Surprised and Disappointed

[Stuart Jansen]

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On Mon, 2003-05-05 at 11:05, Chuck Allison wrote:
>   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

That is one of the most fun parts of Linux. But my experience is that
you eventually out grow it. I just don't have as much time to tweak
anymore.

The key here is knowledge. You can't come to Linux cold and expect to
use it effectively. As others have pointed out, you've been trying to
apply Windows solutions to Linux. (Specifically, rebooting.)

>   development, teaching, and productivity tools, and would be happy if
>   they would just "work". As a data point, I have a Windows XP box

As of RH 8+ (including other distros) most things do "just work".=20

>   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

And as a data point, on a Linux box you should only ever have to reboot
if you install a new kernel. Otherwise, you can usually upgrade in place
(even with active users, depending on the software) without ever
rebooting. Now of course you can't upgrade a database with users
connected, but I've never had a problem with upgrading most things live.
(Which doesn't mean you should do it on a server. There it always pays
to be conservative.)

>   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).

Development is actually, in my opinion, one of the areas where Linux
shines brightest. We may not have Visual Studio, but we have a large
selection of free quality tools. Remember, the Unix paradigm is lots of
simple programs that can be used together easily.

An office workstation? It's useable for me, but I'm a programmer that
occasionally turns out documentation. I'm not an office worker. I
suspect that with a dedicated technician it would be great--but then
most Windows machines in businesses also have dedicated technicians.

For networking, I recommend avoiding RH's gui. I've had some problems
with it, just don't trust it. Editing the text files is generally easy
enough for someone with Unix background.

>   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.

Because Linux is free and flexible. It is being developed by a community
instead of controlled by a(n abusive, near) monopoly.

But you're right, more vendors strive to support Windows. The fact is
that some things just don't work in Linux because the vendors refuse to
help. Your printer may turn out that way.

Multimedia is one area where Linux still really lags.

>   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?

It makes perfect sense. It's why I use Linux instead of Windows. ;-)

If the transition doesn't benefit you, don't make it. Depending on your
situation, the time investment to switch may be too great. You either
need 1) to see it as a long term investment (ie, you think you'll
eventually be forced to switched to Linux and want to prepare) or 2) you
need someone to support it for you at a lower cost than your own time.

--=20
Stuart Jansen <sjansen at byu.edu, AIM:StuartMJansen>

When in doubt, use brute force. -- Ken Thompson, co-creator of Unix

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