Linux Fails The Family Test BADLY!

From: Robert Strunk (the_strunk_family_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 05/25/05 

Date: 25 May 2005 12:22:10 -0700

A month after wiping the family computer of Windows XP and installing
the SUSE 9.3 Professional Linux my good intentions are being
challenged. What started out as a way for me to cut down on computer
fiddling has turned into my worst nightmare.

The family HATES LINUX, and I mean HATES!
The biggest problems are with my teenagers and the web sites they
visit, which are laden with plugins and so forth, that simply do not
work well with Linux.

Another sore point is kopete and gaim neither of which seem to be able
to support downloadable buddy icons, can't save messages very well and
disconnect at all times randomly for now reason. Yahoo chat seems to
have it's problems as well. The exact same machine and an iMac that I
also use has no such problems.
The USB storage devices that the kids use to sneaker net files and
stuff to and from school work sometimes, other times don't work at all.

The kids absolutely HATE Amarok and want their Rahpsody back again.

My daughter is working on a team project with several schoolmates and
as a result they are sending files back and forth via email as well as
with the forementioned USB devices.
She has had never ending troubles converting the files, editing them
and then converting them back to Microsoft formats just so the others,
all of which who are using Windows and OSX, can read them.

Online gaming doesn't work properly with most sites.
Many internet streaming sites (radio) don't work because they are WMP
only, or even if they support Realplayer the site doesn't realize that
I HAVE the Linux realplayer installed.

It's just a mess and quite frankly I have had all I can take of Linux.
I can't imagine anyone who would want to waste so much time trying to
make things fucntion correctly under Linux.
I've installed SUSE 9.3 three different times with the same results.

Linux may be ready for the laboratory, or basic surfing and email, but
I suggest ANYONE interested in converting the family PC to Linux, to
let their kids, especially teens, loose on the system for a couple of
days before comitting to it.

The average teen is going to HATE Linux.
Believe me, all 4 of mine did and so did their friends when they
brought their ipod and ipod clones over and in one case Linux erased
all the files in the dammed thing. It was an iRiver I think and yes it
was the users fault, but Linux was so confusing they had no idea what
they were doing.
Conclusion: Linux is a waste of time.
Robert Strunk

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Suse 9.3 first disappointments.
    ... >> After installing Suse 9.3 Pro, I also installed my favorite browser ... >> the same problem as in Suse 9.2. ... > Linux blame the manufacture of the hardware, ... > Reading other posts in the newsgroup from Franklin, ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)
  • Re: Suse 9.3 first disappointments.
    ... > After installing Suse 9.3 Pro, I also installed my favorite browser ... > the same problem as in Suse 9.2. ... Linux blame the manufacture of the hardware, ... Opera - if you really want Opera ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)
  • Re: WARNING to potential LINUX users
    ... > audio which is not supported by linux. ... >> The very first thing I noticed was that there was NO SOUND even though ... >>started over with SuSE. ... So much for installing right out of the box on ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)
  • Re: Suse 9.1 is now in the bin.
    ... with SUSE 8.1 some time ago. ... the LAN card. ... By contrast, installing W2000 on wife's new computer was a nightmare, as was ... All 3 Linux set-ups have Open-Office, Thunderbird, Firefox, and a whole lot ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)
  • Re: Simple question--why linux?
    ... I was regularly getting uptimes in months with Windows ... > Linux about 1.5 years ago, and I've been a happy computer owner ever since. ... > updating it, installing all the drivers, installing all the apps, and ... I installed Suse 8.2 on an ebay box, ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)