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How One Small Business Switched to Ubuntu
firenurse writes to point out a story in The Inquirer about how one small business switched to Ubuntu. It describes a maddening comedy of errors, a series of circular screw-ups among Microsoft, HP, and a RAID vendor. From the article: "You never quite wrap your head around how anti-consumer Microsoft's policies are until they bite you in the bum. Add in the customer antagonistic policies of its patsies, HP in this case, and vendors like Promise, and you have quite a recipe for pain. Guess what I did today?"
Actually, that story sounds (ironically) like my attempt to switch to Ubuntu.
..." What part of "cannot load an OS" did you not get?
..." See previous.
..." Doesn't show up. "Okay, go to this other one and type this command." It takes a while to execute and than fails with this message: [message]. "..."
Download install CD. Burn it. Boot from it. Install. "Using GRUB as your bootloader is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED". Okay, use GRUB.
Boot up. Cannot load an OS. Grub error 1.5.
Okay, re-install.
Boot up. Cannot load an OS. Grub error 1.5.
Reinstall a few more times.
Boot up. Cannot load an OS. Grub error 1.5.
Okay, box is bricked. Luckily I have a computer from work and I go ask for help on forums.
"Re-install." Already tried that, kid. Several times.
"Your install CD wasn't downloaded properly." Except for the bit-by-bit comparison I ran before starting.
"Go into the Ubuntu OS and
"Use a Live CD." Don't have one. "You mean you didn't burn that along with the install CD?" Didn't say to. "You mean you didn't try the install on a spare box first?" You're fucking kidding me, right? (This was before they combined them, geniuses.)
"Burn a Live CD." Don't have a burner. "You burned the install CD, how can you not burn a Live?" 'Cause I'm posting from a different computer, moron. First one's bricked, remember?
"You need Knoppix. Burn
"Okay, navigate the install CD from the installation interface, go to this location
"What version of Windows do you have?" Does that really matter when I can't load any OS at all? "Well, if you're gonna be like that, we don't need you using Ubuntu."
"Okay, get your Windows CD." Computer's four years old and I've never had to use it. I really don't know where it is. "Oh, well, we don't help software pirates here. ~Sig~ Need to run DVD's on Linux? Go here. ~Sig~" Sigh...
"Well, obviously you have a hard drive problem. Not Ubuntu's fault, it just happens."
*Gets brother to fix entire mess.*
*Has been using "problematic hard drive" on Windows without any problem for a year.*
*bangs head into keyboard*
*understands why people don't switch to Linux*
*kisses karma goodbye*
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
a) Rebooting and reinstalling will only fix it if you made a mistake or you are using a poorly designed flaky OS. If it doesn't work the first time, why would it work a second?
b) Last time I checked, Ubuntu doubled as a live CD. In fact, how are you installing Ubuntu if you can't boot the CD?
c) Official GNU projects have the same poor code quality as MS. Stallman's goal is to take over the world, not produce a workable system. Don't use GRUB if you can avoid it.
d) This is a MS / commercial vendor problem. If you don't like copy protection and people accusing you of being a "pirate" even when you perchased a legit version of their software, then don't use their products. Especially if you are always losing the origional CD.
e) This is what you should have done in the first place. Someone who doesn't understand how computers work should not try to install an OS.
That's it, blame HP and Microsoft for your own incompetance.
You now, this guy was modded troll, but his (obviously erroneous) comments are pretty much par for the course in terms of what posters say about my exerpeience. So, I'll respond anyway.
a) Rebooting and reinstalling will only fix it if you made a mistake or you are using a poorly designed flaky OS. If it doesn't work the first time, why would it work a second?
True; I just wanted to do my due diligence before asking for help. I mean, it didn't work. In my first post I was very clear about having re-installed multiple times; that didn't stop anyone from recommending it. Go fig.
b) Last time I checked, Ubuntu doubled as a live CD.
So, like every wise guy that offered help, you failed to read the part where I said I did this at a time before they combined them.
In fact, how are you installing Ubuntu if you can't boot the CD?
I can't boot the OS. I can of course tell it to boot from the CD, which gives me the installation screen.
Don't use GRUB if you can avoid it.
I agree with you here. I just wish the install instructions were as wise.
d) This is a MS / commercial vendor problem.
mmm, no, they were asking for that to have bootable media, not because of any problem related to Windows. Remember, nothing can get past GRUB. If it can't even get to Windows, how can Windows be the problem?
e) This is what you should have done in the first place. Someone who doesn't understand how computers work should not try to install an OS.
I can understand the install instructions. In fact, it was *because* I followed them that I had the problem. Ubuntu doesn't specify an expansive knowledge of OS's you need in order to install it. If you're right, the mystery of why more people don't use Linux is over. Think about it.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
The problem with a lot people is that they want EVERYTHING for $0.01 What do you expect when you buy a computer with a 40GB drive as a server? It's not even a low end workstation!!!!!!!!! Let me guess the guy paid $199 for the "server" and expects HP to give him world-class tech support, 10 year warranty, restore software written by the brightest guys in the world with more options then a Linux kernel compile. Come on, you get what you pay for. And the guy is setting up one office a week, scary.
Everyone who buys Wild Hunt will receive 16 specially prepared DLCs absolutely for free, regardless of platform.
O, that aside e could have slipstreamed the drivers into the install as knowledgeable admins often do. (sounds simple, I haven't done it myself though) or perhaps purchased the operating system that was appropriate for the implementation, namely win 2003 standard.
I got no beef with using Linux, it sounds like it could work in this case, but the incompetence sounds like the author's not the manufacturers.
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
The comments and the moderation on this article made something very clear to me.
/. decides to award mod points), have a heavy influence on meta-moderation, and certainly use all their mod points (I rraely do, I am too busy).
The bias on Slashdot has shifted quite significantly away from Linux and towards MS over the last two or three years.
Why? Astroturfing, wider audience, what?
My own suspicion is that PR people who spend all day on the web, spend a lot more time (per head) reading and commenting on Slashdot, they therefore all end up with high karma and probably get mod points often (I am not sure how
Leave it to a Linux guy to install Linux when he can't figure out how to install MS.
:)
The situation described is not particularly complex to work around (as several posters have already noted). Most real consultants would have at least a spare hard drive, DVD drive and floppy drive and some common software like OS, Ghost and yes, even a Linux bootable CD in their kit -- as well as a notebook. Not much you can't work around with a few basic pieces of equipment. Even without it, there are plenty of ways to go.
If I were the customer, I'd fire this guy's ass out the door and bring in someone who knew what they were doing.
Unfortunately, I see this kind of 'consultant knows best and to hell with what the customer has/wants' attitude often and end up having to go in and clean up some horrific messes. The bright side is that this kind of work is all too easy to find, and the customers are delighted to pay whatever I ask to get the job done right.
I will scream, when it happens. It's just that it hasn't so far, at least not with Linuxes from this century. While I wait for it to happen in Linux I will continue to scream when it happens in windows. You are right in that I will probably scream higher when it happens in Windows, the reason for that is that I have paid them good money for it to work, while high quality Linuxes like Fedora, OpenSuse, Centos,... can be downloaded for free.
Last time it happened, was a just before christmas. I decided to try to get a game up and running in windows. So I decided to reinstall win2k on an old laptop that was no longer in use for work. The laptop originally shipped with win2k, but it faild to install properly. There was about 15 driver diskettes that needed to be applied in the right order, then there was servicepacks with incompatible encryption levels. Another problem was that some of the sofware on the disks that shipped with the computer was installers that insisted on visit links on the Microsoft website that no longer existed. After four days I gave up.
Fedora on the other hand, installed in less than an hour, where most of that time went by with no userinteaction what so ever. Oh, I forgot to mention in that time you not only get an OS, you get a good office suite a very good database, and much more.
Now the game runs on win2k in VMWare and makes use of Linux supperior hardware support through virtualization. Unfortunately the windows end of the VMWare display driver for windows doesn't fully support the OpenGL stuff that I can run in pure Linux, so if my game had demanded more advanced graphics I would have been totally out of luck.
So, please don't tell me there is no reason to scream when it comes to Windows ease of installation and ease of use. The only reason Microsoft manages to hold its market position, is that they have managed to get hardware venders to preinstall it on almost every sold PC, and that people by now have a collection of documents that only can be opened with programs that run on windows. Without that advantage Microsoft wouldn't have a chance against easy to install and use OSes like Linux and MacOS-X.
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