Matt Robinson .NET

I don't know what possessed me to upgrade before this is technically even in beta, but Kubuntu's update manager asked if I wanted to with a nice easy to click 'yes' button. What's it doing tempting me like that? For a prebeta it went pretty well. It had to download over a Gig of new files. Once that was finally done it started installing, and something went wrong. It then notified me I needed to reboot. I wish I hadn't.

kernel panic : not syncing; VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

I found tons of articles on google, but it took a while to find something helpful. Finally I found the following advice:

1. boot from live cd
2. open a terminal
3. mkdir /mnt/linux
4. mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/linux
5. chroot /mnt/linux /bin/bash
6. mount -t proc /proc /proc

What this does is essentially give you a terminal working on your hard drive that isn't booting. From there I just ran

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

to finish the install process, and amazingly linux boot up and the new artwork looks very nice. So far every time I've upgraded Ubuntu it breaks my wireless, so I'm getting pretty good at fixing it. My built in wireless card on my Inspiron 9300 is Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4309 802.11a/b/g (rev 03). I have to use ndiswrapper to install drivers. Running

ndiswrapper -l

showed the driver was still installed but running but iwconfig had the incorrect card showing. Thank goodness for ndiswrapper's driver list that took me forever to find before. It has links straight to the driver downloads. I figured I'd reinstall the drivers, but once I did running dmesg showed

bcm43xx: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not available or load failed.

Looks like the new wireless drivers I downloaded needed a newer firmware. I found running

sudo aptitude install bcm43xx-fwcutter
sudo /usr/share/bcm43xx-fwcutter/install_bcm43xx_firmware.sh

took care of that for me. Phew. And now I'm running Feisty Fawn with working wireless. I'm not seeing a lot of differences so far, but this is the first thing I've done.

There's a great article that touches on something I mentioned in my previous Linux post. While I usually perceive a benefit from being able to endlessly tweak Linux, sometimes I don't and very few other people ever will. Kathy Sierra makes the best graphs and graphics for her article, and one that applies here is the "Is your product worth the users effort?". The perceived payoff for Linux is still fairly low, and the learning curve very high. While the perceived payoff for upgrading to Windows Vista might also be low, at least the perceived learning curve and pain is also low.

Some free Linux distribution really needs to address the "canyon of pain" that users have to cross to make the switch. As much as advanced users often hate things like wizards, something like this could really help out a lot of new Linux users. Or even something as silly as the welcome to Windows movie that comes with new Dells. I can't wait to get these things turned off considering I've bought and built dozens to hundreds of computers in my work, but when I hand over those new computers to users who aren't computer savvy, the first thing they really want is desktop icons linking to tutorials. For most users just learning how to check their email would be kicking ass on a new operating system, forget about piping commands or using awk.

I know something I'd love to see is a bunch of peepcode style screen casts that come preloaded. I've been loving these things lately for learning some Rails stuff even though I already most of the stuff in them. I wish I had known about them before to save myself hours of combing through blog articles and api documentation to get the basic concepts. The articles and API documentation are great for reference once I understand basically what I'm doing, but man are they a slow way to feel like you're ready to kick ass. And that's exactly where new windows users are. There's plenty of articles and forums out there, but they take a long time to wade through. Even some great concise places like ubuntuguide are great for getting software installed, but past that you're pretty much on your own.

In summary, all the control users have in Linux is great in the long run, but there needs to be a way to easily just get new users started that doesn't leave them feeling overwhelmed and lost.

I've been running mostly Ubuntu Linux for a few months now and am finally starting to feel comfortable with it. I can navigate around in the command line better than I used to in DOS, and after using vi a few times without getting stuck and unable to even close it, it doesn't seem totally bizarre. I've decided that I much prefer KDE to Gnome, even though I initially liked Gnome better. I think just figuring out how to turn off single clicking opening crap in KDE helped a lot. Things that I like better than Windows

• It's faster. Booting is faster. Logging on is faster. Doing a lot of things from the command line is faster - once you get used to it.
• Things are endlessly tinkerable (I'm sure that's not really a word) and more transparent. Everything seems easy to explore and I have more control. There's no windows warning telling you not to view files in the Windows folder. There's no place where you can't see how the pieces fit together if you spend enough time looking, even if upon deciding you would like to view the source code you're hopelessly lost.
• I have more choices for the most part. More choices in software, more choices in look and feel.
• It's free and open source. It's a kind of freedom most people don't even know is important yet.

I actually realize that the middle 2 things may not even be a positive for some people. I can understand that. Most people just want their computers to solve problems in other areas. They want important tools to be obvious and chosen for them without spending a lot of time learning them or tinkering with them. Sometimes that's true for me as well, which brings me to my next list. Things I don't like better

• The wireless support sucks!. And people can't just cop out and complain about driver makers not supporting Linux, cause even the UI is bad. It's so much better than it was last time I tried it thanks to Network Manager, but it's still somewhat painful. Even once you get Network Manager working properly, you have to type in your root password and either your WEP password or your keyring password every dang time you logon. And lately I have to log on to Gnome to get wireless running before I logon to KDE since something went wrong with KDE's wireless utility, even after I've uninstalled and reinstalled it.
• Tax software unavailable. I just realized this as I've started my taxes. Not Linux's fault, but lame all the same. Most Windows software has a Linux alternative. I think the government should write an open source web based version anyway, but that's for a different rant.
• Cryptic file system. Most people take a long time to learn that there's such a place as a Documents and Settings folder, or a Programs folder. Moving to Linux it's home, and usr, or maybe opt or maybe somewhere else. Honestly, why hasn't Linux come up with a file system naming scheme that's a little easier to understand? Once you know your way around, which I'm just beginning to, I suppose having shorter folder names would be nice, but the command line autocomplete really renders that argument lame. How the hell do people look at folders with names like lib, proc, mnt, etc (and I mean the etc folder not etcetera) and know what in the world is in them! Rant done.
• General unfamiliarity. This is getting better for me, but I know most people will consider this one of the biggest stumbling blocks.

I use Linux for between 80 and 90 % of everything computer related now, both at home and at work, switching back to windows occasionally to use Active Directory, Yahoo Music or do taxes and such. As much as I love the ideas of breaking Microsoft's monopoly with free and open source software, I still just don't see people having enough compelling reasons to switch. Even though Linux is easier to setup than ever before, and man do I mean easy even when compared to Windows, almost nobody installs Windows themselves! If Linux came preinstalled with some decent defaults, it would be a whole different story. The free price tag isn't even a benefit for almost anyone because they're going to pay for Windows anyway with almost every new computer.

I'm hoping to be without Windows by my next computer, except in the form of a virtual machine if necessary. Having switched over feels good now that I'm mostly done with the process, but the process isn't easy or comfortable. Neither are a lot of other things that are good for you :-)