1st impressions can be lasting impressions
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:47 pm
I've been a MS advocate and user/administrator since 1987. I've had every version of MSDOS and Windows known to man. I've pushed these products and pushed them some more. I'm what you could call a Microsoft guy.
...that is until about November of '07. After floundering with Vista for some months, and getting absolutely nowhere with MS, I'd had enough. But what was I supposed to do, what was I supposed to use? I couldn't afford to buy a Mac (for crap sake, $1600 for a macbook?).
So on one of my down days, a friend of mine was spouting about Novell Linux Desktop. We have an enterprise version at work and I played with it for a bit. He assured me that in install of SLED 10.2 would be the answer to my question.
He was wrong. I had nothing but problems: My DVD's wouldn't play, my soundcard wouldn't play, my USB headset wouldn't play, my MP3's wouldn't play, no 3D graphics, etc. I spent about a month finally getting all of the above working, except the 3D graphics. Finally I installed compiz fuzion... and totally hosed up my pc.
So, I was over it. I switched to Suse 10.3, and it was much much better. Still had the 3D graphics problem, but at least my pc wasn't dead.
Because I'm curious, I started toying with other versions of Linux: Sabayon, Fedora, Ubuntu, and finally Mint. It seemed like each distro was better than the last, and most everything would work to start with, and as a MS Windows guy, I liked that.
On Thursday of last week, another Linux buddy of mine gave me a Mint DVD to install. He told me it would be exactly what I wanted/needed.
I have to tell you, he was absolutely on the mark. I installed MInt and everything worked, and via Envy, even some 3D graphics did. The more I toy, the more I enjoy.
After geeking some today, I finally got my ATI X800GTO card to work with fuzion... OMYGOSH, awesome. I've rebooted a few times to make sure it wasn't a fluke. Amazing.
The community that supports this product needs to pat themselves on the back. This is a great product.
I have only a very few suggestions regarding install. Because this distro is meant for windows people who want linux, I think a few things should be added on installation:
-Automated 3D card drivers (instead of Envy)
-Automated compiz fuzion, dependent on video card detected
The install is already easy... but adding these two things would keep the average shmoe from having to figure out the 3D graphics.
Finally, I'm happy with this distro and looking forward to more toys for it. Nice work all.
Shalom vBrachos
...that is until about November of '07. After floundering with Vista for some months, and getting absolutely nowhere with MS, I'd had enough. But what was I supposed to do, what was I supposed to use? I couldn't afford to buy a Mac (for crap sake, $1600 for a macbook?).
So on one of my down days, a friend of mine was spouting about Novell Linux Desktop. We have an enterprise version at work and I played with it for a bit. He assured me that in install of SLED 10.2 would be the answer to my question.
He was wrong. I had nothing but problems: My DVD's wouldn't play, my soundcard wouldn't play, my USB headset wouldn't play, my MP3's wouldn't play, no 3D graphics, etc. I spent about a month finally getting all of the above working, except the 3D graphics. Finally I installed compiz fuzion... and totally hosed up my pc.
So, I was over it. I switched to Suse 10.3, and it was much much better. Still had the 3D graphics problem, but at least my pc wasn't dead.
Because I'm curious, I started toying with other versions of Linux: Sabayon, Fedora, Ubuntu, and finally Mint. It seemed like each distro was better than the last, and most everything would work to start with, and as a MS Windows guy, I liked that.
On Thursday of last week, another Linux buddy of mine gave me a Mint DVD to install. He told me it would be exactly what I wanted/needed.
I have to tell you, he was absolutely on the mark. I installed MInt and everything worked, and via Envy, even some 3D graphics did. The more I toy, the more I enjoy.
After geeking some today, I finally got my ATI X800GTO card to work with fuzion... OMYGOSH, awesome. I've rebooted a few times to make sure it wasn't a fluke. Amazing.
The community that supports this product needs to pat themselves on the back. This is a great product.
I have only a very few suggestions regarding install. Because this distro is meant for windows people who want linux, I think a few things should be added on installation:
-Automated 3D card drivers (instead of Envy)
-Automated compiz fuzion, dependent on video card detected
The install is already easy... but adding these two things would keep the average shmoe from having to figure out the 3D graphics.
Finally, I'm happy with this distro and looking forward to more toys for it. Nice work all.
Shalom vBrachos