My latest Odyssey

I have an old laptop. It's too old and slow to run Windows anymore. Even web stuff is too slow. So, I got the idea a year or so ago to try out Linux. I'd heard rumors and occasional shouts from the tech world that this was a great option to get out from under Windows. Actually, my first encounter with it seriously was in a program to provide computers for education to children in the developing world. There is a rugged laptop constructed that uses little power, can be charged from a solar panel, and comes with a Linux based operating system designed just for the purpose. They give them away free.

So, I started looking into it and found that there are so many distributions. The world of Linux is complex. I quickly hit on Ubuntu and that seemed like a good option for a pretty much non-techie. I mean, I'm super proficient with standard software and Windows, but only know enough about the real workings of a computer to be dangerous. And I don't particularly enjoy working on that kind of thing. But my DIY ethic runs deep and a chance to make this thing work without corporate invasion was too tempting.

So I made the leap. There was nothing to lose, the thing was pretty much a paperweight with Windows anyway. Ubuntu worked great for the most part. That was back in the 6 or 7 distro. I loved the applications and the compatibility, and my laptop had a new lease on life.

Then came the problems. I only had one internet connection in the house. So, I couldn't update or download packages for Ubuntu. I found a little thing called Keryx that let you download stuff on Windows and flash stick it over to Ubuntu. But it was real tempermental and required a good knowledge of Terminal and working in code. So I didn't really worry about it. I figured when I got a home network, I'd sort it out.

Then I wanted to connect the laptop to my new Digital TV so I could watch downloads, etc on the big screen. And that was where it all came apart. Where Windows was a simple, plug it in and make it work, Ubuntu was weeks of sorting through complicated forums of semi-repetitious threads that usually went something like this:
"I'm new and I need help with my dual monitors"
"Tell us more"
"I have a Quank 340 with a Whosie processor on a 32 bit tortrat."
"Oh, that's easy! Go to Terminal and type lkkhjiusdbnfkwje
that should produce a grlthjlwjkehnkmsdf. Then you write:
asdf\
trjfnsdf
bjke4898f
dfjerktj
fdlkjsdftk
fjtjtuis
gfnjjr
jkshrtk
jkllkejrtkhuwejkrhkshdfbhejrgyu47477888dftghjv hhyfdg00-0---- nsdtkjhwerhwjyerjkbs
werthjwejkfrhskdjhfkjhwerkuthsdvnn dfg
and that should do it."
"Great that worked out perfectly, thank you so much techie wizards!"

And I had no idea what was said. I know it's some sort of status symbol to know all the tech speak, and I get it, you were picked on as kids, so now you've got the upper hand. But if you actually want people to be able to learn the system, and to expand the use of Linux, you have to have somewhere, anywhere, that SPEAKS BLOODY ENGLISH!

Occasionally I'd find a frustrated post to that affect too, presumably before the person went out and bought a new Windows computer.

But I wasn't going to give up yet. That's just the guards at the entrance to the valley of discovery trying to scare me away. I ran into it in the bike world too. So I dug and scrounged and tried for weeks to make it work. I even consulted friends who I thought might know more, but many techie friends weren't into Linux for the same reasons I'm discussing.

In the end, I was given a windows computer by a friend which I easily set up on the TV and networked to the internet, then built a new housing out of oak, so it matches the furniture (but that's another story) and the laptop was given to my young son to play with, since it worked for his purposes and he was just beginning to learn how computers work.

All was well until I happened to pop into a discount computer store last week and see that refurbished usb wireless adapters were SUPER cheap. A whole shelf full under $10 each. I talked to the sales guy and walked out with one. Of course, I couldn't get it to work with Ubuntu. I tried for a good long time. More forums, etc. So I thought I'd just throw Windows back on there and maybe it'd work as a web terminal for my son who had discovered the internet since the first Linux episode.

That install went well except that the wireless adapter would only work with XP Service Pack 2 or higher. And I couldn't download that because I couldn't get the thing on the internet without the adapter! So I had the idea that network admin people usually have all kinds of stuff like that on flash drives. So I tried to find that download and found several. After a lengthy wait period, I tried them to discover that the file was corrupt. I did this three times.

So on the second full day into this, I tried to wire the laptop through the wireless router via an extra jack. That worked, and I got SP2 on it. The Adapter drivers went on no problem, and the thing was on the internet. But then I needed virus software and went for AVG, which is good. But on that laptop, it made things slower. So then I went for spyware and that bogged it down to the point that I couldn't open anything more than Google and couldn't even have two applications running at once. Windows just wasn't going to work.

So, I downloaded the newest version of Ubuntu, 10.4. The ads promised that it cured all, well most, of the ills everyone knew about Ubuntu. Maybe it did. But those weren't the ills I was having, so back to the forums I went. Now on full day 4, I wired it to the router and boom, it went right on. But the stupid thing has known issues with this particular usb adapter driver. I tried Windows drivers using special cross over aps, I tried using Terminal and couldn't figure out all the techie jargon enough to even know what I was doing. Oh things were happening, but I had no idea what, and when they were done, still no wireless.

I even tried to go back to basics and spent several hours reading primers on Linux, which were only slightly better than the forums. Instead of lines of indecipherable code, I got things like,
"Linux is based on Unix. It was developed as a freeb and gzorndens really seem to fit flabberwidgets much better so after many years the community developed housits to sit on the wobnockers and then someone came up with a windows style GUI." Then it went into more lines of code that actually defined the commands, but DIDN'T define the terms in the DEFINITIONS. So I guess that would all make sense if I had a degree in computer science...in which case I probably wouldn't need the stupid primer anyway! Good God! If I talked that way to people about my field, they'd run me out on a rail! Are there no Interpreters in the IT world who can bring a concept to another audience?! It's either, "this is called a mouse...can you say mouse?" or indecipherable gibberish.

So in desperation, I went back to the all-seeing oracle otherwise known as Google and started asking those kind of questions. (It really is all there, you just have to know how to ask for it.) Pretty quick I hit up on a whole group of people who have said the same things. People who happen to be Techies. I even found some who are Linux proponents. And that brings us to today, where I sit downloading Mint, which promises to be Ubuntu (which is supposed to be Linux for the rest of us) that actually IS for the rest of us: clean forums, all drivers out of the box, etc. It's Irish, and I'm hopeful that the Irish good folk common sense and poignant cut-the-crap attitude will make this what I need. C'mon Ireland, a distant son needs your help!

I'll let you know how it goes.