For some reason, I wonder if there's anyway of getting the workstation to join a domain, and then leave it ? I have the vaguest of memories about issues with XP images when cloned across a company I worked for that required them to join/leave a domain to do something to "set" the networking to make it unique.
Which leads to another question ... there's nothing else on the network that's doing a DHCP job is there ? I know WinXP/NT Server 4 networks could be jammed if another DHCP server popped up from nowhere. Which used to happen a lot (in those days) as salespeople carried NT4 Server laptops and their IT guys never turned off DHCP. So when they connected to our network everything barfed.
I had exactly the same thing when using a Linux newsgroup when reporting an isssue with overspeed on a wired mouse (FFS). It took someone offering to come in remotely and try to fix the problem did all the troll hunters have to eat their words (except being mostly left brainers they didn't of course). ;-)
*Except*, I have seen some devices (repeatedly) take IP addresses from the top end of the DHCP scope (that caused issues) and others from the bottom and as these are two different interfaces, there is no guarantee that there aren't differences between how they work (or don't). ;-)
The Linux community is probably the single biggest thing holding back the wider adoption of Linux. I have a stack of excruciatingly detailed issues posted to the correct forum(s) going back years that are gathering dust.
Then there are the issues I have asked for advice on that I've been told either don't exist, or aren't linux issues. The standout one being a subtle mouse issue that everyone insisted was a hardware fault despite it never happening on the same dual boot machine with the same mouse under Windows. I was mildly amused to get an email in 2017 from a forum posting in 2009 from someone who *still* had the same issue (which was introduced between Dapper and Efty) and pretty much the same lack of belief from the crowd.
Sadly when majority issues demand attemtion from peoples free time, or development is confined to IBM supported hardware, that is always going to be te case.
Buit its not a Linux problem per se.
I had a mobo (that eventually died on me) that would take around about a minute and a half to pass bios tests when a USB webcam was plugged in
Never mind windows or linux, it never got that far.
There were no bios updates beyond that available.
Likewise there are as you say many outstanding issues that take years to get solved. Why for example is the linux mint 19 MATE console window persistently transparent in the menu bar and nowhere else? Its knwon, its reported, but no one has te time to fix what appears to be a compatibility iussue between libraries and the x window syetm.
Likewise Aisle Riot - the suite of solitaire games - has always shown screen corruption when a card is moved off te edge of the window and back. That's 5 years and counting. No one knows who is responsible.
But that is part of the fun. At least you seldom get crashes and lockups, and the fact it is a minority desktop system means its barely worth coding a virus for.
I can show you many issues that never got fixed in windows, too.
Agreed, as seen for an ordinary users POV (eg, just looking for a workable desktop OS solution, free or otherwise).
Shame.
Been there ...
Similarly, mine was because whilst you could slow the mouse in Linux using some CLI shenanigans, if failed when you used the KVMA switch to go between that and XP, W10 or OSX (all those *could* deal with the mouse speed ok, with or without the switch).
Bless em. ;-)
The thing is, if you aren't a full Tux T shirt, Tux bumper sticker, Linux living and breathing geek, you aren't allowed to even suggest that Linux is still (very much) 'under development' and because no one has successfully taken it (and it's community) by the balls (Mark Shuttleworth tried with Ubuntu and it's family of hardware but unfortunately failed) and agree a *generic Linux* that all the devs and hardware manufactures can pins their hats on, it's going to stick where it is with a 5% desktop market userbase. And this is in *spite* of all the opportunities the likes of Microsoft have given them over the years. ;-(
The thing is, it's going to take 'something special' to sway enough people away from Windows (or Apple / OSX to a lesser degree) and you aren't going to do that with something that at best can be a 'poor alternative' [1] to Windows (/OSX). ;-(
It is getting there though, but could get there so much quicker if people stopped forking it all over the place. ;-(
Cheers, T i m
[1] Ubuntu being an 'alternative to and can run alongside Windows' was a Canonical marketing strapline. ;-)
The problem with some perhaps most linux users is they don't like paying form software so the like of MS and adobe aren't really willing to write or produce high end software for that platfom for free and who can blame them. But we do use linux here quite a bit, for labs but not for admin work.
There was a bug in the game of solitaire that was shipped with Win95 (and XP) that resulted in a situation where 2 identical cards were in the stack and you couldn't finish the game. I screenshotted it, and submitted it via our MSDN subscription.
I still maintain the killer Linux app would be a drop-in for Outlook. Mysterious the one application no one in linux land has ever really bothered with.
There are a hell of a lot of corporate desktops that could be replaced with Linux when that never happens ... (they've had 20 years).
I think it can sync to calanders so you can send an email with a date and that will appear in your calander including time.
Perhaps if linux could actually read MS word & excel files without any problems relibely then perhaps corporatations and even universities would go linux mainstream but it's just too crap for such things.
It's totally integrated into Exchange so allows seamless calendar management across large organisations.
Pretty certain Linux can do the exchange-y bits. But there's no desktop equivalent to Outlook to go with Word/Excel/Powerpoint. Most corporate desktops are built on OS+Browser+Outlook+Word+Excel(+Powerpoint). If that could be reliably moved to a Linux distro, you could move a lot of regular users off Microsoft.
There will always be custom applications etc etc. But the less people use it, the easier it should be to port to Linux.
It's no use grumbling to *me* about it. It's how things are.
For myself, I'm creaking along with Evolution. But Outlook, it ain't.
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