3 ms·
> > When there are issues with a Linux install, it's usually transparent enough to debug. > Bull. I've been using Linux for decades and it's always the same st
by _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
> > When there are issues with a Linux install, it's usually transparent enough to debug.
> Bull. I've been using Linux for decades and it's always the same story. You have a problem with X, you do a search for your problem with X, you find a dozen solutions that don't apply to you because you're on a different distro or they're from 2013 when half the software stack was different.
Ok, so in some cases there can be complications. But once you've found (a/the) solution, it makes a sort of sense. In contrast, in the cases I've successfully found a solution to a problem on Windows, the reasons usually remain opaque. This, surely, is a side-effect of running a proprietary OS, and one I no longer have patience for.
For example, when I was dual-booting Windows 10 on two desktops a couple of years ago, I ran into major problems just getting Windows installed (taking far longer to ultimately install than it ever took me to install any Linux distro, from Ubuntu to Arch to Void to GuixSD).
I had downloaded the official Windows 10 image from Microsoft onto a usb thumbdrive and went to install. During the installing process, it failed with an obscure message about missing drivers. I try on the other differntly-configured desktop (different motherboard etc). It's the same thing. I think perhaps it's an chicken-and-egg issue with trying to install via a usb3 port (i.e. maybe it's missing usb3 drivers or something). Seems unlikely, but I try booting from a usb2 port. No luck. For good measure, even from different usb ports. But it doesn't matter, it's always the same error message during install. Seems like something which would be easy to debug, since there are in fact lots of Windows users, but I can't find anything similar described.
I finally find a post on some obscure forum which describes a similar problem. The suggested solution: wait until you get the 'drivers missing' error, and then unplug the installation usb thumb and plug it into a different usb port. (So it doesn't matter which usb port you start with, it will always 'miss' the drivers until you unplug it and plug it into another usb port.)
I thought: what a stupid solution, surely it won't work, but what the hell, let's try it for shits and giggles. Of course, that was the solution. That's completely opaque. The solution might as well have been sprinkling the machine with chicken blood while playing the Beatles' White Album.
I don't know how many hours were wasted trying to resolve that. After a year or so, I ended up wiping all of the Windows partitions. Too much headache.
It sounds like you have better experiences with Window. Perhaps you have the right magic touch that's needed.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y agoI won't disagree that Windows has this issue, I just disagree that Linux doesn't have equally frustrating diagnosability issues. Just because you haven't personally encountered them does not mean they don't exist.
- _emacsomancer_ 8y agoThere are certainly irritating problems which can arise on Linux, I'm not in any way denying that. But on Windows, the closed nature of the OS makes certain things particularly irritatingly opaque and inflexible.
- simion314 8y agoI also had issues installing Win10 for someone, weird error messages, the solution was to open a command prompt and format the disk manually with fdisk and create partitions manually.