Viraj's Weblog

So a Windows PC my mom was using got hosed and it seemed nontrivial to fix it. I said what the hell and installed Ubuntu Linux. I just showed her how to login and start a browser (that's all she normally does). I think something like this is the best way to determine usability of a distribution.

The issues that came up so far is java, flash, and real audio not working. Of course no distro I've ever used actually includes this stuff. Is it really just licensing issues? Luckily Ubuntu has a wiki page describing how to install these. It was relatively simple, but could've been simpler.

The other problem is sound simply doesn't work. I found that out when Real Player wouldn't start and the process would just hang. I did an strace and saw it was trying to write to /dev/dsp and hanging. I didn't have a chance to look into this much, so whatever, no sound for now.

I think it's kinda lame that for someone to use Linux they still need Linux expertise to install plugins, setup apt repositories, and other crap that only a long-time Linux user can grasp. And forget about setting up a printer. It's almost like all distros are kept elite for the job security of Linux sysadmins. I would really like to see a day when a computer illiterate can use Linux without relying on a friend that knows Linux.

In general the system seems to be working and I haven't got too many complaints. We'll see how long that lasts, and when the Windows withdrawal symptoms set in.