Dell Inspiron 3800 stats:
Ubuntu:
- installation: about 0.5 hour
- hardware: perfect detection and operation (didn't/don't care about
the winmodem)
- software: Lots of goodies
- usability: great
Windows 2000:
- installation: about 1.5 hours
- hardware: pcmcia nic and wireless card both failed to configure
without installation CDs. I had to use my own wireless card (which
I had the CD for) to get the drivers for these from the internet.
Even then, it wasn't easy to get windows straightened out. The
sound card was also incorrectly identified and the driver had to be
uninstalled and replaced by one from the net. USB jump drive
didn't work right until windows update had run.
- software: all day to download firefox, openoffice, a media player,
windows updates, etc.
- other: for some inexplicable reason the install didn't overwrite the
MBR so to finish the install I had to modify grub to get windows to
boot. This was perhaps a pleasant surprise, because modifying grub
is easier than reinstalling grub, but that doesn't mean it wasn't
broken.
- usability: much slower than linux, uglier, but more windows-like (duh)
Summary: Linux on the desktop (at least by the name of ubuntu) has
surpassed the ease and speed of installation of Windows 2000. I made
it a point to pretend to play dumb throughout the installation and
resist all urges to do something expert.
I think a normal user would have had less trouble on this hardware
getting ubuntu linux to a usable state than getting windows to a
usable state. Installing linux took some general intelligence and
common sense, while installing windows took very creative wizardry and
recalled experience from my windows days.
--
.O. Hans Fugal | De gustibus non disputandum est.
..O http://hans.fugal.net | Debian, vim, mutt, ruby, text, gpg
OOO | WindowMaker, gaim, UTF-8, RISC, JS Bach
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