Linux Driver Installation not so bad...

From: antroy (news_at_ant-roy.co.uk)
Date: 04/29/04 

Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 12:24:13 +0100

Hi all,

I replied to an earlier post (some weeks ago I think) saying something
along the lines of Linux needing to simplify their driver installation
process, or that getting things working properly wasn't easy.

OK, I have to eat my words here. A mate of mine had two problems on his
XP machine (which I had built and setup for him a month or so ago).
Firstly there was a dll not working properly causing Media Player not to
work. Secondly within minutes of installing Broadband (BT Yahoo
broadband in the UK) the Yahoo browser (front end for IExploder I
presume) "synchronized" itself with the server presumably cacheing a
load of pages to make the connection look *really* fast. Unfortunately
one of the files it downloaded was the Natchi(?) worm.

After 4 hours of uninstalling and reinstalling parts of the OS, and
various motherboard drivers, everything was almost working. The very
last task was to install the soundcard drivers... Bang - windows majorly
corrupted and wouldn't get past the login screen. So I have some work
ahead doing a reinstall from scratch, since trying to fix the problem
through DOS would be like flogging a dead horse with a toothpick...

So, to get to the point, Linux - though it may take some research and
reading to get some stuff installed, and though I have many times
crashed software on Linux, I can note the following:

1) I've always been able to get at least console mode of the OS up and
running.
2) I have never (yet) crashed the whole of X - If a program freezes I
can always get to a terminal to kill it.
3) For speed and ease of doing things, bash is to DOS like a Ferrari is
to a Lada.
4) The dependency handling is superb when using installers.
5) If you have a problem it is far easier to get reliable info on a
solution if you are using Linux - on Windows any useful info is hidden
away in subscription sites.

Cheers, 

-- 
Ant...

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