Linux is not Windows
Jul 26th, 2008 by Don Ray
My first attempt to help a person bring up Linux turned out to be a big waste of my time. I received a cry for help email, saying that the individual wanted to install Linux because he couldn’t get Windows XP running on a Sony Laptop after removing Windows Vista.
Against my better judgment, I agreed to help. Bringing up a Linux system is always more difficult on a laptop and Sony can be more difficult than most laptops. Still, after listening to the reasons the individual needed to have a stable PC, I agreed.
I sent copies of UBUNTU and live openSUSE to try, until I had a chance to go by and set it up. When I finally got a chance to go by the house, I found the live CD of openSUSE running. The individual said he had tried to install UBUNTU (normally the easiest to install of all Linux distributions), but it had failed.
I had taken a openSUSE DVD with me to install. I decided to start out by rebooting the PC to see the condition it was in. UBUNTU came up. No problem. I am not sure what the individual had seen to make him think he had problems, but it had installed fine.
I decided to go ahead and install openSUSE, because it would make it easier to provide help if the system was the same as the one I was running. It took a little over an hour to install openSUSE KDE and apply all of the updates. It installed without a problem.
The first thing I noticed, was that there was no sound. I opened the sound control and changed a few settings and there was now sound. I started the standard music program Amarok, and played one of my favorite stations.
I was out of time and had to leave. The individual had a Logitech web-cam that currently wasn’t running. I told him I would solve the problem when I returned from PC.
While I have been here in PC, I received a message that the individual was trying SUSE again, after having re-installed Windows XP. I asked why he had installed XP. He said he was trying to get sound. I said, it had sound when I left, and asked what happened. He said it seemed to have had sound, but had none the following morning.
He said he had tried to install Thunderbird, but couldn’t figure out what to do after downloading it. I had told him not to download anything and to use the program manager that is built into SUSE. Thunderbird would have installed with no problem d he followed directions.
For his needs, Linux would have been a good system. He only wanted a messenger, and email. I feel confident I could have solved the Logitech problem, if I had the time to do it. He is now off of my support list.
Linux is not Windows. If you try to apply practices that you use on Windows to manage things, you are going to be disappointed. He currently has Windows XP running on the laptop, without sound. Sony won’t provide the driver for that laptop, since it comes installed with Windows Vista. On his message today, he said he was getting a MAC.
From my standpoint, I proved that openSUSE would install on the laptop. I also proved to myself that you can’t help all people, even when they send you email’s with the title “HELP!!!!!!!!!”.
For my next attempt, it will be with a person that is committed to being patient until they give Linux a chance to be learned.
Repeat after me. Linux is not Windows. Linux is not Windows. Linux is not Windows.
don, you have a lot of free time to be an ONG on Linux,
that’s the way
David
Utter sympathy for you, Don. The person probably won’t like the Mac, either, since it’s different from Windows.
Hi D&B. I am not sure what a ONG is, but I will take your word for it.
Hi Mary. His last question was if you could run Window’s applications on a Mac. I told him you could if you installed Boot Camp (only required if you are not using Leopard), and then Windows (why bother - Apple programs do everything that is needed). He said he wanted to run Window’s media program. I told him to do what ever he liked. He is now free of my consultation and assistance.
Heh-heh! No good deed goes unpunished.
I’m convinced that there is a background, subliminal program that runs in all versions of Windows, which over time, reduces users’ reasoning ability and capacity for learning anything new.
OK, this is TIC.
Hi Henry,
You may be right. I should have thought of that.
Despite our best hopes and dreams, Linux is still nowhere near good enough for the vast majority of pc users.
You may have time to mess about with it, most people don’t have the same inclination.
On this point we will have to agree to disagree. Unless ypu are wanting to play games which are better suited to game hardware, I think it can handle other applications. i think UBUNTU has made great strides and I am finding openSUSE equal to UBUNTU.
I have clients who literally don’t know the difference between an email client and a word processor. These same people use Linux every day with very few problems, much fewer in fact, than a few years ago before I got them off Windows. For them, the only difference between Linux and Windows is they can’t install Bonzi Buddy and other malware and they don’t get viruses. To use it, they still click the internet icon, or the email icon, or the “Office” icon. For me, it’s a whole lot less work to keep their computers healthy.
Henry
Hi Henry. Linux has come so far in the last 5 years, it is hard for me to recognize it is Linux. It supports more hardware than any other OS on the planet.
At the present, the only thing I haven’t taught myself is to compress videos for YouTube. I think that problem is mine and not Linux. If you could remove Linux from the world, with a snap of the fingers, there would be no Internet, because the majority is running on Linux servers.
If I were an Apple user, I would be a little afraid right now. Apple almost collapsed when Steve Jobs left Apple the last time and formed NEXT. Since he has returned, he and the iPhone have ignited the world. The unfortunate thing, is that Apple is identified with Jobs.
My fear is that his health is not good and if he were not there, Apple might suffer like it did when he wasn’t there. Linux, on the other hand, is not dependent on one person.
I have always hoped that Linux would quickly get to the point of being a viable alternative to Windows. And Windows Vista was an excellent shot in the arm to the linux community. Vista imho is nothing short of a total disaster, as an OS.
I’ve had brief encounters with all the main flavours of linux, and to date can’t recommend any of them. Joe Public would struggle to get his/her head around these new OS’s. And it’s no good saying that it’s a great OS merely because it offers a great word processor and internet client, etc. Until the big software makers (like adobe) start enabling their softwares (like photoshop) to run on linux, then the masses won’t move over to linux.
We’re not there yet. But I hope desperately that we quickly see the day when linux puts microsoft to the sword.
I agree that Linux would get a big shot in the arm with some of the big players having their software run under Linux. However, the fact that they haven’t, doesn’t meant that Linux is not a great system.
I have put a friend on openSUSE, that is as much of a novice PC user as I know. He is having fewer problems running Linux, than he did running Windows XP (Still the best system that M$ ever made).
Photoshop is a complicated application. Few people are equipped to use 80% of its capability. I find that GIMP is a pretty good replacement for Photoshop and it is free.
I also have an Apple running OSX. That system is not without its problems either. It takes a reasonable amount of learning curve to switch from Windows to OSX.
I think Microsoft has about killed its PC market. It would not be difficult to see a Windowless world in 10 years. If Jobs doesn’t eliminate some of his arrogance, he may damage Apple as well. In today’s world all companies live on the razor’s edge of extension.
Take GM. Once the most dominate player in the world car market. Today, it, Ford, and Chrysler are struggling to survive. The same can be said for countries. I just read that today, China is the largest user of the Internet. The only thing constant is change.
Linux will always face an uphill battle. Marketing moves products. UNIVAC once built the best computers. IBM passed them, not because it built a better product, but because it built a better marketing department.
Time will tell whether the grass roots promotion of Linux can ever compete with the billions spent promoting the other operating systems.
Hi Don, I am not surprised the individual tried to switch back to Windows. The average user doesn’t have the skills or have the time to figure out Linux. I know a lot of people who just want things to work. (They don’t care how it works) I am techie (like you) and love to play with computers and electronics. So if the sound didn’t work when I installed Ubuntu then I would look at is as a challenge and try to figure out. But to your friend, he expected it to work like Windows. To be honest, I thought the Ubuntu install was very easy. I have to commend the way they set it up. It is very straight forward. But I think until people change their mindset, Windows will still be the people’s choice. But Linux is making great strides.