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I did that, installing Ubuntu last fall. It was miles better than the last Linux distro I installed, Red Hat 6 back in the 90s, but it was still a painful proce

by bcbrown 14y ago

I did that, installing Ubuntu last fall. It was miles better than the last Linux distro I installed, Red Hat 6 back in the 90s, but it was still a painful process.

rbanffy 14y ago
I find it rather odd someone considers installing Ubuntu a painful process. From time to time I have to install Windows machines for testing and, compared to Ubuntu, it's a slow and involved process. With Ubuntu it's something like boot, answer questions, install (with updates) and boot-to-useful-machine. With Windows it's often install (which takes a long time, with several boots), find, download and install drivers, install updates, reboot, install newer updates, reboot again and so on... The only situation where a Windows box is less pain than an Ubuntu one is when corporate IT installs it for you and drops it onto your desk.
- wonderzombie 14y ago
  I'm not a particular fan of Windows or Linux, but yes, I agree with this. I went through a phase where I installed multiple Linux distros into VMs and Ubuntu was quite easy. And don't forget the part where you have to enter a 25 character, alphanumeric CD key. If you have a couple of machines in the house, hopefully you remembered to mark which key you've already used! I sure didn't.
- bcbrown 14y ago
  The installation itself wasn't the pain. It was the usability and configuration afterwards that sucked. The built-in music player didn't work, with no hinting towards the problem. There was some other stuff I can't remember specifically now. I did like, however, how easy it was to get up and running with Python and Vim. It's significantly easier to install third-party modules on Linux than on Windows, in my experience. I think Linux is a better 'work' OS for development, but Windows is better for a home consumer OS. But it's not worth booting back to Linux just to work on my side projects, so I just develop in Windows.
pyre 14y ago
Did you have to compile your printer drivers from source? That's the kind of mis-information that I'm talking about.

by bcbrown 14y ago

I did that, installing Ubuntu last fall. It was miles better than the last Linux distro I installed, Red Hat 6 back in the 90s, but it was still a painful process.

rbanffy 14y ago

I find it rather odd someone considers installing Ubuntu a painful process. From time to time I have to install Windows machines for testing and, compared to Ubuntu, it's a slow and involved process. With Ubuntu it's something like boot, answer questions, install (with updates) and boot-to-useful-machine. With Windows it's often install (which takes a long time, with several boots), find, download and install drivers, install updates, reboot, install newer updates, reboot again and so on... The only situation where a Windows box is less pain than an Ubuntu one is when corporate IT installs it for you and drops it onto your desk.

wonderzombie 14y ago
I'm not a particular fan of Windows or Linux, but yes, I agree with this. I went through a phase where I installed multiple Linux distros into VMs and Ubuntu was quite easy. And don't forget the part where you have to enter a 25 character, alphanumeric CD key. If you have a couple of machines in the house, hopefully you remembered to mark which key you've already used! I sure didn't.
bcbrown 14y ago
The installation itself wasn't the pain. It was the usability and configuration afterwards that sucked. The built-in music player didn't work, with no hinting towards the problem. There was some other stuff I can't remember specifically now. I did like, however, how easy it was to get up and running with Python and Vim. It's significantly easier to install third-party modules on Linux than on Windows, in my experience. I think Linux is a better 'work' OS for development, but Windows is better for a home consumer OS. But it's not worth booting back to Linux just to work on my side projects, so I just develop in Windows.

pyre 14y ago

Did you have to compile your printer drivers from source? That's the kind of mis-information that I'm talking about.