Finding Linux Part 1: The Foray
I first installed Linux about a year ago. I had wiped the hard drive, planning to reinstall Windows XP. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get Windows to reinstall at all. My computer was several years old, and I had no desire to try to get technical support from Microsoft. This seemed to be a perfect opportunity to give Linux a try.
From what I’d heard a friend say and from what I read online, Ubuntu was one of the best distros to use. Using a a different computer, I downloaded and burnt a Live CD. Then I started the installation.
I’ll admit, I had no idea what I was getting into. I would probably have considered myself a geek, but even my knowledge of Windows wasn’t terribly impressive. I came to Linux a complete newbie. As soon as I started up the OS, I started having trouble.
The first problem was my video card. I was using an NVidia Geforce FX 5200. With the video card in, Ubuntu’s GUI refused to load. I didn’t manage to solve this problem. Instead, I just took the video card out of the computer and restarted. This time, it got farther. Ubuntu loaded up.
I was fairly impressed with the look and feel of the operating system. The long list of installed applications was enticing, but before I got a chance to test them out, I had run into another problem. This time it was my wireless device, a Netgear WG111T USB device. I rely on wireless for my internet, and going without the internet wasn’t really an option. I researched the problem.
It seemed that something called NDISWrapper could help solve my problem. Unfortunately, it also seemed that it would also be far easier to get it if I had the internet on my computer. I got a long a long LAN cable and connected it to my computer.
Getting NDISWrapper working was a pain. It took a lot of manipulation of the Terminal. Mostly, I just copied and pasted commands that I found in various forums without any understanding of what I was doing. Eventually, I somehow managed to get it to run.
I started to explore again. I was once again impressed by the number of programs, and by how many more there were to install. It was pretty easy to install them too. You just clicked on the one you wanted, and it installed. It wasn’t long, however, till I discovered I couldn’t play mp3 files, or many over formats. It was back to the internet. Before I had finished my search, I restarted my computer. When Ubuntu started up again, I’d lost my wireless connection.
I was fed up. I reformatted my hard drive, finally figured out why Windows hadn’t been able to install, and deserted Linux. For a while, I stayed with Windows. I knew the problems I had to worry about in Windows, and I could usually fix them.
My first foray into the world of Linux had not been entirely satisfactory, but it had taught me quite a bit. I had learned some of the problems I would have to overcome if I wanted to move to Linux: I would need to figure out a way to get and keep my wireless card working; I would need to figure out how to make audio and visual files play, and, eventually, I would need to get my video card set up. These major issues had driven me away from LInux this time, but if I could overcome them, I might be abe to make the switch.
Part 2 of this story is here.
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