“Shortly after I lost the ALT-F-S feature in Microsoft Word last fall, I made a New Year’s resolution to try out the Linux operating system. You read right: The keyboard “save” function in Word just went away one day. I tried reinstalling Word with Office, but nothing changed. Just chalk it up to another of those famously mysterious Windows “glitches.”‘ Read the article at SeattleTimes.
How does Linux Stack Up Against Windows XP?
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Finally someone else reports some of the strange behaviors in Microsoft products that I suffer all the time. I’m so sick of “It’s just you Jace,” or “I’ve never had that problem.”
Take that “mysterious Windows glitch” and multiply it by about 200 and you have my daily experience with Windows and MS products.
[breathes a deep sigh]
I never laughed so loud
))
He don’t know about ‘auto-hide-not-used-menu-items’ feature in MS products
)))
Buwhahahahaha!
I still think its weird of RedHat not to include any decent media players..
The article is accurate in the sense that although Linux installation is simple and fast nowadays, the troubles crop-up when you need to install extra-hardware or software AFTER the system has been set up. KDE and Gnome simply provide 0 (zero, nada, null) way of installing and configuring hardware devices. On top of that, there’s still no real and clean standard on Linux for installing and uninstalling applications (and the bazillion of libs required)
I think the author meant MP3 playback which isn’t present due to patents. Too bad Redhat don’t provide a dummy plugin that tells you where to get it (xmms.org)
His camera would probably have worked had he used gphoto2, but I have no idea if that’s installed by Redhat or not (and how would he know?).
Well, Redhat are targetting the corp desktop so this is understandable. Maybe at some point they’ll smarten up the multimedia and digital devices side of things.
On software installation, tell us something we don’t know. I’d better get back to work
I’m not sure that you could call the article a complete review but it was an interesting story about his experience making a quick OS transition. You can’t blame the guy for being frustrated. It can be tricky for someone transferring data that doesn’t realize linux can read fat32 floppys. But email works too
Why do you have to change your whole operating system when your word processor fails? Just install StarOffice or SmartSuite, no need to do throw away everything.
I think one key point is pointed out when the author says …
When I messaged Minolta customer service, I was told Minolta does not support Linux.
When you decide to take the plunge to Linux, it’s pretty much a given that you’re going to lose a lot of tech support from hardware vendors.
However, there’s always the HowTos and Google, so I guess if you’ve got enough patience to search (most people don’t), you might be able to get by.
As for his crashes/lock-ups/etc, in the case of either OS, I think it’s pretty much to be expected when you go out and buy the cheapest hardware you can find. If I were to install Win2k/WinXP on top of decent hardware and install your needed apps, I guarantee you they would not crash/lock up after I got done!! I set up Win2k for one person nearly 2 years ago and it still works great. And I’m sure the same thing could be done with Linux as well.
“Alexandr Kovalenko”:
He don’t know about ‘auto-hide-not-used-menu-items’ feature in MS products
)))
Article:
[…] lost the ALT-F-S feature […]. You read right: The keyboard “save” function in Word just went away one day.
Since when is a menu-item the same as a keyboard-shortcut?
ALT, F, S brings up the menu.
CTRL+S is the actual shortcut.
I appreciate the author’s honesty and frankness of an (average?) Windows user taking the plunge. I applaud Red Hat’s efforts to make the transition as smooth and easy as possible. I think this article underscores those efforts and demonstrates that Linux *is* ready for the desktop. I do have a slight gripe, mainly this statement: “[OSX] is built like Linux on a Unix base.” Not a very accurate description. But at least he mentions the Mac as a viable alternative to the PC world.
“I think one key point is pointed out when the author says …
When I messaged Minolta customer service, I was told Minolta does not support Linux.
When you decide to take the plunge to Linux, it’s pretty much a given that you’re going to lose a lot of tech
support from hardware vendors. ”
The more people call Minolta etc asking for support, the better the
chance that they will decide to offer it.
It would involve hiring a Linux expert, so unless there is a large
number of users it isn’t worth their while.
>>> I never laughed so loud
))
>>> He don’t know about ‘auto-hide-not-used-menu-items’ feature in MS products
)))
At work, this shitty function is the first thing I turn off everytime support reinstalls Windows for me (yes, this happens on a regular basis).
I think, MPlayer and Xine are one of the best video player out there, which they support so many different codecs that I have seen. I guess, if he finds about MPlayer, then he will change the some comments in this article. 🙂
//When I messaged Minolta customer service, I was told Minolta does not support Linux//
Really? Imagine that. A manufacturer doesn’t support a free OS, that has no particular backing from any single corporation.
Hmmm…actually, that makes a hell of a lot of sense.
Penguinistas. Sheesh.
Shrivel up and die, like Mandrake did.
Just a comment about media players for linux. I have always used xine to play mpg, avi, asf plus others.. Go get the rpms at xinehq.de – install command rpm -Uvh rpmFile.rpm rpmFile2.rpm
Also search for a package containing windows codecs if you ever need those..
This was a decent article. It underscores the main reason Linux is still so difficult for users to switch to. Software/hardware installation is key. Even if the OS is now easy to install, later add-ons should not force you to jump through hoops to maybe get them to work.
I believe the cheap hardware XP was installed on may be the reason he has so many Windows glitches. I built a pc from scratch, and loaded XP on it. The XP from scratch took maybe an hour before I had everything up and running. This system has been very stable.
As far as the digital camera issue, does Linux have some compatible media card reader drivers? Rather than offloading straight from the camera, maybe a CF reader would work better in Linux. (I’m not that knowledgeable about everything that works with Linux).
It still boils down to whatever works for the particular individual.
No comparison
Linux mount’s the filesystem the camera uses so you can just copy stuff betwen them
The reason OS X works so well with its hardware is that it works only on that hardware. Apple it the only machine it works on. Even at that OS X only has to deal with moderately hi-end hardware at that. Given these rules Linux would work perfect every time also.
The challenge is to make Linux work with everything we can throw at it. This is also a moving target as new hardware is being designed all the time. Add to this companies like Lexmark who give no help at all on their “Win-printers” and you begin to understand what the people that build the Linux distros manage to do. This is even more amazing when you see how much trouble Windows has in light of the fact that many hardware companies go out their way to make every thing work with Windows.
At this state in the game it’s not fair to isolate Linux to the RedHat distrobution alone. In fact, I think for the windows power user (yes, you can laugh), SuSE 8.1 is a much better choice. YaST2 is great for all sorts of configuring issues, and provides a downloading system that’s vaguely comparable (ahem, 3 times more complicated and much less complete – but it’s there and it works well) to debian’s apt-get, in an interface. I also think that people switching should be treated to decent implementations of both KDE and gnome. RedHat is a gnome box. Gnome looks and works great in RedHat. SuSE 8.1 is a KDE box. KDE looks great in SuSE.
All these complications though. How is anybody supposed to know what flavor of linux is right for them?
And I have mixed feelings. RedHat is a great distrobution, but I wouldn’t use it. If RedHat was all there was, I’d go back to windows. I feel trapped in RedHat, and I don’t really know why.
And if there was just SuSE, I’m sure a hell of a lot of people would switch to some other alternate os (Perhaps a flavour of BSD or make the real jump to the Mac).
Linux is, and always has been to me, about choice and customizability. It’s also been about destroying a monopoly, both microsofts, and any monopoly it may itself create – by way of having many distrobutions.
That’s what it is to me. It’s about having a choice. Windows advocates: go ahead and use Windows, I don’t mind at all. I prefer linux, and more specifically, at the moment, SuSE – though I’m thinking about trying out Mandrake. I like choice, that’s just what I like.
Linux Advocates: I love SuSE 8.1. I love KDE. I don’t like gnome much, despite that it’s a hell of a lot prettier imho and has some great features. I just like KDE better. For those of you who like other distrobutions and interfaces, GREAT! Point is we all found something in linux that works well for us. Period.
I just think if the guy was serious about getting into linux, or at the very least reviewing it, he should have explored a few of the many choices you have at the front door, not just one. After all ‘Linux’ is just the kernel;)
RE: Windows VS Linux [Nickolas James]
No comparison
Yes, Linux is better :]
[LEFTTURN] I believe the cheap hardware XP was installed on may be the reason he has so many Windows glitches. I built a pc from scratch, and loaded XP on it. The XP from scratch took maybe an hour before I had everything up and running. This system has been very stable.
What? one hour?
Try LINDOWS it takes 10 minutes to install :]
The boot up is very fast also :]
If you don’t belive it, try it…
Did you know:
It takes one hour to install XP and ten minutes to install Lindows? :]
Well said IMHO.
I use several distros on a daily basis. RedHat is one of them.
I like it you might not but that was the point of your post. and I couldn’t agree more with your points.
As for the article, I thought is was fair, and honest without standing to far on any side of the OS wars.
My experiances have been about the same. Windows crashes at the drop of a feather(XP is a little better, but not much). Linux initially install well and runs well once it gets going, but post installation software install is a pain. My preffered method of software installation on Linux is ./configure, make, make install. My final conclusion was about the same, and I love my iMac.
My preffered method of software installation on Linux is ./configure, make, make install
And how about uninstallation?
I know you can use makefiles to uninstall but then you have to leave all those src dirs on the system and those can take up a LOT of space.
>> And how about uninstallation?
Use CheckInstall: http://proyectos.glo.org.mx/checkinstall/
A must have for every Linux system
Really? Imagine that. A manufacturer doesn’t support a free OS
Yeah. Myself and many other Linux users dream of the day that hardware vendors support Linux. We’re currently stuck with support from vendors such as nVidia, Matrox, ATI, Creative, Epson, Hewlett Packard, AMD, Intel, Via, SiS, Sony, 3Com, Logitech and Kodak.
that has no particular backing from any single corporation.
Thats right. One day, just you wait! Maybe we’ll see vendor backing and billion dollar support from companies such as Sun, IBM, Hewlett Packard (Sheesh! Them again!), Sharp, Intel, Sony and all those corporations. I doubt we’ll see support from a single corporation though. Darn, that just breaks my heart.
I’m having trouble understanding this part of the article:
[/i](…) while I was testing Linux, I had rotten luck with PC media players: Windows Media Player refused to load programs off a CD, and RealPlayer for Windows crashed several times, locking up my PC and forcing reboots.[/i]
English isn’t my first language 🙁 , i’m portuguese, so what does he mean when he says he was testing linux and he wanted windows media player to “load programms”????
The thing about x86 hardware is that there are so many configurations out there and everybodies experience is unique. I recently put together my own machine and will say that in my personal experience running Windows XP I have had virutally NO problems (never seen a Blue Screen of Death and have never had to reboot because an application crashed). Personally I’m rooting for Linux but I have to say that overall Windows XP is a solid operating system and after using it on several different systems with different configurations that it is a much better Operating System than previous versions of Windows.
Hug0:
(…) while I was testing Linux, I had rotten luck with PC media players: Windows Media Player refused to load programs off a CD, and RealPlayer for Windows crashed several times, locking up my PC and forcing reboots.
I think a bug in the article… hehe :]
WMP and Real Player run in Linux using the “WINE” (emulator)
Tradution to Portuguese:
“Eu penso que é um “erro” no artigo…” :]
“WMP e Real Player correm em Linux usando o emulador “WINE””
Did you use w|ndows or linux?
The question in other way:
Are you a newbie or an expert? :]
Note: W|ndows XP is a W|n98 with a SKIN and some features :]
WMP don’t run programs…
run tracks, files, etc…
Thanks
Obrigado
I have used Win 2k for the past 18 months or so and have had exactly zero system crashes (individual apps failures are common but never bring down the system).Installtion time (4-5 hours with all the apps)is much slower than a linux distro. However 5 hours setup is trivial compared to the 4000-5000 reliable hours I’ve got from the system. Linux takes less than an hour to install and many hours to download and configure apps, mime types etc.
You can buy an ultra reliable inexpensive PCs if you use a decent white box builder who uses quality parts.
An OEM XP license will cost you a few cents a day spread over 2-3 years. There is no reason why you can’t fill your XP machine with open source/freeware if you choose not to pay for commercial apps.
There are two linux on the desktop style articles. Either it is not ready at all sucks and Windows shall rule style articles or the ever-present it is almost ready posed to be the greatest thing in the universe style articles.
This one actually pointed out one person’s problems and what she thought the shortcomings of Redhat linux. Very good. Multimedia, the lack of dependency fixing on the fly (apt style) and the lack of hardware support are all real issues.
If you really does not like the Windows way of things, there are two options:
1. Do the research and do a lot of postinstall work and use linux realizing every minute you do that you are still using an alternative OS no matter what some pundits would lead you to believe. This is the best choice for people who do not like Windows and they are open to new ways of doing things and they like to tinker working on their box for a week before they get everything just like they want it. Also it might be the only option for those on a budget.
2. Bite the bullet, spend the extra cash and buy a mac realizing every minute you are at the mercy of one company for both your OS and machine. It will work out of the box and is probably the best for a novice with no money issues.
If you like Windows, fine stay with it. The two choices I list are only for those who do not like Windows.
On top of that, there’s still no real and clean standard on Linux for installing and uninstalling applications (and the bazillion of libs required)
What do you mean? There is a standard installer that works across all distributions of Linux: ./configure – make – make install.
WinXP is based on the NT kernel, not DOS as per Win9x. I’ve seen this XP==98++ assertion several times recently (in these fora), and it is erroneous.
WRT to the installer question: an OS-supported application management system, including support for remote installs and updates is a prerequisite for a corporate desktop, and this is something that the major players should get together and standardize on, if Linux is going to make inroads into that market.
What do you mean? There is a standard installer that works across all distributions of Linux: ./configure – make – make install.
I think what he meant was a standard that actually works more times than it fails.
WinXP is NOT 98 with a [different] skin
No, more like Win2k with a [different] skin
I CAN’T PLAY POOL ON YAHOO WITH lINUX!
Huh? It may take longer and might not be worth the hassle but ./configure make make install works for me even sometimes when nothing else will. Then again I do software configuration management in a unix environment. :->
Seriously rpm with apt4rpm and synaptic make a decent solution but there is a myth out there about Dependency Hell. It is not the rpm system’s fault. It has everything to do with the way the packages are put together.
I live on linux at home and at work and with apt4rpm it really is not an issue for me. However, things could be a lot simplier. Redhat’s package management system needs to have an apt backend for dependency resolution.
Still, that is not even the biggest issue. The real issue is the insane practice of splitting an application or a library group into multiple different packages. I am of the opinion there should when at all possible one rpm.
Think of the much blasted gstreamer. On freshrpms there is one gstreamer 0.42 release, but the gstreamer folks have a repository with like nearly 10 packages. If you split up gnomeprint into gnomeprint, gnomeprintui, libgnomeprint and libgnomeprintui you are going to have more dependency issues than when you put them all together as the same version.
it’s just better. not cheaper, not the same price. BETTER
what am I doing wrong, I never have to reinstall windows nor does it ever crash, and I use it all the time..?
You could take a cue from the Linux pundets and say that anyone who can’t get a Windows box up and running decently are simply too stupid to understand Windows, but of course *I* would personally never say that
It’s really not hard to install the JVM under linux. I used Yahoo Chat and played Literati under Mandrake 9 no problem after installing it.
//We’re currently stuck with support from vendors such as nVidia, Matrox, ATI, Creative, Epson, Hewlett Packard, AMD, Intel, Via, SiS, Sony, 3Com, Logitech and Kodak. //
Oooh .. you came up with 13. Now, do you really want me to post the 100s of companies that _DON’T_ support Linux?
// Sun, IBM, Hewlett Packard (Sheesh! Them again!), Sharp, Intel, Sony //
Sun …. please .. you’ve *GOT* to be joking. Like they’re not in it for a single purpose. You really think they’re any better than MS? Idiot.
HP … yah, they’re in great shape. Good luck. Idiot.
Sharp .. wow… they make sh$t-ass electronics … great to have support from a third-rate company like that. Idiot.
Intel … from their site: http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/linux/
Wait … what was that line, there? “Limited support is provided for Linux from Intel.” Ah. I see. Idiot.
Sony … ok. One. Yay.
Keep smoking that Penguin-weed for the rights of the people, hippie-boy. The rest of us will continue to grow in technology.
[What do you mean? There is a standard installer that works across all distributions of Linux: ./configure – make – make install.]
How about uninstall ??? rpm -e XXX ???
XXX is needed by YYY
rpm -e –nodeps XXX
…
/usr/bin/YYY
libXXX.so not found
rpm -iv XXX.rpm
failed dependency ZZZ is required by XXX
rpm -iv ZZZ.rpm
failed dependency XXX is required by ZZZ
rpm -iv –nodeps XXX.rpm
rpm -iv –nodeps ZZZ.rpm
/usr/bin/YYY
YYY segmentation fault
OK TTY. WE NOW UNDERSTAND WHY YOU CAN’T PLAY POOL ON YAHOO WITH LINUX. YOUR VERY REALISTIC.
He stated that RedHat detected and installed his printer but with Windows XP he had to install a driver. Try installing that version of RedHat on a new PC in 2 years time and see how much of your hardware is supported. Then discover there are no Linux drivers available for your hardware.
I find it funny to see how the people who hate linux and love windows skip over the fact that installing software is not quite as easy as they make it out to be. Ever try to install a piece of hardware on windows to discover there is a little technique you have to use to get the damn driver to install? Ever have trouble finding drivers for particular models of machines (HP comes to mind). I’ve had many an installs that take over the alotted ! 1/2 hours that it SHOULD have taken. That’s why your friends call up their favorite computer gurus (you)… right??
hehe, make install – how about uninstall ?
On systems without RPM how do you think it works?
Hint if you don’t know the first thing about packageing software don’t try to make limited jokes with your knowledge.
make install does not create RPM’s normally. To undo a make install you normally type make uninstall or using a system like checkinstall. With checkinstall you might create RPM’s
My Linux system does not use RPM’s how do I do what you mentioned to get a segfault?
Seriously: One message written in caps that is wrong anyway, and one kid who doesn’t understand the concept of market share (I don’t care if there are “hundreds” of companies that don’t support Linux. Most of those companies don’t even have the resources to support WindowsXP, idiot.)
Its like S Club Juniors Trolling
[OK TTY. WE NOW UNDERSTAND WHY YOU CAN’T PLAY POOL ON YAHOO WITH LINUX. YOUR VERY REALISTIC.]
I am not the guy complaining not being able to play pool on yahoo. In fact, I rarely play computer games, so I don’t care if a game would work or not on a particular platform.
[Hint if you don’t know the first thing about packageing software don’t try to make limited jokes with your knowledge. ]
my guess is that it’s only the holy linux related 😎
I don’t know InstallShield script, can I make “limited” joke when it wouldn’t install something over a RDP session ?
[My Linux system does not use RPM’s how do I do what you mentioned to get a segfault?]
then try strip /lib/*
guys there regularly claim first hand that they use only linux, never windows before touch anything remotely negative about the holy thing – remind me the situation in communist china 30 years ago.
[I’ve had many an installs that take over the alotted ! 1/2 hours that it SHOULD have taken. That’s why your friends call up their favorite computer gurus (you)… right??]
at least they can call and not likely to be RTFMed
these days, it more likely you connect a laser printer to the parallel port and windows will have the driver installed before you get a chance to open control panel printer settings and when you RDP to an XP/.NET server box, your local printers are mapped over at the remote end, just like the xterm will set $DISPLAY over a remote session
Try format c:
It’s just as lame as your examples. Have a few facts not just rhetoric before you hit the submit comment next time.
strip /lib/* just attempts to strip debug symbols from shared lib. if a lib file is used by a program, it should be locked for write/rename/delete access; if it’s not used it should be safe to do the strip.
format c: on the other hand is not safe to the current os installation – about the same as dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda
where is the “unlimited” knowledge ?
Linux is became commercial. Look at Lindows… I need to buy a CDROM from it, and became a membership and look to other linux distributions… I have to pay! Some of them you don’t need to pay right now, but later…:) If I want the source at lindows, I need to became membership, according to licence…
Another thing, GNU licence tell that some company’s sell the binary, and if you want the source (if the company wants) you must pay a value superior to source code. Open-Source is a way to make money…
Things must be commercial, because if they don’t have money, the company don’t exist, look for example at mandrake…
Look for example to GNU that is an organization, they want money (there is a button DONATE)
Note: Open-source, kill the programmers, because if they do it for free, then they don’t make money…
Did programmers want to make all it’s life a hobbie doing open-source software???
I would like to ear your opinion about this… :]
I like linux and think it is a good operating system, and I have installed in some of my machines… :] But there are some questions around the open-source, that I haven’t answers…
The point is tty that no-one in their right mind does it.
I should add that although the RPM example shows something that someone might do to produce the error on a RPM distro. No one strps their libraries to remove applications.
True XP from scratch takes about an hour to install. However how often do you have to install it? How many of you have had any Linux Distro upgrade from one version to the next with out screwing up your system. Granted you can do pretty good with Debian and some others but for the most part it sucks, and with the frequency of version releases you are looking at reinstalls every 6 months to stay up to date on the newest software.
Lindows takes 10 minutes to install :]
I’ve had plenty of problems with Windows, but changing to Linux certainly wasn’t an improvement for me. Personally I had even more software glitches running Mandrake Linux. Sometimes my mouse scroll wheel would stop working, I had wierd problems with sleep mode, plus graphical glitches that were only solved by restarting X and loads of problems with my multi headed display. Personally I would consider all the software installation problems I suffered to be a big glitch too.
I’m not saying that Linux has more problems than Windows, maybe I was just unlucky. But it’s hardly problem free, a lot of the desktop software I’ve used seems very immature and bug ridden.
I can understand the frustration when trying to play online games with linux. The ONE distro that could do it out of the box for me was…..Caldera Open Desktop 2.4. The bad boys of the old days before Lindows. I never had to tweak anything to get it to run. It was ready from the first boot. Don’t believe me? Go to distrowatch and download 2.4 and see.
//Most of those companies don’t even have the resources to support WindowsXP, idiot.)//
Really? Then, why is it that they *DO* support Windows XP, but they do *NOT* Linux?
Nice refutation to my argument. Talk about a Linux kiddie-troll. Look in the mirror.
Why is it then that the supported hardware list for WindowsXP is smaller than that for Windows98, or even Windows2000? Who is supporting all that unsuported hardware? (The hardware fairy?)
It seems you can barely read (Where did I say that these mythical companies support Linux?), let alone troll. If you’re having trouble following the argument, I’ll go slower for you. Just in case, Linux has support from companies that matter, don’t have support from many companies that don’t matter (Because they don’t even properly support the latest version of Windows). So we have hardware that is not supported on WindowsXP properly, and isn’t supported on Linux either. Your assertion that no one supports Linux is therefor wrong and you’ve lost. Now try again once you’ve passed Trolling 101.
[The point is tty that no-one in their right mind does it
I should add that although the RPM example shows something that someone might do to produce the error on a RPM distro. No one strps their libraries to remove applications]
strip /lib/* is not mean to remove any shared library file, it is intended to shrink file size. I did that for one of my redhat box to have an installation fit on 70 MB of diskspace space.
Quote
True XP from scratch takes about an hour to install. However how often do you have to install it? How many of you have had any Linux Distro upgrade from one version to the next with out screwing up your system. Granted you can do pretty good with Debian and some others but for the most part it sucks, and with the frequency of version releases you are looking at reinstalls every 6 months to stay up to date on the newest software.
End Quote
Lets put it this way – RH upgrades perfectly if you it the right way
Takes me about hour and a half to upgrade and reconfigure my highly customised system
I don’t doubt that you can upgrade Linux without too much trouble if you have the expertise. But in my experience it isn’t easy and straightforward to do a significant upgrade of RPM based Linux distributions.
IMO users shouldn’t have to know the system inside out to do an upgrade, it should be mainly automatic. I would say that only 75% of the RPMs I installed simply worked without me having to read FAQs and solve problems first. When upgrading a large number of RPMs I had a hell of a lot of problems to solve. In the end I gave up trying to upgrade Mandrake Linux, I had so many problems that I reinstalled from scratch. That kind of thing really makes me feel that Linux needs a lot of work before it’s ready to compete with Windows on the desktop.
What the hell is all the install time talk?
Installing linux especially Redhat linux is dead easy so is SuSE. I did an upgrade of SuSE (only update existing packages) twice so far and it went great.
To be fair, the tough part is the postinstall just like most OSes but in Linux more so …because linux is still an alternative OS no matter what the Raliegh boys want you to believe. The downloading and installation of plugins, drivers, apt, synaptic, multimedia stuff, extra fonts and for me my games (Castle Wolfenstien, Heroes of Might and Magic III, MythII, Heretic II and Alpha Centauri). That all takes time.
Now, I could get all linux zealot and tell you some Windows horror stories but I won’t. My experiences with NT are not as important as my observation about linux. I am not the slick kid at the lug meeting who can tell you about every distro.
No, I actually use linux on my desktop at work and at home. The last time I installed linux from scratch was when I made the switch at home from SuSe to RedHat 8. I prepared and got all the postinstall stuff together ahead of time. It took just under 2 hours with all the tweaking I with extras packages and a could of apt downloads and the menu editing and other stuff included.
What do I usually do when the latest greatest version of a distro comes out? I use the upgrade option. It has worked for me.
The point is, Windows plays Yahoo Pool right out of the box. No linux distro plays Yahoo Pool, PERIOD. How does Windows stack up against Linux? Log onto Yahoo pool, and look at the sheer numbers of people playing pool. None of them are using Linux. Why? Linux can’t play pool on Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!
I play Yahoo Pool on Linux all the time, sound and all, no quirks or problems whatsoever.
On Gentoo Linux, what I presently run:
http://quag7.dynip.com:8063/public/screenshots/Gentoo_Linux/2002-11…
http://quag7.dynip.com:8063/public/screenshots/Gentoo_Linux/2002-11…
And on Mandrake Linux, which I used to run:
http://quag7.dynip.com:8063/public/screenshots/Mandrake_Linux/2002-…
I have no point here other than I got it working with few problems. Install a browser. Install Java.
It sometimes takes a few minutes to get things working. Linux isn’t perfect. But I am living proof that it is eminently usable and can replace Windows. I used Windows from 1995 to late 2001. Then I installed Mandrake, then Gentoo about 9 months later. I run it as my primary desktop.
I think Windows 2000 – what I ran previously, and I still have a Windows machine on my LAN, is not horrible. But you pay for it. It has a crap command line and far fewer processing utilites than Linux. I could get, based on my usage, about 15-20 days of uptime without a reboot (Note that I multitasked a lot and really pushed the machine, so this isn’t horrible). Presently, though in Gentoo 1.4 RC1:
03:09:54 up 104 days, 14:22
That is *my experience*. Make of it what you will. My experience with everything before Windows 2000 was unpleasant. My experience with Windows 2000 was alright, but lacking some features I wanted (A great improvement over 95, 98, etc.). Still, the improved stability made it a lot less stressful. Of course I paid for the privilege (MS really botched the 2K rollout – I had to practically force the guy at CompUSA at gunpoint to sell me a copy, which was kept behind the business desk (!). And it turned out to be the best Microsoft experience of any MS product (save maybe MS Streets & Trips, which I think is very cool) I’ve ever had.
My experience with Linux is that it’s been harder to get the machine to where I want it configuration wise that on Windows, but once there it runs a lot better than Windows. And it has a lot more of the powerful tools I need. And I’ve not paid a dime for anything.
Linux has some annoyances that need taking care of:
(1) Dependency resolution and package management. I run Gentoo, so of course like Debian users I just don’t have this problem. But I did with Mandrake; I could never connect to the ftp server through the Mandrake package manager/updater (forget what it was called). Might have been net congestion, but it was still a pain. As so many people seem scared witless by both Debian and Gentoo, it would be smart for other distros to start packaing an apt-like package system as the default install method. For those of you who haven’t tried Debian and Gentoo, all I can say is, it’s bliss. And no reason why other Linux distros can’t adopt it or something similar. Hell, you can actually install Gentoo’s portage system on other distros (check the Gentoo website for more details). I’m sure the rpm-based distros can do much better. And I’m sure in time, they will.
(2) Font management is unpleasant. For months I couldn’t get anything working in GTK apps running under KDE other than a few default fonts. There should be some kind of universal font manager/installer, that’s point and click, and simple to use. Shouldn’t have to mess with ttmkfontdir and such things. Some people have no problems with this out of the box; I have consistently had problems with it on every distro I’ve used. (4 of them). Maybe I’m just unlucky. That being said, my fonts, finally, are working great now. Just took too long to get there.
(3) All distros need to have something like Gentoo’s rc-update to manage service booting at startup. This problem is completely solved; it just needs to be implemented everywhere.
(4) Printer configuration, especially on a network, can still be a really ugly process. Several distros do this magnificently, others need work.
(5) Cut-paste / clipboard incompatibilities between programs. For the love of God, this stupid, stupid problem should be a priority.
All of these things aside, they’re just annoyances highly outweighed by the many virtues of Linux. None of them have ever made me reconsider going back to Windows. I have weird on board sound which, perhaps surprisingly, works fine. I can play every piece of video I’ve made or downloaded fine in Xine. I can play every sound file I own in any format in clear stereo sound in XMMS. Linux has design weaknesses. It’s not perfect. Whatever. Nothing is. It continues to evolve, get patched, fixed, and smoothed over.
Is it ready for the desktop? I’d say in most cases. I think the author said it best – it’s good enough. It can be better. And it will.
I could say precisely the same thing about Microsoft, if I ignore atrocities against Man and God like Outlook.
-Quag7
For anyone interested, the correct URL to the Mandrake screenshot is actually:
http://quag7.dynip.com:8063/public/screenshots/Mandrake_Linux/2002-…
The web form keeps putting a 20% in that URL; remove it 🙂