feel so alone and useless

volospin · Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2002 2:17 pm Post subject: feel so alone and useless

I live in Hong Kong...

here people uses Red Hat (large bunch) or Debian (a bunch)

I choose Gentoo because my friend's recommendation
(half Hong Kong Chinese, half Philippine)

I like it... documentation of how to install.
install software I choose to (emerge when I need)

and a forum like this...

yet... when I ask people who are good at Linux here in HK...
they would say...

You are so weird, using things that is not popular...
you will be alone (at least true in Hong Kong I think)

and when I ask for their help of none Gentoo stuff
(Samba, for example)

They tell me to use SWAT (well okay... emerge xinetd...)
then I can't login SWAT... I know the root password (dah...)
then ask them... and they say... Red Hat works that way...

So...? I always think that Red Hat is evil :twisted:

installing Red Hat will only give you a quick running Linux (maybe)
and doesn't learn as much as from Gentoo.
(well, I have over 5 years of DOS and Windows experience
and installed over 10 computers per year
I know well of partition, DOS commands... GHOST,
partition manager XOSL... then... Linux is the next thing I should
tackle)

well then I learn different file system...
but sometimes, whenl things went wrong...
and nobody nearby to ask...

and somebody tell me that I should understand
the basis of Linux first... then when I say I am newbie...
they say... go buy a book... (dah...)

I don't think Linux needs a book (I think answers are in the Internet)

well... just this and that...
I already got pure-ftpd running... I just RTFM myself...
when people here tell me to use proftpd (better than...) wu-ftpd...

anyway... I wonder if I am wrong or not learning this way...

time will tell...

...

Lawrence (half Taiwanese, half HK Chinese)
_________________
PIII-S 1.4G / 512MB / TUSL2-M / 3C920 x 2 / Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB

perry · Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2002 3:09 pm Post subject:

NONE of my friends use any form of Linux. I mention anything about Linux to them, and they just look at me funny. There's nothing wrong about being different...

guero61 · l33t Joined: 14 Oct 2002 Posts: 811 Location: Behind you

Don't worry about being different. Be happy in the knowledge that you are running a superior, faster, leaner distribution. All my friends, whether Linux or Windows or Mac users, envy my Gentoo installation. They say, "it's so... fast! ...beautiful! ...CLEAN!"

So you're the lone Genoo person in your circle? Methinks you're the only one with your head on straight. RedHat may make some things come together more easily, but in the end, Gentoo will win out. I'd be almost willing to bet that their SWAT is too open -- I could probably break in with little effort. Your Gentoo install, however, is probably more secure by default. It'll take a little work, but Samba should end up working better under Gentoo than RedHat. Everything does.

Don't give in to peer pressure. Stick to what you want to do, and you will be truly happy.[/u]

bleakcabal · Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2002 4:45 pm Post subject:

I am also alone, very alone. When I talk about Linux to my friends ( most of them work as programmers or study Computer Science ) they warn me of the evils of open source communism ! One of them is a software devlopper. Anyway I try not to bring up Linux with them because I know it makes for bitter disputes !

OdinsDream · Veteran Joined: 01 Jun 2002 Posts: 1057

I'm definitely in a small group of people running linux as well. I'm the only person I know who runs only linux all the time, too.

My friend jenn was asking me why I'd install gentoo over windows, I said "well, it's free, and better..." and she claimed it was confusing.

I took 2 minutes to show her how portage worked, letting her emerge fortune-mod-homer and some other things, and she loved it. She especially liked the red countdown when emerge unmerge is called.

People fall in love with linux if it's demonstrated properly, and its features fully explained.

mooman · Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2002 7:30 pm Post subject:

Don't think of yourself as being the only person in your group to use Gentoo.

You just need to realize you're just the first person in your group to use Gentoo.

Yeah, it's a different beast. Yeah, it's not as "hand-holding" as RedHat. But you'll find that after 6 months, you'll be far better at managing and configuring a Linux box (any linux box!) than those other guys...
_________________
Linux user off and on since circa 1995

tj · Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2002 10:57 am Post subject:

relax - you said the answers are on the internet and this is a great forum (and I agree 120%) so why worry?

as perry said none of my friends run linux either - I mailed a few screenies of flux on gentoo (gimp to evolution) to a couple of colleagues and they responded

a) commie b@steward

b) that makes me feel uneasy (the guy's from the usa for heaven's sake)

when people actually sit down in front of it they go nuts

- you can watch movies?

- you listen to music on this?

- yeah but what about anti-virus stuff?

- what you got in the box? p2-400 b*ll*x - yeah kidding right?

- how can I get windows xp to look like that? (answer=uninstall the cowpat on your hd

:lol:

)

walk your own path, build your own gentoo, but don't ever feel lonely coz your friends are computing sheep.

volospin · Posted: Sun Nov 24, 2002 4:19 pm Post subject:

tazsimon · n00b Joined: 03 Dec 2002 Posts: 12

volospin,

don't worry, I am also from HK too, although I use mandrake, and I am also the only one who use linux as my only os. The thing is ppl in HK are afraid or too lazy to learn.

I would say as long as you know what you are doin' it will be fine. For me, different distros are just for your ease. As long as you work fine with it, then it doesn't matter.

kementeus · n00b Joined: 31 Oct 2002 Posts: 30 Location: Guatemala

Gentoo makes you free, I don't know why a lot of people like RedHat (personally I found it the worse thing to configure and control) and stuff like Gentoo the easiest way to learn how Linux works...

Yep... I'm so lonely in my country using something like Gentoo, but I feel free and happy...

Thanks Linus, thanks Gentoo...
_________________
AMD Athlon XP 2200+ 512RAM CMI8739 Eth RTL8139 TNT2 64MB... Everything running really fine under Gentoo 1.4rc1... really fine...

Praxxus · Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2002 6:28 pm Post subject: Rich buttery irony!

That is TOO MUCH! Linux users accusing someone of being too weird and running something that is unpopular!

In truth, you are making your friends feel insecure with your daring, and they hide it by taunting you. ;-)

And once you get Samba up and running, make sure you tell them that SWAT is for Red Hat sissies. :twisted:

solatis · Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2002 7:21 pm Post subject:

Hehe, 3 of my friends use Debian, me and someone else use Gentoo...

It's the classic war... they say "Compiling things is a waste of time" , we say "But you actually SAVE time in the long run" ... guess everyone has preferences...

But we all agree on the fact that RH, Mandrake and Suse sux0r

_________________
Grtz,

Leon Mergen
http://www.solatis.com/

quag7 · Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2002 12:22 am Post subject:

Yes but have you demonstrated for them the crime-fighting kung-fu superpowers that being a Gentoo user affords you?

I've already taken down the corrupt dictatorships of seven third world countries, emerged democracy, and brought Tuxracer to the masses.

You must show them the crime-fighting kung fu superpowers that Red Hat users *wish* their distribution bestowed upon them.

It's quite a thing.
_________________
http://www.dataswamp.net

pilla · Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2002 2:51 am Post subject:

After some time, people will start coming to ask you how to do things... and then you'll miss the days when you was alone

But in the Internet world of nowadays, you will never go alone. You can always post here and you'll see.

gsfgf · Veteran Joined: 08 May 2002 Posts: 1266

metalhedd · Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2002 2:12 am Post subject:

I've tried configuring samba on OpenBSD and couldn't figure it out for the life of me. On gentoo it worked flawlessly after making 2 tiny changes to a config file. gentoo Kicks ass.

ebrostig · Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2002 3:56 am Post subject:

Well, times are a-changin...

Years ago I used a port of Oracle for SCO Unix under Linux using ABI (Application Binary Interface) libraries and I was almost alone. Today Oracle is running natively on Linux and we have the option of choosing between Windows and Linux as desktop on new machines.

Don't be afraid of beeing alone, it's not for long.

Besides, if your friends use a different distro or Gentoo is not important. It's important that they use Linux.

Erik

craig · Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2002 9:15 am Post subject: Gentoo Rocks

Hi

I have been using computers since about 1990 and I had my first PC in 1992 and internet connection in 1993, which I thought was a waste of time at the time! I have been using DOS and Windows from then until 1998 when in 1999 I went to university and was introduced to Unix and especially NETBSD, boy that was confusing. I have a BSc in Computer Science and finished year 1 of my Masters degree.

I have tried other Linux distributions, Debian for about a week but left on my machine for another 6 months and didn't touch after that, Redhat for a while, Mandrake a quick install and then came across SuSE which I have been using for the past 18 months however the performance of the machine was severly lacking so I thought that I should upgrade my machine with new parts.

I spent about 500 USD on it. I put in a new motherboard, disk, ram, PSU, DVD and I will be getting a new mouse in the next couple of days, and an Athlon XP processor early next year when the prices are expected to drop. I then thought what OS am I going to use as I was sick of boring SuSE which didn't expand my mind let alone challenge it. I also didn't like Redhat or Mandrake as they were very similar to SuSE and I didn't want to go back to the complexity of Debian. So a friend of mine, hungarian, suggested Gentoo which he had been using for about 4 months. He helped me installed it about 2 weeks ago but have been having major problems with the kdeaddons package, however everything else was sweet as. I enjoy the challenge and the flexibilty that Gentoo provides.

I guess now that I have real Unix experience at uni for the past 4 and a bit years I feel really comfortable with OSs and that was probably why Debian first shocked me and I didn't find Redhat or Mandrake that exciting but they were confusing.

All that is left to say is why has it taken so long for Gentoo to be invented, IT ROCKS and it is FREE!

Cheers Craig
Little Kiwi Man

aardvark · Guru Joined: 30 Jun 2002 Posts: 576