It's true. Linux made me feel dumb. It is not a nice feeling to feel dumb yet I did. Me, the great Locutus who prides himself on his technical wizardry and knowledge of all things involving electrons, had to resort to calling a help desk to solve a problem. The solution of which produced a Homer Simpson style DOH! and the aforementioned dumb feeling.
It happened like this. Recently our online banking authentication procedures changed. For the better I might add. While these security measures are far more secure they also prevented me from accessing our joint bank account whenever I wished. The end result was that I didn't check the account status often enough and an automatic payment didn't go through. Enough was enough I shouted out the window at two o'clock in the morning. After dodging a few smelly shoes and empty beer bottles I decided to set up my wifes phone to enable it to use the new security measures.
Of course this involved setting the phone up for internet connections with GPRS so I went to the carriers web site and found the connecting details. After painstakingly putting in the relevent settings (I really hate those phone keyboards for messaging, so painful) I tried the internet connection. Denied! Not to be beaten I went back to the carriers web site and had the settings downloaded via sms. Again access was denied.
Being the rather stubborn type and preferring to exhaust all avenues before breaking down and calling the help desk, I went through every single step several times. I did find out that the settings given on the web site are different to the settings downloaded by the sms. Starting to generate a headache from all the beating against a brick wall I gave up and called the carriers help desk.
Again the torture started of navigating the phone menu system consisting of twisty little passages, all alike. Finally, I managed to capture a real live person and explained my trial and tribulations. To no avail. I was then transfered to the next level of help and had to explain everything again. Together we checked the settings and everything seemed fine. Then came that first inkling of the dumb feeling. The technician asked me if I had rebooted the phone. With a growing feeling of dumbness welling up from within I said that I hadn't. I rebooted the phone and suddenly had internet connection. I sheepishly thanked the technician and hung up while looking for a bottomless pit to swallow me.
I blame Linux for that dumb feeling I had to endure. If I were still using another operating system which needed to be rebooted after each configuration change I would have thought of rebooting the phone. Nooo! I had to be using Linux which I very, very rarely reboot. Consequently I had fallen out of the habit of rebooting after configuration and it took the help desk technician to hit me over the head with a clue bat. So because I use a stable and flexible operating system which doesn't need rebooting after every little change I wasted a lot of time, both mine and the help desk technicians as well as building up dangerous levels of frustration.
Thank you Linux for making me feel dumb. Thank you Linux for making me forget about that rebooting thing. Thank you Linux for being such a wonderful operating system even though you have your quirks and foibles. Next time I will try and remember to reboot after making configuration changes on anything that does not run Linux.
- Locutus's blog
- Add new comment
- 4811 reads
Linux is a generic term
Linux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed, both commercially and non-commercially, by anyone under licenses such as the GNU General Public License. Linux can be installed on a wide variety of computer hardware, ranging from embedded devices such as mobile phones, smartphones and wristwatches to mainframes and supercomputers. Linux is predominantly known for its use in servers; in 2007 Linux's overall share of the server market was estimated at 12.7%, while a 2008 estimate suggested that 60% of all web servers ran Linux.
I am a student of ccie exam questions and i am so much specialties in the network solution's.
I would love to read what you have to say.
Unfortunately, Comic-Sans makes me illiterate. My eyes throw up when I try to make them look at it. So I hope whatever you had to say was, uh, well-said!
Linux made me hurt myself
I've been using linux on and off since 2004. (However, my first linux install was in 1998- I believe some redhat version..)
I try new versions of different distributions and go through one ring of fire after the other - just ending up scorched in the end.
*Phew* - there - I said it!
It's been one problem after the other throughout the years - mainly either the graphics card or the sound card. Never actually getting it the way I want it. A few days ago I installed the latest Ubuntu on my Lenovo W500. Seemed to work just fine - apart from the fingerprint-thingy that never seems to get supported. To my dispair I discovered that the 3d driver wasn't installed - so I finally chose to install it and rebootet (yes - new driver = reboot).
At first it seemed to boot just fine. Until everything turned black and the only way to kill it was holding the power button down for a few minutes. I also had this experience with the previous version of ubuntu but I hoped this one fixed the problem.
I eventually gave up and downloaded OpenSuse 11.2 off of my WinXP stationary PC. This installed just fine (quite easily actually) on the Lenovo W500. A lot of things worked, and I couldn't believe my eyes!
I updated to the latest patches and went over to a (possibly illegal) streaming website where I watched an episode of futurama. Halfway through the episode, shit hit the fan and linux crashed. I had to force a reboot using the on-off button. "aaaaah - please don't mess with me!!" I thought :-(
Why did i start this off by saying "Linux made me hurt myself" ? Well - throughout the years (when I used to kill keyboards off of frustration) i managed to also badly hurt my fingers and such, punching the wall, table etc... really bad habits.. Most of these habits actually happened while trying some linux-distro.
But nowadays when these frustrating linux things happens I just build up the frustration until one day my heart explodes.
Aaah, I forgot to say - try to install Vmware Server 2.0 on opensuse 11.2 - you'll end up going on a killing spree...
(Vmware server 2.0 actually worked without a flinch in Ubuntu...)
OpenSuSE and Rebooting
Well you can try openSuSE where things are so well disguised and hidden (Yes I run it. Great for embedded Development) that one sometimes just gives into the urge and reboots.
And you know what? Most often it works. And I've been using Linux since 1994, developing embedded Linux from 2000. Developing embedded processors since 1979 first on my block with a 8051 emulator and an 8086.
Microsoft made me dumb
And forgetful...
> i learned computers in the dark ages when there > were no PCs. Unix mainframe was the game.
Years of using windows would appear to have affected your memory.
Until fairly recently unix was exclusively the domain of minicomputers: PDP-11, VAX, etc.
Which machine were you thinking of?
Too True
I had the same reboot problem with my Telstra ADSL. Lost the connection and had to call their support robot and go through all the steps. The one that fixed it was turning it off and on again a minute later.
I used Sun UNIX as my first real OS after Tandy Z80s and Xenix on the Model 16. From there I migrated straight to Slackware back in '93. I still run the 2.4 kernel on my UPS firewall which has an uptime of years.
Soon I'll never have to reboot my desktops with the new kernel no reboot config coming so the idea of rebooting will be really strange.
I pity those who have to waste so much time looking after their Windows machines. My UNIX experience shell scripting showed me how to make Linux do most of my real work while I'm down at the beach nearly all day pretending to use my netbook. It takes nice pictures of the surf and sand and seagulls, you know.
There is some really nice
There is some really nice surf, sand and seagulls at the beaches too LOL!
The funny thing about Windows users
I Had The Opposite Experience
The Scientific Atlantic cable box, supplied by my cable company, is running Windows (I researched it years ago). The cable box tends to lock up every month or so, and I have to cut the power to force it to reboot, in order to restore its operation.
Recently, I found that the cable box would not respond to any commands from the remote control, so I followed the standard procedure, pulled the plug, waited 30 seconds, plugged it back in, and waited for it to reboot and re-download its listings from the cable company. It's about a 5 minute process.
But this time it didn't work. Mystified, I repeated the process, still to no avail.
Finally, after some thought, it occurred to me that the problem might be the remote. I checked out that possibility, and it turned out that someone must have accidentally hit one of the buttons to switch the remote's mode to TV, or VCR. Hitting the "Cable" button restored operation.
All told, I wasted about 15 minutes on something that should have taken seconds to fix, all because my Windows-based cable box fails so often that it is my first assumption when something goes wrong.
The worst thing about Linux.
I empathise with your experiences. I think just about the worst thing about Linux is the fact that when it goes wrong, it is usually your fault.
Windows goes wrong all by itself so often that you take comfort in the fact that you can always point at viruses, worms, instability, blue screen, security holes etc. and everybody accepts it. The Microsoft PR mantra "With Windows you have someone to point the finger at if something" was spot on. You didn't have any way of correcting the problem yourself and you had to wait for either Microsoft or the anti-virus industry, or re-installation to fix it, but you did nevertheless always have someone else to point the blame at.
Bad Instructions
It's not your fault; the final instruction should be: Reboot the phone for the new setting to take effect. Don't feel dumb because someone else did a lousey job.
Reading that article made me feel dumb.
Drivel.
Don't blame Linux for your pathetic article and ramblings.
You sir ...
didn't read the article and now are gunna look like a douche to hundreds/thousands of people who did read the article.
I read the article
And it is a lot of drivel.
I am sick and tired of Linux Today articles like "5 Reasons I Like Windows More Than Linux". You think "Hmmn, hopefully an interesting look at the areas where Windows is genuinely better. For once an actual analysis. For once an erudite Linux user who appreciates the nuances of intellectual objectivity."
Then you read the article to find "#1. I like to have the time to make a coffee when I boot my computer in the morning" and find out you are just reading the ramblings of a wannabe stand up comic.
Sick And Tired.
If you're so sick and tired?
That was such a useless and crybaby comment with nothing to say of any benifit at all. What I don't really understand about people like you is that if you are so sick and tired why are you here? Do you like wasting time with your childish drivel, or are you just content to waste our time? It must be a slow day for you.
Linux makes me feel smart in spite of feeling stupid
This weekend my Aspire One's SSD died, one year and one month after I bought it. Of course feelings of stupidity for having purchased a computer with such a lame storage medium and panic about how I would be able to recover my data overwhelmed me. Fortunately I was able to pull the essential data off the SSD by using my USB drive with Linux Mint on it. I am still using the netbook by running Linux Mint of the USB drive while I wait for the delivery of a 1.8" hard drive. Yes, I feel quite a bit smarter than the majority running that OS from Redmond as I can still use my computer. Can this be done with Windows?
Aspire One SSD: dito!
Linux made me feel dumb
It made me feel dumb too...
dumb that I used Windows for years when I could have been running a system that actually does what you tell it (no matter how crazy) - i.e you can actually control.
Now happily using it on all my desktops (including work one)
Linux user since 2002!
Linux made me feel dumb
I highly agree with this statement.
Linux user since 2007 and only running Linux on my desktop and laptop.
Linux made me feel dumb
I highly agree with this statement.
Linux user since 2007 and only running Linux on my desktop and laptop.
Maybe you are.
Maybe you are.
A borg?
Wth?