Do you agree that when Linux works, it REALLY works?

[Mazza558]

When Linux doesn't work, it REALLY doesn't work, throwing newcomers straight into the deep end. However, when Linux works, it REALLY works, and flawlessly.

I was thinking of this as I was reading the testimonials section. There's hardly anyone who is 50/50 to using Linux. For people who unfortunately have less compatible hardware, they have an awful experience and may be put off for good. It's only when they find a match in hardware that the true magic starts, and everything seems to fit together unlike any other operating system. The latter people become part of the community for good.

This was my experience when I first started. As soon as I got everything working, it was fantastic. I could even sneak in a Star Wars reference here, with young Anakin finally having fixed his pod racer, and he's shouting (over the roar of the engines) "IT'S WORKING... IT'S WORKING!!" - or is that too dramatic? :)

[Midwest-Linux]

This is one of the reasons for Live Cd's, to test out the distro and see if it works with the machine. If it didn't work, try another and all you lost was the time downloading and the cost of a blank CD or DVD. Its a small cost thats worth it.

In every machine I tried from Pentium II and up, they all ran Xubuntu or Ubuntu. Thats a hallmark of a great operating system.

[LeoSolaris]

I have actually had the opposite be true. That it isn't that extreme of either/or. I haven't had a completely bug free "just works" experience, but I have not had the extreme broken experience that some have reported.

Mine tends to fall somewhere in the middle. (I did figure out that it breaks a lot less if I turn off proposed updates.)

Leo

[jimrz]

a bit dramatic, but some truth there, as well

[FranMichaels]

I completely agree. Every piece of hardware on my laptop, and my sister's, and my mom's and my dad's, works... out of the box! So much so that my dad installed Ubuntu 8.04 all by himself! He even burned the iso and everything. His first OS install since like DOS 5 (and he had help back then...) Also, my mom likes to let me know she clicked the Update Manager icon to update things. Really zero maintenance.

So yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed tossing the driver disc (win/mac) for our hp color laser jet 2605. Just connected it, made it shareable over the network, and the other machines on the could detect and then use it.

So any generic USB devices, wireless, sound card, graphics, etc. I have been utterly spoiled by Linux.

Now, if I picked a laptop where there weren't open drivers for something... It would suck. Not knowing about the existence of ndiswrapper would make it nigh impossible. I had to google for that when my friend tried Ubuntu on his Compaq. Everything worked beautifully, except wireless... :(

So all I can say is, more open drivers, nuts to the manufacturers. I have old epson scanner 1200c, you can plug it into any Ubuntu box, and just fire up the gimp and scan. No driver disc, no stupid prompt. Just works.

That's how all hardware should be, and guess what, that experience only comes from an open driver (at least from what I've seen).

rant:
Now one might say oh there is a package for the proprietary one, upgrade your kernel and guess what is going to be "broken" until xyz corp releases another version. ^_^ But that's another discussion all together. But yes, I will take "inferior hardrware" like my onboard intel, just to support the open drivers. Other companies should follow suite, at least with their older hardware if nothing else...

:popcorn:

[fatality_uk]

I see the point your making, but to be honest, with the exception of OSx, for obvious reasons, most OS's I have tried require tinkering to some degree, even XP.

[Fedz]

Not one piece of external hardware I attached to XP worked without having to install the included disk!

Same PC and same hardware but, Ubuntu runs it all 'out of the box' ;-)

Speaks volumes.The boxes should have said Linux Compatible over Windows compatible ;-)