Is Linux more frustrating than Window$?

I'm about to give up on it.

I added Gnome to my mythtv (so, Knoppix-like) and I cannot install a printer. I'm trying to install using CUPS and it took a long time (I don't know if I'm supposed to be embarrassed or ashamed or feel like I should have had it done by now or what). To do anything in Linux, you basically have to have tons of time since it takes a few days to do something whereas in Windows, it might take an hour. I hate that you have one side (Window$) with a smug greedy corporation that already has enough money, trying to eat even more cash and take more. On the other side, you have Linux with several egotistical obnoxious developers (I won't name names) who don't care if the average computer user spends time learning or trying Linux. They only want a 'private club' full of nerds and hackers. That's what it seems like to me and I've spent time trying things out.

I'd like something that isn't too complicated and is well thought out in its implication and design. I think the CUPS thing is absolutely ridiculous and overly complicated. Okay, I am done criticizing. That's another thing. I learned from Ubuntu forums that you can't criticize or you get bashed or mocked. It's not that I like Windows but I don't need to spend years on a particular application to get one thing to work. Window$ has it's problems and I hate how the corporation is but if there is a distro out there with a good design, I will use it.

Rant over.

What distro are you running and what printer are you trying to install?

How did you install cups?

Had no problems at all installing my HP Deskjet 710C (printer must be 10 years old by now) in Fedora 7.

Fedora 7, Ubuntu and most modern Linux distros support virtually every printer on the market.

We cannot help the OP fix the problem without knowing what kind of printer it is and what the distro is.

CUPS should already be installed by default, shouldn't it? It's just a matter of choosing what printer you have in the list of available printers...

Even if it's not installed

yum install cups

will install it

then system-config-printer will allow the user to set the printer up

It's really simple

I thought so as well... and I'm no where near as well-versed in Linux as you or some of our other knowledgable posters here. But again, as you've stated, without knowing what distro he's running, it does make it difficult. Although I'm sure Ubuntu and Fedora are very similar.

We can guess he's using Ubuntu since he mentions the Ubuntu forums... but that's just a guess.

I'm building a new system (computer) and it will be 90-100% Linux. I'll install on it, Kubuntu and maybe Fedora 7. But, I mostly have exposure to debian-based distros.

I don't need to install the printer on my old computer now. I've formatted and installed Debian but someone else is configuring it for a media PC.

But, before that, it had a Knoppix derivative (KnoppMyth) and Gnome installed. The printer is a Samsung ML-2150 laser printer. I will need to install this on the new system but I plan on using KDE and I have installed it once previously on Debian. I don't like using Gnome so I hope KDE works okay in Fedora (if I use that). I plan on buying a Multifunction printer, too. I'm considering Epson or HP. I hope those aren't too difficult to install. ;-)

Thanks for the replies, guys.

KDE works just fine on Fedora 7 ( as it does on every Fedora version ).

The ML-2150 is supported and Samsung provides a proprietary driver as well.

I would suggest checking http://www.cups.org/ppd.php for compatibility, some multifunction machines are notoriously unreliable on open source and proprietary operating systems.

Good luck

So I decided to browse this thread... and I have concluded that Linux can be very frustrating.

Compared to some of the Vista threads I think this is very tame. Also telling is that the OP is actually getting good valid advice.

Riser,

IBM is using Linux on some very expensive hardware and are in fact consolidating their systems using Linux.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/17998

And we know IBM is anti-Microsoft in the first place and working hard to get people to use Linux because their hardware is so ungodly expensive. Top that off, they're using RedHat which costs money as well.

Oh wait.. GoDaddy. That's a big name:
http://www.microsoft.com/casestudi [...] 1000003748

London Stock Exchange? No way...
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsse [...] s/lse.mspx


And ultimately what do they end up claiming? That Windows was easier to configure and work with than dealing with Linux.

I just like giving you guys crap because of:

1) While Linux is an excellent OS, it still has a lot of work that needs to go into getting it ready for the masses.
2) It is frustrating to work with and use.
3) I think some of you are blinded by "its just better" than using logic.
4) Figure 90% of the people using computers in a work environment don't know how to use a computer and Linux isn't, in my opinion, as user friendly as the "push-button-monkey" abilities of Windows.

Face it, its far easier to check a box and have magic happen behind the scene than trying to figure out Linux.

I will say this much for your counter-argument articles posted above: Why would you believe ANYTHING that Microsoft says about Microsoft?

Taking those articles at face value would make about as much sense as believing Soviet propaganda back during the Cold War: it's just silly.

While I think you raise some excellent points in your list of 1-4 there, I think that they don't apply so much here as they would on say, www.digg.com.
This forum is not full of the rabid ubuntu fanboys that you will see there, and we are certainly more educated and rational than the mindless apple-zombies that are nearly ubiquitous these days.

I agree that Linux may not be for everyone, but I can say that it is certainly for me (this from a lifelong windows user). I think the best thing that could happen for computing would be the end of the Microsoft monopoly and the simultaneous establishment of parity in terms of OS market share. So, to that end, I will continue trying to get people to broaden their OS choices when appropriate.

Remember, the best thing that can happen to anyone is for them to be able to make their own choices based on their own preferences.

-Zorak

In order to publish Case Studies the company has to write off on it and give written consent to what is being posted. They can't just write that up without having those companies write off on it.

It only makes sense that they publish case studies on their own website. They do marketing.

I've dealt with Linux a few times and I've walked away annoyed with working with it myself.

Case in point:
7 Windows computers and "some guy" comes in and says "Linux is better" and installs some version on the accounting computer of a local non-profit company. He never installed the printers on the computer, which was running WinXP at the time, so they couldn't print any of their checks.
Long story short, I went in, attemtped to install the printers in every which way possible. I tried via IP and print server, couldn't get the thing to go. I gave up after about an hour in setup and surfing the web looking for things I could try.
I was doing it in my spare time and free of charge.. didn't want to bother. I can install a printer on a Mac no problem. Its just Linux I tend to have problems with and I don't feel like digging through command lines to do what I consider simple tasks today.

I do strongly believe Microsoft has an excellent system in place for businesses to work off. In the past few months I've been at a lot of different companies and looking at their software and I've been surprised to find how many of these companies use custom software created for Microsoft Windows. These companies don't support Linux and have problems with trying to make it work.

Microsoft has its flaws, no doubt. But I do believe they are making things available and they're taking steps in the right direction.

Linux needs to get a company behind it, fix the annoyances of the small tasks that turn out to be big, and then it will become a successful OS in the world.

Microsoft is working as a business against a non-business entity. Microsoft is the "monopoly" that it is because there has not been a OS that has come up strong enough to be a valid competitor.

I give Linux 5 years and I think it will pick up and maybe hold 15-20% of the market share.. only if it tones down the elite style and makes it easier for the computer illiterate to use.