Re: I've thought better of Linux


Greg Menke <gregm-xyzpdq@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> "Brandon J. Van Every" <mylastnameruntogether@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
> >
> > It remains to be seen if any Linux distro will rise above its peers,
> > provide things that just work, and capture mindshare as "the reliable
> > Linux." I doubt it's going to happen. I think Apple will kill any
> > consumer interest in such a beast, and Linux will remain a server system
> > with lotsa admins in tow.
>
> Show me an OS that "just works" and I'll show you the deed to the
> Brooklyn Bridge that I have.
>

Sure, it "Just Works" after someone else does all the hacking to get the
kinks out. Since you're so obsessed about not actually having to learn
what you wish to use, then XP is also excluded because a fresh XP
install can quite easily take hours to get right if you have to track
down drivers and work your way through all the reboots. SHow me the
quick way around needing the network drivers so you can get online to
download the network & modem & USB memory stick drivers. Frankly the
quickest is sometimes to pull the hard disk out of the machine, stick it
in a Linux box, download the drivers and save them to the hard disk,
reinstall boot and go.

Theres not an OS around that Just Works freshly installed, there is
always a greater or lesser degree of hacking to get the OS configured to
match the hardware. OS X and Solaris on SPARC probably comes closest
because of the limited selection of hardware on which they will run.
I've had the occasional Linux install that works end-to-end on first
boot too, but then theres always recompiling the kernel for local
optimizations, adding vga=ext to the console and disabling all sorts of
helpful features.

Gregm
.

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