Comments on: Simplicity Itself

By: Moss Bliss

Moss Bliss — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:08:08 +0000

I would be happy to switch totally away from Windoze… if OpenOffice.org or another editor/wordproc program would fix the bloody opensource DOC-to-RTF conversion. I’m a professional editor, and many of my documents come in as DOC and must leave my desk as RTF. OOo screws every one of them up, in an unfixiable way. Stuck with M$ Weird until they fix it — and OOo says on their website that they are not in the least motivated to do so. (I have two other problems with OOo, but neither are large enough to prevent my using it, and both have been reported and ignored.)

By: Moss Bliss

Moss Bliss — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:04:59 +0000

Um, COMMAND LINE??? I thought our friend Bob was into Ubuntu. Updates, new software, easy as pie.

By: CaptainZM

CaptainZM — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 01:04:02 +0000

The only issue I have with Linux is that when I’m in a hurry with windows and I need to get shit done, I know that my install will work, because I run a tight ship on my PC. In the past I’ve had linux just decided to belly up without notice and then refuse to even run the GRUB loader during pre-start…. I know Linux is a great OS, but I don’t have time to troubleshoot every little error every time it decides it doesnt like a piece of hardware.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:12:40 +0000

If you install Windows on a system with Ubuntu, it will delete the Ubuntu installation.
If you install Ubuntu on a system with Windows, it will ask you how to shrink the Windows partition to make room, ask if you want to copy over a long list of browser settings and other user data, then set up GRUB for dual-booting. To install a software package in Windows, you buy or search online for the package and run its .exe installer, which could do *anything* to your system. If it requires a DLL that you don’t have, or includes an earlier version that you do have and other software depends on the later version, good luck. Hope you haven’t downloaded a Trojan horse. To install a package in Ubuntu (or any Debian-based distro):
Run the Synaptic package manager (always in the System -> Administration menu
Select a package from the (Long!) searchable list.
Click “Mark for installation” and “Apply”
The package manager will resolve any dependencies, and install the package and whatever packages it depends on that you don’t already have. You don’t have to reboot.

If you use your distro’s official repositories, you aren’t likely to get malware. Even if you do, malware in Linux is usually far less damaging than than in Windows, where every program seems to demand Administrator privileges, any program can set itself to run on boot, and any installation writes non-human-readable arcana to the Registry.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:31:00 +0000

Did anyone else have some spyware scanner trying to install itself upon loading this page? (bestvirusscanner.blah or somethin). I have never seen anything hijack firefox like that before. System is completely clean, so it couldn’t have come from anywhere else.

By: Garrett Williams

Garrett Williams — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:31:47 +0000

This describes my experience pretty well. I still don’t know how to install tarballs, which are sometimes the only option on a program. I have to look up the instructions each time. I booted into Ubuntu a few days ago, and it still didn’t have an auto-update of Firefox 3.5. Went to mozilla.org, and downloaded the tarball. Haven’t touched it yet. I believe I’ll wind up just auto-updating when Ubuntu gets it listed. In my Ubuntu, Firefox’s built-in update menu option is greyed out, so apparently that’s not an option.
If I didn’t use Photoshop and Anime Studio(animation program) frequently, I’d probably use Linux enough to know the ways of the command line.
On the other hand, it still can’t use my webcam or remote, and it only receives MOST of my mouse clicks from my Wacom Bamboo mouse.
As soon as ALL installers are double-click-to-install, Linux has a chance of being mainstream.

By: Fyrebaugh

Fyrebaugh — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:12:32 +0000

I still remember installing Windows 98 on a via chipset with an AMD processor. Worst experience ever, the installation stopped after the first reboot because windows tried to initialize the IDE ports with default drivers, which didn’t work. Drivers for the IDE ports came with the motherboard but were on CD, which the system could no longer see.

I don’t know why some PC based people who actually work with computers on a hardware level think that Linux, (depending on the distro), is any harder to install that the stuff Microsoft has had us go through!

By: hari

hari — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:44:30 +0000

Bartimaeus, have you ever tried Debian or its derivatives.

Almost everything you need is binary packaged in the official repositories and the package manager automatically installs all dependencies and manages your software collection coherently.

By: Bartimaeus

Bartimaeus — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:43:37 +0000

I can personally testify as to the tricky installation– I’m a Mac OS X user, and I have had to try the old config-make-make install method. Which can be a pain in the neck if (make that WHEN) things go wrong.
I have now permanently botched an install of the SDL libraries, and have given up installing any more Unix-y things because of this (besides, all the stuff I want to install uses SDL.)

By: PhilJo

PhilJo — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:15:25 +0000

Krishna,

I fear you may have started a flame fest with the current synaptic GUI package managers from Debian this plotline seems a decade out of date, most of your readers would be of a slightly technical inclination, still good way to display readership without sticking the Apache logs out in the open

Love the comic and keep up the good work, Philjo