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james133 · 07-01-2009, 05:52 AM

I have tried switching to Linux in the past, but I returned to Windows every time. I used Knoppix for a few weeks, was defeated by the installer in Debian, gave up hope on Slackware since I failed at Debian, and couldn't get OpenSUSE to install. I dual-booted Windows Vista and Ubuntu 8.04 for a while on a tablet PC but went back to Windows XP Tablet Edition; Windows has better tablet PC software, the fingerprint scanner works better in Windows, and Youtube streams don't inexplicably stop after about a minute in Windows.

About a week ago, I quit gaming, and I wiped Windows XP Tablet Edition and installed Ubuntu 9.04. Everything went well until I tried to transfer back data from my external hard drive. I plugged it in by USB, but no icon appeared for the drive. Firewire was unsuccessful too. I Googled the problem, opened a terminal, and entered "sudo fdisk -l." Linux recognized the hard drive as some weird "OnTrack6" format. I searched for a workaround and determined I needed to insert a modifier into grub.conf. When I couldn't find this file, I searched some more and learned Ubuntu has menu.lst instead of grub.conf. Then I had to suss out the "gksudo gedit menu.lst" command because I can't just open up a file, edit it, and save it like I can in Windows. I inserted the modifier into different places in menu.lst because nowhere online made it clear where exactly to put it. Linux continued to read my drive as an odd format. Then, I finally read that the workaround was ineffective for connection by USB--that it only worked for the IDE bus. (OnTrack6, by the way, allows older Windows OSes like Windows 98 to read and use the entirety rather than just a portion of large, modern hard drives.) In the end, I transferred the data to the girlfriend's computer and--because it was rather full--to DVDs, reformatted the external hard drive with gparted in FAT32, transferred everything back onto it, and then finally copied that to my computer.

I am now downloading Windows 7 release candidate.

It's always something with Linux. The GUI isn't as polished. The software isn't as functional. The hardware requires hours of researching workarounds, isn't compatible, or requires hours of researching to discover it isn't compatible. Video streaming/downloading still hiccups and hangs in Ubuntu 9.04 for me.

I want to like Linux. I really do. When Ubuntu 9.10 comes out, maybe I'll try to like it again.

07-01-2009, 05:52 AM	#42 (permalink)
james133 Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 3	I have tried switching to Linux in the past, but I returned to Windows every time. I used Knoppix for a few weeks, was defeated by the installer in Debian, gave up hope on Slackware since I failed at Debian, and couldn't get OpenSUSE to install. I dual-booted Windows Vista and Ubuntu 8.04 for a while on a tablet PC but went back to Windows XP Tablet Edition; Windows has better tablet PC software, the fingerprint scanner works better in Windows, and Youtube streams don't inexplicably stop after about a minute in Windows. About a week ago, I quit gaming, and I wiped Windows XP Tablet Edition and installed Ubuntu 9.04. Everything went well until I tried to transfer back data from my external hard drive. I plugged it in by USB, but no icon appeared for the drive. Firewire was unsuccessful too. I Googled the problem, opened a terminal, and entered "sudo fdisk -l." Linux recognized the hard drive as some weird "OnTrack6" format. I searched for a workaround and determined I needed to insert a modifier into grub.conf. When I couldn't find this file, I searched some more and learned Ubuntu has menu.lst instead of grub.conf. Then I had to suss out the "gksudo gedit menu.lst" command because I can't just open up a file, edit it, and save it like I can in Windows. I inserted the modifier into different places in menu.lst because nowhere online made it clear where exactly to put it. Linux continued to read my drive as an odd format. Then, I finally read that the workaround was ineffective for connection by USB--that it only worked for the IDE bus. (OnTrack6, by the way, allows older Windows OSes like Windows 98 to read and use the entirety rather than just a portion of large, modern hard drives.) In the end, I transferred the data to the girlfriend's computer and--because it was rather full--to DVDs, reformatted the external hard drive with gparted in FAT32, transferred everything back onto it, and then finally copied that to my computer. I am now downloading Windows 7 release candidate. It's always something with Linux. The GUI isn't as polished. The software isn't as functional. The hardware requires hours of researching workarounds, isn't compatible, or requires hours of researching to discover it isn't compatible. Video streaming/downloading still hiccups and hangs in Ubuntu 9.04 for me. I want to like Linux. I really do. When Ubuntu 9.10 comes out, maybe I'll try to like it again.