Why I stick with OX instead of going to Linux

I recently installed Ubuntu 6.10, Edgy Eft!  It is by far the best Linux I have used.  I have spent considerable time (sometimes including pain and agony with Xandros and Suse) trying to become competent with Linux.  Linux is an admirable effort, but it still isn't easy enough for me to call it my main operating system. 

I even tried paying for it with Xandros and Suse.  I actually spent a couple of hundred dollars with Suse releases back in 2005.  In the end I found that Ubuntu broke fewer things when upgrading and on top of that, it was free.

I sometime complain about OS X, but it doesn't take much of playing with my Linux box to make me really appreciate OS X and heavens forbid even Windows XP.

For those of you firmly in the Mac world and about to complain about Apple's next tariff, this might be educational.

Just before I did my Ubuntu upgrade, we had gone on a trip so I had turned off my Brother 5250DN ethernet based laser printer.  I did the upgrade before turning the printer back on and that created some problems.

Of course I first figured it out when my Ubuntu box (a Dell desktop) wouldn't print.  I rebooted in Windows and had no problems printing so I figured it was a configuration problem.

So I decided to delete the printer and re-install it. Of  course doing that in Linux required that I figure out the IP address of the printer since it doesn't seem to see much on the network.  Finally after trying a couple of things  I downloaded the  printer manual.  While I was  doing that, I found that Brother had Linux drivers so I downloaded them and theoretically installed the correct driver.  This seemed to bring back some memories but I ignored them.

Once I figured out the IP address, I started installing the printer, hoping to see the new driver.  But of course it wasn't there so I just picked something close to it. At that point I remembered doing this once before. Installing a driver and not being able to see it, is a little frustrating.

Then I ran a test print which worked.  As far as I can tell I'm up and running once again, unless I turn the printer off and it picks up a new IP address.  Now I'll be the first to admit there is surely a Linux way around this, but I've already messed with it at least thirty or forty minutes over the last two days. That time was spent just to get a printer that was once printing to print again.  That in my mind is re-inventing the wheel.

While I was banging my head into the wall, I decided once again to see if I could access the shared Linux folder from my Mac that I had in theory set up on the Linux box.  That required knowing the IP address of my Linux box which I didn't think would be a problem, but I hadn't counted on IPv6 being installed with the new Linux.  So I had to call my son to get the right terminal command to figure out my IP address.

When I tried the newly found IP address of the Linux box, the Mac still couldn't see the folder so it is probably something with the firewall.  I know this because I once had this working working with Ubuntu Linux. I can probably make it work, it would just take a while.

It's easier just to boot into Windows and use the Windows folder I have set-up.  The stuff still ends up on the same computer which has both Linux and Windows XP drives.

It's a little frustrating to see the great potential of Linux and know that I can't quite be productive with it because of a few little things that always trip me up.

The Ubuntu user interface is very slick, there are lots of applications there for free, but unless they figure out how to make the things simple that should be really simple, people are going to stick with Mac and Windows.

As long as you can buy computers with good operating systems for close to one thousand bucks or even under, I don't think Linux will gain much traction as a desktop.  Taking time out of your day to get a printer working is something that even the Windows world has mastered.

Comments

[Leonard]

It is illuminating to read this account of efforts at using Ubuntu.

Some time I am going to try Ubuntu. But all that I own are Macs, and so I have not had a strong need to do so. Many times I have planned on getting an amd/intel machine, and putting linux on it, but I just find contentment in using my Macs, and have other needful things to spend monies on.

Here you are right, for linux to make it on the desktop, it needs to make life easier for people to hook up, or rehook up peripherals. I thought that Ubuntu was good about detecting devices, but like you said, you had it turned off when you upgraded. Otherwise, when you have installed linux, such as Ubuntu, have you not found that it detected devices? That is how it is reviewed.

The printer changing IP is interesting, and I have to wonder how OS X solves the problem, since it uses the same printing backend (CUPS) as Ubuntu.

As for the shared folder, Ubuntu ships with no firewall (because it has no services on by default). What sort of share was it, SMB or NFS? Also, if you install avahi-daemon and libnss-mdns you'll be able to use machine.local just like on OS X (Avahi is a reimplentation of Bonjour).

Oh, and from the next release Avahi will be enabled by default.

[michael]

Very good post. I worked with a guy who ran Linux. I took a peak at it every now and then. I was always remind of a Pet 2000; a good computer that you would spend hours writing a program so it could do something.

I am not a programmer. I am not paid to be a programmer. My value is not as a programmer. Why would I run an OS that requires so much programming?

As much as I dislike Apple, the Mac is a wonderful OS becuase it works without programming. Now, if Linux can offer something comparable to Mac OS, then I will be second person to switch.

[dingosatemybaby]

This post is dead on. Any port of linux has to focus on the little stuff that will make it easy for the average user to switch over if they ever hope to gain any kind of ground.

The kind of frustrations you point out in this post are the same types of things that brought me to OSX in the first place.

I'm a Network Engineer with 10+ years exp supporting mostly windows networks. I've only been exposed to Linux for the past 5 yrs or so. When I decided to toss Windows out of my home, I tried to migrate over to Linux.

It was like shoveling rain trying to recreate my environment at home so that my wife and kids could use their computers the way they were used to. At the time I had almost no *nix experience so I was trying to become competent and at the same time, switch. I gave up.

Thankfully one of the software developers I work with is a Mac evangelist from way back, and heard me griping to one of the other guys in my department about my linux woes. He brought in his PowerBook the next day and let me play around a bit, and I never looked back.

Unfortunately for the general linux community, the average end user is completely dependent upon the ponytail and sandals gang for support when things go splat.

My experience personally and professionally with these types of folks is that some of them can be condescending. I'm sure some might be helpful but I have ran into just as many who would openly mock you for not being able to pull the command line kung fu out of thin air to make something as trivial as a printer "just work".

OSX just works. Period. My wife and kids love it and can do all the stuff they were used to doing with Windows.

When someone makes a port that is non-developer friendly to the same degree as OSX is, then I'm right there. Until then, OSX is the best choice for me.

[tony martin]

When I got Parallels, I also installed Ubuntu. I think Parallels has done a lot to introduce Mac people to Linux, and like you, to appreciate Mac OS even more.

[jake]

If you just want to mess around with a computer, Linux will provide all the problem resolution satisfaction you could ever want. Linux is the sudoku of OSes...you do it because you like the challenge. If you want to get work done, then you should use OS X.

[Steve]

I think when people talk about Linux being "ready for the desktop" they're not aware just how difficult Linux distros can be in at least some ways for most of us. I suspect Linux is more than ready on the desktop, and perhaps already the best option, in the enterprise/in the public sector when the hardware is a consistent and known factor and when there is a knowledgeable IT staff. But for home users - or any home user who wants to do much more than browse the web and send email - it continues to present problems.

The ability to tailor the installation and only install the packages that are needed give Linux an important advantage in some situations. Compare that with OS X. Compare that with Windows, where you have to have Internet Explorer even though has been proved to be unsafe time and again, because it has been deliberately bound into the OS for anti-competitive reasons.

I suspect Linux will really begin to make inroads in government departments, particularly in poor countries where people simply can't afford to throw public money away on Microsoft licences.

But I think Linux will continue to be a problematic choice for home users - particularly because of multimedia issues. The Linux advocate Eric Raymond sees this as something of an achilles heel for his favored platform. He speaks of running a gauntlet "to get codec support" and says that that is "so daunting" that sometimes he simply never get things to work. And this is an expert speaking. Where does that leave the rest of us?

http://catb.org/~esr/writings/world-domination/world-domination-201.html

[C. Ho]

It seems to me that Linux systems are really meant for geeks and people who like to tinker with their systems. The typical everyday end-user will not have any use for linux at all.

[ebernet]

Leonard wrote:
"The printer changing IP is interesting, and I have to wonder how OS X solves the problem, since it uses the same printing backend (CUPS) as Ubuntu."

Apple solves it by using Bonjour/Rendezvous/ZNC with the printer, just as you recommend doing for printer sharing. I bet you if you install the ZNC stack in Linux, it will work much more smoothly.

Just because CUPS is being used for the printer drivers it provides and to communicate with non Bonjour printers does not mean that the Mac is ONLY using CUPS when communicating with the printer. Since the Brother does support Bonjour, I imagine it is using that...

[myaka]

I installed Ubuntu in August for the first time on a Gateway 1.1GHz Celeron machine to test it in a mixed environment (Mac OS 9, OS X 10.2.8 + 10.3.9). I ran into the same problem with Ubuntu file sharing (NFS), but only to the 10.3.9 machines. That issue is as yet unresolved because of my limited experience with command line maneuvers (I seem to have fudged the ownership of two home folders, somehow). For me, Ubuntu is largely an interesting hobby -- a step closer to a Mac GUI, with a long way still to go before it can be regularly used by the masses.

[Bob Zurunkel]

I've also tried Ubuntu 6.10 on a G5 iMac. The boot CD worked fine, but I found I couldn't start up an installation on an external FireWire drive without also installing OS X and messing about altering some Ubuntu config files. I gave up. I'm an end user that doesn't appreciate the hassle.

Judging from the boot CD, I can see the strengths of Ubuntu though - it's just not for me. It was just too difficult to find the information to get a full installation working and then implement it.

Conclusion: We are really spoiled with OS X.

[Eric Gruber]

I have a PowerBook and my wife has an iBook and Mac OS X is perfect for those machines, but recently, the pull of Linux was too much. I went out and bought a used Dell for $75.

I spend some of my day ssh'ing into a Red Hat server at work from a Windows box, so I'm used to navigating around the shell if I want to do so.

The thing with Apple is, there aren't any more surprises. The OS is so good, it's almost boring. Call me nuts, but I like that Linux and especially Ubuntu is still maturing.

I'll always be an Apple fan, but the thing that really gets me hot under the collar is Apple's unwillingness to open the OS to other hardware. I'm especially mad about that right now because my wife's iBook adapter broke off in the DC jack. Damn.

In summary: I've enjoyed my experience with Linux and I look forward to learning more and getting involved. Where can OS X go from here?