[markot86]

I switched over to SUSE and so far it's been interesting, yet slightly frustrating. I absolutely love the interface, the stability, and the customizability, but the terminal stuff and the seemingly rediculous amount of time I have to use it in order to add functionality to linux has been quite a chore. It seems like documentation online is scarce and very esoteric (it took me two hours to figure out how to install Times new roman in open office, for example). I presume that once I get past this initial stage, I will absolutely love this OS, but for now, I feel like I need some peer support to keep me from going back to XP =D.

Is this initial frustration normal? Will I eventually get to a point where using the terminal is second nature?

 

[TheGhostBelow]

i just made a switch as well but i am haveing a heck of a time makeing ndiswrapper work so until then i have to log back into windows to use the internet

 

[hugz]

Initially it's always a pain but once you get over the first few hurdles you'll love it

I use gentoo and "portage" makes it quite easy to use. I used to use debian and "apt" similarly made it easy to use

*apt and portage are kinda programs that you use to download and install programs. you just type in the program that you want and it will download and install/compile it for you

edit: oh yeah and terminal rocks. you'll get quite efficient with it.. but if not there are usually gui equivilants of whatever function is causing you difficulties

double edit: beware though, linux is like hifi audio. Before i switched to linux, windows seemed okay. Now that I've done the switch it is unusable to me! far too slow and fat and blah. Just like i can never go back to cheap audio

 

[robzy]

This initial frustration is absolutely to be expected. Just muck around with it though, eventually you'll get the hang of it an it will become like second nature.

Rob.

 

[ADS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by markot86 I switched over to SUSE and so far it's been interesting, yet slightly frustrating. I absolutely love the interface, the stability, and the customizability, but the terminal stuff and the seemingly rediculous amount of time I have to use it in order to add functionality to linux has been quite a chore. It seems like documentation online is scarce and very esoteric (it took me two hours to figure out how to install Times new roman in open office, for example). I presume that once I get past this initial stage, I will absolutely love this OS, but for now, I feel like I need some peer support to keep me from going back to XP =D. Is this initial frustration normal? Will I eventually get to a point where using the terminal is second nature?

Using Linux is really like learning to use the computer all over again, especially the command line. After you've used it for a while though, you won't want to use anything else. I use the command line for the majority of my day to day ECE work, and it has made me incredibly productive. The unix/linux philosophy of simple tools that you can string together to do complex things opens the door to a huge number of possibilities. Once you start getting comfortable with Linux, you'll see that there's a way to reduce almost any complex task to a repeatable set of much simpler actions.

I use Windows for games/multimedia, but I use Linux exclusively for anything important. Linux is definitely far from perfect, but it's the best way to use my computer I've ever found.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Hang in there.

I made the switch at the end of 2002, and the first month was freaky. I know exactly how you feel.

One thing that really helped is Running Linux, by O'Reilly. They also publish the Linux Cookbook which is very helpful.

Stick with it. The command line will become second nature, and I like how much of it carries over to OS X, which I also use. The other day at work, where I am forced to use XP, I had to copy some stuff onto a floppy. I automatically tried to bring up a terminal and had all the commands in mind before... wait a second, I can't do it that way! It took a minute to remember to to do it in Windows.

But in comparison, at work, I have daily crashes and freezes. IT bangs on the network and has to take it down at least once a week for heavy maintenance. My Linux box? Something like 14 months of uptime. No crashes. The only time it goes down is when I choose to.

Anyhow, good for you. You were smart to make the switch and once you get up to speed, you will absolutely love it.

 

[Aman]

Well, you didn't exactly choose the desirable Linux distribution. SuSE is limited, proprietary, and awfully bloated compared to others. Regardless, learning to use Linux will make all of the computer's operations seem much more logical to you. Trust me, you've made a good decision; stick with it.