Moving from Windows, for or against?

[frumpet]

I've heard good things about Ubuntu. So if your looking into Linux I'd possibly give that a try.

It's impossible to escape Windows though. I've just got a Macbook, OS X is fantastic but I still need XP. Thank god for parallels is all I can say!

[Whiternoise]

Are you using Boot Camp, how good is the driver support these days?

[chicken]

when was the last time you or your friend used Linux i installed debian a few weeks ago on a old p4 e-machine and everything even the smartarray 431 worked out of the box and was installed in a couple of hours (was doing a net install) the whole linux world is moving towards driver unification anyway and alot of programs are standardized now

if your are going to be on the Hexus forums think before you spew crap same to you 99flake if it does not work you are doing something wrong

Way to look down on someone just because you don't like their opinion! Sorry but my post was accurate to my experiences with Linux and therefore I have every bit as much right to post about them here as you.

The last time I used Linux was about 3 months ago, and I used it just about every day for a year and a half leading up to that point, so I think I stand in a good enough position to say it's not nearly as good as the fanboys make out. It has been "moving towards driver unification" for years. At the end of the day it's free and they won't ever have the control over the contributors that you get in a single large corporation, or the support should it all go wrong.

It's a good thing for people who like hacking away at their PC, writing programs and playing with other people's contributions but for general PC use I wouldn't recommend it to anyone over Windows.

By the way, the "crap" that I "spewed" was a run down of events that actually happened multiple times to the PC, ok I can't remember the names of the drivers, but this PC was under the command of a person who runs a school-wide Linux network.

I use XP and I have as long as it has been out, it is stable, it runs my games, videos, music, internet as and when I want them. I can use Linux and I have, and I don't see the attraction. My PC does what I want when I want and I don't hit these problems, have to type some obscure text in some file I didn't know about before to change screen res, or anything I encountered in Linux. So my advice to a Windows user was, and still is, stick with it, unless Linux is something you're REALLY keen on to begin with, my bets are you'll be back in Windows again in a couple of weeks.


Edit: oh yeah, fyi if you're interested it was mainly Ubuntu in that time, with Gnome or occasionally KDE. I even gave it a go at work for a while to see if we would consider supporting Linux, and was the only person interested in trying, even had to convince my boss to give me the time to look into it.

[alsenior]

Way to look down on someone just because you don't like their opinion! Sorry but my post was accurate to my experiences with Linux and therefore I have every bit as much right to post about them here as you.

Ok they were your experiences. the way I read it was that you were trying to pass them off as a fact

have to type some obscure text in some file I didn't know about before to change screen res

when was the last time you went to desktop -> preferences -> screen resolution

my bets are you'll be back in Windows again in a couple of weeks.

i type this on a windows machine i also have the Linux box on a separate computer and monitor next to me.but i don't expect you to know that

sure Linux has it's problems but at least it is not brain damaged like windows.yes Microsoft have taken great strides with windows but to me Linux is just better for the jobs i require it to do

[ikonia]

alsenior,

I'll place a bet your using ubuntu as your linux install,

not all distributions can go desktop -> preferences -> screen resolution

Lots of distros have strong/weak points for each user, so for a user to migrate, its has to be acceptable for the user in question.

The fact that you still have a windows machine suggests it can't do everything you want it to do, or you find windows better for some task.

This may seem strange me making plus signs for windows, but the truth is what suites your needs best in the long run, and its judged on an individual basis and skill level for the user.


There seems to have been little dicussion on swapping to mac, possibly because this will require a hardware change too

[0iD]

I've used BSD & Linux almost as long as Windows & use them for different things. I DO object strongly to windows pricing, but as an OS XP works perfectly fine for me, as does SuSE & FreeBSD.
As a die-hard gamer & design engineer the use of windows is unavoidable & prettymuch unproblematical on a day-to-day basis, but for everything else, Linux or BSD does the job nicely. Horses for courses.

/10p worth

[alsenior]

alsenior,

I'll place a bet your using ubuntu as your linux install,

not all distributions can go desktop -> preferences -> screen resolution

im using Debian etch rc2 that path is pretty much standard in gnome now .

there are a few things i can't do on Linux that i can on windows like office macro's and windows only games neither are the fault of Linux developers.

[ikonia]

exactly, and thats the point I'm trying to make.

What if he chooses a distro that doesn't have gnome, what if his hardware has 3rd part drivers, what if his main use is office macros, what if he can't be bothered tinkering to get fussy things like some bluetooth dongles working, or wireless cards with ndis wrapper ?etc etc.

It very much depends on the users wants and needs and abilities/time scales with chosen OS.


Asking people in here "should I change" and people saying "works great for me" or "sucks for me" has no point really, as the guy who said "works great for me" could be alan cox using fully supported hardware, and the guy who said "sucks for me" could be a 10 year old kid on his first computer with all the strange hardware his dad could find, and who wants to play nothing but games.

Its all down to the individual, points like

"no games support"
"specific hardware issues - here is a list of common hardware that has a problem"
"OpenOffice has limited VBA support"
that sort of thing may help the user make his mind up but "linux is dead easy" and "I swapped and it couldn't be better" or "I wouldn't swap if my life depended on it" don't really do anything for that users situation.

[99Flake]

if your are going to be on the Hexus forums think before you spew crap same to you 99flake if it does not work you are doing something wrong

Actually if you read my post more carefully I do add that he is the only person I have seen set it up and therefore due to all the problems he has I feel he maybe to blame! Read before flaming me please.

[zulander]

if there is a brick coming thu the afformentioned window then id move.

I used a couple linux distros and while i was impressed with some, others were a little half baked and awkward. get a spare hard drive and duel boot and see how u get on if after a few weeks u can do everything u want without too much hassle then your in business

[chicken]

when was the last time you went to desktop -> preferences -> screen resolution

I don't think I explained it properly, the options simply weren't there on the menu until you dug up this text file and told it what the Vert/Horiz max rates were of your monitor. The friend involved was keen to point out that this doesn't matter as the information is on the back of every monitor. Every monitor but the one we were using apparently... It's this kind of denial that there was a problem that's perhaps made me a bit skeptical of people's claims how great Linux is.