-----Forwarded Message----- > From: Radule Soskic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [Full-Disclosure] A real-life story (no analogies) Was: Anti-MS drivel > Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 13:24:45 +0100 > > Hi, list users, > > I am rather new to this list. Following the two recent threads that deal > with comparing linux and windows I found out I have something that I > could disclose, too (this is full-disclosure list after all). Readers, > please, bear in mind a fact that can help: English is *not* my native > language, so it might happen that I said something what I didn't mean. > > I also apologise for the verbosity of the story, TIA to ones that endure > reading through it to the end, there's a (kind of) moral at the end, > too. :-) > > Story begins like this: > > After a long time, I found myself in position of an average home > computer user (a.k.a Joe Average): I bought new digital camera, made > some shots and wanted to copy the photos to my comp. Now, my story forks > into two scenarios. Believe me, I repeat, this all is real, not fiction > nor analogies. So, the first one first: > > 1st Scenario: WinXP Professional > > 1.1. I took the CDs from the pack (2 of them, one with > drivers/utilities, other with a demo app) and start driver/utilities > installation. > 1.2. The above failed - it reported there's another copy of the same > driver active in memory, so the installation can't resume. > 1.3. I temporarily went out from my "Joe Average" role, back to my > "pro/guru" alter ego, so after an analysis I discovered that there is a > conflict of the drivers between my new camera and my old scanner > 1.3. Scenario now forks in two branches: one for giving up old scanner > for a new one, in hope that the new drivers would behave differently, > the other for buying a flash card reader, and stop trying to connect > camera directly to USB. > 1.4. Going for the flash card reader (cheaper than a scanner). > Connecting it to my USB hub. I got a complaint from my WinXP about "a > high speed device being connected to a low speed device etc". Deciding > to ignore and continue, I got the next complaint about "high energy > consuming device connected to a device that can not supply enough power > etc" or something of that meaning. > 1.5. Started re-arranging my usb cables in order to connect this > "high-consuming" reader directly to my root usb, and moving scanner > cable into the external usb hub. (definitely, not back to my Average Joe > personality, yet) > 1.6. Now power consumption issue disappeared. I managed to connect the > reader, copy the files etc. I was ready to live on with plugging my CF > cards "in and out" for the rest of my Average Joe's life, BUT... > 1.7 When I connected my scanner to the USB hub, my WinXP recognised my > old scanner as a *new hardware device* and started a wizard in order to > enable the new device (good old plug and play). It finished its job, but > surprisingly enough, I ended up with two apparently identical scanners > in the device list - the old one and the new one. No problem, one should > say, two is better than one - but here's the bad news: none of the two > worked. > 1.8 Story continues again by my "alter ego" involvement. > 1.9 Reinstalling scanner did not succeed, tried deinstallation both > camera drivers and scanner drivers, installing again, d/l newest drivers > from vendor web site, etc, etc, ... > 1.10.Story doesn't stop here. I know the next thing is to reinstall > complete win from scratch. My "alter ego" did it many times before, but > now it is not possible. Because, now this comp is dual-boot (or, should > I say multi-boot), so my winxp install procedure won't continue. It > fails and exits since "there's no valid partition" found. The other OS > that is found there is known as Linux. God knows why, but XP refuses to > reinstall itself since I resized its original partition and installed > Linux on the free space. Never had such problem with Win98 or 2k. But, > XP is abbreviation for "experience", as we all know. > 1.11. No support can help, no hope here. No one to blame, either. It's > all me and my own choice of one or the other equally radical measure. > Average Joe is stuck in the middle - camera works, FC reader too, > scanner doesn't. But, since the latter is older than its warranty > period, no possible complaint to anybody. Period. The Joe's alter ego > (the expert) is stuck, too. There's too much work to do, with uncertain > result. Backup, reinstall, restore, educate poor Joe, etc...Unless, of > course another expert is willing to charge poor Joe for whatever of the > following: new scanner, new external usb hub, new SF reader, SW > installation/configuration service etc. > > It is time now for something completely different. > > 2nd Scenario: SuSE Linux 9.0 Professional > > 2.1. I plugged my FC reader in my root USB hub (the one on the comp. > housing). Short beep, and I discovered new device icon on my desktop. > Click on it - there it is - all my photos are there, nicely thumbnail-ed > in Konqueror. Cut, copy, paste whatever, all nice and simple. > 2.2 I plugged my scanner into my external hub. Short beep, and here's my > scanner on the desktop again. (Yes, it was installed before, but note > that it was nothing new to the OS when my scanner appeared on the > external hub port, instead on the root one - compare that to 1.7. above) > 2.3. The scenario normally ends here, since all works. Note that there > was no any alter ego involved - all healthy, without developing any any > schizophrenia at all. > > There, I couldn't help the guy known as "Joe the Curious" from coming > into the game. So, some playing with the fire started, and here's what > happened: > > 2.4. I plugged out my reader from the root hub and plugged it in the > external hub (the one that can not supply enough power, remember?). And, > guess what? Beep, and everything worked. Suddenly, there's enough power, > or what? > 2.4. Now, my "Joe the Curious" became "Joe the Courageous" and plugged > the camera into the external hub, altogether with the above mess of > cables. Short beep, and here it is - a new icon on my desktop (a nice, > small camera picture). Click on it - guess what - all works... > > The second scenario ends here. The user did all he wanted (and even > more, he satisfied even his curiosity, and even learnt something). No > driver conflicts, no false alarms or any errors. Also, he discovered > that he did not need to buy FC reader nor to use the CDs supplied with > the camera. He did not need to perform any (de/re)installation at all - > just plug and play. Just as it should happen. > > > Conclusion: > > > After the above experience, I am convinced that it's time to definitely > stop making statements such as: > > - Linux is for geeks/nerds/gurus - Windows is for average user > - Linux is for geeks/nerds/gurus - Windows is for enterprise > - Linux is for servers - Windows is for desktop > - Linux is hard - Windows is easy > > People, remember, this wasn't about OS installation, setting network > services, firewalls, routers or sending Rovers to Mars. This wasn't even > about security. This was just a simple "scanner and camera" case. > > The truth is out there: > > Linux started on solid and healthy ground, developing slowly and > gradually, all the way obeying the clear and open rule-sets of good > design and proper implementation. With time, it offered more and more - > and just the things that users wanted to have. There was no marketing > force behind it, with its overly expensive projects that perform > low-level formating of users' brains. > > And, yes, most of previous paragraph's content doesn't apply to Windows. > > Now - my favourite lin/win statement (flame, please): > > 1 - Linux is for people that don't have problem with permanent process > of learning. > 2 - Windows is for people that don't have problem with being just > consumers of whatever the industries sell. > 3 - No one of us is clearly just one or just the other of the above two. > It's the delicate mixture of the two that makes everyone of us so unique > and so important. :-) > 4 - Funny to see the two fighting so often. ;-) > > > Best regards, > > cikasole > > _______________________________________________ > Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. > Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html -- http://www.tarundua.net Nothing you ever wanted to find about Tarun Dua
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