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Microsoft Free, One Year Later
madgreek writes "Last year I wrote of my switch from XP to Ubuntu at work. Now a year later, I am back to reflect on one year of being extremely productive at work using (almost) nothing but open source software in a Microsoft world."
Was the extra production worth all the ass rape that you must have endured at your local LUG meetings?
Hardy Heron maxes out the CPU for tasks XP handles with less muscle. The MP3 player skips if you open a new firefox tab. Nice!
Gnome freezes every 3 hours at best.
After fighting with "restricted" drivers for a week, I gave up running dual monitors. This is of course a "driver" issue and therefore the fault of capitalism...at least that's what I garner from all the forums. Oh and I should RTFM.
The wireless card stops running after 2 hours. Ubuntu makes a fine server, but geeze does it suck cocks as a desktop.
THL phish sticks
Running Linux is a lot like being an old-school VolksWagen hobbyist(read: repairman).
New Linux user: "I can't play MP3's? Oh, wait, I can, but they sound like chipmunks are singing -- okay, edit grub: apic nolapic. Okay, works. Oh, shit, I can't read my windoze files! Time to apt-get NTFS3G and mount the filesystem. Oh, crap: I want to fully utilize my graphics...time to edit xorg.conf . Oh noes! Now X won't load! Wait, I can log in as root(even though my Ubuntu install didnt even allow me to edit the root account last time). Okay, Logged into a terminal as root...edit xorg.conf using nano...what? Read-only?! But I'm root! I should be able to edit anything I want! *Sigh*. Okay, reinstall linux...no, reinstall Windows. At least I know what crap to expect from windows!"
...And that's why Linux won't yet replace desktop Windows! True Story.
I tried to go Linux free from 7 months, but ultimately the various shortcomings of the software used under Linux and Linux itself (apparently I had a driver problem that made my internet connection work quite slow), drove me back to Windows XP. I do, however use OOo, Gimp, Firefox and Thunderbird.
Please tell me you aren't really one of those irritating little snots who likes to pretend you're on a first-name basis with Linus and his buddies when your only real ability is strutting and preening as you loudly proclaim your marginally-greater knowledge of Linux over the newbies.
You sure sound like one, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.
FYI, many people who have never used Linux can't afford to fuck around with it for a week until they figure out how to install and configure programs and drivers that let them do real work with it. Some of those people are thinking about making the leap from XP instead of dealing with Vista and whatever bastard offspring it eventually whelps. They use their computers as tools, not as a sex toys.
This kind of story helps and encourages them. So put your attitude away before you develop bad habits. If you let it show in the wrong place, you might piss off a 90-pound secretary who's scared Linux will make her screw up somehow, and she'll show her appreciation of your vast knowledge by beating the crap out of you.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
I hate it when I'm turned into a sole, especially one from a smelly shoe!