Linux's worst enemy

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Shawn
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Linux's worst enemy

#1 Post by Shawn »

From here
https://web.archive.org/web/20100302020 ... .2/node/19
No longer available except in the archive..

I could not have said it better...This sums up my feelings exactly. Especially after attempting to use a simple serial port, or Wine..Oh and changing the desktop theme.
I sent emails asking about a serial port in wine. I got how to setup a usb by using obscure text and coding..I got Are you sure it is serial? I was told check for a ttyS2 port...That's not what I ask..And don't treat me like I am an idiot...I was told use GPSDrive....GPSDrive has been defunct for 5 years.!
The President of a FOR PAY Linux software company answered with..Linux has trouble with external third party devices...WHAT? Since when is a serial port a third party device?

For fun Google Linux attitude an read the results. The serial/GPS hardware issue isn't what bugs me...It's the attitude that if you are not a software programming geek then T***ghS**t and good luck.. Easy is for idiots...
A simple GPS should be easy to get working...

On to the post I copied about Linux attitude....

Linux’s biggest enemy.
Linux has certainly a lot to overcome to gain more acceptances into people’s hearts. The community of users is now pretty large and has grown steadily through the years; much effort has been put into making Linux more accessible to non technical people, compatibility is better than ever, new applications keep popping up regularly while more mature ones improve over time. But one thing hasn’t changed, and it is, in my eyes, Linux’s biggest enemy: its users! Arrogance combined with a love of obfuscation make the self-appointed gurus the real enemies of the cause; as they have filled the void left by a lack of social life by learning all the commands and common programs, they have built that ‘superior’ attitude that pushes away some new users and certainly scares away the curious ones.

Is it really that hard?Image
If you look at Unix in general, the commands, interfaces, etc are notoriously inconsistent and many choices are plain arbitrary; The main difficulty in learning Linux is really being able to memorize things and be able to read the documentation. Alas, this is one of the big issues: the documentation is cryptic at times because it is usually written with many assumption; the first one is that the user is familiar with everything else but what they are reading about, and also it is usually very short on examples; Linux Gurus love when you have to work hard to find an answer. It is somewhat similar to reading a patent document, where everything fits together, but you have yet to figure out what the object really is about. There is no doubt that with time and patience to experiment, it is actually easy to learn; but this implies two things: you have time and you want to learn. I read this somewhere, and I really like this quote: ‘Free software is only free if your time is’.

Outgrowing the current situation.
In order to stop becoming a ‘geeks’ operating system, Linux has to become more accessible; Ubuntu is a pretty good distribution in that respect and they realized one thing: many users do not need a computer for more than email and the web. This is what many Linux advocates haven’t understood yet: Joe is probably as able as you to learn how to use the shell, but maybe Joe has a life with other interest and truly doesn’t care because he just wants to read his email. Unless it is easy, he will buy a Mac. This is why Macs are popular among the non-technical people, they are easy to use. Linux could be easier and retain all the flexibility behind the scenes, but this will happen only when the community changes attitude. Sure, most people are not paid to help others and wish they had spent a bit of time to educate themselves before asking questions; but, again, non technical users will not even know where to start and I really doubt that if someone has a problem with their Mac that they’d be told to go read the user manual. There are more and more tutorials and how-to, but most requests in forums and, even worst, on IRC are met with a childish hostility: "hahah, the mere mortal used ‘-Xd -f 5’ instead of ‘-xd -f 5’, he obviously didn’t read the documentation"… and he’s probably going to go back to Windows after that… good call. Until Linux advocates and forum dwellers are ready to accept that there are people that do not care about technology, Windows and Mac will remain far superior choices for anyone that just needs to use a computer and does not care and does not want to learn how they work.
Life will beat you into submission.

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safn1949
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Re: Linux's worst enemy

#2 Post by safn1949 »

I would be using Linux on a laptop except for this.....I tried to hook up a printer. That was ridiculous. Mac....plug in printer,recognized,print.

Windows.....install software,plug in printer,click yes a few times,print.

Linux....plug in printer,what printer?,sacrifice small animal,say a prayer,type gibberish in ,watch printer endlessly spit out blank sheets of paper. install Window's 7. :P :D
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Shawn
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Re: Linux's worst enemy

#3 Post by Shawn »

Ummm...
Anyone know where I can get a goat? I prefer cheap as I won't have it that long... :rofl:
Life will beat you into submission.

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Rob
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Re: Linux's worst enemy

#4 Post by Rob »

Jeff has goats...
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Re: Linux's worst enemy

#5 Post by SHEEPMAN! »

1. Jeff agrees with the balance of Shawn's cut and paste as well as his forum comments.
2. Jeff uses Linux anyway because he is bull-headed, figures stuff out and never consults Linux forums.
3. Jeff has SHEEP!
Fair for you/ Fair for me.
I chose to NOT be organized.

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Shawn
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Re: Linux's worst enemy

#6 Post by Shawn »

A sheep is just a goat without horns.. 8)

:lauging: :lauging: :lauging: :lauging:



And the company that sell Toughbooks with Linux specially configured for them can't even bother to return my email..
I offered to BUY a copy of their distro..They could have at least sent a reply of "go screw myself". Which apparently I did by continuing to attempt to install Linux with a GPS.
Life will beat you into submission.

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safn1949
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Re: Linux's worst enemy

#7 Post by safn1949 »

Shawn wrote:Ummm...
Anyone know where I can get a goat? I prefer cheap as I won't have it that long... :rofl:
Yea,but they make great stew afterwards. :eek:
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Shawn
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Re: Linux's worst enemy

#8 Post by Shawn »

Well, the goat did not help...It is tasty though..

If I step back for a second, I guess a lot of it is priorities.
Yes Linux and OSX are more secure.
Yes OSX is so easy a caveman could do it. Which I find interesting because It has ease of use and security. OSX has its roots in Unix just like Linux.
Windows is moderately secure if you have common sense.

Linux is touted for its flexibility in themes and menus etc.
OSX is notoriously inflexible in its layout and looks.
Windows you can tweak the looks a little bit..

But flexibility in what?
Sure I can freely change how Linux looks and some of how it acts.
Linux and OSX are both inflexible in where it counts for ME..Hardware..Hardware..Hardware.
OSX does not do serial ports. period...OSX does not do Intel wifi.

Linux touts you can run Win apps in Wine because Linux is FLEXIBLE....
Flexible as long as you don't need anything connected to your PC...
Forget printers and GPS...USB under Wine is tricky also....
So I have to rule out Wine as being flexible at all....It's useless without Hardware support.
Native Linux is better than Wine..As long as you can find a driver...

Linux is flexible as long as you know the cryptic Terminal commands EXACTLY.
Why? OSX works fine without terminal...Windows needs DOS very seldom..
Why has it been proclaimed that a GUI is for idiots to dumb to learn the cryptic commands?
Makulu Aero is very nice, but you better be pretty good to figure out how to install it...
The partitioning setup is horrid. Why does it have to be? It's easy in Zorin and Mint...

I need to get back to work, But I just had a somehow related thought.

Henry Ford had a saying..Any color you like as long as it's black. That seems to be the mentality of Windows desktop, OSX's entire system. And Linux's hardware support..
Life will beat you into submission.

UNCNDL1
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Re: Linux's worst enemy

#9 Post by UNCNDL1 »

Shawn, from the opencpn website, there is a Linux section in their manual:
http://opencpn.org/ocpn/setting_up_g
You might try with what they say to do first:
To proceed, the "user" you use on your computer must belong to a group that is allowed to open serial connections. This group is normally "dialout" on Debian based Linuxes, including Ubuntu, and "uucp" on Red Hat based distributions. Read more in Data Connections.
Check your status by writing "groups" on a command line. The response will be all groups that the user belongs to. Make sure that "dialout" or "uucp" is included. If not, you have to add your user to this group. There are many ways to do this, one is to issue this command:
"sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER". Logout of your current session for group changes to take effect.
This applies to many Debian based distibutions, for other distros just drop the sudo and do the command as root, using "su".
All major Linux distribution includes a graphical user settings dialog, where adding a user to a group, could be fixed."

There is something else floating around in the back of my brain about ACM.
I'll look for the reference, it is somewhere on the Navigatrix site.
Here it is: http://www.navigatrix.net/viewtopic.php ... gpsd#p1682
I stumbled on it back when we were learning how to program gpsd for the different com ports...
Skim through this thread, and look for the notes on ACM...
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Shawn
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Re: Linux's worst enemy

#10 Post by Shawn »

I am a member of Dialout on every one I tried....
Even tried being root.
I went to the dosdevices folder and owned them myself just to make sure..
Life will beat you into submission.

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