[ILUG] To ubuntu or not to ubuntu

[Timothy Murphy]

On Thursday 08 February 2007 14:37, Nick Murtagh wrote:

> > Also CUPS, which seems to be run by androids.
> > I mean, there are only about 3 possible configurations for a printer,
> > so why does one have to read an encycopedia to set it up?
>
> Ok, now this is definitely trolling. Printing in Windows is a complete
> mess. eg if you want to be 100% sure that A4 paper is the default paper
> size, you have to check three different dialogs, all of which look
> pretty much the same, but are found at different places in the system.

In fact I find it much easier to setup my remote CUPS printer under Windows XP
than under Fedora.
I just give the URL under Windows, and it seems to work.
Under Fedora, there is some damned program
that keeps altering the files in /etc/cups,
giving insane permissions to non-existent printers.
It works one day, and the next day CUPS is updated,
and it doesn't work any more.

In a rational world, the CUPS designers would be behind bars.

> Tim, what you seem to re doing is encountering _different_ problems in
> Linux than Windows, and on that basis concluding that Windows is better
> / easier to use.

I didn't actually say Windows was easier to use.
It's just that some things are easier under Windows,
and I hope the Linux distributions are looking at Windows
to see what ideas they can steal.
(I'm sure Windows is doing the converse.)

The trouble with Windows, in my experience,
is that if something doesn't work you are completely stumped.
Under Linux, there is a good chance of working out what is wrong.




-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland