Oh, gonna bring the Nix into the mix, eh?
Here's a little story on that one too. So, I'm displeased with MS, and am running OS X and figure I want to dabble with Linux to get a feel for that too. I install Red Hat 9 an a machine and start playing around with it. Looks good, feels good, but is a tad slow in booting programs. No problem, I can live with that, and BTW this was on a 1.6 P4 with 256 DDR. Checkin out the ftp server feature and find out that the stock one is nearly crippled in configuration options. Off to the net I got and find a decent looking ftp program. Cool, it "easy to setup and configure" and is aimed at noobs, and has everything I want it to do. I download it, unzip it and start to follow the install directions. Then things go downhill from there. The configure script flashes up and disappears, hmmm, bring up the terminal and rerun it. This time it says there's no C compiler in the path. A short time later it dawns on me to check the install disk for packages that aren't installed, voila, there's the compiler. Back to the configure script, this time it works. Now to makefile, it gyrates, does some stuff and poof it's done. Can't tell what it's done so I assume that it worked ok. You'd expect that makefile would make something that you can look at. Anyway, back to the install instructions, scroll scroll, ok, step 4: playing witht he config file. Hmm, ok, go find that and decide to just test it with the defauts first. Step 5: installing it to load on boot (because I have no idea where you can load it otherwise). I'm starting to think that this is like three midgets trying to give an elephant a handjob without a step ladder. By now it's nearing the wee hours of the morning and I can hear Uncle Bill whispering from Redmond.... The freakin instructions for this thing totally crap out on step 5. It was so detailed on the rest, but on step 5 it just said "ok, install it to load on startup". WTF, like every noob knows exactly how to do that. Lying propeganda on their website. That's about the time I started thinking "I wonder what other Linux distros look like".
This is whre it gets creepy. I find Mandrake 9.1 and start the install on an old Dell 450. The install goes rather well, like most new linux installs go. I get it booted up, check out the features but the ftp server feature I explicitly installed is nowhere to be found. At least RH9 had some info on it, but not M9.1. Well, I went to shut down and it did it's thing, and finally said to power off (it didn't so I held the power button until it did). I go back over to the Mac to check up on RCNT and about 5 minutes later I hear my other monitor power on. I look over and the Dell with mandrake is booting all by itself. I never install the Wake on Lan feature on my systems and the thing was stone cold off when I left it. WTF? I let it boot and it goes all the way to the desktop(s) without asking for a login name or p/w. I knew Linux was stable and like to run, but this was rediculous. I send it to shutdown, it goes through the same routine, but this time I yank the power cord. "OK you begger, let's see ya try that trick again" I think as I head off to bed.
I like Linux, and OS X, and Windows (when I want to game). They all have their plusses and minuses, I just wish they would work as advertized more often than not.
