Taking the Linux Plunge: The Bad

Yesterday I wrote about the Good things I’ve discovered by installing Linux. Today, here’s the Bad:

• Windows Emulation- Sorry. Wine is about the worst thing I’ve ever experienced. I mentioned losing Dragon Naturally Speaking. There is a way to barely get it to work, but try to follow the programming on the Wine boards is impossible. I also lost a game I was in the middle of. I know getting Linux and then trying running Windows apps makes no sense, but once Ive made the investment in a commercial program, I don’t want to lose that investment. If something is advertised as allowing me to run these programs, it should work.
• Support- I don’t like to use the terminal. It’s been a long time since I used DOS. And Unix? Fughedaboutit. So when I come across forums that say things like:”type sudo – mkvar -1,0 -v and it should work if you’ve got the PU-238.1.0-0.1 installed in the tmp/dos/see/doe drive” I panic. Especially when everything else is so easy.
• File System-Unlike Winblows, Linux and Unix have a relatively rigid file system. Programs, files and documents have a specific place they are supposed to go. This dates back to the days when I played Wumpus on the college’s teletype terminals. Unix needs to know who you are, what privileges you have access to and where it all is. But until you learn this code, it’s kinda frustrating. When I read, “Make sure you have the so-and-so file” but it doesn’t tell me where it is because I’m supposed o know, I feel like screaming.
• Codecs.- What good is it to give me a media player, but not the codecs? Sure I can download them. And you put the DVD in and get sounds only. So you try again. And now you have a fuzzy picture and no menu. So you start with Mplayer an get the specific files, and it works, but Totem still wants to open as default. So you remove Totem and it take some of the codecs with it. Please, Someone, Paul Allen, could you get the License for GNU, Please?

That’s the Bad. Tomorrow, THE UGLY