Men are from Mars

A friend is trying to setup a server with Myth TV, so he's taking the plunge into Linux. And he's getting madder and madder by the minute. Took me 3 minutes to download and install Myth TV. And in a Linux install, unless the Kernel changes, nothing EVER has to reboot. So he tells me, he can't find anything he wants, and when he does, he has to compile it, and then he has to install it and he doesn't know where this shit should go- AND EVERYTHING REQUIRES ME TO REBOOT, RANDY!!! Whoa! So ah, what's going on here- clearly I'm not understanding. And it's just like me to snap back at being snapped at, so this is not a good situation, and this is an experienced programmer I'm dealing with. SO WTF???

Well, I've got some hardware problems of my own that have shown up. They crawled into my system on several upgrades recently (which is such a great sales pitch). There is no chatter out there about these being bugs, so it must be unique to me (a misfired script). So, I start downloading the newest versions, and could sworn that I was running a 64 bit version, so that's what I downloaded. I baked my CD, and booted it up, and the 64 was working fine- I'm just not ready to torch the install I use daily, so I don't bother with installing this one, I just add it to the inbox on my desk.

After exchanging some hostile emails with my buddy, I decided to download Fedora 14, and give that a test drive. Which comes in a i686 package but only 32 bit? Ok, I don't care. Things written for bigger bus paths, aren't normally faster to begin with, it's just something to fool to public, mostly! I bake it on to a CD, and give it test drive. It's been a few years since I was on Fedora, and the menus are lot more complex. And the application installer is quite a bit different that Debian or Ubuntu. These are things you forget over time. Anyway, while I like the artwork of Fedora about a x1000 better, it again is not something I'm willing to trash my current install for right away, so in the inbox it goes too.

I'm still extremely puzzled by my friend's frustration with Ubuntu. And what does he mean he can't find anything he wants? The Software Center or Synaptic Package Manager have EVERYTHING ready to download and install, no building, no hassle of knowing where it should go- download, run, enter root password, chugga chugga DONE! Up and running.

So I pop the 64 bit Ubuntu 10.10 back into the CD drive, and reboot. It comes up, so I'm wondering why he said he couldn't even get the Flash player to load into Firefox or Chrome? So I take that as my challenge, put the Flash player in place, even running on a Ram Disk (rather than a hard drive install). And I can't even get it recognized as a plugin that is available? And just like he said, I tried EVERYTHING that was an option from the Adobe website. So then I went to the Firefox website, and looked for plugins. I was baffled too. While I was in Fedora, I managed to install an Open Source one- it didn't work well, but it was there. Couldn't find that either in any of the Ubuntu installers? Hey, I can't even find Myth TV? What's up? Why are there such lame ass limited versions here, compared to what I'm using daily? Something wrong! Then it dawns on me- this is the 64 bit version. It's sooooo new, there isn't any software built for it, is why the installer is so retarded.

So, I go back to Adobe, and get the 64bit version of Flash. It has just the old Netscape style plugin file, in an archive package. No installer program written. Well, I know what to do, I'm just not sure I can do this as a guest on a Ram Disk version of Linux?

So I open a terminal window, and sudo su, hey I'm right there, not password prompt or nothing? I type in nautilus, and the Gnome browser pops up. I go to /tmp and double-click that archive, it opens right up. I tell it to extract into (got to go searching a bit) /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins. I close everything up, and restart Firefox, and goto YouTube, and watch some Jim Gaffigan videos (he so funny).

I did it, and I solved the mystery like Subby Doo. FUCK THE DAMN 64 BIT VERSION, IT AIN'T READY! Download and install the 32 bit version and you'll be fine. My friend on the other hand, he doesn't seem to be talking to me today. Don't worry, I'm just giving him some shit here, our friendship can take it- he's not that mad, and neither am I.

Meanwhile, I confirmed that I don't have a hardware problem with my computer, just a bad script in there somewhere? So I got something out of his misadventure too! (Two more junk Linux CDs, and no desire to upgrade anything).