Linux Still Sucks

Back on April 4th and 8th, I commented to my own post "Linux (Fedora 10) Sucks!" that I had ordered and installed CentOS 5.2 on two computers. All went well once I added memory to the old IBM E series 580. Both the Micron and IBM installed CentOS quickly and they both run fine. Last weekend, over the long Memorial Day weekend, I thought I would run Package Updater. The updater appeared to run just fine on the IBM, but the Micron came up an error while resolving dependencies. The error message reads, "Unable to resolve dependencies for some packages selected for installation." Under details it says, "Missing Dependency: /usr/share/magic.mime is needed by package httpd-2.2.3-22.el5.centos.i386 (updates)". Of course when I go to the /usr/share directory, there sits the magic.mime file. Today I Google the "Missing Dependency..." and sure enough a guru has trouble shot the problem and found all you have to do is clean out the Yum database with the command "yum clean all". This seems to have fixed the problem this weekend, but why did the problem exist in the first place?

After I ran the Linux software updater, the Micron wanted to reboot and I told it to go ahead. It came up in a screen resolution of 800x600. You would think no problem, I'll just set the resolution back to 1280x1024 that I had been using before and take advantage of my 19 inch monitor. As I should have expected when I tried resetting the screen resolution, my choices are now 800x600 and 640x480. Now what's up with that? I give up, Linux is never going to mature and will always be nothing more than a playground for the people who want to play there.

This new episode reminds me of the "good old days" back in 1997-98 while running Redhat 5.0 and needing to setup my video card. I had time back then, wanted a Unix box at home and wanted to learn this new thing called Linux. Back in those days if your video card didn't come supported out of the box, you did some rather bizarre calculations and then put the results in one of the configuration files in a very specific order. Then came the Xconfigurator or some such. Been there, done that, grew tired of that. Finally, when the computer I was running Linux on back in 2002 or 2003 burned out the IDE controller trying to load Redhat 9, I decided the heck with it and didn't run Linux until I ran across Fedora Core 6 in a magazine in late 2006. That's when I bought the Micron at a garage sale. This is how I got back in the Linux playground. I was hoping that Linux had matured and all the esoteric mechanization to do the simplest tasks was gone and Linux was maturing. Obviously, it was not to be true.

Looks like the next time Linux costs me money, in either software or hardware, I'll just let it die. Until then these two machines will limp along updating when they can and falling behind when they can't. When they die for whatever reason they will end up in a re-cycling center somewhere.

Just to make it perfectly clear, I am no fan of Microsoft Windows either. Microsoft's careless disregard for how much the hardware you must buy to support their software and not to mention the ridiculous software prices drives me nuts. I've got this XP Pro machine that has managed to corrupt it's NTFS file system. Not sure if this problem is Windows or the Symantec/Norton System Works and their virus called GoBack. Oh well, that's a story for another post.

Then there's this Gateway, Vista 64-bit stuff.

Sounds to me like I am just getting older and less tolerant of the things that don't work like they should, or maybe I am expecting too much. I don't want to keep complaining about Linux, I just want it to work without jumping through hoops and clicking my heels together the right number of times.

What Happened to Gateway Computer?

So what has happened to Gateway computer?

First, a little background. I've never owned a Gateway computer. I've had Compaq, HP, IBM, Dell, Acer, even Packard Bell and a slew of homebuilts, but never a Gateway. Considering I grew up in Iowa, that's sort of strange. I've always heard fairly good things about them other than they tended to use non-standard parts which you had to go to them to replace or upgrade. So far I've not seen this problem.

Last October, in 2008, I bought a brand new Gateway LX6200-01. So this is my first experience with Gateway computer. The computer is awesome and Gateway did a fine job bringing this to market. It has a 750GB Hard disk, 8GB of memory, two really cool external SATA drive trays, and every interface imaginable under slick hidden access panels. I bought it at the local Best Buy. I thought my only problem was that I told the salesman I wanted a non-built in video card, but then found that it had fairly decent ATI HD 3200 (AMD) video. I've been pretty happy with the computer overall. Then I tried to contact the Gateway technical support ...

I bought the computer on October 25, 2008. On October 31 I contacted Gateway support about an issue I was having with the computer recognizing my Hannspree HF229H 22" monitor. Their immediate solution was to use the backup created as part of the initial setup to essentially re-image the machine. Having already installed enough software that I was not willing to start all over, I decided to contact ATI (AMD) and see if they knew how to fix the problem since re-imaging and then booting again would just cause the problem to recur. Like most hardware vendors, ATI suggested completely removing their Catalyst Control Center (CCC) software and installing new drivers. What they suggested fixed the problem with the monitor, however I noticed the screen saver did not work. Eventually I found that after every boot and log in the screen saver delay was reset to 1 minute. Setting the value to 30 minutes each log in seemed to deal with the problem.

In early November 2008, I contacted Gateway Tech support to ask about software for the Fax/modem. Their response was that the operating system they included on their computer didn't support the included Fax hardware. After shaking my head, all I could do was shrug and say to myself "What are these people thinking?".

Since the only less than stellar aspect about the computer, causing the "Windows Experience" to only be 4.0, was the graphics adapter I decided to add a new video card. Not being a high end gamer, but expecting reasonable performance on Micro$oft Flight Simulator FSX, I chose a Sapphire Radeon HD 4650 to minimize the system change. The card has 512MB DDR2 memory and is working great today.

On May 9th I grew tired of the screen saver issue and I was feeling happy that I had cleaned up the other issues mentioned earlier. I contacted Gateway tech support describing the problem [090509-000110]. They informed me that my computer was not registered based on the serial number submitted, said that they would be happy to register it for me if I gave them the information, that my computer was indeed under warranty, and informed me that to set the screen saver I should "right click, choose personalize..., etc.". Since their response was almost a quote of my original Tech support request, I asked whether they even read my original request. I also asked why the message from Gateway, dated October 31, 2008, entitled "Thank you for registering" did not mean I had already registered the computer. By this time, I was suspecting I was dealing with a "Help Desk" that didn't have a clue, or at least didn't care and my response was with a smart ass attitude and I included Google results showing this is a well known issue with their computer, even Answers Microsoft is aware and Windows VistaForums has six pages on the problem. The response I received really shocked me. I was told that obviously the person responding couldn't help me with my problem and they gave me the pay for support number to call to find a solution.

In one breath, Gateway Tech support is telling me that my computer is under warranty and the next that I need to pay to find a solution. Does Gateway still employ any technical types who see they have a problem and find a solution, or have they gone to "don't care zombies" who just collect a paycheck?

Thanks Gateway, you ruined a really promising day and convinced me never to buy another Gateway computer all in the same day! What was this, a lazy and/or stupid employee, or a company's attitude toward their customers? Doesn't matter it was Gateway.

Me, Sprint and SamsClub

About a month ago I decided to replace my Palm Treo 755P because it kept rebooting every morning the first time I tried to use it. That got really old. On April 10, I was in the local Sam's Club and stopped at the phone Kiosk, which I found is run by a Radio Shack company. I left with a BlackBerry Curve 8330 and spent about a week with it. I was not really satisfied with it as a replacement for my Treo 755P so I returned it for a Samsung Instinct S520. I found the Instinct looked really nice, but didn't have any of the applications I used constantly and the news was through the browser rather than a standalone application like on the Treo and BlackBerry. Earlier this week I decided to take the Instinct back and get another BlackBerry. I went back to the Sam's Club and admitted my embarrassment at having to return yet another phone and get another BlackBerry. They said no problem and replaced the phone.

Some of the problems I experienced in this comedic episode were:

1. The Treo thinks of itself as the top dog and will accept Bluetooth address entries from anywhere, but won't share them with another phone.
2. The Sam's Club phone kiosk has no means to transfer your address book, but the Sprint Service Center is willing to do it for you.
3. The Treo had a incredible Address book capability and the Samsung address book was pathetic. Having more than a hundred entries in my address book and finding the Instinct stored them using the first name gave me nothing but grief. Quick, what's the first name of your dentist? You had to scroll through all the names on the touchscreen and not click on one and start a call. There was a tab thingy that allowed you to quickly change the first letter of the first name you were trying to locate, which had minimal usefulness.
   
4. The Instinct touchscreen takes a lot of getting used to. The day after I got it, on a Sunday morning at 6:00AM, I was trying to text my son. Somehow I ended up texting my son, a co-worker I hadn't seen in more than a year, and my wife's 70+ year old aunt in California. Thank God my wife's aunt's phone was a land line and the text message failed at 5:00AM on a Sunday morning. Later I got involved in a confused conversation with my co-worker who didn't know who I was based on my phone number and assumed he was talking to a relative of his.

Had a tooth pulled yesterday, so decided to go home after Sam's Club rather than go to the Sprint Service Center. On the way home I found my tooth was bleeding profusely and I needed to put more gauze on it and lay down to make it eventually slow down. Today it's not bleeding , but I had to drink a pot of coffee at room temperature.

Well I'm about to leave for the Sprint Service Center I'll follow up with how things go there? Still got some tasks and questions about the BlackBerry, such as:

1. Transfer address book
2. Setup email and make sure account is set up correctly for the BlackBerry
3. Ask how to add/remove apps (Doc2Go) using my credit card and not going to phone bill
4. Same w/ Ringtones
5. How to change the Background image
6. How to move apps (MySpace which I don't use and Facebook which I do use).

Well I'm back and the Sprint Service Center came through like a champ. They answered all my questions above. They showed me:

1. Done, quickly. Looks like they managed to transfer all the phone numbers and the email addresses including multiple for one person. The street addresses don't seem to have been transfered.
2. They showed me how to setup my email accounts using sprint.blackberry.com. I had to create a new blackberry account and then I just typed in the credentials for both my prime accounts.
3. Suggested I go to crackberry.com for the downloading and visiting the forums to get answers. They also recommended I visit the sprint downloads site.
   
4. See number 3.
5. See number 3.
6. The answer was easy, you find the app and click Move then use the ball to move it to where you want.

So I'm happy with Sprint and my BlackBerry. Not so with Gateway support as I'll explain in a post soon.