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After my last post, regular readers will have waiting patiently to read about my slick new Linux system! Sorry to disappoint, but it was a disaster from start to finish!
As a pre-requisite to installing Linux, I needed a free distribution, as we was unwilling to spend even more money chasing a stable, usable computer. Bear in mind that I work as an IT professional, so I’m very familiar with the different distributions and the widespread acceptance. I wanted something that still allowed me to edit photographs, create and edit audio files, and to create and edit videos. With all this in mind, Ubuntustudio seemed like the ideal choice!
It all started out nicely, with the installation being the typical, smooth Linux experience. Then I tried to get my PCI wireless network card working….! It turns out that there’s a known “challenge” getting any wireless card that’s based on Broadcom chips to work under Linux. It’s do-able, but painful! No problem though - I simply went out and bought 2 Ethernet-over-power adapters, and extended my LAN into my upstairs office, bypassing the wireless in the process. This meant that I could now get online and download the relevant Linux drivers for my 512Mb ATI Radeon x1650 graphics card…. ….which is also mostly incompatible with Linux!
I ended up with a working system, but with very little in the way of graphics performance (not ideal for photo and video editing!). I installed OpenOffice and setup Thunderbird email and started testing things out. Now, I’m no raving Microsoft fan, but I must say that OpenOffice still has a long way to go in terms of usability, and Thunderbird even further. After countless years of using Outlook, Thunderbird felt almost as drastic as going back to DOS!!! It was painful to the point of being almost unusable for multiple email accounts!
I tried to put this behind me to marvel at the bundled media applications for audio, graphics and video. You’d understand if I was somewhat disappointed at the number of these applications that simply vanished if I clicked certain menus or buttons!
At this point, I decided to leave it for a week (since I’m still working away from home) and to just set up the print server so that my wife could print from her Vista laptop. OK, OK, stop laughing! :( This was simply the last straw!
It turned out that my anticipated euphoria of running Linux was not going to be forthcoming!
I must admit to a certain amount of relief when I broke out the Windows XP CD, formatted my C drive and set about re-installing a (reasonably) stable and fairly usable OS! I know many of you reading this will be ready to flame me for writing this (please feel free - I’ll even display the flames, as long as they’re clean!) but be aware that I DO know what I’m doing - I implement data-center automation systems on large-scale Linux environments and know Linux extremely well, but it’s clearly not ready for mainstream yet! Until there’s a viable alternative for Microsoft Office (including Outlook)and until more hardware vendors embrace the platform, I believe that Linux will remain an enthusiasts operating system.
Having said all this, if I had the money to spare, I’d get rid of my PC altogether and move to a really stable platform - Mac! Here is a seriously slick operating system (which incidentally, is also UNIX based!) for which there exists a huge variety of industry strength applications - including Microsoft Office. Most importantly, Photoshop is available on the Mac, and FinalCut (for video editing) is a Mac only product! Without doubt, this will be the next system that I buy - especially since it’s portable so I can take it with me when I’m working away from home! However, I need to make quite a bit of extra cash through my online ventures to justify it! Unless any of my readers are feeling generous……? 
September 21st, 2008 at 4:07 am
I’m a bit like you (computer professional, worked as a unix admin and windows admin).
And although I like the elegance of unix/linux, I currently have no linux (nor vista) systems at home/office.
This is mainly because I use a large range of applications, and windows has THE largest repository of applications
For email, I use “The Bat!”, as I don’t like MS “lookout!”, and at the time (5 years ago), I think Thunderbird wasn’t ready for prime time.
I dare say your problems with office and thunderbird can be due, to some extent, to your countless years using these applications (I’ve seen this happen with people very familiar with word: they cannot stand OO writer… yet someone who rarely uses word has no trouble adjusting to OO writer)
I disagree that linux is not ready for mainstream.
Your requirements are not typical for average users.
Most people will use their PC for: web surfing, email, “office apps”, and instant messaging.
Most people won’t care about a smaller selection of multimedia applications.
Due to its nature, I’m sure linux will not work well on certain systems (usually newer ones, and laptops).
I suspect you will have a similar experience with a Mac: a smaller selection of applications.
What about mac windows emulation? I’ve found it doesn’t always “work”… some applications will refuse to install, as they will somehow believe you are trying to pirate the application.
September 21st, 2008 at 8:41 am
Hi ComputerAid,
Thanks for your comment. You have a valid point about Linux being acceptable to the average home PC user, although I wonder how easily they’d be able to get support? Bear in mind that many local PC outlets struggle with Windows (”We’ll have to re-install everything to fix it!”….) so I’d be amazed if they could handle Linux!
I’m curious though - what’s “The Bat”???
Cheers,
-John.