Linux - which ISP - Page 2

punky · 21-09-2006, 12:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robster

Unfortunately this is the reputation that Linux has, and berfore I made the jump I thought this was the case. I have been using Ubuntu Linux for 2 weeks and it hasn't been like that at all. There is an applications manager which has a list of hundreds of programs that are available, and it really is a case of point..click and its done. The problem is that a lot of websites for open source programs aren't user friendly, and contain instructions on compiling etc rather than having a click-to-install download. And this is the method that anyone coming from windows is used to.....go to the website, download...install.

Wether its better than windows, I would say its just different.

You're assuming that all apps people want are part of the distribution, which they aren't

RedHat did well with the RPM package system, which to others credit has been adopted for Suse and Mandrake/Mandriva (although RedHat and Suse have both dropped their free versions). Because different Linux distribs need different binaries, this renders the RPM system obsolete. This will continue to be the case until there is a standard that arises to help unify it all. My last run of Mandrake, still entailed many wasted hours trying to get things to work that were automatic with XP.

Robster · 21-09-2006, 12:33

I think you misunderstood my slightly. There are several programs that are included with the distro, sure, but the software manager lets you download and install many other programs. A lot of said software isn't available in the appropriate package format from the software makers, but Ubuntu repackage it and make it available in this way.

I too used Mandrake in the past and suffered the same frustrations.

If you are interested in Linux I would recommend giving Ubuntu a go, the install CD also runs live so you can try it out before commiting.