[lbo-talk] computer jerks

[SergioL652 at aol.com]

Even though I am fairly computer literate and have build several computers  
from scratch I was not able to get Ubuntu to work because it did not have a  
driver for my wireless card.  Of course, since I could not connect to the  
Internet, I had to logout from Ubuntu, switch to Windows, search for the driver,  
discover that to install the driver, I had to type 20 lines of code, switch 
back  to Ubuntu, write the 20 lines of code, find out it didn't work, get out of  
Ubuntu, back to Windows, search for driver, find another 20 lines of code, 
rinse  repeat for three day, give up, find out I can't uninstall Ubuntu, live 
with the  dual boot, although only Windows works, so any time I reboot, I end up 
in  Ubuntu, which I cannot use so logout of Ubuntu, reboot boot to Windows,  
etc.  So forgive me if I don't sing the praise of Ubuntu.  Maybe I'm  just 
stupid.

 

 

 

 

 
In a message dated 3/13/2008 10:44:49 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
lbo4 at beyondzero.net writes:

On Thu,  Mar 13, 2008 at 07:00:45AM -0700, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:


> So  inasmuch as I loathe Micro$oft products, I simply
> have very little  choice here in this land of free
> choice.  I would love to buy an  open source (Linux)
> machine machine, especially that they are cheaper  than
> either PCs or Macs, but I simply have no time or
>  inclination to deal with software setup problems all
> the time - I use  computers as tools, means to an end,
> not an end in itself.  I am  trying to avoid "looking
> under the hood" as much as possible - be it  cars or
> computers.  

It sounds like you are already  "dealing with software setup problems
all the time" by using  Windows.

Try http://www.ubuntu.com/

The arrogance you described  is a result of the culture of the
Microsoft behemoth.  In the Windows  world the Microserfs are merely
adopting the position of their demigod  Gates - you will use the
computer *exactly* how they tell you to.  And  you will like it.

I am a recent convert to Ubuntu on the desktop and I  would say the
true believers are right: this is the Linux your grandma can  use.  On
my laptop the following all worked with absolutely no  configuration:

* Wireless Networking
* Web, Email, IM, etc.
*  Connecting via usb to my camera
* Connecting via bluetooth to my phone  (!)
* Connecting portable storage, like usb drives
* Free media playback  (audio: mp3, flac, shorten, wav; video: mpeg,
divx, etc.)
* Media  authoring (cds, dvds, etc.)

Non-free media playback required going to a  website to download the
"illegal" packages - particularly the DeCSS  decryption for commercial
DVDs.  But that is all plainly explained in  the Ubuntu Forums and took
about 2 minutes.

Matt

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