OSNews

Switching to Linux: a Mac user shares her views.

Flooded with junk email from the various Linux distributor vendors, an innocent newbie is tempted into the unthinkable.

April 6, 2003


Summary
I have always thought using a computer was as easy as turning on a TV, and my old Mac SE never disappointed me in this respect (except Apple placed the power button at the back of the case). So I was led to think that installing Linux would be a matter of minutes on my computer which I bought at a garage sale for $20 two years ago. But I was wrong. (11 pages, because more pages means more ads and Eugenia asked me to write no less than 8000 words, so here goes) Copyright Ana O´Neemus

By Ana O´Neemus <laranja@hotmail.com>
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(Garfield Group) - My Mac SE has proved tenaciously useful for my work, but recently I felt I was falling behind compared to the state-of-the-art in computing technology. I still have many friends using their Sinclair ZX-81 at work or running their businesses on VIC-20 machines, but as a technical writer I thought I owed to my readers to try something new. I recently attended one of these Linux conferences and I was lucky enough to bump into an attractive bearded man who only identified himself as Alan C. He really looked like on of these UNIX gurus and he talked like one, too. I was so impressed that I asked him to show me what Linux could do; he politely declined, but instead I ended up with a pile of CDs, and he even gave me a motherboard. Alan´s only comment was: ¨Don´t call me in England¨.

After sorting the CDs and throwing out all the AOL ones, I was left with a few Linux distributions to try. It then took me two years (that´s 24 months, by the way) to write this comparison of these various Linux distributions.

Before we go on, I should tell you a few things about myself. I am a woman. I am not objective. I don´t read manuals. And if you don´t like my review, logic says you must be a Linux jerk. A **male** Linux jerk. Oh, and don´t expect me to include any snapshots from the various Linux distributions I have tried.

What I need from Linux

I learned to use a computer with a single-button mouse and I expect Linux to provide the same simplicity and ease of use. I am not interested in the rationale behind having two buttons. After all, when they sell you a Japanese car, do they teach you Japanese too?

1) It must have a mouse. If I have to actually read what´s on the screen and type something, then, sorry, but it´s not efficient.

2) It must be be usable on my PC. I mean, at least some light has to come on when I press the power button.

3) MacWrite, MacPaint and SuperCard must all be usable, or I should have the equivalent applications included for free.

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My goodness, look at my fingernails! Folks, I really have to go out buy some groceries, so please skip to page 3, OK? (that was a **hint**).

Well you naughty geeks, still here?

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My PC
I can´t tell you anything about the brand, but suffice it to say that the company went out of business a few years ago. After unsoldering all the leaking electrolytic capacitors on the motherboard that Alan had given me, and soldering some tantalum ones in their place, I thought it was ready to go.

I have divided my hardware in two broad classes: there is the internal stuff that is **inside** the computer, and then the external stuff that is **outside** the computer. Isn´t the logic clear, here?

Inside stuff
Well, what would you expect?

Outside stuff
I confess I was so fond of my SCSI 2x external CD-ROM drive that I used with my Mac SE, that I have kept it until now. I also kept my ImageWriter dot-matrix printer, but I was told Linux didn´t have a driver for it. I can confirm this sad fact, as I didn´t manage to get it to work with any of the Linux distributions I tried.

I am very sorry to say that I have lost track of the internal components, except that I remember the system behaved differently at different times during those two years of testing:

This worked for sure
The keyboard was very reliable. I am still using one of the original NorthStar keyboards that I bought so many years ago. All Linux distributions recognized and correctly identified this hardware.

This I am almost sure didn´t work
I think the ImageWriter wouldn´t have worked with any of the Linux distributions I tried, but I can´t be sure, because the ribbon was so worn out and dry it wouldn´t have printed anything anyways.

The disappointing part
The SCSI CD-ROM drive worked fine with all my previous CDs, but it seemed to reject all the CD-Rs that Alan gave me. This was a huge disappointment, and since it worked previously with my Mac SE, I can say with absolute certainty that Linux was at fault here. Alan, if you read these lines, I hope you feel guilty.