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Many of you have read/listened to me go on and on about the joys and value of Linux, and I want to go on record as still supporting that ideology, however I have reached a problem spot in my Linux Life. Like so many in the computer field, I have had to stop and re-evaluate my OS usage based on my vocational change. As the Systems Administrator for Arkansas Tech University I had a few more liberties where my OS choice was concerned. Most of our systems were somewhat Web 2.0 based and were only dependent on my choice of browsers. Since all our systems were pretty much compliant with Firefox AND MS Internet Explorer I was more free to use Linux. FTP applications, and web-coding applications did not matter as long as they had the correct file extensions. Linux, (or more appropriately Ubuntu) was more than an idea it was a reality. Then the job change came.I joined another colleague in the Ozark School District and formed the Technology Coordinator Team. The school system already had a network in place and was based predominately on Novell. Novell 6.5 to be exact. I am still learning a lot of the network side of things over there as previous Technology Coordinators (TC’s) were a bit negligent and left me and my colleague the task of straitening the whole situation out. We are going to stay with the Novell network as we have so many options. Rather than building a MS network from the ground up we decided to use what was already in place and expand upon it. Naturally we will have to fix a lot of it first, but we are up for the challenge and the excitement of being in way over our heads.

You may remember my difficulties getting Ubuntu to work with my new Dell D830’s Intel X3100 graphics card. Ubuntu is doing a great job keeping up with the newer technology and when the Gutsy Gus release comes out it will have the correct Intel drivers for the laptop. Problem is that Novell uses something called ConsoleOne to interface with its core network systems. Novell owns Suse Linux, and as many Linux people know Suse uses the RPM package manager and Ubuntu uses ‘Deb’. Novell has created a ConsoleOne for Linux but at this time only has the thing (ConsoleOne) available in the ‘RPM’ format. Now there are several tools out there that allow you to convert RPMs into DEBs, but nearly every attempt I have made to complete this conversion has failed miserably. Loving my Ubuntu the way I do, I decided to give it a ‘college effort’. A week of pouring through forums has proven to be somewhat futile, and found that there were many out there with the same problem. I finally gave up the ghost and decided that maybe a Suse Linux flavor would be the correct one for my tastes and for my job production.

Suse Server 10.1 is something of a pain in the butt to be honest. Maybe it’s because I have grown so used to the way Ubuntu does things. Suse Server 10.1 is a 4 CD installation, and Suse has you swapping disks like a bad version of musical chairs. During an installation a certain application had me going back through all 4 cds and took a ridiculous amount of time. Yes, yes, I know there are DVD versions available, but seriously, 4 CD’s? But I digress. I didn’t even get to the installation of ConsoleOne because Suse would not recognize my Intel X3100 graphics driver. Same problem I had with Ubuntu only, Suse doesn’t have any known fixes at this time. I tried to adapt my Ubuntu fix to Suse but I couldn’t even get some of the basics to work correctly. APT-GET would not install, install-apt4suse wouldn’t install either. YaST proved to be a serious pain in the butt, and none of the other software managing tools seemed to work very well either.

One of the most annoying things about Suse was running ‘install’ and being told the package could not be installed for whatever stupid reason. Then going to the software package manager and it would tell me the package was ALREADY installed, but then going to the command prompt and running the commands for the package would give me errors consistent with the package not being installed at all. As of now, I am not a real fan of Suse. The forums don’t tend to be helpful either. To make matters worse you actually have to PAY for Suse. It’s only about $40 or so, but I would at least expect the forums to be somewhat comparable to Ubuntu help forums.

It has been a very obnoxious 3 weeks trying to get together a package that I can use at work on that silly laptop but at this time, I am making a concession that it’s just not going to happen. Despite the pain it’s going to cause me on a personal level I am going to have to revert to Windows XP for the time being until they find a fix.

Now before all you Windows Zealots get all uppity, I want to point out that my first installation attempts at getting XP on the laptop was a serious pain in the butt as well. No drivers for that stupid card existed even on XP, so here is how the laptop worked out. In addition Vista is out of the question. Vista is like a virus but you buy it. What other operating system do you pay for, AND has every possible resource tied up just trying to run the highly inadequate and standards breaking GUI?!

1. Ubuntu: Works great and has drivers but no workability as far as ConsoleOne is concerned.
   1. Lack of Job specifications.
2. Suse: Doesn’t work great, no drivers, but DOES have ConsolOne capability.
   1. Lack of driver specifications.
3. XP: Works great with a heavy work-around and does have ConsoleOne capabilty.
   1. Lack of personal specifications and costs too much.
4. Vista: Came pre-installed on the system, I quickly threw it away. Has drivers and ConsoleOne capability.
   1. Lack of freedom where applications are concerned. Even if you have 2 gigs of RAM running Vista and ANY other application like say, Adobe Photoshop is a serious pain in the rear.

So there you have it. Next week I will be sporting a new XP-pro installation on my laptop and I will be a sad, sad person. BUT, as soon as Ubuntu gets ConsoleOne working, or Suse gets Intel X3100 graphics drivers working I will be back on the Linux track.
And by the way, I want those capabilities without having to hack ANYTHING! I’m tired of this “Linux Elitism”. Make Linux easier or die! Helloooooo Mr. Jobs!!!!!!!