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More on Distros—Day 11© Copyright Darrell Anderson. I have had Mandrake 9.2 installed on my multi-boot computer for more than a year. Originally I installed Mandrake 9.0 in early 2003, purchased off the shelf. However, Mandrake was not my first Linux distro—that would be Lycoris (Build 46). I quickly gave up on Lycoris and the incredibly slow KDE 2.2 desktop. My NT4 desktop is snappy and although I then was very much a GNU/Linux newbie, I nonetheless expected similar performance. I need not remind experienced users of the primary differences between GNU/Linux and DOS/Windows, such as file system structure. However, those differences were an initial hurdle for me. In hindsight those differences now seem trivial, but they are not trivial to the inexperienced individual. Thus, much of my current journey toward migrating is based upon my initial perspective. That is, I continually ask myself if various people I know could migrate without much hand-holding. My answer is no, they cannot. As much as I am philosophically dedicated to the Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) movement, many GNU/Linux distros are not yet ready for prime time. They are ready for the experienced computer user, but not Grandma or people who never enrolled in a computer class. There are two basic approaches toward most GNU/Linux distros. One approach is to discourage or lock out users so “newbies” cannot mess up much. That approach is sensible, but everything must work out-of-the-box. Basically, this is the Microsoft and Apple approach. There is a collection of sensible GUI tools that allow new users access to configure their system. Yet, that approach is frustrating for experienced users because getting under the hood is sometimes challenging. Tinkering efforts easily break such a system from what the vendor designed and expects. The other approach is the no hand holding approach, intended for experienced computer users and hobbyists. This is where many GNU/Linux distros still reside despite many improvements. Yet, they too can be frustrating for the experienced user because almost everything is configured using a text editor or command line. The challenge is not knowing how to type, but knowing where and what to type. Simple, intuitive, one-task GUI tools seldom exist within these distros. The command line still rules. I have a decent idea how to go about configuring a computer. That is, I possess sufficient experience to ask the right questions. However, with respect to my GNU/Linux experience, often I find myself spending far too much time browsing the web and forums looking for straightforward answers and solutions. I’m not looking for esoteric information, but things that should be easy to configure but are not. Things that should work out of the box or be intuitively configurable. That aspect of GNU/Linux discourages me. Many people today using GNU/Linux poo-poo intuitive tools, but I do not. Consider an example. A few months ago I performed a “poor person’s” installation of Knoppix 3.4. Basically, this is little more than copying the Knoppix CD files to a hard disk partition and running Knoppix from there rather than the slower CD. I learned how to save personal configurations and configure GRUB so I would not have to retype boot parameters. Yet, regardless of how I tried, I could not install Knoppix to my outer partitions (I had more than 20 partitions at that time). Eventually I learned that with SCSI devices there is a 15 partition limit, but I never found any related restriction with IDE drives. Supposedly one can have up to 64 IDE partitions. Regardless, in the end I had to rearrange my partition scheme so I could install Knoppix in one of my inner 15 partitions rather than at the outer of my drive where I had empty space. I never received an intelligent error message about why I could not install in my outer partitions. Time consuming and frustrating. Much like the old Groucho Marx joke of “Don’t do that anymore,” I nonetheless have no idea why I can’t install Knoppix to those outer partitions. Finis. |
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