----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin McLauchlan"
By the time SuSE 8.2 arrives, I'll have most of my system working under 8.1 -- though probably not the joystick -- and I'll install 8.2, just to see what one more increment of usability has been achieved. Then I'll spend the following four months discovering and fixing a bunch of broken things, but maybe I'll actually get my entire computer working before 8.3(or 9.0?) arrives. I won't get the usability that Win2K would give me, but I'll stick with SuSE cuz I'm a glutton for punishment. Unfortunately, the people around me will be firmly frightened back to Windows by my ongoing frustrations.
Make no mistake, using Linux is challenge. But, I do not agree that using SuSE linux is as bad as you make out. Installing windows and its aplications is usually easy. When the application stops working, finding out the problem is next to impossible. The only practical solution is a reinstall. Linux is the othe way round. Installing an application requires patience and some learning. After the appliction is running, all the configuration settings are in a text file. To "reinstall" the application, replacing the custom config. file with the default file does the trick. My suggestion is that if Windows serves your purpose and Linux is a lot more difficalt, stick with windows. Use a tool that meets your needs. If winodws met my needs, I would not be using Linux. I am a home user. Networking is my main requirement. Achieving this with windows is very difficult and error prone, in my humble experience anyway. I am an accountant by profession and not an IT expert. In one three week period, windows had to be reinstalled twice. At any one time, windows would not be running for more than 4 hours maximum. When starting windows I had no confidence that it would work corectly. At this stage I lost all confidence in Windows and looked for an alternative - Linux, which I bought from a store down the road. I admit it took a week to install and configure Linux as home server. I can now share data and printers so easily. The dhcp and proxy severs are very reliable. In the last 90 days, yes ninety days, the Linux machine has been up continously with no downtime. Samba is used to share data with other windows machines. I find it laughable that a Linux machine with samba is better at sharing data than a native windows box. Buying equivalent netwoking software at MS's sky-high prices is out of the questions for me. As Linux is more suited to my needs than Windows, I use Linux. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com