I don’t really remember precisely when I started using Linux, but I do distinctly remember December 31, 1999, around 11:55pm, sitting in front of my computer and seeing what would happen. (Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.) I was in KDE at the time, back when they had a HUGE digital clock that looked like crap even then.<\/p>\n
I remember when USB thumb drives came into vogue, and I tried using mine in Linux. They worked! I just had to pull up a shell window, su to root, mkdir \/mnt\/usb, and then mount it there. And one day I forgot to umount before unplugging it, causing a kernel panic. Windows, meanwhile, let you plug the thumb drive in and seamlessly mapped it to a new drive. When you pulled it out, it unmounted the drive for you. (Although it still occasionally gripes at me with “Delayed Write Failed” even after I’ve closed everything using it and let it sit for quite some time. But I digress.)<\/p>\n
Today, without thinking, I decided to plug my Logitech G15 into my Linux machine, running Ubuntu’s Hardy Heron release. It worked, but that’s not saying much: any old OS can see a USB keyboard. But what took me by surprise was what happened next. Without thinking, I used the volume wheel on it to turn down my music. It worked! On a whim, I hit the “Previous Track” button, and Rhythmbox started playing the previous song. I had to install drivers for this in Windows, but not in Linux. How’s that for a role reversal?<\/p>\n
Of course, this isn’t a “Linux is superior.” There are still some flaws on my system that drive me crazy<\/em> (why do my graphics drivers keep suspend\/hibernate from working?!), but I can say that about Windows too. The point is that Linux used to be laughably far behind Windows in terms of things “just working.” And now I occasionally find myself wishing Windows were as easy to use as Linux in some regards. This is impressive progress!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I don’t really remember precisely when I started using Linux, but I do distinctly remember December 31, 1999, around 11:55pm, sitting in front of my computer and seeing what would happen. (Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.) I was in … Continue reading