Last Minute Linux Reprieve
The story so far:
- First I got fed up with OS X
- Then Linux gave me some trouble
- Next Linux crapped on my Linux dreams
- I give up on Linux
I was just about to ditch Linux and go back to OS X when the work Debian entered my head. I know they are one of the major distros and checked to see if they have a PPC version, which they do. I figred anything was worth a try at this point, so I download, burned, and installed Debian.
The installation process already bested other distros I tried, it didn’t crash! I used the netinstall version, so once it was installed I had to add a few optional extras to the mix, like audio. How perfect that the one thing I want most in an OS was the first thing that didn’t work in Debian. I did some searching on google and saw a few library names that needed to be installed, so I loaded the Package Manager and installed them, but alas, no music. After more searching on Google I found there was a config script I need to run, so I ran it and it made the music work! Why didn’t it tell me to run that config 3 hours ago?
So that’s where I am now. I’m in Debian and I have audio. The only snags I’ve hit are the additionial programs I want to install. Exaile wasn’t in the package manager, so I downloaded the source and compiled it. The icon appeared in the audio section of the Application menu, but again it did nothing but take up space.
Almost the same story with gnash, except I could never feed it the depencencies it seemed to want. It kept screaming for a library I confirmed was installed.
Hopefully Debian will be the one for me. It seems to offer the programs I want with the speed I require. It seems, at least for the time being, that I may be OS X free.
Next up I’m going to summarize my Linux experience. What I like, what I hate, what works, what doesn’t.
Apr06
I’m glad Debian came though for you. When it comes time to summarize your “Linux” experience, please be clear about the specific hardware you were trying to install it on. Remember too that Linux represents a very broad range of computing environments like super computers, mobile computing, ultra high security environments like the National Security Agency and server farms like Google. If the title of your summary reads something like “Linux: Difficult on PPC”, then you’ve cast your net too wide. Something closer to home like “Debian Linux Works With Effort on PPC”. I’m not trying to tell you how to title your blogs, these are just examples. What you are getting from me is just some pent up frustration. Too often I’ve read blogs where the blogger spent a few hours (not you) with Ubuntu (every time I swear, every time it’s Ubuntu) and having it fail on their wifi card. They then declare Linux, yes the whole thing, unfit for human consumption. Ubuntu never gets mentioned in the title. I’ve read hundreds of “Linux Not Ready for Mainstream” type headlines in my Google Blog search and only once did I see the real culprit mentioned. And yes, every one of them was about Ubuntu.
Apr07
I LOVED Ubuntu. I wish it had worked out with it this time, but it didn’t happen that way.
Hopefully I stand ahead of those other people in the fact that I know my hardware is old and outdated. I understand that support for my machine is more of a gift than a given.