Does Linux Have an Image Problem?

[Nomad559]

Does Linux Have an Image Problem?

-Snip-

LinuxWorld staff, LinuxWorld

In an age where Linus Torvalds now regularly makes it into BusinessWeek as Linux's "technical shepherd," can it really be true that Linux still has an image problem? However hard a pill it may be to swallow, that's how it is, according anyway to one recent account of prevailing prejudices at a typical computer science department.

"At the CS dept of the school I work at," wrote a contributor to a well-known message board earlier this week, "many students associate Linux with sweaty arrogant zealots and loudmouthed dorks and thus don't use it when they can get by without using it (certain courses require it)."

He continued: "They put Linux in the same category as D&D, Star Trek conventions and X Files/fanfiction. It is a hard pill to swallow but like it or not many people think this way about Linux."

[Wickerman]

1. I don't know about that

but the image that sticks in my head is that I don't have the technical where-with-all to get involved in it. :shrug: I'd love to, I just don't think its ready as a common user platform yet. Tell me I am wrong, I'd love to ditch Windoze.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. You are so wrong.

Grab Mandrakelinux. Make sure you have enough HDD space. A second one is a good idea, and not expensive. Set your machine up as a dual-boot(Windows and Linux) during the installation process. Mandrakelinux's installation is easy. If you need help, seek a local Linux Users Group(LUG).

Linux is ready for your desktop. Are you ready to try it?

[Wickerman]

3. What would be minimum requirements?

[quisp]

4. I do think you're wrong.

There are a few excellent distributions out there for people who aren't developers, programmers, robots, etc that want an operating system and software that just does what it is supposed to.

There are a lot of excellent forums to help you get, install and use linux (and all the software that comes with most distributions).

I'd suggest for advice on which distribution would be best for you and then once you install it go to (lug stands for linux users group).

I've been using linux for 4 years now and it just keeps getting better and better.

Good luck

[Wickerman]

5. thanks

I might give it a try - I've got a spare hard drive - maybe I will do a dual boot system. The question remains - do I have time to monkey with it? Hard to say :shrug:

[Speck Tater]

6. My personal experience with Linux...

I started programming in 1963 and have been programming professionally ever since. I've programmed mainframes, minis, micros, PCs, etc., using every operating system imaginable and programming languages that are only found in the history books today (like MIX and ALGOL, MAD, AUTOCODER, SNOBOL, COBOL, LISP, etc. etc.)

So when I heard about Linux I thought "At last! A way to escape the monopoly that is Microsoft." I was excited. I ran down to my local computer store and bought a cheap basic PC just to intsall Linux on so I could play around with it and learn it.

I SOOOOOO wanted to love Linux. I tried very hard to love Linux. But in the end Linux forced me to hate it. Everything you try to do requires a Captain Video secret decoder ring and mastery of seven non-human languages from the betzoid system. Where in Windows I could click on "Find", in Linux I had to type some long ling of gibberish like GLIPNOP -x,|>fergum,*snigle$$%! And heaven help me if I get so much as one character wrong.

Not only is Linux NOT user friendly, it actualy HATES users. What could I do but hate it right back?

The only other alternative is to ask for help. But that's when you discover that not only does Linux hate you, but that Linux users hate you too! One has but to ask a simple question on just about any Linux formum to be immediately and viciously attacked as a heathen outsider not worthy to be admitted into the inner sanctum which is the Linux Illuminati.

I tried so hard to love Linux. I really did. But in the end all I could do was limp away, licking my wounds, and feeling that the only rational response to the whole experience was to reciprocate by returning to Linux its hatred of me.

[midnight armadillo]

7. That's unix for you

Unix (macos aside) demands a lot from its users. I learned it when I sat at a Sun workstation for 6 months and had no choice, and I like it quite a bit. But, the Unix Way is convoluted, seemingly irritatingly difficult by design and historical anachronism, and requires a lot of memorization of commands.

Find a file: try 'find dir -name "file.foo"' That's not so bad, huh ;-)? Or one can use some Perl to replace a word in a bunch of text files, and get gibberish like 'perl -pi.bak -e 's/foo/bar/g;' *.txt'. It's a labor of love, or perhaps masochism.

I personally don't care for Linux since I find its whole kernel development system to be capricious and undirected, and the slew of distributions too confusing. I like NetBSD best of all the free Unixes.

[cprise]

8. Its getting better

But it does come from a user-hostile tradition, no mistake of that.

When you choose a menu option to shutdown the system, everything you are running in the GUI and all its unsaved data is instantly oblitterated! No chance to save stuff you forgot about. Just BAM! It's gone... The GUI also has the equivalent of the old MS-DOS Ctrl-Alt-Del... Anytime you press Ctrl-Alt-Backspace, your GUI session (and all the programs in it) disappears in the blink of an eye.

The GUI also has no standard way to successfully setup your graphics card. You have to choose between several strangely-named and poorly-documented utilities that all try to do the same thing a little differently.... None of these have set the display up the way I want more than 5% of the time. Instead, I learned how to edit the VERY STRANGE syntax of the XF86Config-4 file.

In the Linux world, high computer interface standards are a constantly looked after. But user interface standards mean almost nothing. Over the past 4 years we have seen slight improvements in usability, and tons upon tons of flashy imagery and animation added, leaving the OS very pretty and STILL hard to use.