Vista Is Bad But Linux Is Horrendous!!!!

I've spent the last 3 days attempting to upgrade 4 Windows-XP systems
to Vista and have had various problems with software compatability.
I've spent countless hours on the phone and technical support websites
and finally after 3 days I have everything working.
This fiasco has left me with some doubt as to whether or not Microsoft
has the ability to maintain it's position as the defacto standard in
operating systems.

After reading about Linux I decided to give it a try on another system
which is an older P4 2.4G system based around an Asus board.
I downloaded Fedora and attempted to install.

First problem, my SATA drives were not found.

Google time 2 hours later I found the solution which was a
Custom Install Option.

(After a few cryptic questions and a partition manager that was
convoluted and potentially very dangerous in the hands of a new user,
Fedora was installed)

Second Problem, the system would not boot after install. I got a Grub
Error 15 message.

Google Time 5 Hours Later .. Oh boy I found lots of
information on this puppy. About 5 hours later I fixed the problem
which involved copying a know working Grub configuration file from
some kind soul on the net, modifying it for my particular system and
replacing the one already installed. I did this with a Knoppix LiveCD.

So now I can boot the system, but my display image is shifted way off
the screen and too low to click on anything.

Google Time 2 hours later Ok I learned how to boot to a
command line and edit the Xorg file to fix the entries that were
incorrect for my common Nvidia card.
So now I could see my desktop, but it was at 1024x768 and what
appeared to be 16 colors.

Google Time 3 hours later I discovered that there is no
apparent way to get 32bpp, 3D acceleration, 85hz and 1280x1024 all at
the same time like I have with Windows.
Bummer.
I settled for 1280x1024 24bpp and no 3d because I don't use it and
Linux doesn't appear to have any games written for Linux anyhow.

So now I have the system up, am surfing the net and things look pretty
good.
Time to add a printer.
I go to the control panel and click on printers and peruse the list
but I don't see my Lexmark Multifunction listed?
I do see a similar model however so I decide to try this.
It installs easy enough, but when I go to print I get one line of
gibberish on the top of the page, the page ejects and the next page
does the same thing over and over and over again.
Rebooting the system does no good because the printer, like a mad
beast, starts right up again wasting my paper.
Finally I turn the damm thing off while I.....................

Google Time 4 hours I discover Print Ques, printer names and
the wonderful account called root. I finally figure out how to purge
this thing and with some trepidation I turn the printer on and
thankfully it behaves.

Oh well, I don't need to print right now anyhow so on to my network.
The problem is, I can't see my other 3 Windows Vista machines.
And now it's.........
you guessed it!

GOOGLE TIME infinite I discover something called Samba, but I
also learn that Microsoft Vista and Samba are not friends but only
after a day and a hlf of playing with a smb.conf file and reading
maybe a hundred web pages devoted to helping people get Samba working,
and this is with Windows XP which supposedly plays nicely with Samba.
I wouldn't know know, I never got Samba working.

At this point, I took the Linux CD's, all 6 of them including the
rescue CD which seems useless BTW and tossed them, violently I might
add, into the dustbin.

I have wasted far too much time with this Linux crap and I don't
intend to waste another millisecond trying to shoehorn this pile of
garbage into my systems.

I can see why Linux is free.
It doesn't work!

I can also see why it is not even making the slightest ding in
Microsoft's armour:
It, Linux, doesn't work.

I'm not sure, but if the Linux users expect people, ordinary people,
to spend their lives Googling in order to make Linux work, they are
daft.

Maybe in 10 years Linux might be able to install and work properly,
but for now Linux is too difficult and too buggy for the average user.

Karla

wrote:
I've spent the last 3 days attempting to upgrade 4 Windows-XP systems
to Vista and have had various problems with software compatability.
I've spent countless hours on the phone and technical support websites
and finally after 3 days I have everything working.
This fiasco has left me with some doubt as to whether or not Microsoft
has the ability to maintain it's position as the defacto standard in
operating systems.

After reading about Linux I decided to give it a try on another system
which is an older P4 2.4G system based around an Asus board.
I downloaded Fedora and attempted to install.

First problem, my SATA drives were not found.

Google time 2 hours later I found the solution which was a
Custom Install Option.

(After a few cryptic questions and a partition manager that was
convoluted and potentially very dangerous in the hands of a new user,
Fedora was installed)

Second Problem, the system would not boot after install. I got a Grub
Error 15 message.

Google Time 5 Hours Later .. Oh boy I found lots of
information on this puppy. About 5 hours later I fixed the problem
which involved copying a know working Grub configuration file from
some kind soul on the net, modifying it for my particular system and
replacing the one already installed. I did this with a Knoppix LiveCD.

So now I can boot the system, but my display image is shifted way off
the screen and too low to click on anything.

Google Time 2 hours later Ok I learned how to boot to a
command line and edit the Xorg file to fix the entries that were
incorrect for my common Nvidia card.
So now I could see my desktop, but it was at 1024x768 and what
appeared to be 16 colors.

Google Time 3 hours later I discovered that there is no
apparent way to get 32bpp, 3D acceleration, 85hz and 1280x1024 all at
the same time like I have with Windows.
Bummer.
I settled for 1280x1024 24bpp and no 3d because I don't use it and
Linux doesn't appear to have any games written for Linux anyhow.

So now I have the system up, am surfing the net and things look pretty
good.
Time to add a printer.
I go to the control panel and click on printers and peruse the list
but I don't see my Lexmark Multifunction listed?
I do see a similar model however so I decide to try this.
It installs easy enough, but when I go to print I get one line of
gibberish on the top of the page, the page ejects and the next page
does the same thing over and over and over again.
Rebooting the system does no good because the printer, like a mad
beast, starts right up again wasting my paper.
Finally I turn the damm thing off while I.....................

Google Time 4 hours I discover Print Ques, printer names and
the wonderful account called root. I finally figure out how to purge
this thing and with some trepidation I turn the printer on and
thankfully it behaves.

Oh well, I don't need to print right now anyhow so on to my network.
The problem is, I can't see my other 3 Windows Vista machines.
And now it's.........
you guessed it!

GOOGLE TIME infinite I discover something called Samba, but I
also learn that Microsoft Vista and Samba are not friends but only
after a day and a hlf of playing with a smb.conf file and reading
maybe a hundred web pages devoted to helping people get Samba working,
and this is with Windows XP which supposedly plays nicely with Samba.
I wouldn't know know, I never got Samba working.

At this point, I took the Linux CD's, all 6 of them including the
rescue CD which seems useless BTW and tossed them, violently I might
add, into the dustbin.

I have wasted far too much time with this Linux crap and I don't
intend to waste another millisecond trying to shoehorn this pile of
garbage into my systems.

I can see why Linux is free.
It doesn't work!

I can also see why it is not even making the slightest ding in
Microsoft's armour:
It, Linux, doesn't work.

I'm not sure, but if the Linux users expect people, ordinary people,
to spend their lives Googling in order to make Linux work, they are
daft.

Maybe in 10 years Linux might be able to install and work properly,
but for now Linux is too difficult and too buggy for the average user.

Karla


Funny, I installed Ubuntu in less than half an hour. Try Ubuntu.
www.ubuntu.com Order the 6.06 CD. They send it to you free and pay the
postage.

Alias

On Thursday 22 February 2007 16:59 wrote:

I've spent the last 3 days attempting

I.T.T.A.!

"Alias" wrote in message
...


Funny, I installed Ubuntu in less than half an hour. Try Ubuntu.
www.ubuntu.com Order the 6.06 CD. They send it to you free and pay the
postage.


That's still more time than I ever plan to spend installing it on my system

Alias writes:

wrote:
Funny, I installed Ubuntu in less than half an hour. Try
Ubuntu. www.ubuntu.com Order the 6.06 CD. They send it to you free and
pay the postage.

Alias

What is it with you Linux geeks and "free".

Here's a better idea - download the bloody thing and help save the planet.

On Feb 22, 12:22 pm, "Brian W"
wrote:
"Alias" wrote in message

...



Funny, I installed Ubuntu in less than half an hour. Try Ubuntu.
www.ubuntu.comOrder the 6.06 CD. They send it to you free and pay the
postage.

That's still more time than I ever plan to spend installing it on my system


The problem with Linux is that while the postage may be free, the time
required to make Linux work is astronomical. Sure the Linux pundits
will cry "it works fine for me" and blame the user, but the internet
is chock full of Linux horror stories.

I've always wondered what "works for me" actually means when spoken by
a Linux zealot.
Does it mean the system boots?
Does it mean 640x480 on the screen?
Does it mean their Epson 9 pin printer works?
Their Soundblaster 8 bit or Adlib card (remember those?) makes noise?

It sure seems that "works" takes on a totally different meaning when
Linux is involved.
Maybe the standard that Linux has to meet is just much lower and the
people using Linux don't mind doing without modern conviences?

I've tried Linux, including Ubuntu, and while it may ok for a techie I
would never let it anywhere near a common user because I know my phone
would not stop ringing.

On Feb 22, 12:22 pm, "Brian W"
wrote:
"Alias" wrote in message

...



Funny, I installed Ubuntu in less than half an hour. Try Ubuntu.
www.ubuntu.comOrder the 6.06 CD. They send it to you free and pay the
postage.

That's still more time than I ever plan to spend installing it on my system

So you have no OS ? I know of no recent OS that takes less than 30
minutes to install on a PC. When you consider that Linux also installs
many applications, which require a separate and also long installation
on other OS's. Thus you are saying that the fastest installing OS is
too slow for you, so you are going to use a slower one.

Not only that, but if you go with a pre-installed OS, then you are
likely going to end up re-installing the OS several times, as even the
experts who promote that OS suggest an re-install at least annually,
and perhaps more often for power users.

Abort, Retry, Fail, Reboot, Reinstall, Remit all of your money to
Redmond. Smile, you are one of those people Stalin called "useful".

Dean G.

Dean G. wrote:
On Feb 22, 12:22 pm, "Brian W"
wrote:
"Alias" wrote in message

...



Funny, I installed Ubuntu in less than half an hour. Try Ubuntu.
www.ubuntu.comOrder the 6.06 CD. They send it to you free and pay
the postage.

That's still more time than I ever plan to spend installing it on my
system

So you have no OS ? I know of no recent OS that takes less than 30
minutes to install on a PC.

We thought "Alias" was probably lying, you confirmed it.

"linux makes you stupid... and now, makes you a liar too."



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

In comp.os.linux.advocacy,

wrote
on 22 Feb 2007 08:59:43 -0800
.com:
I've spent the last 3 days attempting to upgrade 4 Windows-XP systems
to Vista

[rest snipped]

Go bug someone who cares. This is COLA amongst the crossposts. :-P

Followups reset.

--
#191,
Useless C++ Programming Idea #992398129:
void f(unsigned u) { if(u 0) ... }

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

wrote:
I've spent the last 3 days attempting to upgrade 4 Windows-XP systems
to Vista and have had various problems with software compatability.
I've spent countless hours on the phone and technical support websites
and finally after 3 days I have everything working.
This fiasco has left me with some doubt as to whether or not Microsoft
has the ability to maintain it's position as the defacto standard in
operating systems.

After reading about Linux I decided to give it a try on another system
which is an older P4 2.4G system based around an Asus board.
I downloaded Fedora and attempted to install.

First problem, my SATA drives were not found.

Google time 2 hours later I found the solution which was a
Custom Install Option.

(After a few cryptic questions and a partition manager that was
convoluted and potentially very dangerous in the hands of a new user,
Fedora was installed)

Second Problem, the system would not boot after install. I got a Grub
Error 15 message.

Google Time 5 Hours Later .. Oh boy I found lots of
information on this puppy. About 5 hours later I fixed the problem
which involved copying a know working Grub configuration file from
some kind soul on the net, modifying it for my particular system and
replacing the one already installed. I did this with a Knoppix LiveCD.

So now I can boot the system, but my display image is shifted way off
the screen and too low to click on anything.

Google Time 2 hours later Ok I learned how to boot to a
command line and edit the Xorg file to fix the entries that were
incorrect for my common Nvidia card.
So now I could see my desktop, but it was at 1024x768 and what
appeared to be 16 colors.

Google Time 3 hours later I discovered that there is no
apparent way to get 32bpp, 3D acceleration, 85hz and 1280x1024 all at
the same time like I have with Windows.
Bummer.
I settled for 1280x1024 24bpp and no 3d because I don't use it and
Linux doesn't appear to have any games written for Linux anyhow.

So now I have the system up, am surfing the net and things look pretty
good.
Time to add a printer.
I go to the control panel and click on printers and peruse the list
but I don't see my Lexmark Multifunction listed?
I do see a similar model however so I decide to try this.
It installs easy enough, but when I go to print I get one line of
gibberish on the top of the page, the page ejects and the next page
does the same thing over and over and over again.
Rebooting the system does no good because the printer, like a mad
beast, starts right up again wasting my paper.
Finally I turn the damm thing off while I.....................

Google Time 4 hours I discover Print Ques, printer names and
the wonderful account called root. I finally figure out how to purge
this thing and with some trepidation I turn the printer on and
thankfully it behaves.

Oh well, I don't need to print right now anyhow so on to my network.
The problem is, I can't see my other 3 Windows Vista machines.
And now it's.........
you guessed it!

GOOGLE TIME infinite I discover something called Samba, but I
also learn that Microsoft Vista and Samba are not friends but only
after a day and a hlf of playing with a smb.conf file and reading
maybe a hundred web pages devoted to helping people get Samba working,
and this is with Windows XP which supposedly plays nicely with Samba.
I wouldn't know know, I never got Samba working.

At this point, I took the Linux CD's, all 6 of them including the
rescue CD which seems useless BTW and tossed them, violently I might
add, into the dustbin.

I have wasted far too much time with this Linux crap and I don't
intend to waste another millisecond trying to shoehorn this pile of
garbage into my systems.

I can see why Linux is free.
It doesn't work!

I can also see why it is not even making the slightest ding in
Microsoft's armour:
It, Linux, doesn't work.

I'm not sure, but if the Linux users expect people, ordinary people,
to spend their lives Googling in order to make Linux work, they are
daft.

Maybe in 10 years Linux might be able to install and work properly,
but for now Linux is too difficult and too buggy for the average user.

Karla


If you had had the good sense to use IRC and talk directly to Linux
users, you would have saved yourself a lot of time googling.

Alias

Brian W wrote:

"Alias" wrote in message
...


Funny, I installed Ubuntu in less than half an hour. Try Ubuntu.
www.ubuntu.com Order the 6.06 CD. They send it to you free and pay the
postage.


That's still more time than I ever plan to spend installing it on my system



Your loss.

Alias

Its not how long it takes to install that counts. Its how long it takes you
to get it to work that really counts.
Vista a few hours. Linux days, months, years.


"Dean G." wrote in message
ups.com...
On Feb 22, 12:22 pm, "Brian W"
wrote:
"Alias" wrote in message

...



Funny, I installed Ubuntu in less than half an hour. Try Ubuntu.
www.ubuntu.comOrder the 6.06 CD. They send it to you free and pay the
postage.

That's still more time than I ever plan to spend installing it on my
system

So you have no OS ? I know of no recent OS that takes less than 30
minutes to install on a PC. When you consider that Linux also installs
many applications, which require a separate and also long installation
on other OS's. Thus you are saying that the fastest installing OS is
too slow for you, so you are going to use a slower one.

Not only that, but if you go with a pre-installed OS, then you are
likely going to end up re-installing the OS several times, as even the
experts who promote that OS suggest an re-install at least annually,
and perhaps more often for power users.

Abort, Retry, Fail, Reboot, Reinstall, Remit all of your money to
Redmond. Smile, you are one of those people Stalin called "useful".

Dean G.

On Feb 22, 12:34 pm, wrote:
On Feb 22, 12:22 pm, "Brian W"
wrote:

"Alias" wrote in message

...

Funny, I installed Ubuntu in less than half an hour. Try Ubuntu.
www.ubuntu.comOrderthe 6.06 CD. They send it to you free and pay the
postage.

That's still more time than I ever plan to spend installing it on my system

The problem with Linux is that while the postage may be free, the time
required to make Linux work is astronomical. Sure the Linux pundits
will cry "it works fine for me" and blame the user, but the internet
is chock full of Linux horror stories.

A quick Google search finds far more Windows horror stories, with far
worse results, particularly on the malware front.


I've always wondered what "works for me" actually means when spoken by
a Linux zealot.

Funny, I've always wondered what "works for me" meant what spoken by a
Windows user.

Does it mean the system boot (and reboots, and reboots, and
reboots...)

Does it mean it starts up and shows the desktop ?

Does it mean the Windows PC is turned into a zombie spewing spam to
clutter everyone's inbox ?

Does it mean it defrags the disk every month ?

Does it mean that Windows is a good platform for key-logging malware ?

Does it mean it functions just enough that the user doesn't have to
actually think, so everything must be OK ?

Does it mean it cam pre-installed, so the user will live with it
instead of considering other option ?

Does it mean complaining about Linux not having every driver, while
Vista is OK even though the driver support is even more marginal ?

It seems "it works" has an odd meaning for Windows users.

Maybe the Windows standard is so low exactly because it is pre-
installed, and thus many of the users know little if anything about
the alternatives. Maybe the Vista users will be happy with all the DRM
restrictions , constant running of security and maintenance programs,
and the constant nagging of the user controls ? Maybe they don't mind
that they are susceptible to malware. Maybe they just don't want to
admit that they spend so much for an OS that is worse than the free
alternatives. Denial is a very powerful thing.


I recommend Linux to others, because the Windows users are always
calling me about some problem or another. If MS wanted to pay me for
each time I had to re-install Windows for one of their users, then I
might have a different view. If MS wanted to pay me for each time I
had to walk someone through booting into safe mode to remove some kind
of malware, then maybe I'd be more likely to have a "pro-Windows"
stance. But then it would be $elf-$erving, and certainly not an honest
opinion.

Meanwhile, I have better things to do than fix the constant problems
Windows users have.

Dean G.

Windows on your PC - it works better for the spammers than it does for
you.

Have you been to this forum? How can this all be? A forum full of problems?

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/


"Alias" wrote in message
...
wrote:
I've spent the last 3 days attempting to upgrade 4 Windows-XP systems
to Vista and have had various problems with software compatability.
I've spent countless hours on the phone and technical support websites
and finally after 3 days I have everything working.
This fiasco has left me with some doubt as to whether or not Microsoft
has the ability to maintain it's position as the defacto standard in
operating systems.

After reading about Linux I decided to give it a try on another system
which is an older P4 2.4G system based around an Asus board.
I downloaded Fedora and attempted to install.

First problem, my SATA drives were not found.

Google time 2 hours later I found the solution which was a
Custom Install Option.

(After a few cryptic questions and a partition manager that was
convoluted and potentially very dangerous in the hands of a new user,
Fedora was installed)

Second Problem, the system would not boot after install. I got a Grub
Error 15 message.

Google Time 5 Hours Later .. Oh boy I found lots of
information on this puppy. About 5 hours later I fixed the problem
which involved copying a know working Grub configuration file from
some kind soul on the net, modifying it for my particular system and
replacing the one already installed. I did this with a Knoppix LiveCD.

So now I can boot the system, but my display image is shifted way off
the screen and too low to click on anything.

Google Time 2 hours later Ok I learned how to boot to a
command line and edit the Xorg file to fix the entries that were
incorrect for my common Nvidia card.
So now I could see my desktop, but it was at 1024x768 and what
appeared to be 16 colors.

Google Time 3 hours later I discovered that there is no
apparent way to get 32bpp, 3D acceleration, 85hz and 1280x1024 all at
the same time like I have with Windows.
Bummer.
I settled for 1280x1024 24bpp and no 3d because I don't use it and
Linux doesn't appear to have any games written for Linux anyhow.

So now I have the system up, am surfing the net and things look pretty
good.
Time to add a printer.
I go to the control panel and click on printers and peruse the list
but I don't see my Lexmark Multifunction listed?
I do see a similar model however so I decide to try this.
It installs easy enough, but when I go to print I get one line of
gibberish on the top of the page, the page ejects and the next page
does the same thing over and over and over again.
Rebooting the system does no good because the printer, like a mad
beast, starts right up again wasting my paper.
Finally I turn the damm thing off while I.....................

Google Time 4 hours I discover Print Ques, printer names and
the wonderful account called root. I finally figure out how to purge
this thing and with some trepidation I turn the printer on and
thankfully it behaves.

Oh well, I don't need to print right now anyhow so on to my network.
The problem is, I can't see my other 3 Windows Vista machines.
And now it's.........
you guessed it!

GOOGLE TIME infinite I discover something called Samba, but I
also learn that Microsoft Vista and Samba are not friends but only
after a day and a hlf of playing with a smb.conf file and reading
maybe a hundred web pages devoted to helping people get Samba working,
and this is with Windows XP which supposedly plays nicely with Samba.
I wouldn't know know, I never got Samba working.

At this point, I took the Linux CD's, all 6 of them including the
rescue CD which seems useless BTW and tossed them, violently I might
add, into the dustbin.

I have wasted far too much time with this Linux crap and I don't
intend to waste another millisecond trying to shoehorn this pile of
garbage into my systems.

I can see why Linux is free.
It doesn't work!

I can also see why it is not even making the slightest ding in
Microsoft's armour:
It, Linux, doesn't work.

I'm not sure, but if the Linux users expect people, ordinary people,
to spend their lives Googling in order to make Linux work, they are
daft.

Maybe in 10 years Linux might be able to install and work properly,
but for now Linux is too difficult and too buggy for the average user.

Karla


Funny, I installed Ubuntu in less than half an hour. Try Ubuntu.
www.ubuntu.com Order the 6.06 CD. They send it to you free and pay the
postage.

Alias

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

Gary wrote:
Its not how long it takes to install that counts. Its how long it takes you
to get it to work that really counts.
Vista a few hours. Linux days, months, years.

LOL! Mine was ready to go right away.

Alias


"Dean G." wrote in message
ups.com...
On Feb 22, 12:22 pm, "Brian W"
wrote:
"Alias" wrote in message

...



Funny, I installed Ubuntu in less than half an hour. Try Ubuntu.
www.ubuntu.comOrder the 6.06 CD. They send it to you free and pay the
postage.
That's still more time than I ever plan to spend installing it on my
system
So you have no OS ? I know of no recent OS that takes less than 30
minutes to install on a PC. When you consider that Linux also installs
many applications, which require a separate and also long installation
on other OS's. Thus you are saying that the fastest installing OS is
too slow for you, so you are going to use a slower one.

Not only that, but if you go with a pre-installed OS, then you are
likely going to end up re-installing the OS several times, as even the
experts who promote that OS suggest an re-install at least annually,
and perhaps more often for power users.

Abort, Retry, Fail, Reboot, Reinstall, Remit all of your money to
Redmond. Smile, you are one of those people Stalin called "useful".

Dean G.