Hi, Matthew! On Tue, Jul 17, 2007 at 12:52:24PM -0400, Matthew Harrison wrote: > Then my question is now "why in the world are you using Linux?" > You're describing things that aren't an issue at all if you know some > basics about Linux, and if you use a package manager, all of this > virtually disappears. Perhaps you would be happier with an OS that > barely changes for years at a time such as Win2k?
I love using Linux! It's a wonderful system to use! So versatile, so flexible, free (in both senses). I actually know somewhat more than the basics of the system. I'm a bash and AWK script enthusiast, and I hack Emacs. I've set up a qmail server running to connect me with my ISP. It's _installing_ and _configuring_ the system which I detest. Finding the necessary info seems a black art. It took me a whole day and a half to get my printer working, for example. I don't think there's a coherent description of how to configure the network stuff anywhere. Of course, it doesn't help that the main IDE controller on my motherboard is hd[gh], and its hardware address shifts each time I add another card in. Maybe things would be less bad if I next installed something like Ubuntu. By contrast, installing Win2k is about as difficult as inserting the DVD into a virgin machine, but it's really not the sort of system I want. As for package managers, they're like magic spells. When they work, they're wonderful, when they don't, they're a nightmare. At least when you build and install from a tarball, you can see what's going on, and you can be reasonably sure that the Makefile won't be doing anything "helpful" behind your back. It was a package manager which failed to install the OO help file(s) on my system, for example, and it was another package manager which dismantled Jonathon's X-Windows when he de-installed Firefox. Unfortunately, building things from source is only practical for isolated programs. > I'm a full-time Linux user that runs a bleeding-edge Gentoo system on > the unstable branch (meaning, I use the latest of everything on my > system whether or not the Gentoo gods have deemed the software stable) > and this isn't the experience I have with it at all. Updating > openoffice is as easy as typing "emerge openoffice (or openoffice-bin > if I don't want to wait for a compile)" when a new version is > available, and my package manager handles the rest - config files > intact. I really suggest using a different operating system or > learning some Linux basics and using a package manager. There's just > no good reason to be using 1.1.3, really. There would be no reason to install 1.1.3 from scratch. However, given that it works on my system, and I can work it on my system (more or less), the right time to install the new version is when I've got several days of calm in which I can learn its idosyncrasies in peace, not when I'm hopelessly stressed out like I am at the moment. It would be nice to have the help working, though. I put it to you that the way you continually update your system isn't an easy natural thing to do at all; rather, it's a highly refined skill that you've developed over an extended period. -- Alan Mackenzie (Ittersbach, Germany). --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
