So, it was recently announced that RedHat would no longer be offering support (bug patches etc) for its free releases. This led to our research group debating what we were going to do. The sys admin decided that we could switch over to Debian. Apparantly with no loss of functionality, and it would probably be better. Better my arse!
Since the switch of operating system, nothing fucking works anymore. Oh, the data analysis software works, but anything that involves Java in any way shape or form simply does not work. I can’t use various web applets that made my life easier - which isn’t too bad, I can cope with that. But one particular application in particular, who’s use is pretty damned fucking vital to me right now simply will not work. Its all fucking broken, and I don’t know how to fix it, and our sys admin, who does know how to fix it, won’t be in whilst Monday.
All I can say right now is aaaarrrrrrgh!!! Yes, I’m fustrated, yes I’m pissed off, yes, I’m being pulled in three different directions by my advisor, my 2nd advisor, and my collaborator. I don’t have the time to do the things I’d like to do on my research, because I’m so damned tied up having to do the things everyone else would like me to do on my research first.
The OS being changed is really the last straw at the moment - all the functionallity I’d managed to incorporate has been lost, and I’m just so fustrated that whilst I do understand what’s going wrong with things, I don’t have the power to fix it. Ah well, come Monday morning, I’ll go and look sweet and innocent at our sys admin, and maybe he’ll stop everything being so damned broken.
But until then, aaarrrgh! And damn you Debian! Damn you to the deepest darkest corner of OS oblivion.
Er, because that would involve a lot of expense. Money which the department simply does not have. I would rather the group kept the approx £150 per client machine and £400 per server that would be needed to pay for RedHat, for other purposes. Like being able to send people to conferences and meetings and summer schools that are pretty damned vital to doing good research.
Don’t get me wrong - I loved RedHat, but the problems with Debian are correctable; I just don’t have the root priviledges required to correct them. I would rather have the Group be able to send me on conferences than having to pay for RedHat.
Did you guys even evaluate Fedora? I’ve been on a smooth upgrade path all the way from 6.2, and Fedora works, for me at least, as well as Red Hat ever did, including Java. Better perhaps, since more effort is being put into the end user polish.
All well and good suggestions, but guess what? I’m a grad student. I have no fucking say whatsoever in what OS we use - none at all. We’re fucking stuck with Debian now until we make the powers that be realise what a fucking piece of shit Debian actually is.
It looks to me like the sysadmin simply forgot to install java properly. There’s no real difference between Red Hat and Deb from your perspective, after all, it’s all in the packages you put on it. Talk to the bugger yet? Focus on the problem, not on the OS. The OS has little to do with the issue, it’s the package.
Bwahahahahahahaha!!! Hmmm… Upgrading my arse, interesting concept. Do you mean I can get a smaller one? Or a more perky one? How much will it cost? Will I get the legs to go with a smaller perkier arse as well?
E-Sabbath, I know its not really the OS, but rather the fact that some packages haven’t been installed properly. I’m just pissed off that I can’t fix it. Were this my own computer, there really wouldn’t be a problem right now! And seeing as its the weekend, talking to our sys admin will have to wait till Monday. Unfortunately, there’s plenty to keep me at work till then.
So… you’re pitting Debian because you can’t get java to work on your browser? Darlin’, after a fresh install of ANY Linux distro, Java would probably be broken if the admin didn’t bother to re-install it. I’ve yet to see one where Java was installed by default. (Someone feel free to prove me wrong–I’d like to know)
And because you’re on Debian now, it’ll be easier to install Java than it was under RedHat. Apt-get, Debian’s package manager, automatically grabs any dependencies that that package needs. RPM will just sit there and wave its flippers like a thalidomide baby until you hunt down and install the packages it needs.
Now, if your problem is just a browser plugin… I’ll just go ahead and assume you tried to install the plugin. I don’t like to assume someone’s a 'tard until they prove otherwise.
I should be so lucky. Nope, not browser plugins - those I’ve managed to hack. No, its the fairly vital JObserve program, which allows me to create Observe files for the VLA, that’s totally foobared.
Oh, and thanks for assuming I’m a clueless 'tard. Of course I know nothing about the innards of a computer or any sort of operating system whatsoever, I’m just a clueless girl :rolleyes:
Read that again. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt. I don’t even like to flame in the Pit unless someone really, really needs it. I apologize if my post was ambiguous. (And I swear I didn’t know you were female when I said “Darlin’”. It was late, and I was half-drunk. It seemed like it fit.)
I went ahead and assumed you tried to work with the plugin. Your problem is more related to the person who holds the root password than the OS itself-- if the admin knew that it was critical to have Java up and running, the admin shoulda done it before leaving.
Did I just apologize in the Pit? Damnation.
Oh. Right - it sounded like a flame. But that’s cause I was stressed. Its ok, no offence taken!
Yeah, well, the admin probably didn’t know that it was critical - its hardly critical when only one person out of the group is going to be seriously inconvenienced now is it?
I think you did. In fact, this entire Pit thread is almost reasonable. Bloody hell.
It seems counterintuitive in an OS-bitch thread, but I guess it’s not that extraordinary when it’s a *nix v. *nix sort of deal. When you actually know the guts, you’re less likely to react viscerally. If that makes any sense.
