Linux Desktop Readiness Thread

[23meg]

And FYI, as I said - I tried the driver from NVIDIA and the driver from the repository and both crashed X. Certainly, I can easily reconfig X and briong it back up - but there is no way in hell the 95% can and I was evaluating it from that standpoint.

There's also no way in hell it will crash X for that 95%. Your problematic configuration is just one configuration among the hundreds of thousands, and your experience counts as one case out of that many.

[vexorian]

You are suffering from PC power user syndrome.

Since you know windows so much and so well, you simply don't see the sense on having to follow all of the differences.

Regarding your issues, that is in no way related to desktop readyness, windows' native hardware support is way worse and everybody seems to think it is ready for the desktop.

We only need compatible computers, and that's slowly happening.

MY nvidia card worked pretty well on Ubuntu with its repository drivers. In fact all my hardware works perfectly in Linux and not in windows, since a single user experience is all what is worth to judge desktop readiness I will have to stick to the FACT: windows is not ready for the desktop.

[fuscia]

i know nothing. i used automatix to install my nvidia driver. it works. i haven't seen my terminal in three days. i don't even remember which one i'm using.

[SWBgHz]

lol, probably.

OP: your fault relaly lies in the fact that you didn't bother to read any documentation. Had you looked around just a little, you would've discovered that all you had to do to install the nvidia drivers was type "sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx"...or, since you seem to abhorr the command line, use the Synaptic package manager to search for and install it. That gives you the latest stable release for the drivers.

Uhm - I said the package manager install crashed X as well. I know you guys want to stick your heads in the sand and pretend these issues don't exists but at least take note of what was said before commenting. Both ways crashed X and made the computer unusable by any non expert which is the perspective I was evaluating it from.

Despite what you keep saying about your experiences with Linux and Unix, you came at this from a Windows perspective, and didn't attempt to change your mindset at all.

And here in lies the biggest reason Linux continues to be irrelevant in the desktop market - failing to see the obvious lanscape of the world we exist in. IT IS A WINDOWS WORLD in terms of the desktop, despite MS recent blunders and other crap. So for any OS to survive and thrive in the desktop market it will have to EXPECT people to come at it from the 'windows perspective' as you call it. I wouldn'd say I didn't attempt to change my perspective, and I would question that I should have to. If ubunutu or any other distributor wants to gro beyond the Linux community it is going to have to APPEAL to people who may view thier offering with a cautious eye, and even with poor preconceived ideas. That being said, I wasn't evaluating Ubunutu for my use, I am not stupid enough to think I coudl replace windows for my needs - I was evaluating the 'claim' that Linux has become Windows replacable for the average user what I found is that it clearly hasn't even if it has become alot less painful to learn and use.

[vexorian]

I'd rather not see Ubuntu gain any market than it becoming compatible with windows' ways (aka windows' BS).

Mac's OSX is severly different to windows and yet with single advertising and marketting they holds some big percentage of the market, although I am not sure how much.

[tcpip4lyfe]

But as a desktop - please - Ubunutu, while greatly improved, is NOWHERE near ready fo rthe mainstream of PCs.

I went over to my parents and installed ubuntu with any problems in 30 minutes and put 3 icons on her desktop. "Intenet" "Mail" "Word" Her reaction on being converted to linux? "I like how the windows wobble when I move them around." For the majority of PC users, this is enough.

[23meg]

all you had to do to install the nvidia drivers was type "sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx"...or, since you seem to abhorr the command line, use the Synaptic package manager to search for and install it. That gives you the latest stable release for the drivers.

In Feisty, there's no need to do that; I'm sure the "95%" can just go to System → Administration → Restricted Driver Manager and get it done automatically. Click click click.

[forrestcupp]

I went about playing around and trying to get some things setup to try it out and came across two issues that to me make Ubuntu totally useless as a real desktop PC OS. First, and the most ridiculous, was in trying to copy/paste a file from my home directory to the firefox directory (namely, my bookmarks). Yes, I know I could import it but I should have been able to just copy/paste my archived one over the profiles existing default one as well. The problem came from permissions as I don't have permission to the /etc folder.

The bookmarks are found in your /home directory in the /.mozilla/firefox folder. You don't need any special permissions for that. Whenever I want to upgrade/reinstall, I back up that directory, and afterwards, hey presto! I have my bookmarks. You just have to enable the showing of hidden files to see it in nautilus/konqueror/dolphin.

The next issue, the final straw really - was when I went to try to get the NVIDIA driver going. I tried to different ways of doing this - both from the standpoint of what a moderately informed average user would be able to do

Did you try opening the Restricted Drivers Manager in your menus? You open that and check a box to enable the proprietary drivers, and it just works! It downloads it and installs it for you. I've had trouble installing nvidia-glx from apt, but I've never had trouble when I used the Restricted Drivers Manager. Even if you have Kubuntu with KDE (which doesn't have this), you can just install it from apt and run it:

sudo aptitude install restricted-manager
restricted-manager

Edit:
I'm surprised this still hasn't been merged

Edit Again:
23meg beat me to the Restricted Drivers Manager thing

[SWBgHz]

Better title for this thread - Why I still fail as a Linux desktop user. ..

And here we have the EXACT reason Linux remains such a minor, allmost insignificant, part of the desktop market. The arrogance to pressume that anyone should have to qualify to use a product - that is even greater arrogance and piaty than the hated Gates/MS exhibit.

Again, I could use Linux all day long if I wanted to. If I wanted to have routine tasks be more troublesome than with a windows box, if I wanted to have archane legacy methods forced on me becuase self rightous linux geeks feel better about themselves when some switch or some command or some process is overly proriatary and ackwardly cumbersome. I could use it all day long if I want to get **** poor hardware support for the latest in technology. If I wanted to not be able to play the latest games without tons of trouble and even more comprimises and limitiations. Get over yourselves people - nobody gives two $#@!s about whether Ubunutu or Linux die tommorow or not in terms of the desktop PC world - yoru arrogance and condensending self rightousness only perpetuates that.

[Nekiruhs]

Linux fails as a desktop because Windows ships with 90% PCs. How many people do you know that have ever installed an OS? People don't care about their OS they just want it to work. Thats why MS can A$$ ream us for cash and get away with making a crappy OS.