The linux distro was giving me problem these few days. I was in the transition period to change from running 3 hard drives to only 1 hard drives as this simplifies the boot process. The linux distro I used was Kubuntu 7.10. However, after I installed it, I find it a hassle to use as not very user-friendly as compared to my good ol' Ubuntu. At first, the installation went on smoothly towards the end as it was fairly straight foward. After automatic update (which is about 200+ megabytes), the whole system fails to start! The problem was when I update the system, the secondary drive was present because I was transferring the data back to new disc. The secondary drive also contains the old linux distro. These created a confusion for the update manager when it is trying to change my current boot loader. Afterwards, the system just refused to boot into Kubuntu.
Then, I took the opportunity to reinstall the Ubuntu instead. However, there was a problem with the CD burner, resulting in at least 5 discs binned. Finally, I got a disc which is non faulty and got the system up and running (where I am writing this blog). Now it is automatic updating itself. Hope the system works fine afterwards.
This is a trend that I observed is a lot of my friends still using non genuine Microsoft Windows. There are very few who wants to change and use a free distribution instead. I was among the 'sceptical' before. The first experience I had with linux was 3-4 years ago. This I had to thank my brother for introducing it. I remembered it was Mandrake linux (now Mandriva). It was not as user-friendly as it is now. The setup was complicated with lots of error. I can't even get a working OpenOffice. Maybe it was my hardware problems. In the end it gave me a big headache.
Now it is a different situation altogether. There are so many linux distro around and the installation process is a breeze. You can choose from Ubuntu (which I am using now), Sabayon, FreeBSD, Mandriva, SuSe Linux, Gentoo, and many more. It was the traumatic experience with Windows that brought me to use linux. I am already too fed up with computer viruses that always hogs the machines, stealing datas, and making me reinstall the software. With linux, virus is not the main concern as they generally do not run executable files from other platform. They have their own codes to run. Generally, there are many free software (you read me, it is FREE) with just clicks away. For those ardent fans for Windows or cannot live without Windows apps, there is always emulators such as Wine to run Windows software. What I feel most important is the conscience that I am using something legal and do not need to send cash to Mr Gates.
I found a link to a nice website that generally summarized the benefits and the drawback of using linux.
Hope these websites sparks a little love for linux.
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