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I have been tri-booting for about as long as Vista has been out. I use XP for gaming and Vista for everything else, and ubuntu for learning. Admittedly, I havent spent much time in ubuntu due to the frustration of the learning curve involved.

My 1st question is: If the advent of technology is supposed to make things easier, then why does linux use the console/terminal so much ?

It seams to be things should be automated, or at least some type of fancy GUI, or made so simple there is no guesswork.

Why is it so difficult to do things like install certain drivers ? none of them seem to have an "install" program like a pc .

I know everything is relative, and some of the linux pros in here might view certain mundain tasks as "simple", but no matter how skilled the coder is, he is still a coder - thus meaning its not completely automated "Just click here"

There are certain things I like when attacking complicated, detailed tasks - making them uncomplicating -- like a "phd" - (PUSH HERE DUMMY) this is a great feature on virtually anything involving some sort of educated background in the matter.

With the pc, many things are more automated, with a mac - even more things are automated - because the whole idea of all of this is to make....it....easier !!!!!

The coolest thing Ive seen thus far in my linux noobi-esque life is a program from some guy called "Envy" - it completely automated the driver installation process for my 8800 GTS nVidia card - it did everything - even went to nVidia's site and downloading the latest version as part of the install process !!!! I was literally floored someone actually made something like this

So my last questions --- are there MANY automated apps like "envy" out there to perform normal, mundain, necessary tasks ? If so, then where are they ?

I know these rants/thoughts are not new -- but I havent seen any conversation yet like this so I was hoping some good people of neowin's linux group might be able to help --

I know this is a bit long, and probably should have been in a blog - but I am hoping for some replies and help

Thx

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If the advent of technology is supposed to make things easier, then why does linux use the console so much?

  • for me, the console is much easier, especially when troubleshooting. I can get more out of the results of an fdisk -l than I can out of the very best screenshot from Partition Magic or Gparted. Plus commands are generally the same across distros and Desktop Environments.

Why is it so difficult to do things like install certain drivers ? none of them seem to have an "install" program like a pc .

  • Most things have drivers already in the kernel. You are maybe asking why it is so difficult to install certain drivers for hardware the manufacturer has not released drivers for? Yes, unsupported hardware can be tough. This is a matter of vendor support, not installation method.

So my last questions --- are there MANY automated apps like "envy" out there to perform normal, mundain, necessary tasks ? If so, then where are they?

  • what everyday mundane tasks do you have in mind?

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I don't use the terminal/commandline all that much and I'm only using Ubuntu on my system. Its there if you want to use it, but you really don't have to for most things now.

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I would have to agree with Mark, apart from having to manually install my graphics card drivers (Nvidia but ATi's are the same I think) every other device I have plugged in has just worked, my scanner/printer Ubuntu detected it first time I plugged it in and switched it on, I was printing within 10 seconds, compare that to windows where you have to install the drivers from a disk or alternatively go to the manufacturer's site and download the drivers. Then install, reboot (most of the time) then you will probably have to install the software for the printer. For me Linux is so much easier.

Same with my digital camera, camcorder, tv tuner card etc.

As for the Nvidia drivers it's one command in the terminal after downloading sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1.run, and I have an installed driver.

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I would have to agree with Mark, apart from having to manually install my graphics card drivers (Nvidia but ATi's are the same I think) every other device I have plugged in has just worked, my scanner/printer Ubuntu detected it first time I plugged it in and switched it on, I was printing within 10 seconds, compare that to windows where you have to install the drivers from a disk or alternatively go to the manufacturer's site and download the drivers. Then install, reboot (most of the time) then you will probably have to install the software for the printer. For me Linux is so much easier.

Same with my digital camera, camcorder, tv tuner card etc.

As for the Nvidia drivers it's one command in the terminal after downloading sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1.run, and I have an installed driver.

Ubuntu comes with ATI and nVidia Drivers built in. Just go to the Restricted Drivers Manager section under the System/Administrator menu (Means non-Open Source) and click on yours.

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Ubuntu comes with ATI and nVidia Drivers built in. Just go to the Restricted Drivers Manager section under the System/Administrator menu (Means non-Open Source) and click on yours.

I tried that - and even though the 8800 level grfx cards were on the list - it would give me some kind of "cant do it" message.... so that automated program envy had to be used...which worked perfectly (found it in the ubuntu support forums)

But thank to all for the input it seems that - I simply need to look around and find things that are automated.

What Im referring to is software, add-ons, gadgets, apps - all of the little extras people like to 'personalize' their computer. I know about OpenOffice for word docs and such but I like the 'polished-look' of pc/mac software -- and it seems many things are raw - or is this simply the nature of the beast when dealing with free stuff ??

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I tried that - and even though the 8800 level grfx cards were on the list - it would give me some kind of "cant do it" message.... so that automated program envy had to be used...which worked perfectly (found it in the ubuntu support forums)

But thank to all for the input it seems that - I simply need to look around and find things that are automated.

What Im referring to is software, add-ons, gadgets, apps - all of the little extras people like to 'personalize' their computer. I know about OpenOffice for word docs and such but I like the 'polished-look' of pc/mac software -- and it seems many things are raw - or is this simply the nature of the beast when dealing with free stuff ??

You can make the Gnome desktop look and act exactly like Windows XP/Vista or even OSX Leopard. www.gnome-look.org. You can even run many Windows programs under WINE. I'm currently running all of my favorite Windows programs and games under it.

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