Surprised and Disappointed

[Cameron Harr]

Chuck Allison wrote:
> Hello pluglist,
> 
>   I did a custom install of RedHat 8.0 last week and things went very
>   well, I thought. (I've posted some queries about Samba and Sound
>   Cards, issues I expected to have problems with). Last night when
>   trying to use Mozilla I got all kinds of strange graphics garbage
>   and had to reboot (shades of Windows here). This morning I came to
>   my Linux box and saw a frozen screen saver - I had to cold boot! As
>   a Windows guy, this is just deja vu all over again. Isn't Linux
>   supposed to be more stable than Windows? I usually don't have such
>   problems with Windows installations this early in their life cycle!
>   Should I turn off the screen saver (and how is that done)?
> 
>   So far, I don't see the great appeal of Linux, unless one is the
>   type of person who lives for tweaking systems. I use systems as
>   development, teaching, and productivity tools, and would be happy if
>   they would just "work". As a data point, I have a Windows XP box
>   that's been running for 18 months now without a problem (I have
>   never had to reboot because of any error - just to install system
>   updates on occasion), and of course when I add other Windows boxes
>   to my LAN workgroup, they're immediately visible and usable. I'm
>   getting the feeling that the appeal of Linux is mainly just as a
>   server, and not as a development machine or office workstation.
>   These past few days of trying to setup Linux have been mostly
>   frustration. I had a much easier time setting up Solaris networks
>   last time I did UNIX (just a few years ago).
> 
>   So why do you like Linux? Just because it's not a Microsoft product?
>   I still can't print to my Windows printer correctly with all the
>   advice I've received from this list and the online Samba guide, and
>   also by reading the RedHat 8.0 Bible.
> 
>   Please don't be offended. I'm really just curious about all this.
>   I'm thinking that since I'm not in the business of maintaining
>   servers, then Linux is probably not worth my time. Productivity is
>   very important to me and I don't want to spend so much time battling
>   against a hard-to-configure system. Does that make sense?
> 
>   If on the other hand there is some great benefit on the other side
>   of all this complexity (other than stability, which my XP box already
>   has), please take a moment and convince me. Thanks.
>   
> 

Chuck,
I just thought I'd throw in a comment here. I've been using Linux for 
5.5 years or so, but I'm not an unreasonable zealot. At work, I run both 
XP and Linux, though I use Linux more heavily. XP lets me communicate 
with the Windows users, and in my opinion, Windows still has several 
advantages over Linux. However, for the brunt of my work, Linux is 
faster, more powerful, easier to use, and is capable of a lot more than 
Windows is (and probably ever will be). I'll probably get flamed for 
this, but I feel you should use whatever the best tool for the job is. 
However, give Linux a little time, and if you're like most, you'll get 
things working and spend a lot of time in it.

As far as crashing goes, it's the apps, rather than the OS that crashes 
(whereas in Windows, they're often combined), and it's usually due to 
hardware incompatibilities. Perhaps one thing you can try is attend one 
of the PLUG installfests (If you're around Provo at all -- which I don't 
know) and let some local experts tune your box so that it works. That 
will probably be the easiest thing to do. Just my 2 cents.
-Cameron