Is Linux always so frustating^

[Mitch Wiedemann]

Hello Nino,

You are not alone in feeling frustrated.  I think Linux is great, but 
that doesn't mean it doesn't drive me crazy at times.  Usually this is 
when I'm trying to do something new.   In my own mind this is more 
acceptable than my experience with Windows, where I would get frustrated 
because it wouldn't allow me to do something that I had done hundreds of 
times before!  At least with Linux, once you get something working, it 
usually will stay that way, unless you make other changes to mess things 
up. (I seem to do this alot!)  :)

Anyway, in my experience, living/playing/working with Linux is a 
challenge sometimes, but for me it is worth it to either spend the time 
to work through the problem, or find another workable method for getting 
the result that I need. 

For example:
I used to use Dreamweaver on Windows for Web development on a 
Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP server.  When I switched to Linux, I realized 
that Dreamweaver (which is a great program for general Web dev. tasks) 
wasn't going to be available to me.   This was a difficult notion.  I 
decided that I'd have to give up Dreamweaver and come up with alternate 
methods of getting my work done, so that I could enjoy the many other 
benefits of using Free/Open source Software.  For me, the switch has 
been worth it.  Even if sometimes (like setting up printers, for 
instance) I have to spend more time than I think is necessary.

I remember years ago having to go through the same thing with DOS and 
the initial versions of Windows...

Linux CAN be frustrating, but for me it's worth it, because I can see 
where we're all going.

pinco wrote:

> Hi,
> perhaps this message will irritate all of you, that's not my 
> intention, so I beg your pardon if it does.
>
> I don't think I lack of experience in computer matters, even if I'm 
> not an expert (see my homepage), but I'm really frustrated with Linux 
> (Fedora).
>
> Since I'm not happy with MS policy I'm trying to switch to Linux, but 
> until now very few programs I succeeded to install without wasting a 
> lot of time and even so I didn't succeed.
>
> I'm happy with OpenOffice, very happy with Audacity (which I discoverd 
> thanks to this list), but what else?
>
> In these days I tried a substitue to FrontPage, but I failed to 
> install Quanta! (I'm a newbie, but I don't have any problems with 
> installing and even coding on Windows. Besides I've read in a mailing 
> list that it crashes with Fedora Core 1). NVU is more o less a HTML 
> editor. So I didn't succeed to find a substiture!
>
> For some application, as I understood, I should have different 
> programs because they depend on others: OpenOffice use Mozilla, so 
> even if I don't like this browser I must have its libraries, if I 
> decide to use Gnome I must have even the KDE libraries, because some 
> programs require them, and so on.
>
> Hardware should be compatible, so I have to buy new ones. (Yes, I 
> wrote to the firms asking for drivers, but in the meanwhile...)
>
> So I ask you what wrong?
>
> Why am I failing to switch to Linux?
>
> Please, pay attention to the fact that I'm asking help,  don't insult 
> me... if you can :)
>
> Thanks,
> Nino


-- 
Mitch Wiedemann
mc^2 Computer Consulting
mc2 at lightlink.com
http://www.lightlink.com/mc2