Hacker News Reader

Comment by PostOnce | Hacker News Reader

Linux will be used by regular people when the manual editing of configuration files is no longer necessary.

That has been unnecessary for a long time. The only time I edit config files is for things that an average user would not use (vim, shell, etc...). Which file do you feel are necessary to edit by hand in Linux ?

-/etc/fstab --> needed to get secondary hard drives to automount during boot

-/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist --> needed to install my wireless card

I'm curious- What advantage is there is to using the external drive on boot, rather than have automounter do it on login?

Also, the Ubuntu Restricted Driver's manager did't handle the card? How unusual. I've had it handle the majority of WiFi cards I've thrown at it. I suppose that's a compatibility issue- If Windows weren't pre-installed on a new PC, people would have to install drivers there, too.

Have you ever used Ubuntu? You never need to edit a configuration file on Ubuntu when used as a typical consumer OS.

According to you. I have tried several different versions of Ubuntu (8.04, 8.10, 9.x) and every time, I have to edit pages of config files. Add repositories, remove repositories, something is wrong with the networking, my usb is being weird, have to change something to allow it to get the proprietary ATI drivers, blah blah blah.

Linux people always come out and say everything is perfect and linux is ready for the desktop. Sit someone down at a linux box who has never used a command line and they will demand a change of OS in a few days or less, simply because you are required to have esoteric knowledge just to make the damned thing usable.

The typical user does not install an operating system. Thus, it would imply a pre-installed Ubuntu with adequately compatible hardware and all your worries disappear.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com