Switch… to Linux…

Gone Bad, Projects

So last night I thought I’d try something that I’d been thinking about for a while. I read an article about Linux MCE, specifically Ubuntu and Myth TV and thought I’d give it a try. Especially since my copy of Windows may not be as genuine as it should be. So I downloaded the Ubuntu installation and got ready to go. I put my hair in a pony tail and put on my most ironic t-shirt. It had been a while since I played around with Linux so it was nice to see that the installation process had been sped up. You could boot from the CD and try out the environment without installing and then choose to install it if you wanted, which is much easier than installing windows. I was very excited.

I set up some basic options, it comes with some software pre-installed, Firefox, Open-office, all stuff that I’ve used before. I was thinking that I’d be over at Micro-Center(nerd hq) in no time conversing with my new friends about how great Linux is. But then they pulled the bait and switch on me. They make it so easy to get started but when I wanted to do the simplest thing it suddenly got very complicated. All I wanted to do was install a program, MythTV. On windows there’s an executable file… not in Linux. Which is fine. On Mac OS you just unzip the files and put them into your programs folder… not in Linux. Ok then how do I do it? So I did a little searching around and found a guide on how to do exactly what I wanted. After following the first 5 steps which involved using the command line and setting up permissions for new users and installing MySql… well I sort of gave up. I will be back because I think Ubuntu has promise. But it’s kind of like decorating a moped like a Ducati. You may get 95mpg, but you’re still a dork.

Now let me just explain that I know computers. I do Java programming for a living. I work on computers every day, I have websites, blogs, I have a degree in computer graphics. I could and will probably figure this out. But it should be easier, my recommendation for now… If you want to switch… switch to Mac.

Later!
Mark

UPDATE – it turns out mythTV isn’t just a program, its a new front end for the operating system.