On 07/07/12 11:01 PM, cletusjenkins wrote:
People can always complain. However the "why doesn't this just work!!" is more appropriate for Windows than for Linux. In Linux, my printers, even the old ones, are recognized, as are all my other devices. In Windows, I often have to hunt down arcane drivers to get something to be detected properly.---- On Sat, 07 Jul 2012 07:57:52 -0700 Gary Dale<garydale@rogers.com> wrote ---- > > > Windows needs restore points because you can't easily separate out user settings from system settings and trying to restore a corrupted system is a major pain. You can't even easily figure out which particular part of Windows is going wrong. Generally you end up having to search Microsoft's knowledge base to find out what causes which problem. > > With Linux, restoring is fairly quick and easy - not to mention rarely needed. Generally you can fix individual packages thanks to its modular structure, open sources and mature diagnostic tools. > Those advantages of linux and debian in particular I think would make this much easier to implement than under windows. And could make things easier for non-computer people if they tinker beyond their ability. It might be a good learning event for them, but so many people, even those who like to tinker, can easily get to the (admittedly whiny) point of "why doesn't this just work!!"
While Windows 7 is said have resolved this (indeed, an editor recently said so in a published reply to my e-mail on the subject), in fact it only properly recognizes recent devices. Linux "just works" with far more devices than Windows, in addition to being able to run on older hardware.
Debian stable is a masterful piece of work. It doesn't need a failsafe. However, I believe you have a point about some of the more frequent release distros. Ubuntu comes to mind as something that needs a rollback mechanism. Unfortunately, the ability to roll back a LTS release would take gigabytes of storage.
This is something that Windows doesn't allow either. Once you upgrade, you're stuck with the new release.
The more mundane bug-fix upgrades are invariably safe while new software installs can generally be undone by removing the packages.