[ale] I am so tired of Linux Fanatics

[James Sumners]

On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 3:03 PM, drifter <drifter at oppositelock.org> wrote:
> Responding to a vent/rant by Joshua Roberts about the quality of support
> from within the Linux community as a whole,
> On Wednesday 07 July 2010 14:22:16 James Sumners wrote:
>> That depends on your environment. Do you want to start something on
>> boot? If so, what init[1] system are you using? Sys V? BSD? Something
>> else? Or are you trying to start something when you launch X? Then you
>> have to specify which desktop environment you are using, if one at
>> all.
>>
>
> As a novice user (who isn't as afraid of the command line as I should be!)
> I can say that the ALE list has been most helpful to me.
>
> But take a look at the paragraph quoted  above as if you were coming to
>  the table fresh from the Microsoft world.
>
> init[1]
> Sys V
> BSD
> "launch X"
>
> These terms are unknown to the typical Windoze user, who has no idea how
> to deal with a corrupted Registry file -- or even what that might be.

Take a look at it from my perspective, as I was illustrating. The
question in "Simple things like how to autostart anything is not easy
to understand" is very vague. There is simply no way I could answer
such a question without more information. At the very least, the asker
would need to tell the person they are asking what distribution they
are using and when they really want the application to launch.

The point is this, Linux is _not_ Windows. There isn't a single boot
process or a single GUI. There are many different systems that can be
combined in many different ways. The person with the knowledge to help
can't be expected to magically know the asker's system -- even if it
using a popular distribution!

>
> Take a look at my recent problem trying to upgrade Ubuntu on a netbook.
> After reboot the thing would only boot to a login prompt. No error
> messages, no clues at all as to the nature of the problem. Just no desktop
> in sight.  I have enough experience in Linux to deal with the surface level
> issue -- getting to the GUI desktop -- but not enough experience to solve
> the root problem.  Finally realized I had a Kbuntu 10.04 disk at hand and
> installed from scratch, saving the partition table and reloading the
> critical files on /home. Now most of the pieces parts are working again.
> I still have to deal with a truly goofy list of KDE defaults:  Drag-and-
> drop doesn't work as installed!; want a different image for the desktop
> background? Good luck!  It took me nearly an hour to figure out how to do
> that. It doesn't work anything like KDE on this box.
> But life goes on and I continue to grow more knowledgeable, if not
> wiser.
>
> Sean

Here is a pretty good example. What do you mean by "login prompt"? I
can't see your screen. Is this login prompt graphical or not? The
answer lies in the details.


-- 
James Sumners
http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
CH:D 59