Re^7: Perl 6 Module manager

Same here. I put in the installation disk, booted, followed some prompts, and the OS was up and running in less than an hour. Works right out of the box.

So the PC doesn't really work out of the box then does it? You have to the install media for Linux available, depending on the BIOS config of the PC you may have to alter the settings to get it to boot from the CD or floppy rather than the hard disk and once you have the install process started you had to answer some questions that may have required some technical knowledge (what's a 'partition'?, what is this 'X' thing?). I apply the "Mother Touchstone" here: could my mother do this without calling me with a question? On the other hand, when you took it out of the box, it is odds-on that the PC already did have a working operating system on it, possibly not one that fits your requirements but nonetheless a working OS that satisfies the requirements of the vast majority of people that will buy that model of PC.

On the other hand I bought a new PC the other day which had a "perfectly functional" OS already installed (Windows XP home as it happens) which I wanted to replace with Linux, "easy", I thought, "only an hour or so of CD juggling" (it would have been less if I had known that I had a DVD of the required distribution as well.) Oh no. It won't even boot the installer with the ACPI enabled so I have to supply a boot flag to turn off acpi detection (I knew this because I have been installing software on PC hardware for a long time and power management has always been the first suspect :), well of course that's fine but now it is detecting but failing to initialize the wireless chipset so no networking, of course I know to look in /var/log/messages for the evidence, ooh that looks suspiciously like the ipw2200 driver needs ACPI to work .... tum ti tum. Well I've spent the best part of a day on it now and it still won't load what I know absolutely to be the correct sound module and I have had to disable the PCMCIA subsystem in order to enable the ACPI and I had to stop X before I could install the proprietary graphics driver... Mother would have gone "thanks for all the help dear but I got the windows CD off $random_neighbour and everything is okay now, I didn't really need that Lunix stuff anyway" ten hours ago.

/J\

Comment on Re^7: Perl 6 Module manager

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Re^8: Perl 6 Module manager by spiritway (Vicar) on Apr 20, 2006 at 20:49 UTC
The OS ran out of the box. My experience with installing Linux was comparable to my experience installing Windows, except that with Windows, I was infected by a worm before I could finish the installation (I had neglected to disconnect the Internet connection). I had to reinstall Windows after a very difficult time trying to remove the worm. I have not personally had a chance to examine or use any of the computers that come with Linux already installed; however, I am told that those computers do actually run right out of the box, but I can't claim to know this personally. As for my experience with installing Linux - I did not need to select anything outside the defaults. I put the CD (or DVD) into the drive and rebooted. I followed the prompts without thinking, and the installation program chose appropriate defaults for me. Only when it came to user names and passwords, did I have to actually come up with something semi-creative. The main reasons people have trouble with Linux, IMNSHO, are: 1) Most manufacturers deliberately choose to use BIOS, drivers, etc. that cater to Windows, and software-emulated hardware such as "WinModems", which saves more money and ensures Microsoft gets its licensing fee, even if someone will later remove Windows; and 2) once Linux is installed, it offers the unwary user a huge amount of power to do things, including wiping out the entire directory structure if you're not careful. Linux is not for everyone. If you just want to play a few video games, get some e-mail, surf the net, maybe write a few letters - Windows is OK for this. No need to use anything else. The occasional crash isn't really that much of a problem. Most Windows programs save your work on an ongoing basis, so that when Windows crashes, you can recover most of your work. Buying the firewall, antivirus, and anti-spamware programs isn't that much of an expense, and these days those program will automatically update. So will Windows, if you need patches. Still, I rather like my Linux boxes, and find they're no more difficult to use than Windows; and as I noted above, I had no more difficulty installing Linux, than Windows. And as always: YYMV.	[reply]

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Re^8: Perl 6 Module manager
by spiritway (Vicar) on Apr 20, 2006 at 20:49 UTC

The OS ran out of the box. My experience with installing Linux was comparable to my experience installing Windows, except that with Windows, I was infected by a worm before I could finish the installation (I had neglected to disconnect the Internet connection). I had to reinstall Windows after a very difficult time trying to remove the worm.

I have not personally had a chance to examine or use any of the computers that come with Linux already installed; however, I am told that those computers do actually run right out of the box, but I can't claim to know this personally.

As for my experience with installing Linux - I did not need to select anything outside the defaults. I put the CD (or DVD) into the drive and rebooted. I followed the prompts without thinking, and the installation program chose appropriate defaults for me. Only when it came to user names and passwords, did I have to actually come up with something semi-creative.

The main reasons people have trouble with Linux, IMNSHO, are: 1) Most manufacturers deliberately choose to use BIOS, drivers, etc. that cater to Windows, and software-emulated hardware such as "WinModems", which saves more money and ensures Microsoft gets its licensing fee, even if someone will later remove Windows; and 2) once Linux is installed, it offers the unwary user a huge amount of power to do things, including wiping out the entire directory structure if you're not careful.

Linux is not for everyone. If you just want to play a few video games, get some e-mail, surf the net, maybe write a few letters - Windows is OK for this. No need to use anything else. The occasional crash isn't really that much of a problem. Most Windows programs save your work on an ongoing basis, so that when Windows crashes, you can recover most of your work. Buying the firewall, antivirus, and anti-spamware programs isn't that much of an expense, and these days those program will automatically update. So will Windows, if you need patches.

Still, I rather like my Linux boxes, and find they're no more difficult to use than Windows; and as I noted above, I had no more difficulty installing Linux, than Windows.

And as always: YYMV.

[reply]