> >
> Yes, but you are an uber geek :)
Thank you, but no. I'm only a geek in the respect that I do a lot of
computer stuff. I'm not a "kernel developer" level geek that eats and
breathes binary. I enjoy assembling a computer, but I don't really care
about writing drivers and delving into the deep level modules, drivers
and heavy stuff. My goal is to do stuff with my computer, not do stuff
for it.
I think some people think that I do something special when I setup my
computer to get it working, but not really. Seriously, my installation
of Ubuntu or whatever other distribution is pretty standard and I
haven't done anything special to get sound, video or networking working.
It just works.
There is one thing that I do do[1] though and that's make sure that I
buy hardware that is compatible with Linux. Mac has the same issue
where people think they can just go out and buy any piece of hardware
they want and it should work, but it doesn't because. Mac is a bit
better because some stores have Mac specific sections for hardware.
> ourselves, but for the masses. Linux is very far away from being
> consumable by the masses, at least using Ubuntu as a metric... See
> monitor management, getting sound to work, video, etc.. Then, you have
> the whole category of usability which is a little hit and miss, in my
> opinion.
In the long term, Ubuntu has been a big step forward in getting
hardware working. I have had much better luck on Ubuntu than on any
other distribution. Although it could just be a coincidence and some
hardware that I had suddenly had kernel drivers. Nevertheless, prior to
Ubuntu, I had these hardware problems that had to be resolved by doing
something special.
o HP laserjet printers and some printers in general didn't work.
o Nvidia and ATI cards both required doing a lot of extra stuff on the
command line to get the commercial driver installed.
o Wireless configuration on a laptop was much more difficult.
o Installing Flash and Java installed and working with your browser
o Better GUI tools for system management.
At least this is the way I saw things happen.
> Consider yourself lucky. I'm struggling with kernel errors such as
> "NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0 (via-rhine): transmit queue 0 timed out" that
> render my ethernet useless, and "Clocksource tsc unstable (delta =
> -285503362 ns)", neither of which Grandma has a fighting chance of
> figuring out.
>
> Both of these are new to Ubuntu 9.10 for me, so I don't necessarily
> fault Linux as a whole for this
All OSes usually have problems when a new version is released,
sometimes they are major. I almost never upgrade right away. This is
the first time I've seen this specific problem, but its most likely a
problem with the via-rhine driver.
And I think you don't give Grandma and Grandpa enough credit. They
defeated Hitler and the Communists and they can't use KDE or Gnome? Come
on, give me a break. People have become too lazy.
[1] - Why do I keep ending up with sentences with two of the same word
next to one another? Like do do and that that.
--
Mark Krenz
Bloomington Linux Users Group
http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/
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