[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Debian Problems



The following was sent to partners@.  It sounds a bit like a flame but
when I asked Jim for permission to forward it to a more appropriate
list, his response looked sane and he seemed genuinely interested in
giving some feedback.  (e-mail address withhold for spam protection
but I'll responses to him)


----- Forwarded message from Jim <jss167@> -----

From: Jim <jss167@>
Subject: Debian Problems
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 14:33:58 -0700 (PDT)
To: partners@

I tried to install Debian Etch, but it was NOT very
user friendly.  I do have many years of computer
experience and have used other Linux distros.  

The installation for i386 went fine, but at the end, I
was at a command prompt.  I thought that X and Gnome
were installed automatically, but that never happened.
 It appears that part of X was there.  I installed X
and Gnome, but was unable to start X(maybe a monitor
or video card issue), so I kept staring at a command
prompt.  I received a variety of bizarre errors.  To
further complicate this, I was unable to shut off the
power, as the power button on my computer wouldn?t
work, which is very weird.  I thought that I was doing
something incorrectly, so I tried reinstalling the OS,
but the same problem persisted.  It appears that I
damaged about 25% of my hard drive, due to these hard
shutdowns, caused by pulling the plug out of the
socket.  I was not happy at any of this.

Isn?t Debian?s installer supposed to work well?  That
is the critical part.  I want all my hardware to be
autodetected and be looking at a graphical interface
when the install is complete.  A few basic questions
are fine, but that?s it.  You can make fun of it, but
when I tried Linspire, it worked flawlessly.  Within
10 minutes, I was on the Internet, printing, etc. 
Extremely easy to install and use.  It got all of my
hardware correctly, unlike Debian.  THAT IS WHAT YOU
WANT TO OFFER.  If I cannot install Debian and use my
hardware, how can I use it?  People have mentioned
this problem for years, so when will all of this be
fixed?  

I am not sure if you can provide any insight into what
occurred in my case.  I am thinking about buying a
preconfigured Debian system on a laptop.  In the
meantime, I left Debian and am using another distro,
which I did NOT want to do.  I want to use Debian. 

In conclusion, you really need to work on the
installer and the hardware detection.  An average
computer user will simply give up immediately, whereas
I put in about 10 hours and still couldn?t install
Debian, even with the knowledge I possess.  Even if
the OS gets installed, people want to use their toys,
like wi-fi cards and other stuff.  I do not understand
why other distros have excellent installers and
hardware detection?  Please put more into these
issues.  Thanks.

Jim  



		
____________________________________________________
Sell on Yahoo! Auctions ? no fees. Bid on great items.  
http://auctions.yahoo.com/

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Martin Michlmayr
http://www.cyrius.com/



Reply to: