On 5/2/06, Michael Adams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
And at the risk of upsetting people with this OT thread, I would add try Knoppix before you go any further. Knoppix is a sort of try before you buy Linux system which doesn't even need installing on your computer. It loads completely from CD/DVD. This will let you try configuring your hardware and see what works and what doesn't. It does run slower because of the CD environment but it will give you a taste of Linux. Also google for your local LUG.
I've been building PCs for ten years. I've tried Knoppix, Fedora, Slackware, Debian and several other distros. As long as you pick your hardware around Linux, you might be okay. However, if you want to install Linux on a machine you already own and/or have specific hardware needs, you're usually out of luck. If the Linux driver doesn't exist, it doesn't exist, and no amount of wishful thinking can change that. Installation of software that doesn't come with the distribution often is less than successful. Even compiling source (only necessary because of the incompatibility between distributions) according to instructions often doesn't work, because even different adjacent versions of the same distro often have some fundamental change that breaks the process. The fact that different Linux distributions have different directory structures is also a major obstacle. All it takes is one character of a folder name to be different, much less an actual different location, to break a software installation attempt. That doesn't even touch on prerequisite packages that aren't included and may or may not be installed or have come with the distro. The paths to various folders is complex, convoluted and far from intuitive. Many identical folders and even whole directory trees exist in different places with different purposes. The problem with Linux is that it only takes one serious issue to make it useless. What good does a computer do you if you can't print anything because a (working) driver doesn't exist for your printer? You can't access the Web or your email because there's no driver for your modem? Your hardware is fully functional but you can't access many years of data and documents created by another application? (Hence my need/desire to import tables into Base...) In contrast, I have never had a Windows installation fail or cause any kind of difficulty. Software installation is rarely an issue, drivers are always available, and the directory structure is much less bloated, mostly intuitive and easily understood. Yes, it's unstable and prone to virus and other attack, but that's as much a matter of hacker bias as anything else - they could just as easily write viruses for Linux, but then they wouldn't be able to crow about how vulnerable Windows is. And Linux is NOT perfect. I've seen it crash numerous times, even though it's far more stable than Windows or even MacOS. I hate Micro$oft and Windows as much as anyone, but until all the Linux developers wake up and help each other instead of working against each other it will never have a chance of contesting Windows as the OS of choice for the average PC user. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
