Re: Emacs vista build failures

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hi, everybody!

On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 04:46:10PM -0400, Chong Yidong wrote:
> "David Robinow" <address@hidden> writes:

> >> Since GNU/Linux works for so many others, I suspect there was a
> >> problem in installation.  The best way to solve them is to ask an
> >> expert to do it for you.

> > I didn't need an expert for Windows XP Home, Windows XP Pro, or Vista.
> > I spent 30 years as a computer programmer with a fair amount of unix
> > experience. I think I should be able to do a simple install.

> As mentioned, GNU/Linux works for so many others that it's probably an
> easily solvable problem.

GNU/Linux _works_ fantastically, but that's not what's under discussion.

_GETTING_ a G/L system working is the issue, and that's best described as
a slog, or a nightmare.  There are any number of blogs which describe how
"you just insert the DVD, and 2 hours later you've got a complete working
system".  I've never met anybody in real life who's had that experience.

Most people I know who've tried to install GNU/Linux have spent, perhaps,
a solid weekend at it then given up for lack of time and energy.  It took
me about a month elapsed time (~20 days work (when I didn't have a day
job)) to get Debian Sarge working reasonably after my old PC died.

Richard, you're perhaps the brightest guy around, here.  How long did it
take you to get your first GNU/Linux installation installed and _fully_
working (i.e. all peripherals, networking, X-Windows, email,
web-browsing, ....  all satisfactory)?

For example, it took more than a day to get printing working (a standard
Linux-supported Samsung Laser printer on the parallel port).  It involved
delving into the printing-HOWTO, and the kernel documentation, enabling
the port support, rebuilding the kernel, struggling through the
undocumented garbage that is (?was) CUPS, discarding that for a
documented printing system, selecting a printing (formatting) driver by
trial and error, .....

This was typical of most things - a long hard slog, fixing problem after
problem after problem, a typical problem taking between 2 and 6 hours to
resolve.

And yes, at the end of that month GNU/Linux did indeed work
fantastically.

By contrast, I could have bought and installed Microsoft Windows XP, and
I would have had that working within a day.  However, MS Windows doesn't
work fantastically, ever.

I have heard that installing G/L has become easier in the last few
years.  But my advice to anybody who asks is still "don't install G/L
yourself unless you're _sure_ you really want it, and you've got the
stamina and stubbornness to see the installation through to the end".

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).