I also have learned alot about "Windows-only" hardware, and can speak from experience that anyone using Linux has to make all their hardware selections carefully. My own experience is that many modems and printers aren't native to Linux and don't have Linux drivers. I'd also be very selective if and when you plan on doing any RAID configurations, as Linux balks about some of the cheaper Promise raid controller chipsets. If you're doing RAID, go 3WARE for Linux.
I also avoid installing programs without YUM if I can help it. When I must, I try and get individual RPM's from distro-specific mirrors and follow the HOWTO's with many tasks that's aren't so obvious.
Keep the faith, the frustration will season into knowledge, flexibility, and open-mindedness in acheiving the task at hand. Always be realistic about what you're trying to accomplish and what limitations you're dealing with. I have a windows box still as my main desktop, but have come to rely on Linux's server capabilities and learning new things everyday. If I had to, I could make my Fedora box my main desktop with ease, but i'd give up some multimedia capabilities and couldn't print to my panasonic KXP-7100 duplex laser printer I got for $130.
As time goes on, I'm confident Linux will catch up and I'll be ready for my own switchover to my main desktop. IBM and HP's big push toward Linux isn't hurting things, so it's just a matter of time.
Cheers,
BC
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
