Frustrated with Linux, can it really be this user un-friendly?

Ben Cole

Ben Cole

Ben Cole

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Over the years I have had a few attempts at getting a useable linux OS.

Firstly it was hampered by no support for my Netgear wireless card. I wasted about 14hrs solid tinkering with unfamiliar stuff like ndiswrapper trying to get it to work and in the end I gave up.

This time round I tried ubuntu gutsy gibbon. I was very pleased and impressed at first how much worked out of the box on my new dell vostro 1500.

However the stumbling block has come around. No sound.

After googling and searching I've found a couple of "fixes" but these involve line after line of unfamiliar code to enter in a terminal window. Which produced many error reports anyway so didn't work.

I find it hard to believe it can really be this difficult just to get your system to an acceptable level of functionality.

I appreciate that Linux is the "nerds choice" but I'm stuck in a Catch 22 where I'm having to learn command line stuff just to get the thing to work. I'm pretty handy with windows and can't believe anyone can honestly criticise windows when linux is this bad just to get started.


Or am I missing something. Please help me get a working OS just so I have an option of escaping from Bill Gates' monopoly!!!!

I doesn't seem right.
 
You've alluded to the problem in your post. Microsoft have such a monopoly on personal computing that most of the hardware manufacturers don't provide support for linux. This leaves it to the open source community to try and produce drivers or workarounds for a vast array of hardware.

While things are getting better with distro's such as ubuntu and suse working hard to increase compatibility, if you have slightly less commonplace hardware in your system then it is possible you'll have to do some tinkering. This isn't because linux is bad, remember this same hardware needs drivers to work in Windows, it's because the hardware vendors don't support their hardware on this platform.

Ideally, people like yourself who are attracted to the open source community will continue to be persistent in trying to remedy such problems. This will allow the platform to grow to such an extent that hardware vendors will start to pay attention to Linux. It is already beginning with Ubuntu for one making huge inroads to Linux growth through user friendliness.

I really believe that open source is the future of personal computing so hang in there while we try and get the hardware support we need.
 
likwid has got it right on the nail... the problem is not with Linux itself but with the hardware manufacturers not creating drivers that are compatible with Linux or, if they don't have the resources to spare writing their own drivers, by providing the technical details thereby allowing the community to create their own drivers. It's a catch-22 with manufacturers claiming the market is too small, but potential converts to Linux claiming there are too many hardware incompatibility issues. The immense popularity of Ubuntu and having companies like Dell selling Linux-based PCs suggests things are changing, so hopefully manufacturers (are you listening, Creative?) will sit up and listen.
 
...also, Linux isn't really any "harder" to learn than Windows, in my opinion. It is, however, different. One of the important things to remember when getting to grips with Linux is that it's not Windows, and things that you expect in Windows ain't necessarily gonna be the same in *nix (my mother finds the concept of the registry in Windows to be very strange). There's an article that gets posted here a lot called "Linux is not Windows" that ought to be included with every distro.
 
there's another aspect to your problem.

the linux community don't really care. they generally develop the os and all that goes with it for the love, not for the money. they want it to be all that they aim for, but they have no real vested interest in wether you use it or not.

microsoft on the other hand stand to earn cash money for a loyal following.

so microsoft put a lot of effort into making life wonderfull for it's paying customers.
the linux community tend to fix their own problems first and the most common, or most complained about issues thereafter.

to be fair, for many, many users, a standard install of any recent distro of linux, will just work out of the box. and not only that, but will come with oh so much more for free than microsoft could ever deliver in one package. however, if/when somethingdoesn't work you either have to find someone who already knows the fix, or you fix it yourself. you get all of the source code for free, so in theory there is nothing you can't fix.

in windows land, if the os is buggy, you wait untill an official patch is released, you cannot fix it yourself.

i'm not knocking microsoft here, they have earned their place in computing history, and all the money that generated in my book. but don't judge linux by windows standards. that's not fair. if windows works better for you and you don't mind paying the cost and paying for all the extras on top (from an office suite, to decent email client, to well everything you could have for free with linux) then you really probably ought to be using windows.

linux works really well for those of us comfortable enough with I.T. to dare to tinker under the hood. or those willing to try. and who don't mind the tradeoff between, sometimes having to meddle to get things working for the freedom to do exactly what you want, total configurability and truly free software.

look, i'm not meaning to criticise you personally, but maybe you're just not ready for linux yet. it's a big step. maybe you never will be. or maybe you'll come round. i dabbled with linux a few times onand off, starting about 12 years ago. i've used it at work for 5 years and yet it was only 18 months ago i took thepluge and moved all my home machines over to linux completely. i don't mind the challenge of the occasional fix, and i've got the knowledge and experience to get stuck in most times i need to. but i'd recommend windows to probably 99% of people i know if they asked me what they should use on their new pc.
 
I completely disagree with everything you said. You're making Linux and the open source community sound unfriendly and inaccessable when completely the opposite is true. There are a great many people working very hard to make linux easy to use and compatible and great progress is being made. Why is it such a big step? As you said, for most people distros such as ubuntu will work fine without tinkering.
 
Interesting points guys.

For the record I chose ubuntu because Dell use it. I have a brand new Dell Vostro and I assumed there'd be drivers for all the components. I was wrong.

I also understand that open source software is necessarily self centred. That's understandable.

It's just so frustrating that all the so called fixes I've tried just return different errors at which point I'm back to square one.
 
LOL...found a solution.

After all the long winded crap I've tried what worked was four lines of code cut and paste into the terminal window.

A working distro at last.....I'm now ready to learn.
 
Fair play for getting it working. Bookmark the page or email the commands somewhere in case you need to do it again in the future :)

Also, be prepared to run into other problems somewhere down the line. As you've now seen though, if you don't give up and just do the easy switch back to Windows, you can generally solve most things (or find people who have already run into the same problem you're encountering and who have explained what to do to fix it).

Glad you stuck with it and got it working how you want it to.
 
Installing Linux is easy. So is using the applications.
Installing software and drivers is the most difficult part, usually easy enough but sometimes not (and has killed Linux on a couple of times)
 
badbob said:
Installing Linux is easy. So is using the applications.
Installing software and drivers is the most difficult part, usually easy enough but sometimes not (and has killed Linux on a couple of times)
Click to expand...

This isn't entirely true any more. Taking Ubuntu as an example [it is what I use at home] installing software is so easy it makes Window's look slow and clunky.

Open Terminal:

Code: 
sudo apt-get install [i]package-name[/i]

There, that was easy. Within a few minutes your software will be downloaded, installed, configured and ready to use.

Alternatively, in the latest versions of Ubuntu you can use the Add/Remove software utility found under Applications. This has a search feature which lets you search through all the packages available for Ubuntu. It is one-click install and takes moments. This utility has the benefit of descriptions for the software, which is ideal if you arent sure what you are after.

For packages that aren't found in the repositories, odds are they are .deb files. Simple:

Code: 
wget http://www.urltodebfile.com
dpkg -i filename.deb

And hurray!

Yes I admit there are situations where you need to mess around with compiling the source, but most packages that require this have good step-by-step instructions.

I doubt the average user would need to go beyond the Add/Remove Programs utility.
 
Care to add how to install M-Audio Revolution 5.1 drivers, and to get SPDIF port to work (PCM/DD/DTS?)
Also how to get MS 5 button mouse to work (forward/back etc)
 
Like I said, there are times you need to mess about, but not often [at least not in my own experience and I have been using Ubuntu since 6.10 on two computers]. And as has already been said, usually someone has already solved your problem and provided a solution.

Sometimes you just can't get something working which is a shame but rare.
 
For a given value of "it".

"It just works, with qualifications" may be more accurate, but to be fair no piece of software will work in every situation.
 
You've alluded to the problem in your post. Microsoft have such a monopoly on personal computing that most of the hardware manufacturers don't provide support for linux. This leaves it to the open source community to try and produce drivers or workarounds for a vast array of hardware.
Click to expand...
Linux is not the answer. It is certainly a question; but the answer is no thank you.
 
Not the most eloquently put argument.. Given that you appear to be in the Linux forum I can only assume you're trolling.

If linux is not the answer then the only other answer is Apple? Give me a break.
 
likwid said:
Not the most eloquently put argument.. Given that you appear to be in the Linux forum I can only assume you're trolling.
Click to expand...
Not at all, Linux has its uses - and many uses at that - but for the home and general office, Linux is not the answer (nor any Unix sister i.e. Mac OS).
 
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