iowaporter's Journal: About to quit Linux

Here are my problems with Red Hat's Fedora Core 6.

1. I cannot get a printer installed. I am trying to install a Lexmark z23. I realize it is not the best printer, and Linux support is iffy. However, I can't seem to get anything to happen. I have read hundreds of FAQs, forums, and documentation. I have tried CUPS, foomatic, whatever. I keep running into errors. Every time I get one fixed, another pops up. If I manage to get through installation without an error, it still won't print. The print queue hangs with nothing happening. No document from Fedora, LinxPrinting.org, or Lexmark has all the instructions for my needs. I have to piece the instructions together and cross my fingers. Nothing.

2. Now, I can't login as root. After I try, it begins to start the session, but hangs. I have no idea how to recover. I have learned that laying on the keyboard eventually returns me to session login screen.

3. I can't get a Windows network share to mount at boot up. As with the printers. I have checked forum after forum. Each one gives me slightly more/different information. I have tried every combination possible of every suggestion, and it still won't work. I can mount it from Konsole after boot up, but not during boot up.

I have spent hours and hours and weeks and weeks trying to get these things to work. It is too frustrating. Even if I pay $300 for a decent version of Vista, I will save that in the hours and hours I have spent trying to make linux work. I am an IT professional. I make $40/hour. I have spent over 50 hours trying to get linux to do what Windows will do out of the box. That is $2000 worth of my time. I give up!