Last week I had a client with an XP pro box that crashed hard. (The HDD physically broke and the needle scratched the crap out of the platters). He had an extra SATA drive and said, "I'm not married to XP, let's install Linux".
Their wifi access system was already running linux and *iux would make the final step of deploying the online ordering system I built for them a bit easier implement. I was up for it. It had been a while since I had dealt with installing Linux for a desktop. I figured things had improved.
Here is how that went: downloaded Fedora 9. Would not install, Kernel panic on boot from DVD. Apparently Fedora and the Intel 945GC chipset hate each other. Saw this "well known issue with DVD install and 945GC". May be an issue, but bottom line: it didn't work out of the box. STRIKE 1
OpenSuSE 11: Would install, but would freeze on hardware probe. Could boot up, but got an error that kernel modules were unable to load and thus the ethernet card would not work, etc.. STRIKE 2
Ubuntu: Owner downloaded and tried installing. Kept pressing enter at the install screen, but it did nothing. We could view the other menus, but try to do an install and it wouldn't let us for some reason. (This may have been a bad burn on the CD) He had read about how great Ubuntu was and decided to see if he could install it. STRIKE 3.
After that, I was thinking there was something else wrong hardware wise with the box. So I took out a FreeBSD 7-0 release disc and it installed, no problems, no hardware errors reported.
It was now the end of the day and the evening shift was getting ready to come in. They needed a box that worked so they could grant wifi access to customers (this is a coffee shop). We had wasted and afternoon, nothing accomplished.
XP Pro went back on the box. It worked. Linux lost a client on the desktop side. And if someone asks about it at the local chamber meeting, guess what he's going to say. "Well we tried 3 different versions of linux, none of them worked. They wouldn't even install."
Yesterday was Round 2. The owner decided to purchase an AMD barebones kit to replace the Intel machine. (He was going to take the XP box home for his kids).
OpenSuSE 11: Would boot, select install, then just a black screen. RESULT: Intentional Pass on Linux, went straight to BSD. This time PC-BSD. The owner had been reluctant on BSD because he had never heard of it and the text base installer scared him a bit with vanilla FBSD.
PC-BSD installed flawlessly and he liked the GUI installer. So easy even he could do it. Flash worked out of the box (a bit choppy on playback), but it works. Only problem was the NV driver would only allow 800x600 screen resolution, so had to use VESA. Not that important since all they are doing is using FireFox and Google Docs. So technically that is a failure as we are unable to use higher resolutions than 1024x768. Even on a wide screen monitor. But it works well enough.
Hell, I was able even able to load their label printer via CUPS and get it to work. In fact, I was really impressed with PC-BSD. It's 2 CD's to download and burn, had everything I needed to get up and running in less than 20 minutes. They have their PBI installer system or you can use the traditional BSD ports system.
Maybe it's just me, but it seems like every time I give Linux another shot I am reminded to why I switched to BSD in 2000 and Mac in 2002 for the desktop.
As far as the memo it's self. It may not have been written by Gates hands, but by someone on his staff and then signed off on. But it can be hard to dictate things to a large development team. I now run a company that does custom development work. A lot of the developers are kids right out of college with CS degrees with technical leads having graduate degrees in CS. Technically, they know their stuff, but left to their own devices can come back with some of the worst stuff from a user stand point you've ever seen. Engineers tend to design for other engineers.
That's been the problem with OS's like Linux and especially BSD, it's by geeks for geeks. But most of the world aren't geeks.
That small business owner could care less if the box was running Linux, XP, Mac, or PC-BSD. For him, it just has to work.
