My troubles with Linux Ubuntu 8.04

[GenoM]

Yes, playing chess in Linux and especially in Ubuntu /I don't have other distributions installed/ was very-very tough even for me, the former comp-freak My sympathy with you, Fernando.

Not-Linux regards,
Geno

[Spock]

I certainly agree with you. For all the criticisms directed towards Windows, there is no doubt that it is nice and easy to use, It has to be, hundreds of millions of people use it worldwide. And when I install Linux, the next question is, OK, what do I do with it. Surf the web, do emails, maybe some letters and spreadsheets with openoffice. But it doesn't run the games I have or most chess programs. So there is no point in it for me unless I had a specific machine where that is all I wanted to do, or I just wanted to experiment with things. XP is secure enough if you take the right precautions, Vista better still. There is plenty of on-line help for Linux though, and no doubt it can be very rewarding to learn

[ml]

Perhaps no, but still is too much trouble for just to play a game of chess, specially if I can save all that fuzz just clicking in an icon in my windows XP desktop. I am used to that, made for normal users, not problems, everything at hand.
I cannot understand which is the edge of Linux if you must go back to the age of lines of commands. I suppose fans of Linux are the same people that now love to play old vinyl records instead of a CD.
So and in any case I already wiped Linux for good.
I will leave it for people that loves to expend his time in computerish nonsense.
Not my case.
my best
Fernando

On the contrary. I have found that Linux actually saves a lot of time. Every time I boot into Windows Vista, there is a notification about more security updates. Then the updates have to be downloaded and installed, and Windows has to be restarted. Then the security software starts scanning the hard drive for new viruses and spyware, which slows the system down. You can hear the hard disk grinding away constantly. And when you install service packs and other Windows updates, your system configuration, user settings, IP address, possibly even some of your Internet activities, are sent to Microsoft.

By comparison, when I boot into Linux, it completes the startup process in about 45 seconds and sits there quietly, waiting for me to get to work. That's it.

The command line interface adds more functionality and is usually only required to make changes to the system or install some software packages. Most software can be installed through the GUI, and many Linux users have never even used the CLI. Windows also has a CLI, called the DOS terminal; but DOS is not nearly as powerful as the Linux CLI. You still need DOS for some system-level functions that are independent of Windows, like running batch files on startup.

You were probably just frustrated because you couldn't come to terms with a different operating system. But that's no reason to bad-mouth Linux and Linux users. Windows and Linux each have their own advantages and disadvantages. That's why I use both (and Mac OS too).

[michiguel]

After listening to so many people and his hoopla about Linux, I decided to give it a try. So I downloaded it, installed in a partition taking only 30%v of my HD -a common sense precaution- and begun to use it.
But, here comes the problem. If you are not a bloody computer geek, you does not know even how to run a program NOT in included in the package
By example, I downloaded the Linux version of Shredder, that comes compressed with tar, uncompressed it in a directory and then I found I cannot run anything. Linux has not exe files.
So my question:
How in hell you make a program run in Linux?

Not much different than Windows. You can double click the program, it could be installed in the applications menu, you can have icons etc. etc.


As some answered, Linux executables can have any name and are not necessarily ended in .exe. BTW, you had experience in Windows and you know that .exe are programs, so you are a "geek" in windows. A "neutral" user do not even know that .exe files are programs.

I do not know details about Shredder installation, but did you try to double click some of the files that the installation generates?

If Shredder chooses to give you a crappy way to install it, it is a pitty that you become frustrated with a fantastic OS. Your complains were true 10 years ago, but not anymore.

And if there is a long proceeding that some of you will explain to me, now tell me which is the advantage of a OS that requires a protocol of steps to make run a program?

I hate geeks, Linux and hackers regards
Fernando

Perhaps no, but still is too much trouble for just to play a game of chess, specially if I can save all that fuzz just clicking in an icon in my windows XP desktop. I am used to that, made for normal users, not problems, everything at hand.
I cannot understand which is the edge of Linux if you must go back to the age of lines of commands. I suppose fans of Linux are the same people that now love to play old vinyl records instead of a CD.
So and in any case I already wiped Linux for good.
I will leave it for people that loves to expend his time in computerish nonsense.
Not my case.
my best
Fernando

The fact is you are not looking for help, you are just complaining because you already erased Linux.

It is quite ironic that you complain about the difficulty of Linux when you installed it by yourself, with partitions. How difficult was it compared to installing windows and all its applications? How many CDs? One right?

I think that Ubuntu Linux is easier that Windows for normal users, who do normal things. Running a crappy Shredder installation is not very normal

Try again! The learning curve is not very steep.

Miguel

[ilari]

If Shredder chooses to give you a crappy way to install it, it is a pitty that you become frustrated with a fantastic OS.

I've seen this happen so many times it's not even funny any more. It goes like this:

Windows:
- problems with a crappy 3rd party program -> blame the author of the program
- problems with a crappy graphics card driver -> blame NVIDIA/ATI/etc.
- OS becomes sluggishly unresponsive -> blame slow or insufficient hardware

Linux:
- problems with a crappy 3rd party program -> blame Linux
- problems with proprietary graphics card driver -> blame Linux
- etc. -> blame Linux

[ml]

I think that Ubuntu Linux is easier that Windows for normal users, who do normal things. Running a crappy Shredder installation is not very normal

Try again! The learning curve is not very steep.

That's right; in fact Ubuntu is the easiest of all the Linux distributions to learn and use, and is suited for beginners. An experienced Linux hacker would use something like Gentoo Linux, where the user has to spend days or weeks compiling and testing parts of the operating system from source.

[Ponti]

Maybe you should try again...
There are many chess softwares for Linux. Yeap, there is no Fritz, or CB, nor CA, but there are *free* softwares that are also good.
I just installed Ubuntu 7.10 a few hours ago, to try it (my last distro was Fedora core 7). I must say it is different from other distros I've already installed, but it seems to be *much* easier and friendly than the others (and I've tried all the main distros).

I remember that it is possible to run Arena with Wine, and there is also a way to run CB... although it is not easy to configure.

SCID is just enough for many players.

Yes, I know Shredder for Linux is not too friendly... (sorry, Stefan, if you are reading this...), but maybe it will get better with time.

So don't worry if it was a bad experience for first time, try again, maybe you should get a LiveCD first and play with for a month or two instead of installing it...

Just my 2 cents.
Best regards,

[Spock]

Ubuntu Linux is very good. I've had it up and running quite nicely but with just internet and the basic stuff. If I just wanted a basic internet workstation with openoffice for the odd bit of correspondence and spreadsheet, then Linux would be very nice. But then I asked myself the question "what can I do with this that I can't do in windows" and the answer was nothing, plus it wouldn't run most of my chess stuff, so I didn't take it any further.

[Tony Thomas]

Ubuntu Linux is very good. I've had it up and running quite nicely but with just internet and the basic stuff. If I just wanted a basic internet workstation with openoffice for the odd bit of correspondence and spreadsheet, then Linux would be very nice. But then I asked myself the question "what can I do with this that I can't do in windows" and the answer was nothing, plus it wouldn't run most of my chess stuff, so I didn't take it any further.

From what I have read so far it sounds like using Linux is like trying to help goat with your hands tied behind your back. Using Linux is also an easy way to say, I know more about computers than you do..

[Guetti]

I cannot see the problem. As I already had a Java IDE installed on my Linux system, I downloaded Shredder from the link I was given by Shredder Support, extracted the tarball, read the readme file provided, and started Shredder as indicated in the text and everything run smoothly.
The same steps I do with every software on every other OS.
Unfortunately, a lot of people skip one of these steps and complain about software not running correctly.