John Hokanson Jr. wrote: > I just want my computer to work right, and Linux has been a complete > bitch to set up properly. I've already spent money on two > distributions. If I spend any more, I'll be fast approching the cost > of an MS Windows product. Everytime I get a new peice of > Linux software, it's not good enough or has major bugs and I > have to do it all over again. > > So far the only thing that makes it better than Win9x is the fact > that I can leave it running without having the reboot every couple > of hours. That's not good enough. > > I've been fighting the urge to tear it from my HD and switch to > NT.
John, Sorry to hear you're having so much trouble. IIRC, you're running on a 200 Mhz. Pentium (something) with 64 MB ram. That's really not enough for Mandrake and KDE. Also, IMHO, Linux tends to be oversold at this point in time. Depending on your requirements, Linux might not be for you yet. I personally would rather see you back away from Linux now if it's not meeting your needs so that you are more ready to come back to Linux in the (near) future when it is ready to meet your needs. I'm going to look now for the other emails you sent about what you want to do in Linux. OK, here it is: "The box will primarily be running KDE (or GNOME if I get completely fed up with the latency of KDE), act as a light file server, and maybe an internet gateway. Nothing major." Running KDE (or GNOME) is major, you will not get satisfactory performance (IMHO) with less than 128 MB of RAM, and even so it will be slower than the same box with Windows 95 or 98 (I can't speak for more up-to-date versions of Windows). IE will be faster than Konqueror or Mozilla. I think mail (like KMail) will be compatible in speed. You mention running an internet gateway -- does that mean you have some other computers? If so, you might consider setting this box up as the internet gateway and file server (it will do a terrific job) and also serve as your learning box for Linux in general and KDE (or GNOME) in particular. Then keep one of your other computers running Windows for the tasks than Linux is not as good at (yet). I don't know what else you might intend to do under KDE or GNOME, I jumped to the conclusion that you want email and web browsing. If you want file editing and light duty word processing, you will find what you need in KDE (or AbiWord), and, I think, aside from loading times, the response will be adequate. StarOffice has almost as many capabilities as Word (AFAICT), but takes 1 to 2 minutes to load on my machine (~200 Mhz, 128 MB). Other than StarOffice, I don't think there is a word processor on Linux that has all the features of Word97 (for example), including styles, collapsible outlining, collaboration, etc., although a Linux advocate might suggest that some of those capabilities don't belong in a word processor but should be done external to it. Hope this helps, Randy Kramer If you do decide to set Linux aside temporarily, feel free to lurk on this list and occasionally ask for an update on the state of Linux.
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