[Techtalk] What distro?

Little Girl littlergirl at gmail.com
Sat Oct 23 12:26:18 UTC 2010


Hey there,

Myrosia Dzikovska wrote:

> Mom wanted a webcam. I looked at the internet shop she was using,
> picked up the cheapest camera they had, checked the "linux webcams"
> page. It was listed there, so we bought the camera. It arrived with
> a driver CD, a 5-page instruction manual describing how to install
> the drivers, and big bold warning that you have to install all
> drivers or the camera won't work. Mom immediately started stressing
> out about what I need to do and pushing the CD at me. I said "Mom,
> relax, it says on the Linux info page that it should work out of
> the box in Linux". And you know what - I plugged it in, and it did.
> No setup or configuration necessary, drivers included by default in
> OpenSuse 11.2. Way faster than doing the Windows install ;-)

Excellent, and I love the fact that it didn't require any of the
software that came with it! What camera is it, by the way? We're
looking to get a camera that works in Ubuntu/Kubuntu - preferably
one that can take video and still shots, and that has smooth motion
when taking video (rather than that choppy mess some cameras seem to
do).
 
> At the same time, my nephew needed a BIOS update for his machine. It
> turned out that the manufacturer distributes BIOS updates in a
> format that requires Windows to run (honestly - not just DOS, but a
> full-blown Windows install). His laptop was linux-only, with all
> hardware working "out of the box" immediately. I made some free
> space, dug out a Windows CD that came up with that machine
> originally, and installed Windows. OMG - after spending 1 hour on
> system installation, the screen resolution was horrible, and
> neither wired nor wireless network worked, because both required
> separate driver installation from a different CD. It looked like I
> would have to tinker for at least another hour to make the system
> perform even the most basic tasks. This is not to mention
> installing office software, something for editing graphics, etc.,
> which would be necessary in a practical system. Compare this with
> booting a LiveCD and getting immediate Net access on Linux, or
> spending 1 hour on installation and getting a fully working Linux
> system "out of the box".

LOL, this brings back terrible memories! The problem is that if you
were to describe this to a Windows user it wouldn't impress them
because they've had to do it *so* many times that they have it down
to a routine with a stack of driver CDs on the desk ready to feed
into the machine as needed. We can do the same thing faster and
easier with just a cat on the desk. (:

-- 
Little Girl

There is no spoon.


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