[geeks] Linux/Ubuntu mini-rant

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: nate at portents.com
>Date: 2007/11/29 Thu PM 12:59:53 CST
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Linux/Ubuntu mini-rant

>Right now I use Ubuntu for one thing, MythTV.  I won't bother ranting, I
>would go on for too long.  Overall, I like it, because I like the
>do-it-yourself aspect of it all, and in the end it works, and works well,
>it's just that the path to get there is very long.
>
>Basically I look at linux as a work in progress that is not yet ready for
>prime time.  (I don't even have the energy to talk about something as
>trivial as, say, how to get S/PDIF out to work, which varies depending on
>a large number of factors, which made discovering the steps a long process
>involving lots of sources.)
>
>Thank goodness for the internet and all the linux
>wikis/forums/blogs/newsgroup posts though, because I think if I was stuck
>on an island with just a linux distro and it's source and no net
>connection it would take an extremely long time to figure out how to do
>some very simple things.  Makes me wonder if linux is so perpetually
>unfinished *because* they never really have to ship...

I guess, at it's core, the issue is that it is not enough to know what you want to accomplish (print via network attached printer) and being able to understand the error messages you get - you need to understand the parts of the printing system that *don't* throw out error messages to know if they are impacting your efforts.

I can find no documentation for /etc/papersize *except* that if you install a pre-Beta Ubuntu 7.10 you may need to create the file...

Now, to be clear, this is a small problem, but it is (I feel) typical of the forces that make WinXP/*nix/OS X computers so "hostile" to novices. Silent failure is feature in *nix that causes many problems (IMHO) - guess it's time to re-read the Unix Hater's Guide.[0] Again.

Lionel

[0] http://research.microsoft.com/~daniel/uhh-download.html