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Joy of using linux

minhajuddin.com

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Re: Joy of using linux

#11

Post by Wickk »

pistacchio wrote: post #5

my joy of using linux gone away long ago when i realized that i was spending more time searching forums, hacking drivers, trying solutions, paying more for compatible hardware, not having my laptop extra buttons work or trying to speed up a virtual machine just to have a usable photoshop than actually _using_ it. i'm a happy mac user now (user, not fanboy) that enjoys having a posix compliant terminal in a window and…

You're just proving the point that linux ( and this can be said for ANY os ) is not for everyone.

For the past 6 years, I've been much happier with my experience using Linux and the several distro's I've tried my hand at while no it night be perfect I've learned a lot and have been generally more please.

I don't require or use Photoshop, however you do so your wants and needs are different than mine.

I can list problems I've had with windows, that had me run into driver issues, searching through forums and the many many mishaps ( not virus/malware related ) that I've run into. But in the end it would just boil down to my bad experience vs the millions of windows users who would protest to the contrary.

Re: Joy of using linux

#12

Post by raghava »

waterhouse wrote: post #9
roel_v wrote: post #2

I like Linux as much as the next guy, but his argument is basically 'Linux couldn't open a file that everybody else could, but by dicking around with random half-assed documented tools we could do it anyway!'. Basically, 'we managed to do something that is absolutely trivial for everybody else by jumping through hoops and spending a bunch of time on it to do it the convoluted way.'. Hmm right, not exactly a compellin…

How about this story? "Something goes wrong and shit doesn't work. At this point, we would expect to be completely stymied. But no, instead, we manage with a bit of googling and dicking around to fix it!" The comparison isn't with opening this particular file on different operating systems; it's with how you can recover when shit goes wrong (which does happen now and then on all operating systems).

Yes.

I recollect a similar situation when I volunteered for a Linux fest. (http://wiki.sampada.net/GNU_Linux_Install_Fest) The venue could only accommodate 50 odd people but > 300 had registered on the eve. We needed to update all that after 10:30 am seats may be full and we might not be able to accommodate all, at 10 pm.

Me and another friend of mine wrote a simple script to fetch mobile numbers of registrants, and another silly one to use gnokii and send an SMS to the fetched numbers. (http://wiki.gnokii.org/index.php/User%27s_Guide#SMS_Sending_...)

Linux is fun.

Re: Joy of using linux

#13

Post by flocial »

Linux users are mostly lost without Google, myself included. It gets you into a yak-shaving mindset. Ditto with Emacs. If I can stop fiddling I'm sure I'll be more productive.

Re: Joy of using linux

#15

Post by minhajuddin »

pistacchio wrote: post #7
motters wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is primarily about finding a hack which is a short-cut to doing something in the officially recommended way (with Windows and Access)

> And the resulting way is far simpler and didn't require paying for anything. because, of course, time is free.

Exporting the file to a csv format (using microsoft access) wouldn't have taken any less time than me finding the right tool on linux and doing it, that is if I had Microsoft Access.

Re: Joy of using linux

#16

Post by wisty »

roel_v wrote: post #2

I like Linux as much as the next guy, but his argument is basically 'Linux couldn't open a file that everybody else could, but by dicking around with random half-assed documented tools we could do it anyway!'. Basically, 'we managed to do something that is absolutely trivial for everybody else by jumping through hoops and spending a bunch of time on it to do it the convoluted way.'. Hmm right, not exactly a compellin…

mdb files are not easy to open, unless you have MS Access. Lots of Windows computers lack MS Access.

Now, you can still open mdb files on Windows, using the Jet Engine and something like ADO, ADO.net or ODBC, but the details of that are a bit too gory for the mild mannered command line junkies here.

Re: Joy of using linux

#18

Post by Newky »

mironathetin wrote: post #8

Well, this is also my experience with linux: many things you want to do just don't work out of the box. There is always (nearly) a way to do things, though. But if you really want to do work and not always fight against your tool of choice, linux is not the thing to use. For coding, I replaced it with Mac OS. This saves me 98% of the problems I had on linux. To be fair: I wouldn't know an out-of-the-box way to conver…

I'm not trying to start an argument, but in regards to coding, I take your point completely if your talking about iOS development or something specific to Mac Programming, but if not, what exactly were the obstacles for development in Linux.

I use Linux mainly because of its ease of use in terms of development. I would be interested in hearing your arguments for the Mac. My friend recently got a Mac, and unbeknown to himself was forced to download a 2.something GB download for the developer pack just so he could get GCC, Now I know there are better ways to achieve this, but this to me seems counter productive.

Re: Joy of using linux

#19

Post by edoloughlin »

roel_v wrote: post #2

I like Linux as much as the next guy, but his argument is basically 'Linux couldn't open a file that everybody else could, but by dicking around with random half-assed documented tools we could do it anyway!'. Basically, 'we managed to do something that is absolutely trivial for everybody else by jumping through hoops and spending a bunch of time on it to do it the convoluted way.'. Hmm right, not exactly a compellin…

He managed to find free, command-line tools to read a proprietary data format. This means he could potentially wrap a simple script around them and automate the process if he needed to do it on a regular basis.

Would this be free & scriptable on Windows? It's been a while since I had to do anything comparable on Win, but I think he would have had to buy MS Office (Pro?) with VB or Visual C++ to do it.

Re: Joy of using linux

#20

Post by microtonal »

roel_v wrote: post #2

I like Linux as much as the next guy, but his argument is basically 'Linux couldn't open a file that everybody else could, but by dicking around with random half-assed documented tools we could do it anyway!'. Basically, 'we managed to do something that is absolutely trivial for everybody else by jumping through hoops and spending a bunch of time on it to do it the convoluted way.'. Hmm right, not exactly a compellin…

Well, except that Access is not well-suited for typical pipeline use.

My objection is that the article is not Linux specific. The same program can probably be installed easily on OS X or FreeBSD.

"The Joy of people who make their software available" would be a more appropriate title.

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