The Penguin And I Are Fighting… Again

You might be wondering why I run Linux if it is sometimes a little difficult to deal with? I don’t know, but I suspect it’s like a geek’s medal of honor.

This will be short. I am not of good spirit. I am fighting with the Penguin–my euphemism for Linux.

Last week I attempted to install a little hardware addition to the Ubuntu Linux computer I use as my desktop at work. It didn’t work and I gave up trying!

Trying to get back to where I’d begun I uninstalled the new software I’d added to the machine. Bad move!

Today when the machine wasn’t working quite right I rebooted only to find the Internet was nowhere to be found! I probably had uninstalled the software that controls Internet access. The only way to reinstall is to go on the Internet to get the files.

Oops! no Internet.

My only simple choice is to reinstall the operating system from the ground up.

I backed up my customized files to a pen drive, burned a disk and am in the midst of watching screen-after-screen of Ubuntu promotion as new bits fill up the hard drive. Before I leave work tonight the machine will be up and running again.

You might be wondering why I run Linux if it is sometimes a little difficult to deal with? I don’t know, but I suspect it’s like a geek’s medal of honor.

3 thoughts on “The Penguin And I Are Fighting… Again”

  1. Hi Geoff:
    Know what you mean. I always like a tech challenge. they keep my mind running at peak efficiency. I have a Suse Linux Computer myself and when I feel like it I power the machine up. Stopped using Windows at home about eight years ago.

    Now that’s a challenge even I don’t want to face anymore! My main computer is an Apple iMac 20 in. Extremely happy that I left the Windows world at home at least. Still using it at work but between Suse Linux and Apple at home I’m happy.

    When I feel like I’m getting too complacent w/Apple, I’ll fire up Linux. At least that way I can fool myself into believing I’m still a PC user when at heart I’ve fully embraced the Apple world.

  2. This is another example as to why Linux isn’t mainstream. If tech people have trouble with it what would your average consumer’s experience be?

    1. I see your point, but this was while I was attempting to do something no average user would attempt (to create a wireless AP for my iPhone using some old undocumented USB hardware I had at home). The entire re-installation process took around 75 minutes. I believe 95% of what I had is restored. I don’t know what the other 5% is yet.

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