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Hardy Heron Making Linux Ready for the Masses?

Posted by Zonk on from the it-is-a-very-robust-bird dept.

desmondhaynes writes "Is Linux ready for the masses? Is Linux really being targeted towards the 'casual computer user'? Computerworld thinks we're getting there, talking of Linux 'going mainstream 'with Ubuntu. 'If there is a single complaint that is laid at the feet of Linux time and time again, it's that the operating system is too complicated and arcane for casual computer users to tolerate. You can't ask newbies to install device drivers or recompile the kernel, naysayers argue. Of course, many of those criticisms date back to the bad old days, but Ubuntu, the user-friendly distribution sponsored by Mark Shuttleworth's Canonical Ltd., has made a mission out of dispelling such complaints entirely.'"

2 of 1,100 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yes, and yes. by Twigmon · · Score: 5, Informative

    You're changing the wrong parts of grub's menu.lst. Next time have a read through the instructions at the top of the file, just under

    ### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

    And.. don't change anything between:

    ## ## End Default Options ##

    and

    ### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

    Feel free to put additional definitions after the end of that block, and to change the way the other definitions are defined, adjust the 'comments' above the block.

    Then, once you've done that, run 'grup-update' to apply your changes and see if it was what you were after. I usually make one change:

    I change #howmany to #howmany=2 (that way I still have one history in case the new kernel doesn't work).

    Hopefully that makes life easier for you...

  2. Re:Yes, and yes. by DittoBox · · Score: 5, Informative

    'Bricking' is when you fubar your BIOS upgrade, or touch a hot wire to some random contact on your motherboard. It means the whole thing is totally and utterly up a creek and it can't be rescued at all.

    Rendering your system unbootable however is something else entirely. Although you may have screwed up the data on your hard drive to the point of no (or really expensive) recovery the system as a wholeâ"and even the driveâ"are/is still 100% usable with a little bit of work; mostly/all in software.

    Unbootable != bricked.

    --
    Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick Two.