Since the last entry I have experienced the highs and lows of Linux. From loving it to outright hating it and wishing I'd never set eyes on it... Overall though, I'm still pleased, and will be doubly when I can get on the net with a REAL modem.

Since the last entry (starting 2 paragraphs with the same 4 words... That CAN'T be a good sign) I've done a lot in Linux, the most significant of which was setting up my 3dfx Card. (Voodoo 1 so you know. None of this fancy stuff.) This was astoundingly easy actually. I went to www.3dfx.com, clicked on drivers, went to the linux section, grabbed up the files, and that was that. Great! Can even access it from the normal user accounts, RIGHT ON! GLQuake here I come... This is where things came crashing to a halt. I run Quake (remember, you need the files from DOS to run it) and while it's there, the screen is so damn dark you can't see anything. "AHA!" I thought. (Though quite why Quake being dark would remind of a Norwegian band from the 1980's is beyond me.) "There are no tools to correct the gamma. Fear not, I shall quest onto the mighty Internet and find something... And quest I did...

I stumbled onto a program called GlideControl. A nice little XWindows program that allows you configure your 3d card, even overclock it if you feel so inclined. (I haven't had the card long enough to feel safe overclocking it) So I whacked the gamma up to the highest setting (1.95 which made me curious, as all the Windows stuff goes up to 4...) and quit back to the prompt, and loaded GLQuake... Nothing. Same dark crap. All you can see is the vague outline of the lettering, and some sparks from the explosions... So, not very promising so far... Tracked down the config file Glidecontrol saves in /etc... Edited it, logged in again, ran Quake, same crap. The GlideControl program seems to make NO difference at all. So, I'm stuck with a beautifully setup 3dfx card that I can't see a damn thing using... Suggestions welcome at the usual address...

After the Quake debacle, I decided that I should backup the system somehow. Initially copied ALL the files into a seperate directory. While this wasn't much of a backup what with it being on the same hard drive and all, it at least meant that if I screwed up, everything would be intact and easily replaceable. Decided this wasn't a very good option, and went hunting for a decent GUI for TAR or something. While I could probably figure out how to get TAR to recurse through all the directories excluding a few, I wanted to get it done this side of the Y2K. Found a GUI's, but the best sounding one is called GXTar and it's VERY nice. After a little bit of experimentation, I discovered how to get it to do what I want and set it about the task of archiving up my entire system to the Windows drive.

"There is one big fundamental difference between Windows and Linux. Faith."

It was while this was going on, that a fact struck me. There is one big fundamental difference between Windows and Linux. Faith. What do I mean? Well, archiving up the ENTIRE system was a mammoth task which took 3 hours to do, and in that time there was a LOT of times where I thought "Has it crashed?" and then thought "Probably not. I'll leave it." Picture having that conversation using Windows software and the last thought would more than likely be "I'd better check" at which time you would use the venerable ctrl-alt-delete to list the tasks running, and see if your archiving program had crashed, but herein lies a problem. The ctrl-alt-delete box is, for want of a better word, crap. I have tested this theory, and while I was installing a particularly hefty program (I can't remember what) I performed the Vulcan death grip out of curiosity. Sure enough, there next to the install were the words "Not Responding", the box sitting nicely above the line showing the installs progress which was still progressing nicely thank you very much. Of course, any user of Windows has of course discovered the other version of this, when a program is quite comprehensively crashed, but the task box doesn't say anything....

So back to my point, and believe me I do have one, anyone who uses Windows and pushes it to the edge doing really complicated tasks like scrolling a screen or opening Notepad (true story. My system completely and utterly froze the other day. What Herculean task had I given it that caused it to die? I had clicked the left mouse button to scroll to the next page on an email. Of course, there's probably an errata on www.microsoft.com somewhere that explicitly tells you not do this as it could cause a crash...) knows that if something appears to be frozen, it has more than likely crashed. If it HASN'T, there is no real way to tell whether a program is just busy, or has frozen up entirely. You can have no confidence in the system. Linux gives you the confidence (God, this sounds like some self esteem product commercial) so you know that it's busy doing SOMETHING productive (something other than trashing 600 files in your system directory.)

So, back to the plot, 3 hours later, I had an ENTIRE system backed up and archived. This included ALL the stuff I've installed recently (Nethack, WordPerfect and various other goodies) so in the archive is an entire working Linux system with every conceivable software package you can think of. Graphics programs, Internet software, Office Software... How big was the the archive? 227 megs. Pretty damn impressive.

Speaking of Nethack, if you like running around random dungeons beating things up, GO GET THIS GAME! I'm running GNOMEHack, and it's fantastic. Makes the DOS version look pretty crappy... The only game I like more than Nethack (in the roguelike genre anyway) is Moria, but I've yet to find a decent Linux version of that. (One with graphics, not text characters.)

It's rant time. Linux has a BIG problem. Libraries. This past weekend, after backing up the system, I decided to go hunting for software and download anything that sounded useful or cool. (Though mostly the latter. Screw productivity, give me something that makes me go "WOOOO!", and I don't mean Ric Flair.)

Spent a good 2-3 hours downloading various RPMs then merrily trotted off to Linux to install them all... while half installed, half bitched about me not having the current version of libraries that were needed... No matter, they'll probably be on the RH CD... They weren't, so I make a note of all the libraries, noting exact versions etc... then went back to Windows, and back online to download the missing libraries. This in itself was annoying enough, but fair enough, you have to upgrade, I can deal with that, it's just a pain having to go back to freakin' Windows everytime you need to be online. (Bill has a GREAT way of describing Winmodem's. "The Devil Inside." Perfect.) So I download more libraries, then head back to Linux to install... Fire up GNORPM and away we go... And here's the GOTCHA, I go to install the libraries, and lo and behold, the libraries need OTHER libraries, libraries which I don't have... So back to bloody Windows again and download the sodding things...

"The library situation in Linux is worse than the coding disasters that are DLL files..."

I haven't bothered trying to install THIS lot, and to tell you the truth, I can't be bothered. The whole thing is beyond stupid. I don't know whose fault it is, but there needs to be a standardised set of libraries. The library situation in Linux is worse than the coding disasters that are DLL files... While users like me have a vague amount of patience and will at least try, if Linux wants more commercial acceptance (and I am damn sure there are Linux people out there who don't want that. They want to keep their little OS "elite") the library situation has to change, even if it's only so that when you try and install it says "You need X library for this. Incidentally, X needs Y to run, and you don't have that either." A simple little thing like and you know exactly where you stand... Maybe I'll try and install those libraries in Linux, but then again may I'll just say "To hell with it" and not bother... The whole reason I wanted Linux was so I could spend time DOING stuff, and not rebooting. If I'd wanted to spend time downloading file upon file, only to discover that the files need more files to run, then those files need other files, I would have stuck with Windows.

On a sad note, Drood, the 7th level Elf, met a tragic demise on Saturday July 17th in the Dungeons of Doom in the venerable Nethack. He met his end after an altercation with Ms. Gilcwis the Shopkeeper. The tragedy occured when Drood kicked down her shop door, thinking it was just another room. Ms. Gilcwis did not take too kindly to this, and chased Drood until she had him cornered, then she killed him. Drood leaves behind a pet cat, a iron skullcap, a sword, and an elven bow with 22 arrows...