Who will switch to Linux Right now and not regret it

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I was talking to one of my Peers at work today and the question popped up. ``Why Does Microsoft Install all this propietory junk on there machines as default.'' Well i`m just speaking for the fact that if you Install Vista Ultimate it puts all this Media Center junk on your computer by default. Then the other Peer Replied, ``Well Microsoft has a plan going here, if Vista Ultimate runs half@$$ from the start even after a fresh install on 2-4GB Of Memory the performence will get even slower after a couple of years and prompt the user to buy more of their software such as cleanup tools and Operating System Upgrades to make more money.'' While Bill Gates has a good plan to drive inexperienced users to blow more money than they have to [Thus Stimmulating the Economy.] Microsoft still is an &$$ to drive people to that extreme. While i already know this before he said anything i still wouldn`t dream of a day where you had to throw money in the toliet every year.

Overall i still am studying Linux and testing all the Different Distros at there. So far Ubuntu and Beryl have came out on top due to ease of use. If Better Program Compatiablity came into action with Wine how many of you will switch and what Distro will you use.

Uh.. if you don't want the media center "junk", then don't buy Vista Ultimate. Buy Vista Business, which doesn't come with the media feature. Or just uninstall it.

Your peer's conspiracy theories are dangerously out of touch with reality. Microsoft is not trying to slow your computer down, they're trying to offer additional functionality while taking advantage of the resources new hardware has to offer. I'm running vista ultimate on a computer that can be bought today for < $1000, and it's fine.

Yes you can do that. However working as a Tech Helper at an Educational Insititution has taught me not everybody knows how to remove that junk. Example, I picked up 3 HP Pavillion Computers, 2 With Windows 98SE and One with Millenium Edition.[I was cleaning theme up and putting the 98`s in a classroom and the ME for resale.] While cleaning them up i find a lot of OEM junk on them. [A lot of programs that haven`t been disabled since the person bought the computer.] Some people may not want that junk but don`t know how to remove. Thats how computers become slow and get people to buy better software/ hardware every year or two. It is also called Planned obsolescence and companies have been using it since the 1920`s.[If you haven`t noticied Ford was the 1st to do this.]

More Reading On Planned Obsolescence
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/259919.html

There are a few reasons why Linux is not the popular operating system.


- It will not run most computer games out there. This makes a significant portion of the private home market.

- It is not user friendly. As in its not 'work out of the box' type of OS. You have to configure it and costumize it. While this is AWESOME for people that know what they doing, for the average people who a computer is a Teevee with a keyboard plugged into it, thats a killer.

- No standardization. There are hundreds of Linux based OS and stuff flying around. Its insane to try and find something good for you to use and the documentation most linux based programs have is again, very technical.



If Linux made itself direct-x compatible and could run any windows game out there... AND the linux community banded together to have one super website where all the stuff that is made for linux is categorized and 'marketted' with easier documentation or work-out-of-the-box then Microsoft would be in serious trouble.

Actually, it will run most games, just not as many new games as windows. A lot of stuff is supported via wine/cedega. Besides, all the latest games are just a dual boot away.
Iono about that. It's not user friendly for someone who's used to windows, but since there isn't much in the way of market penetration for it I'm not sure if figuring out the ins/outs of it would be any harder than figuring the ins/outs of windows is for someone with no previous experience.
There's one shared, albeit tweaked in some cases, kernel, between different linux distributions and all of 'em use, more or less, the same set of GNU programs. The biggest differences between distributions tends to be in how those programs are install/organized. In fact, I would say that, since driver support is consistent across release/time and package/program selection varies little between distributions, linux is far more standardized than windows. For example, hardware supported from 1998 will likely still be supported in 2008, and when switching to another distribution one can more or less keep the same set of programs. I can't do this with windows 2000/vista, or even xp/vista, and based on your post regarding the USB cam, you can't either.

I've used Linux for the past 4 years or so. Initially I just dual booted with Windows to try it out and see what it was like, but eventually I found myself never booting into Windows on some of my machines (my laptop for example, since it wasn't used for gaming), and ended up going with only Linux.

That said, I can't see too many people switching to Linux. User-friendliness is a non-issue at this point as many Linux distros now are quite user friendly, even surpassing Windows in some ways. However, there are definitely other factors that will prevent most people from switching.

1. Third party support. As has been said before, many third party applications, namely high grade professional oriented applications and games in particular, tend not to have Linux versions written.
2. The actual switching itself. It doesn't matter how user friendly an OS is. Chances are, if it didn't come with the computer, it won't be used on the computer. Most people simply do not have the technical knowledge or the patience required to install an OS, so they simply won't do it. This is in fact, probably the biggest barrier to adopting Linux, even more than the third party application support. This isn't the only case this happens, you also don't see all that many Apple computers with Windows running on them either, even though it can be installed. Most people simply have no reason to.

I tried Linux and found it to be a real pain to use. Windows is too buggy and irritating for my needs so I use Mac OS X instead. It's very easy to use yet reliable too. Really good, in fact.

I find the idea behind Linux to be admirable. An OS that is free (or at least cheap) is excellent. The thing that really stops me from making the switch is my love of gaming. Linux just can't measure up to Windows in that regard and probably shouldn't be expected to. I'm not a big fan of Microsoft; in fact, I'm not a big fan of corporations in general. Unfortunately, the reality is that Windows is presently the most suitable OS for my needs and wants.

I have already done that.

WINE can run photoshop, warcraft III and GTA: San Andreas, IMO there's no windows program as relevant as those.

Last edited by Vexcalibur on 17 Feb 2008, 9:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

Already have, only use vista on the laptop. It's not hard..

Ubuntu is. Put the CD in, boot the computer. Select install. Answer some personal questions and make a password. Select how much of the hard disk to use, and the install is ready in 1/2 hour. Shut down, Remove the cd and restart. You will be informed that you need to install updates. Enter your password and this happens. You can do things while you update unlike windows.

There are less steps to complete than windows, its more cleanly specified what you are doing and its quicker on the install. The only problem i have ever had was with the power saving features of my motherboard, and thats apparently because Asus doesnt follow the design specifications.



Firstly, they do that. Repositories insure that things are safe to install as they are subject to scrutiny before they are released to public. By the public. This is a big part of the reason that linux is so secure.

The problem is that directx belongs to microsoft and they have no interests in freely sharing that code. Nothing to do with failure on linux programmers fault. Sure, you can learn to program in it, but to attach the core of it to the operating system requires the consent and code of the patent holder. Dont believe me? Then go ahead and install directx10 on windows xp. What? You cannot? Its for vista only!

Another example. Windows uses a hard drive system called NTFS. Its propriety, and aspects of it are held in trust by Microsoft. The fact is that some linux people have managed to reverse engineer it allowing linux to read from those tracks. Microsoft has chosen to not pursue the matter nor change the workings of NTFS, but that could change at any time.

In fact, Microsoft has a outstanding offer to allow other operating systems access to such things. The price to pay is that they get a royalty on each install. Kinda spoils the concept of open source and free, doesnt it?

Ubuntu hmmm...

ill have to look it up.

It will get to that stage. Many games are starting to port to linux, such as Eve Online. Id Software, makers of quake and many other games are famous for providing linux versions of their games. Valve, the makers of halflife, counterstrike and other games does linux ports. Or will. Or something.I dont game..

I play Second life natively using linux, and its servers all all linux based, and soon will be open source, head to toe.

The first thing that happened when I tried to install, was the infamous "/bin/sh can't access tty" error. So much for the installation. After several hours of googling I found the parametres that was needed to make the installation work, some claim it was a kernel problem with SATA drives. I guess alternate CD would have been an option too, but downloading ~700MBs doesn't happen in a second, either.

Then there's the problem with Internet: by default, Windows shuts down the LAN cards, so that needed to be fixed (actually, that's not Ubuntu's fault). My DSL now works... for about 30mins . Then it has to be manually restarted again, since there is something that (K)Ubuntu doesn't recognize about DHCP lease or something like that (one of the answers from Ubuntuforums were something along the lines of "Windows is broken since it can autoupdate the connection by default"... right ).

Refresh rates and drivers; whoa, again it took an uncountable amount of time to google how to get 85Hz, instead of 60Hz, which makes my eyes bleed.

Random stuff that I can recall at the moment: mouse was acting very strangely, fortunately moving it to USB instead of PS/2 fixed it; my eSATA drive didn't automount, nor could I edit its NTFS content (both fixed later, iirc). Also, insert stuff here that I've luckily forgotten already, too many problems to remember.

As if things weren't already been such a hassle, I decided to update to Gutsy when it came out. First update... the program froze for hours, needless to say it had pretty much ruined the whole (K)Ubuntu installation. Second try... the update froze since the DSL stopped working. No lease autorenew I guess. Third try it worked... until there was some file called "tzdata" that effectively kept me from installing anything.

After that I pretty much gave up, haven't tried it for some months. Right now I'm too busy to and fix something just to do my surfin' around the web. And as you can see I'm not alone. 21% say that there were no problems with Gutsy update/install, and as high as 1/3rd say there are many problems that they haven't been able to solve. I know all this is free, but I wouldn't exactly call that a very successful product
Source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=580852

For me, the ultimate solution is two computers and a KVM. One linux, one windows. Can't go wrong.

Having used Ubuntu (and having to do a reinstall twice) it is useful though too much hand holding caused a problem for me there. Windows has its problems but then again the OS is created by humans and there are thousands of lines of code in there so mistakes can and do happen. In the case of linux access to that code is there for all so mistakes can be fixed. For an easy to distrobution try Ubuntu live or even better Debian Live. In addition, most Linuxes are now trying unification.