Andrew Lentvorski wrote:
Linux *still* sucks.
In many ways yes - dependencies (WTF can't people compile static versions of applications?!), distros removing things that I've used for years, stupid changes here and there, breaking hardware drivers that worked fine on a previous version, etc. Basically everything kind of problem you listed. I still think Winsucks sucks more.
That said, I've only had two real problems with Red Hat over the years. The first was RH 7.0 and I don't think I need to say any more about that abortion of a release.
The second was with RHEL and my NVIDIA cards. It basically broke OpenGL so bad I literally got 1 FPS in every OpenGL app. (and it really torqued me that I couldn't play America's Army - my favorite game until the AA team screwed up my honor points and never fixed them).
Every other install I've done, including on my laptop, has worked fine. Full OpenGL on NVIDIA cards (GF2 up through GF FX5700), touchpad, USB and USB<->serial adapters, external USB HDD, external monitor, dual monitors, wireless, Ethernet to serial multiplexer, DVD-rom drives and burners, etc. The thing that most annoys me about Linux and Linux apps. is the dependencies. For example, a recent upgrade of MySQL in FC4 resulted in removing MySQL 4.1 (and all related mysql* RPMs) in order to do the upgrade. The reason is because for Fedora the RPMs on the CD are named mysql-<something> whereas the MySQL 5.x RPMs are named MySQL-<something>. Getting the dependencies, and getting them installed in the right order, was somewhat painful.
The worst dependency problem I've had was Video for Linux. I never could remember how I got it all installed so that I could write it up.
I think the main reason that Linux is not as popular on the desktop as it could be is the installation process and dependency problems for most of the apps. out there. The good part of that is it keeps the lusers out. :)
PGA -- Paul G. Allen Owner, Sr. Engineer, BSIT/SE Random Logic Consulting Services www.randomlogic.com -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
