Windows =/= Linux

[anivair.livejournal.com]

I'm going to say this one more time. I'm a Linux geek. I administer Linux machines. I have not used a windows machine for anything but playing a video game in about seven years. I cannot tell you how to make your Windows machine run. Do not contact me and say "I downloaded this program, what do I do now?" I don't know.

Failing your ability to figure it out, Google it. That's all I would do. And it's all i CAN do, because I don't have a windows machine to use to test your question out anyway. Why would I?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/hub_/]

I don't even use Windows to game. For me anything involving Windows is like torture. And not BDSM-like either.

:-)

[historychick49.livejournal.com]

I have to use Windows at work, unfortunately. (Even more unfortunately, I'm stuck on an almost-eight-year-old machine, which will hopefully be remedied sometime in the next couple of months.) But at home I run Ubuntu 99.99% exclusively... and I take great pride in the fact that I recently converted my dad, who is not terribly computer-savvy, to Ubuntu as well.

[drquuxum.livejournal.com]

Linux is my primary choice as well, but I don't have a choice in administering Windows desktops, so I keep a VirtualBox instance of both XP and 7 handy.

[amaena.livejournal.com]

So true!

[lunatic59.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's as much a platform issue as it is one of lazy-assed stupidity. If they are bright enough to figure out how to download something, then they can RTFM. However, if by "downloaded" they mean "installed" then the only thing left to do is chill the glasses and get the olives.

[dave-iii.livejournal.com]

It's not that hard, really. I know I'm drawing fire by saying I use Windows, but really, it is perfectly adequate for novice users.

Any program someone is likely to (*INTENTIONALLY*) download will almost certainly come with directions, if only the phrase "When the file has finished downloading, double click the icon". If there's more, it will either be included in the Zip file or on the website.

Bang. That's it.

[dave-iii.livejournal.com]

If you're a gamer, then installing a program on ANY system should be as easy as plugging in a lamp. In which case, *dopeslap*

[dave-iii.livejournal.com]

My lack of familiarity with Mac would probably but me in that latter category. ^_^

[anivair.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what the mac comment had to do with what I was talking about, but I'm not sure it's true. I just tried to install a printer on vista the other and it took me 40 minutes and a bunch of searching and downloading and it was crap. On a mac, i'd plug it in and there would be a few prompts. On my ubuntu machine at home, I just plugged it in and ubuntu set it up for me.

But ignoring macs, which I know little about, installation is way easier on my ubuntu machine. One command and it installs the program, and libraries and other programs that it needs, everything. To say nothing of the fact that most of the programs I'd need to use are already on there to begin with.

I don't want to get into any sort of value argument between the two OS's, but unless you're trying hard to be contrary, Windows is just about the hardest OS I've ever seen for installations. Both in theory and in practice.

there was a time, long ago, when it was "insert dick, say, yes, look on in amazement!" but that is not the case anymore.

[dave-iii.livejournal.com]

I'm not interested in a "who's better" argument either (I don't know enough about Linux to say, and besides they usually just make the participants look childish) but I can say that installing on Windows is rarely hard, in my experience. The most complicated thing tends to be "do you want to put this program somewhere other than the default location", and maybe a few settings, but other than that I can't imagine what has given you so much trouble. I haven't done anything like place the executable, data files, and everything else by hand since my PCjr, before Windows even existed. That's something Windows users assume Linux people do, because they want to. (Kind of a "power user" sort of thing.)

I think someone must have been yanking your chain, I really do. Now, UNinstalling something in Windows, that's a whole different kettle of fish.

[tuba-man.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh god. OOOOOOOH GOD DO I HATE PRINTER DRIVERS.

Crossposted from Reddit:
HOLY SHIT. I WISH IT WAS LEGAL TO KILL EVERY DEVELOPER WHO HAS EVER DEVELOPED A PRINTER DRIVER FOR ANY MAJOR MANUFACTURER.
PRINTER DRIVERS SHOULD NOT BE IN THE HUNDREDS OF MEGABYTES RANGE.
USB PRINTERS (WITH USB-SPECIFIC DRIVERS, NO FCUKING LESS) SHOULD NOT TELL ME I NEED TO ALLOW A NEW WINDOWS FIREWALL RULE.
I CAN INSTALL A NEW INPUT DEVICE IN EXACTLY THE TIME IT TAKES TO PLUG IT IN AND SIT BACK DOWN IN FRONT OF THE KEYBOARD. WHAT THE FUCK MAKES YOU THINK A HALF HOUR PRINTER INSTALL IS ACCEPTABLE YOU ASSBUTTS>
FUCK YOU ALL IN HELL.

And my favorite response: :)
Jimsus 162 points 4 days ago[-]
The above post is the only post on the internet allowed to use all caps. That is all.



Windows printer drivers and/or printer driver bundles are big buckets of shite. :(



It works fine on Mac (and by extension, usually as easy on Linux) due to their use of Cups.

tl;dr: Printer drivers are an entirely different beast from anything else.

[goose-entity.livejournal.com]

Ubuntu 9.04 and Virtualbox allows me to run the one remaining trace of my Windows world at home (Civ3 FTW).

[dukesnorre.livejournal.com]

That's your take. I'd rather read it like someone who would walk into McDonald's, have a seat, and when someone from the staff walks over to them, asks for the wine chart. But really it sounds like someone frustrated that since they know their way a operating system, well then they must know how to work this doohickey I've got strapped to my tractor outside ... I can't detect the pride in rejecting that.

Your ruffled feathers though, those I can spot from a mile (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_mile) away.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

I'm not talking about pride. I'm just calling the facts. I know dick about Windows because I haven't worked with it for seven years. I don't need to. All my machines at home run linux. All my machines at work run linux. My website runs on a linux server. I never have a single reason to touch a windows machine.

Myu point is that asking me for Windows advice is daft to begin with. It's like asking a mechanic how to fix your dishwasher. they are both machines, but a car and a dishwasher are not the same.

Also: your comparison is not apt. If there is a bike allegory to be made, then a mac is a unicycle, windows is a bmx style bike, and linux is a ten speed (the sort where you can take the wheels off and swap out the gears).

But i take your point and you're not wrong. If I claimed to be an IT expert, then I should know windows. I do not. I claim to be a linix admin.

[dave-iii.livejournal.com]

I like to think of some Linux users being so familiar with their system that they transcend Windows into Linux, because they can do more and get more out of it.

If I were working your metaphor, I'd have said they'd progressed from bikes to motorcycles, and were usually SO deep into motorcycles that the fundamentals they'd learned from bikes are all but lost under the strata.

Windows is more for people who just want it to DO, and don't care about the How. Linux is more for the How.

It's only the ones who act like drunken frat boys on the night of the playoffs who get to be a problem about it. ^_^

[awarrenfells.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I am fairly well versed in all three platforms of choice [Windows, Mac, Linux], but am a master of none. Occasionally someone will ask me how to do something on a windows machine at work, and I will start to answer them only to realize that the answer is actually how I would do it on a linux machine and I really have no clue how to do it on the former.