Between yesterday and today I realized how rusty my ability with Linux has become. While in College, I was actually near the head of my class in Linux, but over the last two days, I have been struggling to install the necessary packages just to get a single web application to run properly.

I have never felt so defeated in my whole life, and even worse, the work I am doing is for a client, and not myself, making it all feel like a waste of time and effort.

Over the last few years, I have become more and more used to Windows Vista and its quirks, as well as OS X on my mac. Everything is fairly easy on those two machines, and installing software doesn’t require a strong understanding of dependencies.

Even my normal Linux experience has been a breeze with tools like Apt-get, Yum and other “quick” install tools now available, but when working on a web server that you didn’t set up yourself and co-locate somewhere, it can almost be like sailing unknown waters.

I have worked hard to get everything to work, but had to give in and contact support for assistance. I wanted them to blow away the operating system and start over after the mess I made, but they seem confident that they can undo the damage that my usage has caused.

What a day…

Originally posted on July 21, 2008 @ 2:33 pm