10 hous
I uninstall Fedora and download Mandrake
Install time : 2 hours. AND it cannot recognize my monitor. I chose some general monitor and get away.
This time I find out that my display is the one that is messing with my network. So armed with this new knowledge, I go back to ... you know where.... google here I come...
1 hour later...
Sorry never heard of it
12 hours later
Sorry never heard of it
24 hours later
I don't know
48 hours later
YOU still haven't figured it out ? You must be retarded man.
Ok then I figured out a way. Not a solution but atleast a work around. I found out that if I restarted the Xserver instead of logging off (for those not that Linux savvy, it is like not too far from getting a new car each time you wanted to fill gas.) However I find that if I do it too many times, the X server doesn't like it and decides to pull tricks on me. That is what these guys call a "known bug" which makes it all ok , I guess.
THAT is when I decide that enough is REALLY enough. I decide to install windows.
1 hour later
I am done, I can watch movies, play songs, type this blog and do whatever else I want.
NO WONDER people use Windows
----update : 10.05.06 : I have now been (for the past 4 months) been exclusively using Linux ... :-D .. men change.. i will come up with a "No wonder people use Linux" soon :-)
nn
Support: Linux supporters say that Linux is much better supported than Windows. If something goes wrong in Windows, you need to pay Bill Gates (who by the way is a very bad man) a lot of money to enroll in a support program. Linux, however is, wonder of wonders, free. So is support in linux. There are a million users who are just waiting to solve your problems with forums and discussion groups.
Security: Now WHO would ever want to launch a nuclear attack using my 486 is beyond me, but Linux, they say, is much much more secure than Windows. You don't have viruses in Linux. Ofcourse you don't harldy any one uses Linux... who would spend effort writing viruses for something that no one uses ?
Stability : Linux is way more stable than windows. Look at crash histories (not those crashes, computer crashes)
OK. So i said to myself last week, enough is enough. I decided to install Linux.
Linux ? What is that ? There are more than 300 varities available, each with its own feature sets, each a different OS in itself. Do you want, Fedora, Debian, Redhat, Suse, Mandrake .... ? Ok trouble number 1, which do I pick. I pick Fedora because it has the most rave reviews. I decide to download Fedora. It comes in 4 CD's. Wait a minute, did I say 4? Yes four.. FOUR!!!! what on earth could be so big ? Well Fedora for one. So I spend the better half of my morning (which is a pretty big amount to spend, considering I have only half a morning to begin with) downloading 4*700 MB of stuff. (my first comparison : Windows install : - 1CD, around 400MB) Then I decide to install. The installation process was pretty steady, well more like SLOW and steady (install time 2.4 hours : comparison 2 : windows xp : 34 minutes).
OK... So now we are installed. So what is new ? Well for starters it will not play mp3's . Great. Now how do I get it to play mp3's ? Well there are these people just waiting to help me out there, so let us go talk to them... Google, here I come...
1 hour on Google later, I find out that Fedora doesn't support MP3's.
"Not to worry!" , says the forum. Just install this plugin for that player.
...How do I do that ?
Well, there is a program called up2dater
...which doesn't work .... google here I come
1 more hour later
Up2dater is not up2date, so it won't work
...Gr8 NOW what do I do,
well there is a text version, called yum
...yum ???? who on earth would name a file that way... anyways
so I run YUM and all it seems to be doing hour after hour is to download headers ... google here I come
1/2 hour later
yes YUM will do that. It needs to download headers each time
....EACH TIME ??
well not really. After the first, it will just download the new ones
... well how many new ones every day ?
Hmm.. around a 100 ?
... So that is 100 new headers each day ?
Well, if you run it more than once a day ?
... But I would hardly install anything more than once a day
You should really spend more time installing stuff on your computer !!!
Anyways 2/3 hours later Yum is done and I can hear music. Praise be to the lord. I log off and go to sleep.
2 hours later ...
I log in, I can't access the network.
I restart
I log in I CAN access the network
I log out
I log in, I can't access the network
I restart... you get the picture...
Google here I come...
1 hour
I have no idea what the problem is... Sorry... but try this.. this and that...
2 hours
I have no idea what the problem is... Sorry... but try this.. this and that...
5 hours
I have no idea what the problem is... Sorry... but try this.. this and that...
10 hous
I uninstall Fedora and download Mandrake
Install time : 2 hours. AND it cannot recognize my monitor. I chose some general monitor and get away.
This time I find out that my display is the one that is messing with my network. So armed with this new knowledge, I go back to ... you know where.... google here I come...
1 hour later...
Sorry never heard of it
12 hours later
Sorry never heard of it
24 hours later
I don't know
48 hours later
YOU still haven't figured it out ? You must be retarded man.
Ok then I figured out a way. Not a solution but atleast a work around. I found out that if I restarted the Xserver instead of logging off (for those not that Linux savvy, it is like not too far from getting a new car each time you wanted to fill gas.) However I find that if I do it too many times, the X server doesn't like it and decides to pull tricks on me. That is what these guys call a "known bug" which makes it all ok , I guess.
THAT is when I decide that enough is REALLY enough. I decide to install windows.
1 hour later
I am done, I can watch movies, play songs, type this blog and do whatever else I want.
NO WONDER people use Windows
----update : 10.05.06 : I have now been (for the past 4 months) been exclusively using Linux ... :-D .. men change.. i will come up with a "No wonder people use Linux" soon :-)
nn
