Archives for May, 2007

This video of Beryl on Ubuntu tempted me to join the dark side.

There’s been a lot of hype recently surrounding Ubuntu (”Linux for humans”) so last week I decided to give it a try. I’ve been using XP for a few years now without any troubles, but I noticed that I’ve been naturally gravitating towards open-source programs, like Firefox, Thunderbird, VLC, and many more… Switching the OS seemed like a natural next step.

That was my first mistake. I assumed that Ubuntu would be like, say, Firefox. That it would somehow be more efficient, faster and easier to use. Unfortunately, it is not. My second mistake was thinking that my long years with XP (and before that my years with a Mac, an Amiga, and even an Atari 800) would somehow be of some use to me. Unfortunately, they were not. My third mistake was in thinking that I could fight my way up the steep learning curve and come out on the other side triumphant. Unfortunately, I could not. After a week of slogging through every kind of tedious problem, I gave up and went back to XP.

I didn’t want to. I was even ready to make some sacrifices. For example, the impetus for my switch was seeing the beryl video above — but my graphic card was listed as being unsupported. I decided to keep on trucking anyway. (As a sidenote: the installation instructions for beryl are a prime example of what’s wrong with Linux. If you use Windows, then you probably know that installing a program means double-clicking on a file, clicking “next” a few times, choosing where to save it, and maybe deciding what parts you want installed. Now go check the instructions for installing Beryl. Keep in mind that that’s page one of three.

I know that Linux is touted as giving you greater control and everything, but to me it’s like someone wanting to drive one of those old cars with hand cranks because you get better “ignition control.”

In the meantime, my problems continued: Firefox looked uglier and lagged when dealing with flash files; audio sometimes crackled and sometimes didn’t; some programs weren’t showing up in the menus as they should; turning on desktop effects turned the screen entirely white; and online help guides were a giant convoluted mess — you would find solutions applicable to previous versions of Ubuntu, or text that read like it had been wrung through babelfish a few times. When Firefox inexplicably crashed on me, I knew it was over.

Ubuntu hit me with one final parting shot — the damnable Grub Error 17 — but, like this gentleman, I’m now happily back with XP.

It wasn’t a total loss. For one, I learned that Linux is not quite for humans. And for another: It was a worthwhile experience for its own sake. If anyone’s interested, this page has tips on how to make Windows more Linux-like, including improvements like adding multiple workspaces and the free ObjectDock.

If you want to give Ubuntu a try, you can download it for free here. I would recommend doing a dual boot, in which case I found this tutorial to be the best by far.