Blarg

[plonq]

This weekend I have decided to do what I should have done when I first got my notebook computer last year; I am going to reformat the drive and do a fresh OS install.

For no good reason, I decided to see how Linux would function on the notebook. I've heard good things about Ubuntu, so I downloaded the DVD overnight and booted it up this morning. Everything seemed to work fine except for my wireless Internet connection. I must admit that the network tools in this GUI blow worse than any I've tried to use in awhile.

I was grumping to one of my propeller-head buddies in IM about it a few minutes ago, and he admitted that Linux "has issues" with wireless networking at times. While we were chatting, I did some more research through some of the Linux forums, and based on what I read there, I concluded that it's not worth the effort. I bucked up for the XP Pro disc when I bought this computer, so I may as well use that. I am not going to invest a lot of time in an OS where I have to fight my way through simple "no-brainer" issues like networking.

On the other hand, since I already have it burnt to disc, I may try installing it on one of my spare drives and see how it works on my desktop.

Comments

[kfops.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you, but while support for some stuff can be excellent, one can be left out to dry on some other.

I've actually been more interested in Kubuntu, simply because I like KDE stuff more than Gnome. KDE has always struck me as a bit ahead, but that could only be in my mind.

[feren.livejournal.com]

This happens to me on average of every six months. Whenever somebody starts advocating some new flavor of Open Source at me I just have to ask if it'll run on my three-year old Dell laptop with well-documented parts (video card, wireless, etc).

Thus far the answer has always been one of, "Well ... sure! Although that's for some value of 'run'. But see, if you just put up with this inconvenience or that piece of hardware you paid for being non-functional then you're free of MS and yaddayaddayadda." I'm with jwz on this -- I don't care if it's "free," I don't care if I'm putting money in some greedy company's hands (Apple/MS/whatever) ... I just want the damn thing to WORK. It really isn't so much to ask, is it? This is the future, right?

[plonq.livejournal.com]

It's a bit of a cycle with me. Every year or so I will go out and grab the latest recommended open source OS. I'll try to install it and run into a series of annoyances that eventually lead me to give up for another day.

One might reasonably ask why I keep trying, when each time I just give up in frustration and whine about it here. The short answer is that the non-cynical part of me thinks, "They've had a whole year to work a bunch of these problems out of the OS. Maybe it's finally ready for prime-time, and I can finally wean myself away from MS/Apple."

Ah well. We'll see how things look next year.

[gedrean.livejournal.com]

The problem with Linux and Wifi is that the card manufacturers rarely provide accurate drivers for the specification. Plus, since every distro is different, every distro needs its own drivers. Pity.