The 2002 is here and everyone’s seems busy writing editorials as to what it might bring to Linux. Some are optimistic, others are not so much. Judging from the amount of the… almanac Linux articles on the web, one thing is for sure: people are worried about its further success. Newsforge says (wisely) that Linux doesn’t have to beat with Windows while ZDNews has three articles already: “Is it time for Linux on the desktop?“, “2002 prediction: Linux won’t make it this year” and “Will Linux survive the dot-com crash?“
The Future of Linux Discussed Once More
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
I have yet to read the articles but I have to say this:
Linux is not a desktop OS.
That is all.
As we’ve seen this past year, Linux can be anything from a wristwatch to a mainframe. Somewhere in between you’ll find a desktop OS. The thing is that Linux can act as many different types of desktops, depending upon the users’ skill levels. For something comparable to Windows and Mac OS desktops, try looking at one of the prepackaged distros, such as Mandrake Linux (which I use) or Debian. When you use one of these distros, you’re getting a cohesive, consistent system. Esp. with Mandrake, all of your config tools are run through one GUI-based control center.
Out of the box, you’ve got a fully set up KDE or GNOME desktop environment that suits Joe Schmoe “desktop” users. One of these environments will keep an average user happy. Windows and Mac users don’t even get this choice to begin with. I started out with KDE soley, but given my level of experience, my desktop began a “best of breed” evolution where I started mixing KDE + WindowMaker then WindowMaker + GNOME panel. My dad, before his PC died, used WindowMaker because it was even simpler than the Windows UI.
Sure it’s always fun to play with another OS’s features but the bottom line is that people use Windows for all the apps you get on it. The linuxers can come up with the flashiest desktop but if it can’t run all the apps and games that people already have for WIndows it won’t go anywhere on the desktop
by having full experience of the GNU/Linux operating system.
linux is a kernel.
GNU/Linux is a multi-purpose operating system (including desktop
).
get it?
that is all.
———————————————————————- —
also being a mandrake user for 3 months and being a windows user for 2 years (retired) i have only a few things to say for those critics (most which are ignorant)
1.
Q) stabability,windowsxp or mandrake 8.1(gnu/linux 2.4.8)?
A) mandrake 8.1
2.
Q) how much does each top of the line pack cost?
A) manrake: 150. windows: 300.
3.
Q) how many cd’s do each top os pack come with?
A) mandrake: 7 and a dvd. widnows : 1.
4.
Q) how many enviroments (UI) does each come with, just in basic installation.
A) mandrake: 2-11 (depends on what you choose for install). windows: 1.
5.
Q) how much software comes with each. (excluding the os)
A) mandrake: est. 5gigs. widnows: 300 (if that)
6.
Q) has more games
A) windows
7.
Q) easist to use
A) mandrake
8.
Q) free for download (legally)
A) mandrake
9.
Q) has millions of free software
A) manrdrake
10.
Q) fps on armagetron
A) mandrake; ave. 24. windows: ave 18. (tnt2 nvidia graphix card for both)
mandrake 9
windows 1
I have the special Gaming Edition of Mandrake which lets me run Windows games through Transgaming Technologies “WineX” implementation of the Win32 API and DirectX. WINE will let a number of Windows programs run under Linux on X86 hardware. In my experience, aside from a few specialized business apps written for Windows, most of the “standard desktop” programs that I need or like to use are already available for Linux.
btw, If anyone is listening, I would like to see a Linux version of the Bloomberg Professional client.
Let’s see … could I switch to Linux as a desktop OS? Does it applications EQUIVILENT IN FUNCTIONALITY to the following that run in a GUI?
* MS Word & Access
* MS Streets & Trips 2002
* Steinberg’s Cubase 5
* CoolEdit Pro
* PowerDVD XP
* Easy CD Creator 5 and Direct CD
* Newsbin (www.newsbin.com)
* UltraEdit (text editor with syntax highlighting, column mode selection, and FTP support)
* Homesite 5
* Morpheus & WinMX
* Real Player, QuickTime, and Windows Media (w/Divx 4 support)
* Quicken 2002
* MathType (http://www.mathtype.com)
If Linux has apps equivilent to the ones above or if they can run satisfactor (meaning, about the same speed as in Windows), then I will definitely switch!
Rude Turnip wrote:
I have the special Gaming Edition of Mandrake which lets me run Windows games through Transgaming Technologies “WineX” implementation of the Win32 API and DirectX. WINE will let a number of Windows programs run under Linux on X86 hardware. In my experience, aside from a few specialized business apps written for Windows, most of the “standard desktop” programs that I need or like to use are already available for Linux.
I am already using Mandrake 7.0 since a while. I was thinking to get the 8.1
gaming edition but I was looking for an advice. How do the Windows apps run
on top of this transgaming portability layer? Are they fast and responsive enough?
When I can install it on my dads computer and he manages it. Let’s give it five years, shall we?
> GNU/Linux is a multi-purpose operating system (including desktop
)
Not.
XFree86 is neither GNU software nor Linux.
I’ll take a stab, only replying to those areas that I am familiar with. So if I don’t mention an application, that doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t a Linux equivalent.
MS Word & Access: You could run Word under WINE or there’s WordPerfect, StarOffice, AbiWord, KWord, Gobe Productive…it depends upon how much of Word’s features you take advantage of in the first place. For database functionality, there is MySQL and PostgreSQL, plus all sorts of graphical frontends for them.
MS Streets and Trips: No Linux-specific program, but I’ve always relied on services like MapQuest, whether using Windows, Linux, BeOS, etc. And, honestly, real paper map books with street names and all work better than any computer product.
Easy CD Creator and Direct CD: I’m a big fan of E-roaster, which lets me create and do all sorts of things with CD’s, ISO files, WAV’s and MP3’s, etc. Also: X-CDRoaster, GNOME Toaster, CD Bake Oven, et al.
Morpheus and WinMX: I know there’s quite a few Gnutella clients for Linux, but someone else will have to answer about these two programs since I am not familiar with them.
RealPlayer, Quicktime, Windows Media: The first two are available for Linux. Quicktime files run under different media players for Linux, but those pesky Sorensen-encoded Quicktimes, which movie trailers and such use, require a $30 plugin available from CodeWeavers. As for Windows Media, you can guess
Although aren’t there progs for Linux that play ASF files?
Quicken 2002: You could try running this under WINE, or purchase Kapital, written by the fellows who bring us KDE. There’s also GNUCash, but Kapital seems more Quicken-like. Being a finance professional, I developed my own spreadsheet that handles all this, but that’s just me 🙂
They include The Sims which runs without any problems and with seemingly normal speed. This weekend I’ll hopefully be testing out Half Life. From what other users are reporting on Half Life, the actual game runs great, while the menues are a bit slower. Go to http://www.transgaming.com and read what others are saying about the games. Transgaming has a voting system where paying members (only $5 per month) get to vote on what games they will tweak the system for next.
btw, I have a Pentium II with a Voodoo3 3000 AGP and Transgaming recommends Nvidia based cards for better performance. However, The Sims is working fine for me so far.
Different people have different needs.
Let me give you an example. When we moved houses with my husband 3 months ago, and because we needed to re-move houses soon, it did not made sense to order DSL and we only put online (with a crappy 33.6 AOL) only 1 of our 7 computers in the house, my husband’s PC. Jbq was clear that if I break anything in his Windows, he will not be… that happy. So, I knew that in order not to break his Win98 (AOL is in there, so we have to use Win98 most of the time), I should not download and install ‘weird’ or ‘non-standard’ software (as I normally do
. Three months now, and I am still most of the time on that Win98 PC in order to connect to the Net. I have to admit that I did not miss much my PC and all the functionality I used to have with my Linux partitions, my BeOS partitions, Win2k etc etc
ALL I need is a good browser (IE6 is my personal preference), a simple text editor (all my PHP/HTML or even C coding is done in a text editor like notepad), PaintShopPro 3 (to optimize/resize/manipulate screenshots for osnews – I do not need something more than version 3), ICQ (to chat with my brother in Greece) and a graphical ftp client (to upload files on osnews). Oh, and an mp3/cd player or I get mad alone over here all day while my husband is at work. That’s all I use the last few months. Nothing else. Actually, I *realized* that I _do not need_ anything else to do my day to day work at OSNews and spend time with my computer on the net. And if you re-read the list above, Linux can provide such apps for me. Even FreeBSD, QNX, OS/2 and (almost) BeOS can (no good browser and not a good image manipulation app for what I want to exactly do under BeOS unfortunately).
What I am trying to say is that different people have different needs on a computer. Linux fills some holes on the nerd/development/unix/curious community, Windows fills holes for my brother, Joe User, most of the business etc etc. But needs are different for everyone. For example, I know that my brother can not live without his MAME emulator and KaZaA. My husband all he needs is a… PS2 and JellyBelly. I am not sure he needs a PC, he does not use it much anymore.
thanks for your answer. I have just ordered my copy and I have two rigs ready
for a dual booot a TB 1300 with a Radeon 7200 and WinME and a celeron tualatin 1200 with a TI 200 64 and Win2kSP2. IMHO it would be interesting to check also how the office stuff works on top of this transgaming reworked WINE the “if and how” I mean. Have you tried WinDVD or PowerDVD? Unluckily I’m a final user. One of those commonjoes so I cannot say much :/
Anyway I’m also one of those hardware junkies
and as soon as I get my copy I’m going to check as far as I can.
Thanks again.
UltraEdit really is a great editor. I recommend it to Windows users who need a good plain-text editor but are stuck on their mice, not willing to use a keyboard-based editor. I actually paid for it years ago. However, <a href=”http://www.vim.org/“>Vim is much more complete. Once you learn the keystrokes, you will be much more productive with less hand/wrist stress than when using a mouse. Yes, it has column editing. And split windows, text folding, syntax highlighting, piping through external programs, regex support, macros, binary-safe editing, multi-byte character set support, right-to-left script support, and much more. There’s probably even a way to edit via ftp, though I’ve never looked. The GUI versions allow you to use the mouse for selections and menus. Oh, and it runs on about every widely-used OS, including Windows, Mac OS, Unix/X, Unix/console, BeOS, Amiga, etc.
>> 1.
Q) stabability,windowsxp or mandrake 8.1(gnu/linux 2.4.8)?
A) mandrake 8.1
Well I have yet to have XP crash but have crashed mandrake 7.1 so XP gets my nod, (haven’t tried 8.1) though for many this may be differant.
>> 2.
Q) how much does each top of the line pack cost?
A) manrake: 150. windows: 300.
winXP pro is 400
>>3.
Q) how many cd’s do each top os pack come with?
A) mandrake: 7 and a dvd. widnows : 1.
More cds is a negitive i would say windows wins this unless you are comparing to a dvd of wich you need to have a dvd to win. For the most part this is a who cares question and proves nothing far as supieriority
>>4.
Q) how many enviroments (UI) does each come with, just in basic installation.
A) mandrake: 2-11 (depends on what you choose for install). windows: 1.
Also a who cares. I will take one good UI over 11 half asses ones. and all comes down to personal taste. no winner here
>>5.
Q) how much software comes with each. (excluding the os)
A) mandrake: est. 5gigs. widnows: 300 (if that)
Who cares. just makes for bigger downloads, if downloading. Besides the 300 megs worth on windows in most cases are better quality and more useful. I don’t care for 5 gigs of worth bob widget tool kit that does nothing. also the OS is not the software it comes with its what you can run after the fact. I’m sure if MS wanted to they could fill up a few install cds and go way over 5 gigs.
>> 6.
Q) has more games
A) windows
agreed, though if you don’t play games it doesn’t matter
>> 7.
Q) easist to use
A) mandrake
just plain wrong. windows wins hands down. If you find windows hard to use in anyway you have trouble. even when comes to install windows wins. put disk in walk away. even if you get the mandrake install fine, its how to use the os afterwards
>> 8.
Q) free for download (legally)
A) mandrake
Well you were dealing with the max price above. And now compairing free to not free thing now seams weird. Still i would buy windows over run linux again. or better run BeOS PE (also free)
>> 9.
Q) has millions of free software
A) manrdrake
I don’t know about millions for linux. but its not like windows has none. I’m not going to try and find every app and count. I think they both are at a level were the amount is past the point it matters. Yes there is free software for windows.
10.
Q) fps on armagetron
A) mandrake; ave. 24. windows: ave 18. (tnt2 nvidia graphix card for both)
Who cares., seriously. if fps is a huge thing to you thats sad besides how does linux do other cards or other games. one game and one card does not make for a huge statement
>> mandrake 9
>> windows 1
New results
Mandrake 2
Windows 2
Who cares/ nether 6
Some of these things point to the fact there is no clear way to compair OS’s what one person thinks makes a OS superior another might think makes an OS suck. I’m sure some one else would answer your questions differant still. Maybe if there was a set of parameters to measure which OS is better then this could be settled. But time would be better spend making each OS better and like i said above the factors for this test and the answers would be often a matter of preferance, thus making the test worthless. Probly the best way to ever settle this would be put a group of people who have never seen or heard of a computer(look in N. Dakota
) and put them in a room with all the options and after a while see which one they migrate towards most. My guess would be windows wins. Still everyone is differant and uses what they use cause thats what they like or are forced to use. This is why there are differant OS’s. Other wise there would just be one unified universal OS, hey one of them is close.
> by having full experience of the GNU/Linux operating system.
>
> linux is a kernel.
> GNU/Linux is a multi-purpose operating system (including desktop
).
> get it?
Oh I get it.
It all depends on how you define “desktop”
> that is all.
> ———————————————————————- —
>
> also being a mandrake user for 3 months and being a windows user for 2 years > (retired) i have only a few things to say for those critics (most which are > ignorant)
I’m a linux user for about 3 years and a Windows user for about 4 years and a long time Amiga user. (I don’t feel any loyalty towards wintel. It’s just another OS/hardware)
> 1.
> Q) stabability,windowsxp or mandrake 8.1(gnu/linux 2.4.8)?
> A) mandrake 8.1
A) I’d say equal. Linux doesn’t crash very much but it becomes unusable because all of the input devices don’t respond. Under XP I can always press CTRL + ALT + DEL and get the task manager. XP wins.
> 2.
> Q) how much does each top of the line pack cost?
> A) manrake: 150. windows: 300.
No idea. I always buy a student licence. The price you have to pay just to get it isn’t that important anyway. I would happily buy time. Mandrake wins (if you only count your $$)
> 3.
> Q) how many cd’s do each top os pack come with?
> A) mandrake: 7 and a dvd. widnows : 1.
Doesn’t say anything really. Linux distributions are much too bloated. I’d like a standardized set of software offered by all dists that you can call a standard Linux dist. Windows wins.
> 4.
> Q) how many enviroments (UI) does each come with, just in basic installation.
> A) mandrake: 2-11 (depends on what you choose for install). windows: 1.
Windows win. The less the better. (And no Linux GUI is better than the MS one)
> 5.
> Q) how much software comes with each. (excluding the os)
> A) mandrake: est. 5gigs. widnows: 300 (if that
It is so very irrelevant. Most Linux software software is junk anyway. (Junk meaning buggy and unusable.) Windows is less bloated and therefore wins.
> 6.
> Q) has more games
> A) windows
Games are important on a desktop computer. (A least mine). Windows wins.
> 7.
> Q) easist to use
> A) mandrake
Windows. (If you mean easiest that is). Windows wins.
> 8.
> Q) free for download (legally)
> A) mandrake
Mandrake (and all Linux dsitributions), but that doesn’t mean anything. People just borrow Windows from their friends. Mandrake wins.
> 9.
> Q) has millions of free software
> A) manrdrake
Both. Free is mostly irrelevant. Usable software is relevant. Windows wins.
> 10.
> Q) fps on armagetron
> A) mandrake; ave. 24. windows: ave 18. (tnt2 nvidia graphix card for both)
Amagetron? Sure if you say so. Quake 3? (I have no idead what armagetron is but I guess Mandrake wins.)
> mandrake 9
> windows 1
Linux Mandrake 3
Windows XP 7
Please criticize me if you want to. I really try to like _desktop_ Linux.
Brad, I did not see your post until I posted mine.
We seem to have a couple of things in common. I try to to focus on DESKTOP Linux because I trust DEVELOPMENT, SERVER and EXPERIMENT Linux. (I like programming under unix more that under Windows.)
Windows can not be beaten as the best general OS though. Linux and Unix is not for the non-geek user.
> I don’t care for 5 gigs of worth bob widget tool kit that does nothing.
Exactly. Out of those 5 gigs, once you filter out all the crap (basically all the text editors, news readers, email programs, cd players et al that run in a console window, emacs variants, command-shell replacements, etc), what do you end up with?
And who wants 5GB as part of an OS anyway? If I want to use an app, I’ll download it and install it myself. No need to install 10,000 apps on my PC when only a few of them are actually useful to most people.
> Q) how much does each top of the line pack cost?
> A) manrake: 150. windows: 300.
I forgot to address this. I don’t have much use for XP, and am using Win2k. I paid approx. $130 as an upgrade from Win98 last summer (2000). I had everything up and running (including all hardware [video, sound, printer, scanner, and modem], software, Internet access, and a connection to my LAN) in about an hour and a half after installation.
How much is my time worth? Certainly worth $130.
Well, I don’t have a DVD drive for my computer, nor do I own those programs, so I have no idea. For DVD viewing needs, we have a $69 open box Oritron player from Best Buy with no remote and my fiance’s 21-in Mac monitor with the Blue&White’s built-in drive (and OS X).
1.
Q) stabability,windowsxp or mandrake 8.1(gnu/linux 2.4.8)?
A) mandrake 8.1
—————-
Testing criteria?
2.
Q) how much does each top of the line pack cost?
A) manrake: 150. windows: 300.
—————————
I have no idea.
3.
Q) how many cd’s do each top os pack come with?
A) mandrake: 7 and a dvd. widnows : 1.
————————–
More useless CDs = better?
4.
Q) how many enviroments (UI) does each come with, just in basic installation.
A) mandrake: 2-11 (depends on what you choose for install). windows: 1.
————-
Who WANTS different GUIs? 0.1% of desktop users?
5.
Q) how much software comes with each. (excluding the os)
A) mandrake: est. 5gigs. widnows: 300 (if that)
————-
5 gigs of mostly useless crap.
6.
Q) has more games
A) windows
—————–
Yes.
7.
Q) easist to use
A) mandrake
——————
Really? Based on what criteria? We should really get the n00bs on Mandrake, ’cause Windows is too complex for them, according to you.
8.
Q) free for download (legally)
A) mandrake
—————
I just love your hand-picked criteria on what makes a good desktop OS.
9.
Q) has millions of free software
A) manrdrake
—————
Millions of it useless and/or unworkable to the desktop user.
10.
Q) fps on armagetron
A) mandrake; ave. 24. windows: ave 18. (tnt2 nvidia graphix card for both)
—————
FPS on what? Lovely hand-picked criteria. Only Jobs could do better hyping Macs. Hang in there, you’ll be just like him soon.
mandrake 9
windows 1
————–
Yes, the world should truly wake up to the overwhelmingly superior desktop OS: Linux Mandrake! The criteria above is what EVERYBODY is after in a desktop OS, and I’m glad you’ve shown us the way, trakal!
I just had to comment on this.
Danlu claimed: “Windows win. The less the better. (And no Linux GUI is better than the MS one)”
I hope you are kidding! Mac OSX is better, BeOS is better, QNX is better, and since we’re talking about Linux, it depends on what you want. If you are looking to set up a simple Linux desktop for your grandmother, WindowMaker is the best. Very intuitive and the easiest to use of any desktop I’ve tried. If you like a Windows like interface, KDE and Gnome do quite well. That’s the beauty of Linux on the desktop. Choice.
If Windows was the perfect interface, why have they borrowed many things from Gnome and other Linux desktops and also from OSX?
I’ll try and answer some of these. I’m going to use capital letters for my comments. I am doing this for the sake of clarity. I am not shouting.
1.
Q) stabability,windowsxp or mandrake 8.1(gnu/linux 2.4.8)?
A) mandrake 8.1
—————-
Testing criteria?
WELL, MY CRITERIA IS THAT AT MY LAST JOB I USED A LINUX BOX AND A WINDOWS BOX (THE LINUX ONE MORE THAT THE WINDOWS ONE) FOR DOING DEVELOPMENT. I WORKED THERE FOR TWO YEARS AND TWO MONTHS. I NEVER REBOOTED OR TURNED OFF THE LINUX MACHINE DURING THE WHOLE TIME I WAS THERE. I HAD TO REBOOT THE WINDOWS MACHINE AT LEAST ONCE A DAY (WINDOWS 2000) SOMETIMES A LOT MORE. BOTH WERE RUNNING ON THE SAME MODEL DELL MACHINE. I WAS USING DEBIAN GNU/LINUX.
TWO YEARS VERSES PART OF A DAY. I’D SAY LINUX IS MORE STABLE.
–DELETED NUMBERS 2 AND 3 BECAUSE I DON’T CARE.
4.
Q) how many enviroments (UI) does each come with, just in basic installation.
A) mandrake: 2-11 (depends on what you choose for install). windows: 1.
————-
Who WANTS different GUIs? 0.1% of desktop users?
I DISAGREE WITH YOUR NUMBER. MICROSOFT SELLS A LOT OF COPIES OF PLUS. STARDOCK ALSO SEEMS TO BE DOING WELL. WHY? BECAUSE PEOPLE WANT DIFFERENT DESKTOP GUIS. LINUX OFFERS THIS OPTION TO A MUCH GREATER DEGREE THAN MICROSOFT. LINUX IS BETTER BECAUSE OF IT. IF I WANT ALL THE BELLS AND WHISTLES (AND SLOW START TIME) OF WINDOWS, I CAN USE GNOME OR KDE. IF I WANT MY MACHINE TO START SOMETIME BEFORE NOON, I CAN USE WINDOWMAKER.
5.
Q) how much software comes with each. (excluding the os)
A) mandrake: est. 5gigs. widnows: 300 (if that)
————-
5 gigs of mostly useless crap.
AGAIN, I DISAGREE. EMACS IS A WASTE OF SPACE, BUT YOU HAVE TO HAVE AN EDITOR, SO WHY NOT HAVE ONE AVAILABLE THAT WILL MOST SUIT YOUR NEEDS. WINDOWS ONLY OFFERS NOTEPAD (WHICH SUCKS). LINUX DISTRIBUTIONS OFFER A LOT MORE CHOICES TO HELP CATER TO MANY DIFFERENT PEOPLE’S NEEDS. IT’S THE SAME WITH MOST PROGRAMS. NEDIT VS. PICO VS. VIM. STAROFFICE VS. ABIWORD VS. XESS VS. KOFFICE. NETSCAPE VS. MOZILLA VS. KONQUEROR VS. GALEON.
I LOOK AT IT LIKE THIS, IF ONLY A TENTH OF THE 5G IS USEFUL, IT’S A LOT MORE THAN I GET FOR FREE FROM MS.
7.
Q) easist to use
A) mandrake
——————
Really? Based on what criteria? We should really get the n00bs on Mandrake, ’cause Windows is too complex for them, according to you.
MY ONLY COMMENT HERE IS THAT I HAVE FOUND BOTH WINDOWS AND LINUX VERY EASY TO USE AT TIMES, AND I HAVE FOUND THEM BOTH TO BE BUGGERS AT OTHER TIMES. THE PLUS FOR ME IS THAT I CAN CONSULT THE WEB AND USUALLY FIND A SOLUTION TO MY LINUX PROBLEM. WITH WINDOWS, ESPECIALLY WITH DRIVER ISSUES, YOU USUALLY END UP HAVING TO TALK TO A “TECHNICAL” SUPPORT PERSON WHO HAS A HARD TIME NAVIGATING THEIR WAY INTO THEIR CLOTHES LET ALONE BE ABLE TO DOLE OUT USEFUL INFORMATION.
SINCE BOTH OSES CAN SUCK, I VOTE LINUX BASED ON THE AVAILABLILITY OF TECHNICAL INFORMATION AND SUPPORT.
8.
Q) free for download (legally)
A) mandrake
—————
I just love your hand-picked criteria on what makes a good desktop OS.
I’LL TAKE FREE OVER $400.00 ANY DAY. ESPECIALLY WHEN THE FREE PRODUCT IS BETTER.
9.
Q) has millions of free software
A) manrdrake
—————
Millions of it useless and/or unworkable to the desktop user.
LIKE WHAT? IF YOU DEFINE DESKTOP USER AS A NEOPHITE, THEN I SEE YOUR POINT. IF, ON THE OTHER HAND, A DESKTOP USER IS A PROGRAMMER LIKE ME, I FIND MANY OF THOSE PROGRAMS USEFUL. SCIENTISTS PROBABLY FIND OTHER SELECTIONS TO BE GREAT. ONCE AGAIN, ITS ABOUT PROVIDING SOLUTIONS TO SUIT THE NEEDS OF A WIDE AUDIENCE. WHO EXACTLY DOES WINDOWS CATER TO (I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT 3RD PARTY STUFF, JUST WHAT COMES IN THE WINDOWS BOX).
Several people have mentioned editors, so I thought I’d throw this in. Visual SlickEdit is by far the best editor I have ever used, and it’s available for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and several other platforms. It provides highlighting, context help, line completion, etc. for many different languages.
It comes with it’s own language, Slick C, so it’s kind of pricey, but it is an outstanding editor.
I HAD TO REBOOT THE WINDOWS MACHINE AT LEAST ONCE A DAY (WINDOWS 2000) SOMETIMES A LOT MORE.
I can only imagine what you were doing to the poor machine. I am also a programmer and the most I’ve ever been able to do is crash the compiler with careless use of pointers.
PEOPLE WANT DIFFERENT DESKTOP GUIS. LINUX OFFERS THIS OPTION TO A MUCH GREATER DEGREE THAN MICROSOFT.
I will agree with you there. Linux does have more options when it comes to GUIs. However, this is also a disadvantage because those GUIs don’t behave in the same way (ie – window & shortcut key behaviors) so it’s possible that one Linux system can look and act completely different from another. At least on Windows, I know what I’m getting
I’m pretty sure some Linux GUIs are customizable enough to turn the desktop into the shape of a kidney (and this may be possible under windows using a combination of windowblinds & desktop X), but I don’t think the average user cares much beyond changing the backgrounds, colors, and screen saver.
WINDOWS ONLY OFFERS NOTEPAD (WHICH SUCKS).
There’s edit.com which sucks too, but there are also tons of both freeware and shareware text editors for download.
LINUX DISTRIBUTIONS OFFER A LOT MORE CHOICES TO HELP CATER TO MANY DIFFERENT PEOPLE’S NEEDS.
The same amount of choice is too avaiable in Windows – they’re just not crammed in as part of the OS install.
IT’S A LOT MORE THAN I GET FOR FREE FROM MS.
Ahhh yes, but let’s not forget that everytime MS includes something for free in their OS, they get sued by their competitors and/or take it up the ass from the DOJ.
I VOTE LINUX BASED ON THE AVAILABLILITY OF TECHNICAL INFORMATION AND SUPPORT.
Tehnical information which normally consists of outdated man pages and HowTos, and support which usually consists of ‘RTFM’ Blah!
WHO EXACTLY DOES WINDOWS CATER TO (I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT 3RD PARTY STUFF, JUST WHAT COMES IN THE WINDOWS BOX).
As far as what comes in the box, Windows caters to the average, everyday, comoputer-illterate user. The kind of people who don’t have a clue about what a partition is, the difference between IDE & SCSI, and don’t care enough about actually reading documentation to make things work. And these are the kind of people that zealots say Linux is ready for. *pfffffffffffft*
I’d say maybe OSX is up to the task (and I say maybe because I’ve never used it, so I don’t know), but definitely not Linux.
gees. alot of critism on my post. i was just pointing out a variety. course i forgot to mension i was comparing xp professonal to mandrake 8.1 (not 7.1!). course i read some of the complants of my comments. but i could understand some. i thought that some of my comparisons weren’t really nessacary, like 2 and 3. and i didn’t have alot of time to put more support on my comments (cause i had 5 minutes at school to post them).
but then other i thought were kind of stupid. course… camel seemed to clear up alot of them.
stew
> GNU/Linux is a multi-purpose operating system (including desktop
)
>>Not.
XFree86 is neither GNU software nor Linux.<<
who said Xfree86 was the operating system. all Xfree86 deals with is the graphics card, drivers and crap. (as far as i know).
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and about editors. i thought staroffice was a good multi-platform piece of software myself (it can also edit ms documents too). but i’ll look into slickedit. course since i haven’t been able to get staroffice to work, i’m using Gvim which is very nice.
and oh yeah. notepad does suck. sorry but you know i really hate looking at nothing but whiteback ground with black text. i like having a darker background, and highlighted html and c/++ text (like kate, or kwrite. don’t know which one does it but they both look the same to me.)
This reliability thing is getting Stupid.
Somebody please show me why a Windows 2000/XP needs rebooting once a day or more. My development machine at work (Windows 2000) has not been rebooted due to an error since I got it (a year or so ago) only for installation of software.
Linux is reliable, I use Debian at home, but what lets it down is the poor applications. KDevelop is my fave as it is pretty darn good but there are far too many stupid little apps and half finished programs.
Trakal I thing everybody could make a list such as yours stackeds towards their favorite os.
There are was to make the background of notepad any colour you like you just need to know what you’re doing.
killed buy terabytes of FraUDuleNT M$ hypenosys, &/or gottiesque softwar gangsters? I DOWt it.
<input type=”image” src=”http://www.harrybrown.com/phrackers/ejfudge.jpg“ name>
<input type=”image” src=”http://www.linuxville.com/images/usgnu2.jpg“ name>
http://www.scaredcity.com>We still <a href=http://www.linuxville.com>here, just in case you need somewhere to hang your hack, or wish to escape the endless process of payper liesense b$/virotic BugWear defects. fud on.
The only reason Windows occupies so much of the desktop market is because of 95 and 98. I bet Windows 2000 and Windows XP account for a minority of desktops in use today.
An example is Halifax (a bank). All their desktop computers run 95. They don’t need anything more, and frankly it’s so expensive for them to upgrade M$ wise that they just don’t bother.
Wait a few years until large companies whose computers make up the greatest chunk of the desktop market suddenly start to evaluate upgrading their hardware and software. All of a sudden, Microsoft won’t seem like such a monopoly on the desktop market anymore.
First of all, my development was mostly Java (no pointers that I can directly deal with) and secondly my programming was all done in Linux. I only used my Windows box to test my programs in Windows and to check corporate email and write corporate documents in Word. Any pointer mis-handling was therefore done by Microsoft and not my me.
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Tehnical information which normally consists of outdated man pages and HowTos, and support which usually consists of ‘RTFM’ Blah!
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You obviously don’t know where to look.
Linux not a desktop OS? Says who? I have used it at home as a desktop OS for years. If you mean its not an easy OS for neophites, then say so, but to say it’s not a desktop OS shows a lack of knowledge regarding the subject.
It would be like me saying that Windows XP/2000 Server are not really Server OSes because Windows was originally a desktop OS (and both can still be used as a desktop OS). My saying so would be stupid since many people and companies are using this modified desktop OS as a server platform.
What is is and no amount of opinion can change that.
Damn your a super troll, with post like that I wonder why alot people don’t like linux people?
I would say “Microsoft/Windows” future is at stakes!
Linux is well implemented in every mission critical environnement, where Windows is still dreaming of being. Microsoft made a final mistake lately by releasing Windows XP (right after W2K). Companies have already chunked out a large amount of cash for migrations. Just to refresh you memories, in the last 7 years, most companies migrated from (because they tought it was a good move – they regret it today, I can assure you that):
Server:
Novell 3.x, 4.x -> NT 3.51 (1995-1996) (need to upgrade server hardware + training)
NT 3.51 -> NT 4.0 (1996-1997)
NT 4.0 -> W2K (2001-?) (need to upgrade server hardware + training) (really necessary?)
W2K -> XP (2002-?) (really necessary?)
Desktop:
Win 3.x -> Win95 (1996-1997)
Win95 -> Win98 (1999-2000) (need to upgrade workstation hardware)
Win98 -> W2K (never heard of WinME upgrade in cies) (need to upgrade workstation hardware + training)
W2k -> XP (really necessary?)
Can you see the amount of wasted energies just to plan those migrations? And this is not counting doing the migration themselves. It was hell! I’m not talking about microscopic cies that have 2-5 servers and 20 workstations. I’m talking about companies that have 70+ servers and 5000+ workstation. I lived through most of all of what I listed above at my job, and I can say that people I know in ’95 that were using Linux at the same time are laughing today… again.
They are almost on the same hardware for they work (who really need a P4 2Gz 256 Mb RAM for doing wordprocessing?) except for some who runs simulations and stuff like that. The only upgrade what the kernel at some point… and all done remotely.
They say that “when you work with M$ products, you’ll always have a job”. I know why now. Luckyly, I tend to work with Linux from time to time, and at home, well, my RH Linux box is still humming cheerfully.
The last migration? Any WinSlows -> Linux.
You don’t think this is a problem?
mlk (why “This documentation is no longer being maintained and may
be inaccurate or incomplete.”? The mannual should be up-to-date!