Hi Rowan,
I too am a returnee from the Windows world back to Linux. I dabbled in the
early 90's but went the MS route because my clients needed the ease you speak
of.
I am promoting Linux now to clients as it is now at a point that it is ready
for them to use. There are differences between home users and busienss users
but I will touch on those as I go through. I hope this might give you some
help with the issues you speak of.
To address a couple of your issues:
> My first installation attempts were fruitless due to defective discs
> and then I had email connection problems caused by an unworkable network
To see you got through that and got it working is excellent. Great
perserverance. As you say these things are common to both MS and Linux. I
find my older MS operating systems (O/s's) have the same problem and drivers
are a pain in the neck if you are installing new hardwarte on a win 98
machine. Things get worse if you are using NT. Most people don't bother to
work through those problems but at least with Linux there is the opportunity
to write or get written a driver whereas if Win OS that never happens.
Classic example .. i cant use USB for WinNT 4.0 and I never will be able to
as it doesn't do USB. Under Linux I wil always be able to upgrade my kernel
to include the latest hardware.
> There are a couple of gripes that really frustrated me earlier and
> still do. The fact that my scanner is not listed as compatible and I can�t
> play games as I used to.
I too had and have the same problem with scanners and a Z33 Lexmark printer.
But by the same token some of my Windows OS also give me the same grief, see
above. Like many things with such a wide range of choices now days it is
important to check hardware against your OS, be it Win or Linux. Classic
example. My friend has a Video capture card and box. Works on Win95 and 98
but from ME and Win2000 onwards it doesn't work. It is now junk for him.
Under Linux it will always work.
As for games, some will run using Wine ( Civilisation, F117 stealth bomber etc
are good examples of old games running under WINE for Linux but not under
some MS O/S's. There are many games avaiable for Linux. If you were to post
the games you want to play then many here will gladly give you:
1 - The location to get them from legally and possibly free
2: - Some excellent alternatives similar to your game
3. THe site of the server that serves them as a games server.
4. A challange to play against you :-)
Linux also comes with at least 40 games on many standard distros.
What you face is not a Linux problem. It is the same no matter whether you use
a game that wont run on a new versin of Windows, a PS/2 game that wont play
on XBox or a brand new game that kills your older machine.
At least with Linux the game should always work no matter how new the
operating system / kernel. THe other joy is you can have ten year old kernels
running along side the latest kernel on the same box, in the same partition,
usaing the same data and programmes (give or take) , windows has lots of
trouble doing that.
> As may have already been stated one of the most important things that
> must be improved (?) with Linux is to make it attractive enough to �new
> entrants� or �converts� so they don�t unthinkingly and automatically go to
> MS.
Redhat , for all its detractors, does that. Easier to load than even Win98,
more stable, doesn't bug you trying to find drivers (99% of time you have to
add all the extra drivers for Win installations) and is free.
By that I mean that it must be really easy to use, must look nice
Have you seen Ximian desktop? More Win XP than XP, has outlook clone, is fully
functional, and adds the beauty of some Mac styling for ease of access. Beat
the WinXP expereince hands down for userability and speed. Remember, my
business is to make life easy for my customers and this is the Desktop I rate
for them to use. My wife and office clerk both used it first time, with no
instruction and they have both never used linux before. WinXP had them
stuffed with its coimplex nav and start bar system and all those annoying pop
up messages all the time. Not to mention that b^&$%&& paper clip.
> maybe even give some of the programs sensible names - my sister was looking
> over my mandrake recently and she commented about how many of them had
> strange names - �why do so many of the names have K in front of them ?�
Strange names appear in Windows too. Take winipcfg, winipcfg, ipcfg ipcconfig.
They are all the same programme renamed in different version of windows. then
there is winosx.vsd type files. What are they? Linux hides the names if you
are using a gui, same as windows .. but Linux makes it easier to use them if
you need them and once you under stand the naming system it is easier than
Visual Basic calls to kernel32.dll to implement :-)
The k prefix means it is a programme designed to run with the KDE desktop. It
will run under Gnome as well. This means you get KCalc, KWrite, Kpresenter
etc. It makes it easier to know it is a KDE programme and not a Gnome
programme. Other examples .. GJava GJavac, GWrite ... all Gnu programmes to
run using Gnu system.
> and polishing the details is the main thing that the linux distros must do
> to get more into the office and home PC.
Once again try Ximian ... you will be pleasently surprised. It has made Linux
ready to go on business desktops.
My suggestion for the ease of setup (my apologies to mandrake users or others
whom I haven't expereince the installer for)
Redhat 9.0
Ximian Front end on a
Gnome desktop
Ximian Evolution for Email
Ximians Web Browser
Open office for word processing etc.
Linux Quake, Descent etc for games. wine to run some Win games. THere is also
a windows emulator / runner available that will allow you to run Windows
natively under Linux.
That should be a nice and easy start. like I said my wife love sit and gets
frustrated with Windows. Now if only they would make a Welsh module :-)
I hope this helps, having gone thorugh many of the same frustratins. My last
thought is this, the frustration is not a Windows is better than Linux one,
it is an unfamiliarity and some manufacturers aqre ignoring Linux at their
peril (considering its market growth) issue.
Regards,
Shane
Shane Hollis
Notes Unlimited New Zealand
Ph: 021 465 547
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
