This is typically how my Linux experiences go....
Linux Community: X works in Linux! And it's free!
Me: Huh, that's pretty cool....
Linux Community: Yeah and it's super easy. Easier to setup than Windows. And you'll never get a virus. And it's free!
Me: Wow, that does sound pretty cool...
Linux Community: Heard you had a problem with Vista's power management stuff? Yeah, you should run Linux - no problems there....
Me: Wow - that does really sound great...
Linux Community: Hey - Windows 7 is coming out - but look at this chart. It shows how much faster Linux is. And look, the install took less clicks and is much easier. Ant it's free! My Grandma runs it now. It's awesome.
Me: I have to say, that really, really sounds great....
Linux Community: I see you play WoW. I dunno if you know this but Linux can totally do that. Linux is like everywhere man. Why don't try it? It's free. It's everything Windows does, only free and less problems. It just works. Just download it man. Piece of cake.
Me: I don't know - that sounds great. I really don't like Windows; and I'd love to be able to play with the source of my OS....God Linux sounds great.
Linux Community: Oh - yes - it is! Here's a link man....go for it. Just download it and burn it. It's yours. Free. And just like Windows, only better. It does everything. Everything you want - it does. Better. Faster. Free! Try it. Don't be a chicken....try it.
Me: Huh - yeah - Linux seems cool but um...I'm having a problem. (The specific problem varies depending on the year I was trying it. Internet back in '03, RAID in '06, Wireless in '07, Installing in '09).
Linux Community: Oh yeah - that's nothing just do X (where X is something ridiculous like 'download it again')
Me: Umm yeah - so, that's not working for me. I still can't this working.
Linux Community: Did you read the guide? It's this page here - you should have read this before you did the install. It's really long and complicated and it will make you change your BIOS settings. It's called 'DO THIS BEFORE YOU INSTALL.HTML'. Go there, do it, try again.
Me: Umm - Okay. WTF? I don't know what any of this means but I just changed four things in my BIOS. But I still can't install.
Them: Did you verify the download? Use this MD5 tool to verify that the download was correct. I mean, you can't just trust a file to download correctly these days...it's really a gamble.
Me: Umm - Okay. I installed some program in Windows and it says it has the same number as what it should be...but it still doesn't work.
Them: Okay - well, go to this random guys blog. He has four pages of detailed instructions. You'll need to download a Windows driver and run this program that will, maybe get it to work.
Me: Alright - I spent FOUR HOURS screwing with this and I still can't get online unless I disable security on my wireless router.
Them: Well, just disable the security on your router. Yay! Linux works great!
Me: WTF? I don't want to disable my security. I want to be able to use it like it worked in Windows.
Them: Then buy a wirless router that works in Linux.
Me: Okay - which one can I buy off NewEgg that will work.
Them: Well, a lot of people have good luck with XYZ - but it depends on what chipset is used.
Me: WTF? How do I know what chipset is used?
Them: Well, buy it, and if it works, you'll know it's the right one.
Me: You want me to buy something that 'might' work, but if it doesn't work I'm SOL?
Them: Yup! If you don't like that, you can just buy a brand new PC with Linux installed from Dell!
Me: Is it any cheaper than the Windows version?
Them: Nope.
Me: WTF?
Them: Geez man, chill out. Linux *isn't* windows. It's not just going to magically work. Hardware manufactures don't support Linux, so you need to make sure, in advance, that your hardware will work.
You also can't expect Linux to work like Windows. It's a totally separate OS and you'll have to learn to use it from scratch. A lot of things aren't going to just work out of the box. And yeah - don't ever use the 'upgrade' option because most distros will destroy themselves if you do. And yeah, each updates brings a really good chance of hardware breaking. But nothing important, just little things like *sound* and stuff.
Me: Wait - WHY DID YOU TELL ME LINUX WAS SO DAMN PERFECT AND THAT IT JUST WORKED AND THAT IT SUPPORTS EVERYTHING AND DOES EVERYTHING?
Them: Ummm, because....we want more people to use Linux so that hardware manufactures and game manufactures will see that we are a big enough install-base for them to care about.
Me: ???
Them: Well, if 25% of the population uses Linux, then maybe hardware will come with Linux drivers and games will install on Linux out of the box. And the more users we get, the more interest developers will have in working on Linux to make it better.
Me: You bastards.
Sounds a lot like why I stopped attempted to use it as well.
Highlights of my learning included:
-Getting NVIDIA drivers to install and work after 3 hours of not knowing what I was doing.
-Compiling and installing XFCE4 when it was brand new, after 5 hours of not knowing what I was doing.
-Mounting my windows partition after hours of not knowing what I was doing.
Lowlights of my "learning" included:
-Being stuck at a command line bootloader because something broke.
-Completely wiping out two windows partitions because of some bug Mandrake 9 or so had that changed my HDD to LBA when it wasn't there. Which made my computer damn near unbootable. Which of course was windows fault entirely according to whatever I read.
-Bricking a cdburner with Fedora Core 2 because it overwrote the firmware. Which of course was the drive manufacturer's fault according to whatever I read.
Pretty much as soon as I went from Software/OS problems causing me to reformat stuff to Linux killing hardware/data, I let the dream die.
