Funny Story With WIndows to Linux User Switcher

[SafetyNinja]

I told MS Windows user to switch to Linux because its "better" and he told me this:

To make things clear he has 2 years old laptop with this:
-HP-
-Intel Core i3 - 2nd gen.
-AMD HD 6490

He said:

"I tried many Linux "types" from distrowatch and none of the Linuxes work. Either they don't boot at all and I end with blank screen or blank screen with garbage or it all crashes with yet another black screen full of garbadge (with predominant word "fglrx").

If I get things to work, I go deaf because of loud fans and burn my palms. Video is choppy and when I drag windows they break weirdly.

When I manually switch to integrated graphics through some magical code with triple "c" that I type into a black box ("sudo amdcccle"), I can't then use GIMP 2.8.x (Photoshop doesn't work). It does not start up at all, and only crash popup appears. The video is also choppy and when I drag windows they break weirdly on edges too.

Sometimes whole system hangs unresponsive randomly or crashes to black screen with garbage all over the screen (repeatably after dragging text file into "Documents" folder) an I have to press the power button because the laptop is completely hang.

I tried to go on Intel site and AMD site, but clicking on the files/drivers(?) they provided, does nothing.

Then I searched google for help and I found this:

fglrx, mesa, x.org, MIR, xMIR, wayland, LLVM, LLVMpipe, Gallium, Gallium3D, Gallium2D, Clang, UVD, NVDPAU, BumbleBee, Prime, OpenCL, OpenGL, VAAPI, r600g , bunch of Islands, and many more...

WTF?! Are You guys NUTS???

I sure will definitely tell my girlfriend to use Linux. We are normal we'll stick to Windows."

To make things clear he has 2 years old laptop with this:

-HP-
-Intel Core i3 - 2nd gen.
-AMD HD 6490

!!! And the moral of this story is... !!!!

[johnc]

Welcome to Linux!

[RealNC]

Linux is for leet users, not n00bz. If you can use Linux effectively and be able to understand it, it means you need to get laid more.

[Caledar]

Moral of the story is get hardware that works out of the box IMO.

[archibald]

I'd take away the moral that if you're going to get somebody to migrate to linux you need to make recommendations and give them help getting used to the new system.

Otherwise who knows what they will do?

[mazenmardini]

Linux is for leet users, not n00bz. If you can use Linux effectively and be able to understand it, it means you need to get laid more.

Unfortunately, that's pretty much how it is. We have nothing to offer to the consuming desktop user yet we are so eager to tell everybody how cool Linux is.

[Sonadow]

Moral of the story is get hardware that works out of the box IMO.

Every last bit of the TS's friend's hardware is already supported by Linux. Everything went to hell after he tried to install AMD's driver blob.

And don't start with the 'only stupid people in Windows update their drivers when it is already working" mantra. Windows and OS X users had always had the ability to update to the latest, bleeding edge driver blobs without worrying about compatibility or having it break the display or the OS so badly because the notion of having to to check if the driver is compatible with a certain version of the display server is completely alien to them.

All they ever need is to know one thing: Driver supported on Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8? It installs, no problem, kthxbai.

Unfortunately, that's pretty much how it is. We have nothing to offer to the consuming desktop user yet we are so eager to tell everybody how cool Linux is.

Don't offer Linux to them as a desktop system. Offer it to them as a server system and tell them that if they intend to work as SysAdmins it's an ideal OS to attain some proficiency in.

[brosis]

Then I searched google for help and I found this:

fglrx, mesa, x.org, MIR, xMIR, wayland, LLVM, LLVMpipe, Gallium, Gallium3D, Gallium2D, Clang, UVD, NVDPAU, BumbleBee, Prime, OpenCL, OpenGL, VAAPI, r600g , bunch of Islands, and many more...

WTF?! Are You guys NUTS???

I sure will definitely tell my girlfriend to use Linux. We are normal we'll stick to Windows."

To make things clear he has 2 years old laptop with this:

-HP-
-Intel Core i3 - 2nd gen.
-AMD HD 6490

!!! And the moral of this story is... !!!!

The moral of the story is - long exposition to windows makes you stupid enough to assume normality = good and Catalyst = Linux.

For example:
catalyst, nvidia, dwm, comctrl, ole, com, .net, vb.net, msh, corefonts, LLVM, Clang, FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, exFAT, NTFS, cacls, UVD, VxD, WDM, WDDM, WDF, BDA, Miniport/Class/Bus drivers, REGISTRY??!, wga, vga? wpa?, bunch of malware oh common!

I better retain my nerves and use Linux!

Don't offer Linux to them as a desktop system. Offer it to them as a server system and tell them that if they intend to work as SysAdmins it's an ideal OS to attain some proficiency in.

Better tell everyone that windows sucks on desktops, it sucks on servers and you suck everywhere. In the end, its reason why you post here!

[Caledar]

Better tell everyone that windows sucks on desktops, it sucks on servers and you suck everywhere. In the end, its reason why you post here!

Trouble is, they have lots and lots of killer apps. But on linux I have tools that I don't have on windows, and I'm not giving them up anytime soon.

[brosis]

Trouble is, they have lots and lots of killer apps. But on linux I have tools that I don't have on windows, and I'm not giving them up anytime soon.

Yeah, but apps are not a trouble per se. They are proprietary, hence not portable, hence use WINE, VM, or even bare. No one cares!