The Linux retards go on and on about how great Ubuntu is and how it is going to wipe out MS, and then when someone complains about how hard it is to make it do anything, they dismiss that person as not being willing to "learn" the OS.
I had linux servers running in my basement for web, ftp, and samba backup for over 8 years and finally shut them all down about 8 months ago. I'm no linux expert, but I learned that "sure you can do good things, but you must have no life what-so-ever to learn it".
A. Flavors and Who's got what?
It's all to typical, hey php 5.0.x is released and some OS WCM software uses some feature and need php5 dual installed with php4. Not only do you need to figure out how to get it installed together (and happy together) but you need to 'NOT' destroy the rest of the web installation (apache2, squirlmail, imap, ssl, mysql and all of it's lovely hooks, and so on). So you search through thousands of thousands of news groups and forum posts to find someone who successfully did it (with the same flavor of linux, and the same packages you want to work together) and hope to the loving GOD almighty that they posted a step by step so that you don't destroy work that you did in the past similar to this because trying to remember ALL of the wonderfully over-complicated packages you had to install to get this to balance out right would be impossible....
B. New Kernal, YEAY now everything is broken again!
Debian released 4.0 late last year, so all 3 of my servers were running 3.1, I downloaded and installed 4.0 on another machine to pull some data from one of my old server linux drives (as to not mess with shutting down the existing servers to install the drive to mount it to pull the data from it, to shut it back down, and hope everything is ok coming back up, in theory sure, but with linux you NEVER just hope things will come back up). So I installed 4.0 and ran through some of my usual online step-by-steps for installing apache2 with php4 and 5 as I was thinking about using this machine as a backup webserver (cause for some reason with linux, I am always scared a server will die, and you cant just boot that hdd on another box because the hduid is different on another box and it fails to boot). So none of the online step-by-steps work because certain things are missing from this installation (or they moved it to a different location) so the usual "spend 4 days doing the step-by-step over and over until it finally works" turns into a 2 week "go over each step and replace the needed file with it's new location, after finding it of course, and then hoping it all works in the end again".
C. You too can learn how to compile an install!
Sure, I can compile my own installs from the source right? I mean all I have to do is figure out what options and plugins I want it configured with and then type in all 500 command line switches, wait the hour and a half for compilation, run the install, and then realize I forgot something.....
Point is, if you have enough free time to learn all the quirks of linux, sure you can do great things! But the rest of the world will pass by your boarded up house and wonder what kind of hermit lives in such a stink infested hole because most likely you haven't left the computer to eat, bathe, or socialize... Linux CAN BE GREAT if it would be just a bit more user friendly. A simple installer is all I ask. Perhaps a package or two that isn't dependent on someone else's open source library that they just updated and broke...
The Apt package system is the best thing that ever happened to linux and they would do well to keep it around.
Bottom line: Sure you can argue that "hey, if you used Ubuntu over Debian, you wouldn't have these issues" however there was a time when Debian was good also. Ubuntu will see it's end soon enough as the world tends to rotate on Linux distros. Once it was Red Hat, then it was Debian, now it's Ubuntu, tomorrow it might be SUSE (/me cringes).
For the love of GOD, look at this list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Linux_distributions
Sure, you have a choice of ANYTHING.... Hell, your little brother could be turning out a distro of his own next week which might have a few thousand users around the world....
And lets talk file systems, whoa!!!! At least with windows I had the FAT32 and NTFS file systems. Windows picks them up automatically. And most linux users (like myself) would argue that Windows SHOULD have a ext3 driver built in. Now I can see why they dont. If the journal has info in it, who knows how that drive was left. Besides how many other file systems are used by the other distros, which one should we pick, and remember that which ever one we pick to be supported by windows probably wont be the distro of choice in the next 2 years and we will hear linux user's bitch some more about how unfriendly we are as windows users because we wont support <insert flavor of the day here> distro.
I give it to Apple, at least they try to have something common across 1. Their different OS distributions and 2. With the most popular OS company in the world (Microsoft). Sure the Mac and Windows users squabble like brother and sister (I think we know which one is which) however at least they don't have to argue with their younger red headed step brother linux who likes to dress in all black and paint his finger nails a different shade of gray every day dreaming of one day over stepping his older siblings as ruler of all however knowing that eventually he will fail and ultimately subside to the fact that his life was merely to stay home and share torrents, do basic firewalling and network address translation. No one really wants you poor linux boy, you just too cumbersome in this ever growing user-friendly world. Hehe, just imagine if you had to do what you do in linux on your cell phone to send a text message, or to install a game, or perhaps on your TV to program the stations. Imagine if you had to do in linux in other areas of your life like working on Cars, planting a garden, and so on. Hell I modded my Xbox a few years back and it was a BREEZE compared to using linux, and IT USES LINUX!!!!!
whew... Yeah, I just pay for web hosting now (they can spend the time to manage it)... I will be putting all 3 of my servers up on ebay very soon, most likely get about 50 bucks each..... Hell even the linux fullon dual PIII 900s will probably go for about 25 bucks. Sad really.....