Now THAT's how you advocate...
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| dinotrac Sep 23, 2007 11:04 AM EDT |
Once again, the Rev shows us how a real Linux advocate operates. Nobody can question DC's devotion to free software, but he doesn't hesitate to point a finger at this glaring problem: wireless in Linux is a bit of a hair-puller. At times, it can seem like a complete crapshoot. There can be no pretense of overtaking Windows on the desktop without fixing problems like this. The good news is this: We're not talking about printers any more (well, maybe we are a little) and we're not talking about an internet that recognizes only Internet Explorer, or desktops that can't handle everyday use for ordinary users. Truth is, wireless access was an esoteric topic until just a few years ago. We have it, and it mostly works if you have the right hardware. So close. Eyes open, kiddies, and don't be afraid to criticize honestly. There's no such thing as a friend who won't tell you the truth. |
| azerthoth Sep 23, 2007 11:30 AM EDT |
Rev, its likely the issue comes from Debian hardware detection and configuration. I cant tell you how many times I have had to go into /etc/network/interfaces and hand hack it into Debian, where PClinuxOS, Sabayon, Gentoo, Ubuntu, etc, have detected and set up everything just fine. All I had to do was supply the drivers, and not even that in some cases. It's one of my two big complaints about Debian in general, and it is not like I'm installing to bleeding edge hardware either. The last time I had to go futzing with it, yesterday, was on a 4 year old laptop running AMD 3000+ 32 bit single with the nvidia chipset and bcm43xx wireless. Not exactly top end stuff there. They really need to borrow back Ubuntu's hardware detection and set up. Still I understand your complaint, but in this it is not a driver issue but rather a distribution issue. |
| tracyanne Sep 23, 2007 1:06 PM EDT |
Quoting:Now THAT's how you advocate... WHile we're being honest advocates. I've downloaded and installed Eclipse for RCP/Plug-in Developers, because the burb under it says "A complete set of tools for developers who want to create Eclipse plug-ins or Rich Client Applications. It includes a complete SDK, developer tools and source code." Also according to the site documentation the RCP/Plug-in package contains "VE - Visual Editor" which "The Visual Editor Project - The Eclipse Visual Editor project is a vendor-neutral, open development platform supplying frameworks for creating GUI builders, and exemplary, extensible tool implementations for Swing/JFC and SWT/RCP." Ah ha, I say, a GUI designer that I can use to design and build desktop GUI applications with. So I download Eclipse for RCP/Plug-in Developers, install it and run it. Go to New search for projects to create a test GUI application......... Nothing, no obvious way to creates a GUI application. It does have a nice glossy, very pretty user interface. So I read the Help files and discover the Welcome page which as [quote] Create a Hello World SWT application Learn how to create a standalone SWT Java application that displays a window to the user. {/quote] I discover that the Visual Editor doesn't work unless I download some more files, so I follow the steps and eventually I have a peice of code that according to the documentation will load and run a simple Hello world application. The process of getting here has been anything but easy, anything but simple, and at no time have I seen an actual Gui designer, or Visual Editor. So I compile, or run the project, and it doesn't work. It doesn't work because the major classes referred to in the code can't be resolved. Eclipse is anything but intuitive, in fact it seems to have been designed to be exactly the opposite of intuitive. No expense seems to have been spared to make it convoluted and obscure. |
| dcparris Sep 23, 2007 8:31 PM EDT |
tracyanne: thanks for corroborating what I had heard from the Windows devs at work. They were using Java and Eclipse for some application, and Eclipse seems - as much as anything else - to have cost GNU/Linux a webhosting account. The guys actually preferred the MS dev kit over Eclipse. And just a couple of years ago, they were crying about how the MS tool practically bullied them into writing their code a certain way. dino: Thanks for the kind words. I really just wonder how I could install Debian if my laptop didn't have a wired ethernet port. If it won't detect the wireless from the installer, then one might find their options limited. Meanwhile, gNewsense-KDE will detect it - seemingly as long as you load KDE first. Then you still have to bring up the WLAN tool from the Control Center. And I ommitted that there were problems with the WEP key. I'm actually back on gNewSense because it's easier to deal with than Debian. I would probably continue my Debian usage everywhere else though. I'm tired of wireless issues and just wanted to get that off my chest! ;-) |
| Steven_Rosenber Sep 25, 2007 2:59 PM EDT |
I have installed Debian with the net install over a wireless connection. It worked because I was using an Orinoco WaveLAN Silver PCMCIA card (802.11b), and support for it has been in the kernel for a long time. |
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