A few days ago I decided I would give ubuntu Linux a shot - I need to run an Jakarta Tomcat server, and I would rather run it on some unix based product rather than Windows, ie similar to what I do at work.
History - I've given Linux a shot two times in the past 10 years, but I've been disappointed both times at how Linux wasn't there at all, no matter how much the zealots bleat on. What has inspired me this time is ubuntu advertising itself as 'Linux for human beings' - I think I qualify.
Downloaded the iso and burned, and my windows box boots off the CD into Ubuntu which looks really good. But my internet doesn't go! And this is where my pleasant experience stops.
I can access the router config page, but can't get out onto the net. Windows just works here - install and plug in the router and you're there. Ubuntu doesn't. Go into the online help and it says to go into terminal and type
sudo pppoeconf
which I do, only it responds with a most unhuman 'Sorry, I scanned 1 interface but the access concentrator of your provider did not respond' along with check cables etc.
Searching the internet, I see dozens of people report this, but the forum responses are generally ignored by people in the know, or are abandoned part way through responses, or are jsut people talking to themselves. Completely useless. I can nearly always find an answer on the net... not in this case.
If anyone has ubuntu working when connected to Xtra through a dsl-g604t modem then do tell me. No major reonfigurations of the modem allowed, as it works just fine through the box when it is running windows, and my laptop connects wirelessly to it just fine also.
Really disappointing. I expect Linux to just work, just like Windows. Perhaps if I had hours to spend searching the internet, or reconfiguring files manually I could get it going, but I have better things to do with my time.
This is why people use Windows and not Linux. Windows just works.