Linux!Go

I've installed Ubuntu (Breezy Badger) on my hard drive and it rocks. I can't use B3D on it, without WINE (but there will still be DX7 issues), so I'm keeping the Windows partition. Besides not being able to use my recording hardware, it's a great system. Someone just needs to write some M-Audio drivers for Linux.

Go Linux!

Yep, I use and love Ubuntu over here, too.

One thing I really like about just about any Linux variant is how it's possible to do a major upgrade such as from Breezy to Dapper at the same time as installing an alternative KDE desktop, and only needing to restart the computer once.

My only problem with Ubuntu so far is very rough compatibility with my wireless card.
I got it working once, but then I ended up overfilling my hard drive in a mad package downloading frenzy, forcing me to reinstall (since I wanted to repartition for a bigger drive and somehow screwed it up).
It's Linux's fault, though. It's ASUS's fault for only supporting Windows. (And my attempts to get their tech support people to help me failed, to say the least).

With Dapper, it refuses to work for me at all... I guess I could just keep trying like I did before, and it would eventually work with some magic combination.

Tried NDISWrapper?

I find Linux to be incredibly useless as a desktop system due largely in part to the lack of software written for normal people.

Take note of this, folks: when designing software, you should not design it for programmers unless your target audience is programmers. Most Linux software is designed for programmers when its target audience should not be programmers.

For the sake of it, here are a few work-safe quotes I find funny, too.

http://bash.org/?152037
http://bash.org/?96164
http://bash.org/?3163
http://bash.org/?419733
http://bash.org/?540211
http://bash.org/?112807
http://bash.org/?4395

Funnies ^_^

Pffffff, Noel.....
Linux. Useless. Same sentence. Ha!

P.S. - Your skin doesn't have round corners in Opera 9.

Shut up, duck -_-

And no duh, it's a Mozilla-specific feature.

Hmmm a few months ago i tried to run linux on an old computer just to be able to compile for blitzmax and i must say that it was still simply not working for me. I tried different distributions (suse, knoppix, kanotix, ubuntu) and only knoppix was able to detect all my hardware properly so that i could connect to the internet in order to download hardware accellerated drivers and so on...sadly this was only a boot from cd live distribution. Well, maybe one day this will work without any headaches...even for just a user...

This is somehow dissapointing as i still remember those days when i was working on my diploma thesis with a bunch of machines nicely connected to each other. A sun for editing, a linux-x86 machine with samba for storage and another one for execution - tschagga worked perfectly together from A-Z...


Regards,

taumel

I dislike linux too, it has a place in servers, but lacks software, and what industry software it does have isn't supported by the developer.

It has a long way to go to catch up with mac even, as a decent general purpose desktop computer, and thats even before you start looking at games.

Says who? Surely it's up to the authors of said software to define their target audience, not you?

Linux does not make as big a deal of supporting legacy (aka. obsolete and/or broken) software as Windows does. However, in order to compile BlitzMAX you don't need all kinds of drivers. You can do that just fine from the commandline (even over ssh).

I wish people would stop saying rediculous things like "I dislike Linux because it's not Windows" or "I dislike Linux because it's not MacOSX". Linux isn't trying to be Windows or MacOSX, okay? Linux is about choice, if you don't like it, nobodies is forcing you to use it. I really don't understand where this irrational fear that Linux is taking over the world is comming from.

Now windows on the other hand...

I don't know where you get the idea that there's an irrational fear that Linux is taking over the world. Anyone who gets an idea like that clearly hasn't noticed the control Windows and MacOS X have.


Who said that? That said, Linux probably should try to be like them considering how much more successful they have been. For example, they could employ snappy commercials that make fun of the competition without explicitly saying so. They'd certainly beat that crappy commercial I saw a while back with some bald kid. Profundity for profundity's sake doesn't exactly sit well with me.


Says me. There's a reason I said 'should,' so as to avoid stating that they are obligated to make their target audience someone in specific. Now if I had said 'must,' 'are required to,' etc. then maybe you would be standing on firm ground picking at this.

I think that linux should most definately try and be more like OSX and Windows, establish some standards that would encourage support from publishers and developers. An OS is only as good as the software people can run on it. That's where Linux fails, and thats what has to be addressed before there is any chance of it taking over the world.

I think the great thing about Linux is that it's not standard. There are less viruses developed for it, and there are wonderful communities of people who know what they're doing out there. If you ask a question about Windows on a forum, you're likely to get lots of answers from people who have no clue what they're talking about.

That's more likely because, unlike Windows users, Linux/MacOS X users tend to obsess over their OS. Seriously, they really do.

It's like people who drive hybrid cars, they never shut up about it.

Because, for someone speaking from (presumably) a position of control, you guys (aka. not just you) sure are defensive about it.

Neither MacOS or Windows establish standards. They establish proriety lock-in formats, like QuickTime, Windows Media, Word Document, and that format iTunes uses. 3rd party organizations define standards (like ISO, IEEE, W3C and the OpenGL ARB) and high end Linux products are hands down the most interoperable anywhere.

Ever heard of the Linux Standards Base?

Seriously. People who think that Linux doesn't have standards or are in compliance to them, are the same kind of people who think Macs only have one mouse button. There is no ammount of reasoning or factual statements that will change their minds.

Well I suppose if one was to obsess over an OS, it would be better to be obsessive over their own OS, rather than misconceptions of other peoples OSes.

It's like people who haven't got an Aston Martin, they never shut up about it.

I think what I meant to say was that it wasn't as popular as Windows. That would fit in with the follow sentences I wrote better. I suppose it has standards. I've been brainwashed to think that things like WMP, QuickTime, .doc are standards, after using Windows for so long.

If you need to go to the evil side, you can always run Office through WINE. Otherwise, OOo all the way! w00t!

Just FYI it wasn't directed at you, but rather at people in general who express that attitude.

Personally I think not being as popular as Windows is a big advantage, and not just because we have less to worry about in the virus/exploit department.

You may not have to worry about viruses as much with Linux but you sure are gonna find it hard to get hold of mainstream commercial software.

I do agree that most Linuxophiles do obsess about it way too much. I don't spend a second thought thinking about my OS most of the time because it just does what I want. Most truly useful thinigs are this way as well, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about how my car works because it just does.

Darkheart

Being a normal user I can't get many software I want on Linux, but I did built a RedHat server box for web things.

linux is cheap, and linux is crap. nuff said. /sniff

Negatory.

Just because something is cheap doesn't mean that it's bad. Who doesn't like free stuff?

I think Linux is great to have, since I can install it on the same PC that runs Windows.

I am dual-booting both computers here with Ubuntu and Windows.

Linux may lack some mainstream software (some of which is made up for by WINE or other Windows emulators), but there is a fantastic library of software that does everything I need it to do with the exception of games.
There's OpenOffice (which I am beginning to prefer over MS Office, since, in my opinion, its interface makes me feel more in control), various 3d modelling programs, GIMP (and Photoshop via WINE, I believe?)...

Even BlitzMax, which just about accounts for any lost fun :P


Anyway, I don't see the lack of compatibility in Windows software to be a problem. If I want to play games or do Windows stuff, I boot into Windows.
If I want to access multiple partitions on a removable storage device (a task possible even with DSLinux), I use Linux.

Ubuntu is coming closer and closer to being my productivity OS due to:
-Its lack of easy compatibility with time wasting games (though it's worth noting that Robots is way more fun than whatever it is you're playing).
-Its very easily customizable interface which I can have giving me easy access to the things that I want in the way that I want without that ugly third-party feel (Windows struggles with this).
-Very strict file management which means that stuff doesn't go missing and folders don't get filled with files from applications that should be written somewhere else.
-Near inability to screw anything up unless running under root. (Clearly a nice feature, since the Windows Vista is doing that, too... finally).

Having used many many OSs over the last 10 years, including really esoteric and strange ones. I realized that all OS's do too much.

The OS should just opperate the system. In other words, do what it is supposed to do. Make sure everything works, and provide an interface between hardware and software.

It doesn't need to do all this other junk.

As far as .doc and quicktime, these aren't OS elements. Yes, they were created by companies that make OSs, but they aren't design with being part of the OS. Otherwise, you wouldn't have word on the Mac and Quicktime on windows.

In reality, what the OS does is meaningless, they all do what they need to do, and they all require the people who make software and hardware to support them.

They all can be exploited, and they all can be unstable when used poorly.

when you pick an OS, you pick it for personal reasons.

And they are ALL legit reasons.

Lots of windows people picked it cause they are lazy, know nothing about computers, and just bought the cheapest thing they could. And that is legit. They didn't want to learn about computers, they didn't want to pay a lot, and they just wanted to use something they hear about a lot.

Others pick linux, because they like the sense of community, they feeling like they are doing something on the edge of normal... something geeky. Others use it for other reasons.

There is no bad reason to pick your OS, and it is ok to decide the OS wasn't right for you. And it is fine to use more than one.

I like to mess with BeOS in my spare time.

The point is, different OSs offer different things. Windows offers a large user base, low priced software and wider availability of software, mac offers a smooth slick look both hardware wise and software wise and an increase in stability and much less viruss. Linux offers a great personal community, with an even more stable, if also more finnicky system. Point is. There is no point in arguments over what is better.

Its like saying.. What is better? White Bread, Rice, or Tortillas. ... Obviously, it depends on who you are, where you live, and what you like.

What software are you referring to specifically? At a guess, I would say that the most commonly used software by people who are not developers would be:

- Web browser

Firefox and Konqueror are both excellent web browsers. It very easy to migrate from Internet Explorer to firefox in particular. Everyone in my family managed the transition quite happily.

- Email

Linux alternatives to Outlook include Evolution , Thunderbird and Kmail. I couldn't make any direct comparisons here as I don't use email software on Windows.

- Chat

Gaim and Kopete both support the widely used MSN network. If you don't mind a slightly more bland interface than the MSN client, they compare very well with the Windows alternatives.

- Music Player

Rhthymbox and amarok aren't as pretty as Winamp or Windows Media Player, but from the point of view of actually playing music and browsing a collection of music, they are extremely good. Rhythmbox will be very familiar for anyone who has used iTunes. Enabling the use of "normal" audio formats like MP3,WMA and AAC is clearly much less straightforward than under Windows though.

- Office software (OpenOffice)

OpenOffice is the best known alternative to Microsoft Office, but the GNOME Office suite (AbiWord , Gnumeric et. al) are also extremely good drop-in replacements. OpenOffice is somewhat slow to load under Linux if you don't use the quickstarter, but I find it less frustrating to work with in use than Word and Excel.

- Games

This, I grant you, is a problem. Personally I decided a while back to stick to consoles for gaming (I have a DS, a Cube and a PS2). I think the Ubuntu distro I use could ship some better games with it though.



Software is written to fulfil a need. Since a high proportion of Linux users are developers, it is hardly surprising that so many development-related tools exist. Having said that, I have provided a list of software above which caters very well to the needs of non-developers.



I think there is a sort of "comfort feeling" from knowing that you are using mainstream software. I have found it difficult in the past to persuade friends to try free software instead of downloading a pirated copy of Microsoft's latest and greatest off a p2p network. At this junction I should mention that I am a student, and money can be a little tight for some at times, so they make ideal candidates for free / open software.

Computers with windows, cost less than computers with other OSs or no OS... thanks to MS.

so it is still cheaper to get a junk system with XP and 'basic' software... outlook express, excel, word, and quicken.... thats what most people want. That is what the majority of computer owners use their computers for.

And that is legit. Computers do these jobs well.