Saying Goodbye To Windows
I've been a lifelong Windows user. The first computer I ever had ran Windows 3.1 and I eagerly upgraded to Windows 95, 98, and 2000. I considered myself a power user of these operating systems. Yes, I ran Windows, but I also developed in Windows frequently, and I understood Windows at an accomplished level.
Though I've been an Open-Source advocate for quite some time, I frequently experienced major problems when trying out Linux.
I tried a version of RedHat when I was in high school, and I tried Mandrake, Gentoo, and Fedora when I was in college. Whenever I tried to use Linux, I was met with some kind of problem that I couldn't overcome by myself. A "deal-breaker", as I called it, that left me to transition back to Windows with frustration.
I lived on the Computer Interest Floor when I was in college, and a lot of my friends ran Linux, so I figured it would be a great time to evaluate Linux. I tried many times to run Linux with the help of these friends, but even they, as Linux Gurus, discovered my problems couldn't be overcome. I used my computer for everything - work, school, multimedia, and even television. Not being able to do my job (which was writing Flash applications) was a dealbreaker one year. Not being able to use my tv-card in Linux was a dealbreaker another year.
Despite being a huge fan of open-source as a philosophy, Linux was always not quite ready for me as a user. By the time I had "given up" on Linux, I was running Windows 2000 exclusively (I liked 2000 a lot more than XP, which I found obnoxious). Every machine I set up ran Windows 2000. I replaced the shell with the open-source LiteStep and a custom theme I wrote. I replaced the file manager with the freeware x2explorer. I ran OpenOffice rather than MS Office, and FireFox rather than IE. I liked joking that the only part of Windows I used was the kernel - everything on top of it was free, and usually open.
A year or so ago, when I started reading about Vista, I knew I was in for trouble. I resisted XP because I didn't like the direction it took, and Vista seemed even worse. DRM drivers, "call-home" spyware, and a general lack of control in the hands of users all really irked me. I kept reading articles about planned features for Vista, and eventually I discovered something that was new to me.
A dealbreaker. In Windows. At first I tried to convince myself that it was just a rumor, but as more articles were published it became clear that there was no way around it. Windows Vista binds itself to your computer hardware. If I install Windows Vista on a certain machine, then decide to replace the motherboard in that machine, Vista considers that to be a "new" computer. Despite the fact that the "old computer" is just a scrapped motherboard sitting in a box in my closet, and despite the fact that the hard drive upon which Vista was installed remains, Vista considers it a brand new computer.
They give you the first "new computer" categorized in this manner a free pass. Upgrade the motherboard again, however, and you need to buy a new copy of Vista.
My main desktop, which I call "wrath" has been my main desktop for many years. It has run Windows 2000 as long as it has existed, and it has been through at least 5 motherboards, 10 hard drives, 10 ram sticks, 3 cases, and 3 video cards. The hardware has changed regularly, but I always considered it the same machine, because it was my ONLY desktop machine and the components that made up my previous desktop went into a box in the closet. This means that the copy of Windows 2000 I purchased for use as my desktop OS has always been active on only one machine. This is a legitimate use of my Windows 2000 CD, well within legality and with a clear intention NOT to unfairly pirate the OS in any way. Yet, as of Vista, I would have needed to buy 2 or 3 copies of Vista for this. That's simply unacceptable. That's a dealbreaker.
As the days ticked by, they approached two important dates: the day of release for Windows Vista and the official day that Windows 2000 would stop being supported. No more patches, no more security upgrades for 2000 users. I was a Windows fan, but I'm not stupid: running Windows without security patches is technological suicide. I could buy myself some time by biting the bullet and upgrading to XP, but that wasn't really a permanent solution. I absolutely would never be willing to install Vista, so I had to come up with a way to continue using my computer in spite of that. It was time to return to my old rival, Linux.
About 8 months ago, I began a process of migrating to Linux. This was not my usual "install Linux and see how I like it" process - this was a full-on switch, with the intention of being permanent. When the process was complete, I'd be using Linux as my main desktop operating system. I was out of options for Windows, so I was embracing Linux entirely.
I needed to be competent with Linux by the time Vista came out. That meant no copping-out and dual-booting, and it meant not building a spare Linux box to "play around with". I had to immerse myself in Linux if I were going to really learn it.
Instead, I would build a spare Windows box to "play around with" so that I could continue running games and video editing tools. I did all of my multimedia tv-watching on an XP Box in the living room, so I wouldn't have to depend on Linux for that (since it has always given me trouble). With my requirements from my desktop machine relaxed, I had a much better chance of being successful with Linux.
It took some time to get the multimedia box stable, the windows machine built, and a network-storage solution enabled in my home so I could share things like music across my network. I was able to finally switch to Ubuntu Linux about 3 months ago.
How has it been?
Getting my mouse to work correctly has been a pain. Making Ubuntu play nicely with my Western Digital NetCenter was something of a nightmare. Linux can't seem to handle my KVM switch without disabling my mouse wheel. Every torrent app for Linux is inferior to uTorrent. I've definitely dealt with a lot of frustration in Ubuntu - frustration with things that I took for granted when I used Windows. Despite these frustrations, there has been a noticeable lack of something important: a dealbreaker.
As obnoxious as Ubuntu can be at times, nothing so far has made me give up and re-install Windows. Nothing has gone past the level of annoyance.
This week Vista was released to the world. Linux has no dealbreakers, only annoyances. Windows has a dealbreaker. For the first time since I started using a computer, the roles of Linux and Windows have switched for me. I've enjoyed Ubuntu so much that I'm considering installing it on my laptop.
Have I learned enough about Linux to consider myself "competent" with it in time for Vista's release? Not as much as I'd like, but I'm quick enough performing tasks in Linux that I feel like I've moved past the hardest part of the learning curve. By the time XP stops being patched, I think I will be comfortable enough with Linux to put it on my multimedia machine. By the time Windows 2000 stops being supported, I think I'll be okay with the idea of shutting down my backup Windows machine permanently.
A new version of Windows is out, and for the first time I don't care.
I'm a Linux User now.
John:
It wasn’t that long ago that the idea of upgrading to Linux was oxymoronic. I’m the biggest supporter of Windows I know, but even I think Vista is a load of trash. Everything I’ve heard about it has been about the flaws and bone-headed “features”, rather than something that I need. I switched my laptop to Ubuntu to experiment and found it acceptable for everything I do, and I think that the tighter Microsoft squeezes its users, the more people will look for alternatives. With Macs on the market, you’d think they’d be more careful about alienating their customers. Sad to say, but I think the great behemoth is likely to topple in this decade.
29 January 2007, 3:06 pmRod:
John:
No kidding. I feel like I’m watching microsoft destroy itself.
One of the most interesting things MS has been doing has been cracking down on piracy. I think this is a major mistake. Most people I’ve known have pirated Windows. Before buying my own copies of 2k and XP, I pirated 95 and 98 (and 2000 before I bought it). Lots of people did the same. Did that mean MS lost money? Quite the contrary, it meant that people would get used to Microsoft products at home, so that when they went to work they needed the same environment, and their company would legitimately purchase it.
I think the mere idea of paying for an os for home use (and if you run multiple machines at home, paying for MULTIPLE licenses) is outrageous to most people, so people are starting to turn toward Linux more. As they do so for home, they will more and more often want Linux at work as well.
If MS wanted to “tighten” down on users, what they SHOULD do is charge 10 bucks for the home edition and 100 bucks for the business edition, and state in the EULA that installing Home in an office is a violation of the terms.
200 bucks for a decent OS at home? With free Linux a torrent away? You’ve GOT to be kidding.
So out of desperation, they have to promote stuff like driver DRM and “trusted” code, such that the only way to possibly get your monitor to work is to be running windows. That’s what Vista is all about: establishing that proprietary relationship. Guess what - THAT’S A FUCKING MAC. And if I’m going to be putting up with Mac bullshit, I may as well own a Mac!
When my 2k license runs out, I’ll likely do games under Crossover Linux on my desktop and shift to doing video editing on a mac. I’ll be windowless before the sequel to Vista is released, I imagine.
Microsoft’s tactics are turning away geeks like you and I, such that we use Linux (and, as Geeks, we are likely to improve it), and turning regular users toward Macs. This, combined with the fact that most of the stuff you DO on your computer (check e-mail, read the news, etc) can now be done through yahoo and google services, and people just have no need for a Windows PC anymore.
In 10 years, when someone says “Microsoft” the only thing people will think of is their XBox 9000 console.
29 January 2007, 4:46 pmDan:
I’m going through much a similar transition now Rod. I’ve tried Linux a couple times over the past few years, every time I got so frustrated I dumped it within a week. Now…now I’m just tired of Microsoft telling me what I can and cannot do. Not being able to change hardware is a big, big deal to me as I go through a minimum of 3 motherboards every year.
I’m currently downloading Sabayon as I type this, I just today figured I better get started on learning it right now instead of waiting til the last minute. I’ve always used XP and always shut down all the unnecessary bullshit that both Microsoft and other companies try to install. I’ve never really had a complaint until recently, with Microsoft’s ‘Genuine Advantage’ crap that somehow decided I didn’t have a legal copy of XP or XP x64 - that upset me pretty greatly as I actually do run legal copies of both.
But anyways.
I hope that in time I’ll become as good with Linux as I have become with XP, I don’t feel I’ll ever get into it as much as some guys but I just want an OS that is well supported and doesn’t try to screw me at every corner.
29 January 2007, 10:51 pmbbot:
Congratulations. :) Welcome to civilization.
31 January 2007, 9:14 amIronically, I just reinstalled XP so I could play games; since my computer isn’t grunty enough to run windows emulation software at an acceptable speed.
Jason:
Rod,
I’m going through a similar experience. I switched to using Ubuntu 6.06 pretty much exclusively about a month ago. I wanted to just play around with it first on an old computer that my mother was throwing out, but now the only thing I use is my Linux box. My reason for switching to Linux is because I’m a masochist, and Linux really is a challenge to get running properly. It’s the reason I started studying computer science myself. I just like puzzles.
However, I have found two close deal-breakers in Ubuntu. I’ve scoured the web looking for all the codecs I can find, but I have yet to get DVDs to play consistently in Ubuntu. Sometimes it’ll play; other times it won’t; and still other times it says I don’t have a DVD drive. The second close deal-breaker is that there is no iTunes for Linux. Right before I switched to Ubuntu, I had discovered the joy of going to the iTunes store and downloading an obscure album instantaneously. I got hopeful about Crossover Office, but a friend of mine tried it, and it froze his computer up when he tried to use iTunes.
But just like you said: Those are annoyances. Big annoyances. But not deal-breakers. If you find a way to play DVDs on your Ubuntu, I hope you’ll write a tutorial about it.
P.S. I’m graduating this spring, and your “Bigger and Better Things…” post has scared the beejesus out of me.
31 January 2007, 5:59 pmme22:
I’ve found that linux can do DVDs and video quite well, but it requires much tweaking, presumably because of legal issues.
I use gentoo, and by turning on all the options (for questionably-legal dvd decrypters and such) and using the latest versions, xine does a nice job of playing DVDs (with menus) and mplayer can play anything else, including the Advanced SSA subs in mkv containers. I’ve actually had an easier time watching anime than I did in windows because portage pulls in the codecs automatically for me.
3 February 2007, 11:51 pmMatt:
Have you tried Azureus on Linux? I find it to be a very nice, open source, platform independent torrent client.
4 February 2007, 8:57 pmRod:
Matt,
I’ved tried Azureus, but I found it to be a resource hog. I’ve been using KTorrent lately, but eh.
I’m hopeful for Deluge, but it has neither RSS nor magic directory support. Rtorrent, the command line client, does have magic directory support though.
4 February 2007, 9:36 pmRodrigo:
I’m going through the same thing. Switching over to linux I have found a few annoyances but nothing I couldn’t get around. Now I wish that software that does what the company I work for needs so that I could happily go around installing linux on all the machines in the office. That sure would be a happy day….
5 February 2007, 10:43 amRobert:
if you want uTorrent so bad, why don’t you use it?
only thing you have to do is install wine, and run the executable
i used utorrent with Ubuntu myself as i was getting started with it.
the dealbraker for installing it on my new laptop is simply the fact that - no matter how much i try, no mater how many howtos i work through i can’t get my HDA Soundcard to work - which is pretty much a bummer.
i hope the release of feisty in april deals with the problem…
and as for the nice and shiny eye-candy… i use beryl - mostly to impress my friends with it, and 3 of them converted lately.
the thing with linux is that you have to tweak, set end edit your brains out everytime you want to do something, but after you get it working you kinda get the nice feeling that you actually did it yourself. not to mention the stability whith which my linux box does its job.
i’ve come to realize that i actually miss the terminal ans the multiple desktops when i’m using windows and i like the feeling surfing the web without the need of a firewall or AV
8 February 2007, 12:02 pmAlex:
I love this! It’s just wonderfull, I really think the release of Vista will be moreof a bad then a good thing to Microsoft. With the free alternatives Ubunu and openSUSE, It’s time for revolution at last! I’ve been trough the same mess as you, (”dealbrakers”) but Linux is beginning to support every mainstream piece of hardware out there. I’ve also noticed the increasing time I spend in a terminal, you should try it some time, there are lots of great torrentapps on the cmd-line that are extremely efficient in memmory-usage.
8 February 2007, 12:21 pm(I use gentoo btw, I’ve seen a lot of them, but I feel quite “settled” now.)
Peter Pan:
Greetings All….
I too have been concerned about the direction Windows has taken. I have been experimenting with Linux for about 3 months now. So many distros!! I’ve tried roughly 15 so far…I recently have stumbled onto DreamLinux and SabayonLinux. I have only tried the live cd versions and have found them to be quite friendly towards multimedia…..Also have tried Ubuntu MMC….Very friendly too.
8 February 2007, 1:08 pmRegards,
Peter Pan
dale:
I started fooling around with linux a few months ago and gave it up. Then a friend online pointed me to ubuntu and I installed it on an old puter I picked up off a trash pile. Granted i did add some memory, but it is a whole lot more stable than my XP box. and other than brief power outages has been on constantly for 4 or 5 months. It’s slowly becoming my favorite puter to use, especially online. I am not going to buy Vista, I think this time Microsoft has shot themselves in the foot.
8 February 2007, 1:23 pmJoey Bananas:
I find myself in the same boat as the lot of ya. I’ve been a long time Windows user (bought a copy of Windows 2.0 a week after it came out :) ) And of course there’s that version of Windows that comes free when you buy a computer (yes, that was sarcasm.) But now I’m wrestling with Ubuntu Linux. It’s weird. It’s a love/hate relationship. For starters, I can’t get the touchpad to stop accepting the slightest touch of my hand as a mouse click. It results in the OS doing seemingly random things like switching tasks on me, minimizing windows, sometimes I’ll get halfway through a typed sentence before I realize I accidentally clicked the touchpad and now I’m typing in a completely different area of the window I’m working with…
Annoyance in the extreme… but not a ‘dealbreaker’ as put so eloquently in the original post.
As a tech, I have to learn Vista. As a tech, you go to where the money is. And Vista is tech supporter’s gold mine, I guarantee it :)
And through all of this, I have to say that Vista is a great thing. I’d have never gotten serious about Linux without it :) I’m also a Mac user, and now I’m also tinkering with AROS, and soon I’ll add Solaris to the list. Turns out I’d gotten complacent with Windows and forgot to go look at what a good operating system can be. And if my HTML tags are showing on that, my apologies, I’m too lazy to check that they work :)
8 February 2007, 1:26 pmAl:
I recently installed Ubuntu 6.10 on my spare computer. I’ve used Linux in the past, and can see with this distribution Linux has come a long way. Everything can be installed easily and with out too much trouble via apt-get or synaptic. Video card drivers, a great many number of applications, and best of all the dependencies are resolved automatically. No more dependency hell! Beryl and compiz are amazing desktop managers, they really add to the user experience as well as helping you be more productive and organized. Installing was easy once you find the right repos, and then a few customizations to xorg.conf and your set. I don’t really like the file manager I use in gnome (nautilus). It seems too bulky and consumes a bit too much of the window, even with the customization it lets you do. I like the simple file manager in windows since that’s what I’m used to anyway… Anyone know of a windows-like file manager that is light, fast and simple, and that I can run in gnome?
8 February 2007, 1:52 pmDavid Pegg:
I’ve dabbled with Linux in the past and consider myself to be an advanced user of Windows. I would like to use Linux instead of Windows but find that even now it still seems like an immature product sometimes.
For example I installed Ubuntu and then tried instaling Parallels for Linux. However, after messing about with the different packages available for download I came across the right one (.deb)
However after installation where is it? There is no handy shortcut on the desktop and its not under the application menu. I did a search for it and found loads of files and what appears to be an .exe file but it won’t run.
This just goes to show that the average Linux developer still codes expecting that average Linux user to be a “geek” and not a normal person.
Had this installation been on a Windows box there would be a shortcut on the desktop and added to the programs menu. Until they sort these little problems out Linux will remain in the wilderness and may in fact miss out to OSX which I think has been the best Unix/Linux implementation yet.
8 February 2007, 1:55 pmDaniel Herkes:
I’ve used LINUX for the last eleven years. I recently had to adopt a xp box for a school project. What a joke. What a step backward. The4 reason M$ has the biggest share of the os market is not because of the quality of their software.
8 February 2007, 3:06 pmTyler:
Jason,
One of the first things I do when I have a fresh install of Ubuntu is install Automatix. Basically, it’s just a script that downloads and installs the things that you wish Ubuntu had come with by default, but can’t because of “proprietary software” issues. Among the things you can choose for it are DVD/MP3 codec support, openoffice (an office suite), and even the java SDK if you’re a programmer. There’s a relatively large list of things you can choose from, and it installs them all automatically for you. Also, for people looking for a nice alternative to iTunes (admittedly without the itunes store) try out Amarok.
Anyway, I havent had a single problem with DVD’s since installing the DVD support in that, so give it a try.
8 February 2007, 4:17 pmEcnassianer:
Stories like these bring a tear to my eye. Welcome to the family brother. ;)
8 February 2007, 4:46 pmMike:
I switched 2 years ago. It’s amazing how far Linux has come in that time. I recently switched from Fedora to Ubuntu. Automatix is a great way to get a lot of basic Linux goodies on a new installation. That includes Flash, Java, DVD, and music stuff, among others.
8 February 2007, 5:22 pmChiron:
I feel your pain, and I have made a similar decision. Vista is the dealbreaker, both because of its restrictive licensing, and its “DRM”, which is intrusive and hobbles the OS.
Like you, I’ve always had problems with some aspect of Linux or another - not dealbreakers, necessarily, but serious annoyances. However, I am also migrating away from Microsoft, as time and finances permit (I need to get a CD drive replaced on my laptop before I can use the install disks, that sort of thing…).
As more people migrate to Linux, perhaps there will be more effort for people to solve the annoyances and finally turn it into “an operating system for human beings”.
8 February 2007, 6:30 pmRod:
Holy crap, where did you all come from? :)
8 February 2007, 7:19 pmBob P:
I have been running Windows since 3.1. I started experimenting with Linux about 3 years ago. I tried Fedora, Suse and several others. At that time there were not sufficient program alternatives to replace my windows programs and it was hard at first (coming from windows) to install new software. Linux has come a long way fast. I installed Kubuntu 6.06 on my laptop to replace Windows XP and everything works except the camera (no big loss, and there is a project for it!). Thanks to Adept and Automatix I was able to download programs so that I have every program equivalent I need, except a good replacement for Quicken. The Windows XP which was preinstalled is now in a virtual disk. Useful to run Quicken and any others that may not have an equivalent now.
8 February 2007, 9:11 pmAditya:
Hey, if you really want to immerse yourself in Linux and learn it, why don’t you try Slackware instead of Ubuntu.
9 February 2007, 12:51 amRoy Schestowitz:
Bravo, brother. Rest assured, it gets easier every week. It’s a transition process.
9 February 2007, 4:52 amSawyer:
Saw this Vista thing comin, and decided to jump ship! The only thing worth following for me was Firefox and the dropping of support for win98 left me strategizing.
9 February 2007, 8:47 amMy first thought was win2000, but I saw how alot of the older games needed more memory, and this is what gets my goat about microsoft(How in the hell did buying a new OS mean needing more power for the same apps?!). Then XP, but even worse, more power for the desktop than the app! Wow, with Vista it just became illogical to have that OS on any system.
I tried Damn Small Linux and loved it, but needed to much of my time to learn, so I went to OSDisc.com and went for the most commercial looking distro that looked liked the easiest to install: Mandriva 2007.
I dual boot for security online with linux; and still have win98 for those 2-5 year old-$9.99 games I can still buy anywhere or online. Linux has been a total new learning experience, but I am totally happy with it.
It is also good to see this discussion; Vista is a complete Corporate Big Brother operating system.
aardvark:
Well, activation is the deal breaker for me. I actually purchased 5 licenses to get a volume license deal for Windows XP, when I only needed one license for one machine to avoid the activation crap. I also like to upgrade and reconfigure my system often. So, this worked ideally for years. Coincidently, the day after Vista was released, I started getting a notification from Windows that my copy was not genuine. Total bullshit, and I’m sure it is a result of frequent re-installations AND Microsoft trying to “persuade” an upgrade. I haven’t changed my motherboard, graphics adapter, or process, but I’ve upgraded harddrives several times. Anyhow, I decided that there is no way in hell I’ll buy another activate application. Funny, pirates always find ways to pirate. Theives always find ways to steal. And these companies that implement activation systems say they are loosing money to those types of people. That is also so much bullshit. Those types of people were never going to buy the software anyway! The purpose for implementing activation is to monitor users, and is a stepping stone to subscription based software. Time to switch. You know, this is going to create a great opportunity for Linux consultants. Think of all the small businesses that are not going to want to pay outlandish prices for software and have ongoing expense of using it.
9 February 2007, 12:13 pmLasse:
Thats a nice story.
All of the annoyances you guys speak of sounds pretty easy to get around. I’ve never, never, had any problems with DVD playback after I installed all the codecs (in one apt-get install commmand), and though I agree almost every regular USB mouse should be fully supported (scroller, “back&forward”-buttons) out of the box, its never really a problem that can’t be solved with 10 minuits of googling and fixing.
Why dont you all try out http://www.ubuntuguide.org and http://www.ubuntuforums.org .
I’ve been using GNU/Linux for the last 4 years, first Debian, then some Red Hat and Fedora, and for the last year and a half Ubuntu. The Linux Desktop experience has changed totally, in terms of ease of use and eye candy. But it still has that unique feature that you just dont get with any other operating system: Freedom.
Again, welcome.
9 February 2007, 5:00 pmFreddo:
Rod:
from stumbleupon.com
I’m using linux on a regular basis since 1994… welcome aboard!
9 February 2007, 5:07 pmRich:
It doesn’t make sense that your dealbreaker was the hardware signature for windows. That’s been around since XP. I’ve gotten around that by buying Dells, whose license allows an installation of Dell’s XP on any machine with a Dell BIOS.
I’ve had *exactly* the same problems with Linux as you have, and I have to keep switching back. Unfortunately, your post didn’t convince me.
9 February 2007, 6:44 pmRod:
Rich:
I don’t use XP either. ;) I’ve kept with Windows 2000 since I got it, and I only put XP on my multimedia machine. I’m also not sure what you say is accurate, as I’ve updated the motherboard for that XP machine a number of times. I had to call and “activate” it repeatedly, but there was never any pressure to buy an additional license.
Linux isn’t for everyone. As much as the open source community likes to say “install ubuntu, it’s easy!” the fact is that it isn’t QUITE that good yet. It still has some catching up to do in the usability department.
On digg a few days ago, someone posted about how “networking in ubuntu now better than windows!” and made a post about an application for linux that made networking easier. It was, in short, almost as easy as it was in windows. There’s a tendency in the Linux community to turn “X is better than it was before!” into “X is now superior to the equivalent in all other operating systems!” I don’t blame them - major advancements in Linux are extremely exciting, so it’s easy to get overexcited.
In any case, if Ubuntu isn’t for you, it isn’t for you. It was for me, because a) my requirements are somewhat more relaxed than they used to be b) Linux is now much more capable than it used to be and c) Vista sucks enough to make me tolerate annoyances.
9 February 2007, 7:03 pmSiddhartha Gandhi:
Linux is the best. Don’t try too hard to make basic users who are only used to Windows (and even struggle with Windows) to convert to this. If a person has never experienced Windows, then Ubuntu is the perfect place to start.
It can do everything, pretty much, from DVD playing (works great for me) to video editing. If you don’t want to use the terminal, you don’t have to.
Trust me, it will work great for you, and if you ever have problems just join ubuntu IRC channel, and you will get great support that will definitely solve your problems. There’s virtually nothing thats holding Linux back, and this will be especially true after the release of Feisty Fawn and Fedora 7.
9 February 2007, 7:34 pmVirgil M Leisure:
I have been running SuSE Linux since version 8.0 and have worked through all of the annoyances to the latest version 10.0. All my problems were solved when I discovered Packman. I can do anything with my linux distro except play my favorite game program ” Empire Earth “. I have a dual boot with Windows 2000. I even play ” Age of Empires ” running WINE. I only wish I had back all of the money I wasted on all the Windows OS from 95 to 2000 and all of the crashes and all of the programs to make it work and all of the destroyed hard drives and sleepless nights. I tolerate Windows. However, I NEVER, NEVER use it on the Web. I thank all the countless people who worked so hard to bring Linux to me and continue to do so. I marvel at all the programs that I use, how great they are and only continue to improve. If it takes a little time to get Linux down, then by All means do it! I am into Linux and I’ll never look back.
9 February 2007, 8:05 pmRod:
Siddhartha,
I disagree. I like the idea of “spreading the word” about Linux, but you have to be honest with people. If you mislead people and they try Linux, then discover you misled them, they won’t trust the Linux community next time. I don’t mean to be critical, but I think “Linux Users” can often be misleading without realizing it, because they are such fans of the system that they don’t realize they’re stretching the truth.
Here are some things you said that are not true in my experience:
1) Video editing in linux is completely inferior to video editing in nearly any other system. I’m sorry, but it’s just not there yet.
2) No terminal is simply untrue. If all you ever do is check your e-mail and use Google, sure. But if you plan on using your computer in any remotely serious capacity, you WILL find your way into the terminal. It won’t be tough, and you’ll usually be pasting commands from ubuntuguide.org directly into the terminal, but you’ll definitely have to.
3) The IRC channel is worthless. Unless you’re asking a question that gets answered so frequently that it’s part of the channel FAQ, people will completely ignore you. I had to re-ask my questions about 10 times before anyone even responded to me - and since you don’t want to just paste it over and over, this process takes a good couple hours. When people answered me, the answers were usually garbage. Anecdotal example: I wanted to build KTorrent from source because the SVN version supported RSS feeds, so I asked how to build source code. I was getting errors about gcc. I explained to the channel what I was trying to do and why, and their suggestion was to use uTorrent under wine. Here I was, asking how to build a project from source, and they completely avoided it. By the way, running uTorrent under wine sucks - it frequently didnt catch things via RSS for some reason, not to mention that the system tray icon and previewing from the torrent window didn’t work. Nearly every experience with the IRC channel was like this - it’s worthless unless they can do a !faq for your question, and then you may as well just use ubuntuguide.org.
Be careful when you promote linux. It’s very, very good. It’s much better than it used to be. But it is NOT some manifestation of the ideal, and it’s DEFINITELY not ready for everyone.
9 February 2007, 10:35 pmDan White:
I got here via Stumble upon and made me laugh. I’m the same, lifelong Windows user (although I put up with XP activation) and I too saw Microsoft forcing me away from their OS. I’m always happy to use the right tool for the job, there’s no Windows/Linux fanboy in me, but Vista seems to be going too far in my opinion.
10 February 2007, 8:17 amSo I too underwent the same transition at home and detailed my steps in doing so.
Mike:
I think it’s important to be specific about what is and isn’t there yet. I recently set up Ubuntu on my brother-in-law’s laptop he’s into video editing on Windows, I’m not. He wanted Linux specifically so he could use Cinelerra. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinelerra Like I said, I’m not into video editing but I don’t know if I could say it’s “not there” in Linux when there is a program there that is apparently comparable to Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Shake.
When I first started using Linux there were many areas where I found Windows to be superior. But in retrospect, after learning the “Linux way,” I changed my mind. Linux is different. In my opinion, it’s superior to Windows, but I’ve invested the time to learn the Linux way to do things. I don’t expect new Linux users to agree with my assessment, but you may agree after you get some experience with it. It’s not unlike changing to any new OS, even a new version of Windows. At first it’s natural to appreciate the old way. The real test is how you feel after you’ve fully learned the new OS and then try to use the old one for a bit. Naturally, there is one you’ll prefer.
I’m sorry you didn’t get the answers you wanted on IRC, I prefer the forums myself. However, I’m not sure that I’d say you got bad advice or that it was useless. I’ve found it better to work with binaries or stable code releases, than to install from a source SVN.
As an FYI, there is a binary KTorrent package for Ubuntu that claims to include RSS feeds at the KTorrent website.
http://ktorrent.org/index.php?page=downloads
That link also has instructions on how to compile from source. Hope it helps.
10 February 2007, 1:51 pmVirgil M Leisure:
Well, my main use for linux is photo editing for which I use The GIMP and DigiKam. My Grandkids often use my linux system for their school projects since their windows system with Photoshop has crashed along with all of their files on their hard drive. The programs installed on the Windows system are not at fault it is the operating system that is at fault. They use OpenOffice.org suite and they tell me that it no different than using their computer. Their projects include graphics as well as text. I have a friend who spends more time backing up his Windows system than normal use. My sons computer has crashed three times just this last year along with all his valueable data. He comes to me hard drive in hand asking if I can save his hard drive with my Linux system. My son-in-law has crashed his computer twice this last year along with all his vacation pictures. He now wants Linux installed on his computer. My system went down once this last year because of a graphics card failure, I replaced it along with a new power supply and more memory. I booted up my linux system and all came back as if nothing ahd happened. I have never lost a file on linux in the last three years. I think SuSE Linux along with KDE is very ready for the average user. Linux has only one major draw back and that is the games kids play. Linux is an ongoing develpoment and can be absolutely free.
10 February 2007, 6:27 pmPaul:
Vista definitely sucks, but have you tried Knoppix, (knopper.net) the live Debian Linux CD?? Other than having to change the Dell video memory allocation from 1 meg to 8 megs, this boots most machines, and w/o touching the hard drive - it figures out video, NIC, sound etc. In fact, I jumped the first time I heard the lady’s voice say “Initializing system startup” from the speakers. Save your config on a memory stick, and you can take “your” computer anywhere. Install to the had drive and no figuring out all the miscellaneous annoyances common w/Linux distros. Version 5.0.1 reads and writes NTFS (unless the drive is flagged dirty). Wine runs windows apps (I’ve only tried solitaire though). Great for killing rootkit virii.
-Paul
10 February 2007, 9:00 pmShaun:
Reading your linux story was like reading my own - just well worded.
I am an IT student and I was running Windows 2003 Server instead of XP because I felt it was more stable and slightly more secure. It worked well, but like you I felt Vista was a deal breaker, and so moved to Fedora Core 6 cold turkey. It was hard. It took me 3 days to learn how to get my NTFS drives to mount, or videos to play (I did not realize Fedora had a open source only policy), and even now 6 months on, I still Google every day to try and find out how to do something.
Try the media box on Linux. MythTV is fantastic if you can get it running (mine crashes), but even the built in TV Viewer program is ok - I use it all the time. If only it could rip, shrink and burn DVD’s.
Congratulations on switching.
13 February 2007, 12:08 amPilli:
Ditto to everything above.
I’m a long-term windows user. I’m not a geek, not a super user or anything like that. Just a bog standard home user. Nevertheless, the future that MS represents is not something that I want anything to do with. I run Ubuntu Edgy now. It’s had my brain running at max for the last four months now, a massive learning curve just to get my PC operating in the way that I want it to.
What has this taught me?
I understand my PC better than I ever have. It’s mine, I control it…in fact I contributed to the build of my OS.
Better than this, I am not subject to the whims of some corporation and when I have problems, I do not have to engage the services of either a spotty kid at PC world (who knows f**k all) or a rampant money grabbing tech head.
It’s sometimes raw, it may not be uber pretty but it’s bloody good.
13 February 2007, 3:35 pmKonan:
I did the same exact dance years ago. I would load Linux on a “spare” computer that was always too slow to do much of anything. Then I would hit something that I didn’t know how to fix, and back to winders I went.
Until one month came along that EVERYTHING that could possibly go wrong with windows went wrong. I backed up my data, loaded RedHat 7 or 8 on my main machine, made a vow not to go back to windows for one month and if I didn’t know how to make something work, I would figure out how or not use it.
I never went back and now have a Debian desktop that as been totally stable for years and has had nothing but user program loads and minor updates. If Linux was $200 a copy, it would still be vastly superior to any Redmond product.
Konan
14 February 2007, 11:55 amDG Dev:
Allow me to say, for the gazillionth time… I’m experiencing the same thing as everyone else. I’m disillusioned with XP, and I just installed Ubuntu on an old Laptop of mine a couple weeks ago. It works beautifully (with Automatix). I’m steadily learning, and sometime after Feisty releases I’ll probably start dual-booting my XP system, my intent being to be an EXCLUSIVE Linux user sometime in the next year or so.
Reading things like this really makes me realize that MS has pushed users too far this time. First the geeks jump ship, then (because there’s so many geeks on Linux now) development for Linux will start snowballing. As a result, we will soon see better and better apps coming out, and greater support for our OS. The future of Linux looks pretty good right now.
14 February 2007, 12:29 pmYou Did What??? » Another user says goodbye To Windows:
[…] Read his story in Saying Goodbye To Windows on his blog, Absolutely No Machete Juggling. Related Posts […]
15 February 2007, 11:42 amInsameboat:
Great post. Ditto to all that has been said. I have used Windows/DOS since DOS 5.0 days. I used Windows 2000 and was tricked into upgrading to XP a few years ago. I now use SabayonLinux on an old Dell Inspiron 4000 laptop (that is now a music/file/media server on my home network) exclusively. I wouldn’t consider myself a power user, but above-average windows user. I just got tired of all the Windows crap. The virii, the malware, all of it. TRY SABAYONLINUX! In my experience it has better media support than Ubuntu Edgy(6.10), plus I am now a KDE fan and I didn’t like Gnome that much. Also the SabayonLinux community is first-rate and probably the most helpful linux community out there. I would TRULY be windows free now, if my wife weren’t a (shall we say) less than advanced computer user and is extremely resistant to change (just getting her to use Firefox has been a MAJOR chore).
15 February 2007, 2:37 pmJohn:
hey, if anyone finds their version of linux is too hard to use, why not give mandriva a shot? Its user friendly and free!
15 February 2007, 5:13 pmernie:
Ubuntu Edgy(6.10) + Automatix + easyubuntu = a very close step to a Microsoft killer. Try it out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
15 February 2007, 5:28 pmMike:
“1) Video editing in linux is completely inferior to video editing in nearly any other system. I’m sorry, but it’s just not there yet.”
Untrue. While it may be more difficult to use, Cinelerra and Cinepaint provide some of the same tools that Hollywood studios use in movies. In fact, I believe it is Cinepaint that was used in the production of The Last Samurai. The software is there, the usability isn’t.
15 February 2007, 10:19 pmkanie:
Nice to meet all of you above. I live in Seoul, Korea (I’m sorry english is not my mother tongue) and I’ve been using DOS/Windows since DOS 5.0. I used pirated version of these OSes before Windows 2K but I purchased my 2K and XP. 2K and XP was stable (relative to bluescreen nightmare of 95 and 98) and easy. I also tried RedHat 5 or 6 years ago but I could not even figure out how to type Korean language in Mozilla browser. Linux was too tricky for me and I was quite satisfied to Windows.
And there came Vista. I heard lot of rumors about Vista. DRM driver and Activation and other hindrances. And even worse, Vista will not directly support OpenGL, but emulate OpenGL applications on a DirectX layer. According to some benchmark, this will actually slow down 3DMAX, Maya or other OpenGL based softwares by TEN TIMES compared to XP. Being a graduate student studying computer graphics, I cannot work without OpenGL support. Vista was really pushing me to try out linux again.
So, last month, I downloaded ubuntu and installed it on my lab workstation. And I have to admit, it was like magic. Korean language support was as smooth as Windows, and ubuntu even mounted my old Windows filesystem without any encoding problem. Beryl eyecandy pulled out “Wow” from my friends at lab, and one of them already switched to ubuntu last week. Modern linux distros have really advanced a lot. I have to thank all the open source geeks who made this happen.
16 February 2007, 1:37 pmJoey Bananas:
“English is not my mother tongue?” You had me fooled, your skills in the language are impeccable. Don’t mind me, me so used to see peeple type like dis online, and they’re the Americans :)
Every day I read more and more about Windows Vista, and it’s like a Stephen King novel (he writes horror stories, in case they don’t get to Korea.) The Vista kernal would make a good campfire story at geek camp :) I’ve gone from my trusty old Commodore 128 to Windows 3.1, gave it up once I could afford an Amiga, then eventually had to switch to Windows again. Latest chapter? As I said before, I’m running Ubuntu.
Ubuntu’s done an unexpected thing to me though (unexpected to those who haven’t gone through ‘the process,’ that is.) I now run a laptop with 40 gig hard drive, started with 30 gigs for XP, whatever’s left for Ubuntu. As of today, I’m 10 for XP, 20 for Ubuntu, and the leftover 10 is for “other.” Gentoo, BSD, Solaris, AROS… It’s my ‘test platform.’ Ubuntu opened my eyes to the bigger and better, I always felt like I had plenty of control in my Windows XP machine, even though Microsoft’s been closing that door for more than a decade.
And Microsoft pulls the same trick every time, too… They work on the OS, and they tout it’s incredible features, and then Oops! They can’t include something, it’s not done development. Then whoops! Another feature gets cancelled, won’t be ready in time. Uh-oh! The new file system we’d gotten everyone excited about is DOA!
Then you find all of the cancelled features in a product they lovingly dub “Windows (insert OS name here) Plus!”
Somehow, they manage to get another $40 out of people for the features they promised native to the OS.
Luckily it doesn’t work that way in the Linux world. Not in Ubuntu, at least… Free is free. Freedom is freedom. I like being able to change d*mn near whatever I like on my OS, and I plan on continuing to scream ‘foul’ on Microsoft, to anyone who’ll listen.
Thanks Linus. Thanks Mark Shuttleworth. Thanks everyone in between who doesn’t have $50 billion in the bank but has a program running, smoothly or not, on my hard drive.
(steps down off the soap box, brushes it off, and hands it to the next guy)
16 February 2007, 9:06 pmNJAZ:
Vista is ok - XP is great. Guess you guys got a lot of time on your hands with the Linux stuff. Really, XP is great!!
17 February 2007, 8:38 amMike:
Time is relative. Yes, I spent more time getting my computers working flawlessly in Linux than I did in Windows. I’d estimate it took me a few hours to find out what I needed. Yes, there was a learning curve.
However, I spend no time keeping Linux safe and updated. I spend no time running spyware scans, virus scans, trojan scans, rootkit scans. I spend no time downloading updates to spyware, antivirus, antitrojan, or rootkit software. I spend to time defragging my hard drive. I spend no time disabling the spyware Microsoft sneaks into my OS updates, WGA anyone?
Linux = Time spent on initial learning curve
Windows = Time spent with ongoing maintenance
You get over a Linux learning curve. You never stop maintaining a Windows machine.
17 February 2007, 11:51 amJoey Bhananas:
Let me start by saying this is not a personal attack by any means. But NJAZ, if you think Windows Vista is even remotely “OK,” read the following article. It’s just one article. Do yourself a huge favor, and sit down for 20 minutes, and read this. It shows you why anyone who goes Vista, and everyone else that doesn’t is going to get hurt by this.
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
I suggest anyone else looking at Vista read this too… And everyone on this thread that jumped ship onto Linux, take a look at the bullet you sort of dodged. Soon we’ll all be paying more for our computers, not just Windows users, but Linux users, Mac users, pretty much anything that uses or is compatible with Windows Vista. Sound cards, video cards, hard drives, ummm, need I go on?
The sickening part about this is, Microsoft has already won, before they even sold a single copy. Microsoft is going to own the digital media market, and there’s not a *&!#^ thing we can do about it, since the majority of people are sheep. They base their computer buying decisions on things as trite as “Can it play Freecell?”
And if everything I’m saying sounds like a moron spouting conspiracy theory, read the article. Feel free to hunt down other articles, look at the writing on the wall, then if you can still say “Vista is OK,” well, have fun under Microsoft’s collective thumb.
XP is merely OK, and people have survived under this rock for some time. It has an effective interface, true enough. But for the amount of power you get, it’s not that good an OS. It’s got games, true, but do you really think Mac or Linux is incapable of graphics and speed like that? It’s the hardware, not the software, that decides that. It’s majority rule, and Microsoft played some good poker hands in the past. If people bought a computer because it was better or more powerful, well, I’d be typing this on my Amiga 9000 :)
Oh, and one more thing…. Read that article.
17 February 2007, 2:44 pmAaron:
I’ve been a Windows user/developer since Windows 3.x came out. I’ve also been a Linux user/developer for about 7 years now. When Vista became available I quickly bought a copy, as I usually do for new releases of Windows. Unfortunately I came across the same problems as I normally do with a new Windows release (missing/unstable drivers, crashes, unsupported software, and other minor anoyances that MS sees as UI enhancements). Except this time I’m fed up with it and I believe others might be as well.
I can understand software having bugs and issues for a first release, I know this story far too well (especially in linux). But I don’t believe software users should be required to pay a heafty amount for an unstable operating system with little to no support. In the past 2 weeks that I have owned Vista I have submitted at least over 44 bug reports in which Microsoft has only responded to two. This is unexceptable especially since I am acting on their behalf out of my own spare time in hopes of them fixing this POS. In the end, I have had an aweful experience with Vista and I would not suggest upgrading to anyone at this point.
It’s great to read so many stories of others switching to linux. I personally enjoy Gentoo. Although I cannot honestly say that linux is ready to meet the needs of your average gamer or media user, it has improved quite a bit in the last few years. In due time Linux will be face to face with Microsoft and when that day comes Microsoft will have no choice but to either roll over and listen to their customers, or accept defeat (if they haven’t already done so through their UAC system). Until then Microsoft will continue to rely on their marketing to sell their packaged crap to gullable customers who are willing to bend over and take it (such as myself).
Interesting enough, Vista has decided to readjust its look while I was reading this article, I thought I might share it with you all:
17 February 2007, 8:40 pmhttp://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t103/coprime/vista.jpg
Rod:
Joey,
That article is highly questionable. It bases a lot of what it says about digital content delivery on the following premise:
“S/PDIF doesn’t provide any content protection, Vista requires that it be disabled when playing protected content [Note E]. In other words if you’ve sunk a pile of money into a high-end audio setup fed from an S/PDIF digital output, you won’t be able to use it with protected content. Instead of hearing premium high-definition audio, you get treated to premium high-definition silence.”
This is baloney. First, everything I’ve read about content-management with drivers in Vista has been saying that when a digital method fails to provide content-management, the OS does a fall-back to analog. So if you hook up your awesome monitor digitally but the drivers decide that no content-protection is possible, it just switches to analog mode. The quality is worse, but you can still see your screen. I’m under the impression that all of the hardware DRM in vista works this way.
The reality is, sheep or not, consumers absolutely will not tolerate what this article alleges to be the case. If the quality was worse, I could believe it, but buying a cd and hearing silence? No, the average joe schmoe won’t put up with that at all.
This article is very doomsay-ish, and I think it far far overestimates the impact of Vista on the market.
19 February 2007, 7:29 amJoey Bhananas:
Alright, rather than turn this into a discussion about the specifics of Vista DRM (I don’t want this to turn into an off-topic flame war.) I’ll say only this much. Anyone that spends money on an S/PDIF system expects high quality sound and will know the difference, or else got duped into buying something they didn’t need.
Vista, whether silence or not, will give you less of what you’d payed for because of unscrupulous people “ruining it for the rest of us.” I’m not a proponent of piracy, and yes, I understand it’s a running problem, but robbing the end-user, punishing the user (and it does amount to this, whether it was the intent or not,) just isn’t my idea of what an OS should be about.
As a whole, the S/PDIF notwithstanding, Vista is going to make hardware more expensive for everyone pretty much regardless of platform (the end user’s problem) and it’s going to slow down operation of the OS. This might cut down on “casual piracy,” but the end cost is too great, in my wallet, and in my freedoms.
I’m going to try not to say anything more about Vista (people much stronger than I can get riled afterall,) and this is about switching, not b*tching, and I’m sorry if my earlier post “tempted the flame into the oil-soaked rag pile” :).
I am interested in hearing any facts or opinions that are Pro-Vista though. Anything that isn’t about Vista being ‘pretty,’ that’s what Macs are for, lol. So if you want to take me to school, feel free to email me. If you can convert me back or set my mind at ease about DRM, I’ll freely admit it on here. My email address is jbhananas@hotmail.com .
19 February 2007, 8:47 amMike:
A quick Google turned up this:
http://practical-tech.com/entertainment/vistas-multimedia-mess/
The quote from Microsoft’s Matthew van Eerde in the article confirms that Vista will not play DRM’d content over S/PDIF.
20 February 2007, 10:06 amJoey Bhananas:
Also forgot to add, when your average ’sheep’ user’s computer stops playing audio, or plays bad audio, or if it decides your hardware is no longer ’secure’ and deactivates it, the solution is usually:
a) Throw money at a tech until it’s fixed. (Don’t forget to include griping about the cost, not blaming Vista, but the tech.)
b) Throw money at a computer store until you find a computer that works (upgrade everything)
c) Live with it.
d) Only play your “Premium Content” on an old Mac you have laying around.
Any way you slice it, it’s expense or inconvenience to the end user, and all in the name of saving the movie and audio industries? Why don’t we install computers in our cars that’ll disable any gear that could be used to break the speed limit? Make it a big, robust computer, one that costs about 30 to 50 horsepower just to operate, just to make sure you stay honest. Make the headlights refuse to operate if your license restricts you from night driving. Or at least dim the headlights enough that trying to drive at night would be useless… You think you won’t see car owners living with that? I hate to say, but I see more drivers “living with” it than not. People break into cars to steal radios, too. So let’s get rid of all car radios while we’re at it, all in the name of saving the insurance companies’ money (Just a small sacrifice in the quality of your driving experience, is all!) Oh, and if you replace a windshield, or a couple mirrors, or the tires? You’ll have to get a new engine, since it would then be considered a new car.
It reminds me of the following…
20 February 2007, 6:33 pmI like Linux.
I like Mac.
I miss Amiga.
Joe:
Very nice story!
I to have gotten fed up with micro$oft and have switched to Linux.
I have a friend who is a tech for a large corp, he has been using Linux for like 14 years!
He recommended me Mandriva, so far I love every MB of it!
However I was Leary about upgrading to Linux; I thought it was a lot of command lines and a ugly GUI.
Well over the last 3 months I have found it to be quite the opposite!
Sure there may be a couple things that require a command line like compiling tarballs and such, and Video card drivers, but it’s nothing big.
KDE can be customized so much it’s just way better than M$ will ever be!
And I also love the fact they update any possible security flaws regulery!
So security isn’t an issue!
Do yourself a favor and dump windows.
And one more comment, I have gotten adobe flash, macromedia flash, adobe CS2 and a bunch of other windows apps to work in Linux VIA Wine, and Cedega!
22 February 2007, 1:43 pme:
I can totally empathise with this situation. I’ve never really had the patience to mess around with the settings and endless config files and building applications that Linux seemed to require (I’m a computer science undergraduate but am more fascinated with searching and sorting routines than software and operating systems). On top of this I had a number of so called ‘dealbreakers’ which always ended up forcing to re-install windows for one reason or another. One such example was getting my PCMCIA soundcard to not only work but be seen as the default device. This dealbreaker meant I had to not only relinquish my 6.1 stereo speakers but rely on the crappy built in speakers in my laptop. This dealbreaker disappeared with the latest install of Ubuntu and despite a number of minor issues I really haven’t looked back. Vista offers me nothing that I can’t get for free and far more conveniently.
22 February 2007, 2:59 pmdazza:
I have done the same thing…except I installed linux on my PC and bought an old Apple MAC Pro G4…just to see if I like Mac OS X
at the moment, I am 50/50 between linux and Mac OS
I love the endless possabilities of linux, but like some of the ease of use and gloss of the Mac
but I agree completley…I have no compulsion what so ever to try vista…
why drink imitation beer…when you can have the real thing
22 February 2007, 9:10 pmJoey Bhananas:
Well, I’m a command line junky, used to use Amiga’s CLI (Command Line Interface, similar to Unix in some respects) and I felt it all start to wash back over me. But yet Wine eludes me.. Can anyone suggest a tutorial? I need to have MS Access for work, and avoiding a reboot to an XP partition would save me a load of trouble.
22 February 2007, 11:07 pmBornagain A. Theist:
You may be happy to know this. http://ubuntustudio.com/
24 February 2007, 5:05 pmMichael Lawver:
There are so many alternatives now to windows, so much so now that you would be hard pressed to pick one if you were aware and tried them all. I have found that FreeBSD is my favorite and it even runs Linux apps faster than Linux itself does. If you are doing anything related to server functions, FreeBSD is very hard to beat, but can easily serve the purposes of just being a personal workstation, with the full blown KDE desktop environment if that’s what you’re after. At any rate I thought I’d chime in and mention this fantastic alternative for those that are looking for something new. Take care and good luck.
25 February 2007, 3:21 amZeBadger:
I’ve wussed out a little and gone for the dual boot option.
My main deal breaker with Linux is the lack of a native Shockwave client (I play iSketch a lot). It performs poorly under Wine.
I did come up with a “cheaper” option of running windows. I bought Win98 for peanuts off Ebay and installed it using VMWare. I can now run Windows apps (without sound) quite nicely on Ubuntu. I chose Win98 as the memory requirements are significantly less than WindowsXP.
Good point about google and yahoo offering services that mean you do not need a PC. I love G-Mail. I wouldn’t have dreamed that I would be using a webmail app as my email client a year ago.
I also agree with your deal breaker with Vista. I’m protesting about silly licensing and the DRM’ing with my wallet.
25 February 2007, 5:52 amkai cremata:
with this pendrive i do thee wed…Linux
having ordered in a new dell dual pentium last week, i cant tell you in research how much i agonized over vista. i began researching linux as a result, vista home version (albeit 32 bit version even though i bought a 64 bit machine which i though was pretty cheesy on dells part) on my new machine came at no additional cost, so here is where i am at after 4 days…
1) vista is horrible, specifically,
2) counter intuitive - ex. to download new fonts, i go to font manager, no way to download, finally go to help where they tell me, oh if you dont see “files” then press the alt key
what is that all about?
3) my taskbar or whatever you call it at the bottom of the page tends to get jumbled up, and sometimes ghost images every day
4) i crash it every day at least once, i dont game, video edit, or run any processor intensive applications, it just goes down with 2 gig of dram, dual e6600 processor and a nvidia card.
5) the deal killer. i cant watch the movies i download from ares (p2p) i dont mind if the police come to my door if i do something wrong. i do mind paying the surveillance operation in redmond to limit my activities. i aint watching kiddy porn, i just wanted to see the second half of blood diamond.
the greatest obstacle i see in posts is the learning curve related to linux…that is false…there are a zillion forums, postings, websites with specifics on how to work through your issues.
besides we dont pay anything generally for linux and we always pay at a premium for running microsoft. if i got stuck terminally, i’d just call a linux guy and pay him to fix it.
the learning curve for vistas is an asymptote, a reaction out of control. no matter how much you learn, it can never do exactly what you want.
so im betting my time (which is money) on linux, i’ll start moving over completely this week…the end result will not be a dual boot…im counting on working through until i get my setup the way i need it (for work) and vaya con dios microsoft
25 February 2007, 12:04 pmJoey Bhananas:
“Learnng curve…” Linux is a departure from the intuitive. Hear me out on this. I’d gotten used to doing things on Windows, they’re done in a certain way, aren’t they? Need to select a document? Not run it, just select it. Simple. just click on it, just like you were pointing at it. Need to run it? Just double-click it. Like you were repeatedly pointing at it, saying “That one! I wanna see!” Rename it? Give it a single click and then right-click it, then left-click where ‘rename’ appears on the pull-down list.
What? No, no. wait, you didn’t do it right. Your mouse has a left button and a right button. They’re both right under your fingers. Right there, yes. Wait, no. That’s the middle button, sorry, I forgot to mention. Yeah, it looks like a little eraser, good call, yeah. Now you won’t need the middle button very oft… Whoa, stop clicking it, ah crap, ok. You didn’t click that time, you scrolled. the middle button is actually a scrollwheel. Yes. it’s a wheel you can click. Nevermind that it doesn’t make much sense, it’s actually very convenient for when you…. Alright, forget all this I’ll explain later. just for now remember, THIS is your LEFT BUTTON, THIS is your RIGHT. Gah. What? No, I don’t know why they only cover the wheel in rubber, I know it’s comfortable. Just try to focus. Now, left-click, then right click the icon…. OK, one more time, an ICON is a little picture of the file you’re trying to work with, now just…. Ok, now, you’re loading it again. you double-clicked. STOP, just STOP. It’s loading your file, it’ll take a few seconds, it knows you want to load it, and it’s working on it, so clicking 57 times till it responds is… Ok great. One, two…. three four…. the file opened 13 times. STOP CLICKING. D*mn it, I’LL DO IT.
What’s my point? everything has a learning curve, and a perennial Windows user is going to find Linux a “pain in the kernal” to learn. Just remember your first computer. Wasn’t easy, was it?
Also keep in mind that Linux is no different from Windows and Windows is no different from anything else in this respect. Learning it to a level that satisfies you is much different from just learning it. You can learn as little or as much as you want to, whether it’s the Windows registry or learning what dependencies need to be satisfied before installing a new software package.
You can learn to drive a car without knowing what a catalytic converter is. You can catch a flight to Alaska (or if you’re already in Alaska, how about Hawaii, you deserve the break,) but how many people know how a plane works? How many people do you know that refuse to believe an airplane actually should work? I know two. And one’s a college graduate.
You can dive down into the rabbit hole as deep as you like. Granted, finding help for your Windows system is MUCH easier than Linux help. But then it’s all just a matter of knowing where to look, isn’t it?
Bornagain, thanks for giving me something to look forward to in April (see post #62)
26 February 2007, 1:26 amMike:
“Granted, finding help for your Windows system is MUCH easier than Linux help. But then it’s all just a matter of knowing where to look, isn’t it?”
A month ago, I would have agreed with this. But I’ve recently been helping people overcome Vista issues and now I’m not so sure. I switched to Ubuntu Edgy when it was a month old. Compared to 30-day-old Vista, it was ridiculously easy to get help with 30-day-old Edgy. I didn’t even need to ask. All the questions and answers were right there on the Ubuntu forums.
Here’s where we see the power of the Linux community and their openness. MS does have an extensive and helpful knowledgebase XP issues and fixes, but that’s because their tech people have been compiling that stuff for 5+ years, and people often repeat the info on various Windows forums. Vista doesn’t have a knowledgable community yet, so help there is severely limited.
I loved the learning curve part of your post. It’s so true.
27 February 2007, 3:40 pmGarrett:
John,
I totally agree with you. Ubuntu and Fedora have both been flavors of linux I have been playing with for the past 6 months or so. Each of which I enjoy each time more and more. So far I have only installed them both on an external drive just to get a good ‘feel’ before I actually take the plunge because I am a college student and unfortunately need Windows every now and then for school work. Personally I find XP to be quite a decent operating system, but whenever I switch back into Windows from Ubuntu or Fedora I feel confined. I no longer have a nice desktop system where I can freely move around windows and workspaces. I hate having to use antivirus software and firewalls that are resource hogs. Linux finally gave me something to experiment with and just enjoy my computing experience once I got it set up. As you said… ‘A new version of Windows is out, and for the first time I don’t care.’ Vista to me seems like a complete waste of time, money, and effort.
7 March 2007, 5:50 amAdrian:
I did the same thing about 3 months ago. I lub my Ubuntu. My cousin’s computer got infected with a virus and I installed Ubuntu on it for her instead of reinstalling windows. I have not heard any complaints from her. She can do everything that she needs and does not have to worry about viruses.
7 March 2007, 7:04 amGustavo:
Great words!!!
I think there are so much people that have happended the same like you. I’m one of them. I speak spanish, and if I should write my story and translate it, it will become your article.
I’m a linux user now too.
In my opinion, linux is more complicated than windows. But that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to do something. If I get into a “dealbreaker”, with a little googling, I shortly find the answer.
I’m running Ubuntu since 12/2006 and I can tell that it’s perfectly ok.
Regards.
9 March 2007, 9:50 pmGus from Argentina.
Com on Peeps:
Stop all the negative…
Vista is going forward, so what about activation, One phone call (free ) and its sorted. Microsoft is protecting its intellectual rights. Its a step forward to protect it self 40% of windows is pirate.
Linux is totally different, for a different user, have to more of an ‘expert ‘. Dont argue, been in the industry 25 years and run them all. What suits one doesn’t suit another.
The original poster comments have areas totally wrong… Changing hardware you do not have to buy another Vista. However OEM is tied to PC, read the license, if thats not what you want ( cheaper pc) then but the retail version (dearer pc)
Linux is fine BUT for 60% of my clients would not know what to do with it AND WOULD NOT ALLOW THEM TO DO THEIR JOB.
There is a place for windows and a place for linux, oh and Mac’s… ;-)
We can all live together in harmony. Everyone has choices and options, its not necc to condem one over another.
Being in the industry I have clients like windows, some like Mac and some Linux
25 March 2007, 10:55 amJoey Bhananas:
No offense to the previous reply, but what Microsoft is doing to protect itself is not “a step forward,” no more than hiring a person to physically listen to your phone calls and hang up when you say “bomb” is “a step forward” in anti-terrorism. Vista steals CPU cycles, and available ram so it can encrypt data just long enough so it can decrypt it at the video and audio cards… the video and audio cards need to perform better and faster solely to handle this decryption, and if it can’t? You need to upgrade. If there’s a security leak found anywhere in the world on the same type of peripheral you happen to own? It’ll get shut down until the company that made the card updates the driver. That, or you can ‘upgrade.’
If an OS decides that 1 GB of RAM is “just enough” to run notepad, then there’s a problem here.
If an OS can decide you’re acting ’shifty,’ or suspicious with your computer and drop your desktop to 640×480 “you’ve-been-a-naughty-boy” mode, there’s a problem here.
Look to Menuet OS, and you’ll see what a computer actually needs to run an OS… one floppy disk. That’s it, just one. 1.44MB to fit the entire OS. A ‘premium ready’ Vista machine requires over 700 times that in RAM alone, and for the hard drive, well that’s well over 10,000 times as large as that one, single, floppy disk.
Sure, Vista’s ‘pretty,’ but does pretty balloon an OS to ten-thousandfold?
No.
But let’s go another route. Puppy LInux fits generally in a space smaller than 100MB, at can run all in RAM, which makes it lightning fast (how cool is it to click on an icon to run something and not have to go get a coffee while it loads?) Puppy loads it’s word processor in less than TWO SECONDS. Since it’s all in RAM, it’s d$*!&-near instantaneous.
The only this Vista has going for it is that it has a historically popular OS. Note, I’m not saying a ‘good’ one, just ‘historically popular.’ And that, as any Amiga fan (like myself) can tell you that in this industry, that’s all that’s required for an OS that’s ‘just good enough.’
Point out whatever you like about Vista, it’s by no means “a step forward,” more like “double-plus ungood.”
Not condemning anyone for their choice, just the blinders they wear when it comes to OS’es
27 March 2007, 3:30 pmRavi:
I’m trying to follow the same path. Im currently digitizing a bunch of videos for my aunt. After i finish i want to buy a new case, and migrate all my components, and say bye bye to windows.
2 April 2007, 8:45 pmJoey Bhananas:
Ravi, if I could make a suggestion that sounds contrariwise to all I’ve said, Don’t go into this completely blind :) Get yourself a LiveCD first. Wikipedia explains it best at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiveCD if you’re not sure what a LiveCD is.
I highly recommend Ubuntu Linux, as that’s what I’ve been using, and aside from the ‘minor annoyances’ (like issues with my laptop’s touchpas) some of us have mentioned, it’s been behaving great for me.
But whatever you try, really give yourself a couple days’ warm up with the LiveCD before you buy anything. Admittedly, it’s not for everyone, and if you start to get frustrated, it’s nice to know your only cost is a CD or DVD :)
3 April 2007, 4:43 pmSimon:
Hi
Another Stumbleupon visitor here.
Interesting article. I’m an artist and long-time Mac user, but have also recently adopted Ubuntu 6.10 on my own home-made PC. I have a programmer friend who uses Windows XP as part of his job but hates it as he considers it substandard garbage. I tend to agree.
Ubuntu is a fine operating system, which in time I hope will take over from my Mac and enable me to save a fortune in commercial software licences. At the end of the day I need a computer system that ‘works’ and enables me to make a living.
Windows XP and Vista aren’t even on my radar..
All the best
13 April 2007, 1:58 pmSimon
KeeperFX:
I’ve been dual booting XP and any given major distro for about 2 years now. I must say that from the very first time i popped in Knoppix, then latter installing Xandros 3 deluxe ive been hooked. My last venture has been on my laptop. The only thing i keep my xp partion for are my wireless drivers for ndiswrapper and on the super rare occasion i just may need some obscure proprietary doz function. With Ubuntu 7 with Beryl running, its like running OSX+Vista AND more! OSx is impressive, though ironicaly based on unix. Windows has always lacked functionality, and vista proves it. Still no multiple desktops natively. The Aero theme is cool i guess, but nothing Beryl is capable of, infact is more capable of. Ive been MS free completely for about a year now, no regrets.
Sure i’ve had my fair share of annoyances, but every OS has them.
4 May 2007, 5:19 amcybernetic love:
Even though I’m not a computer expert as I’d wish to be, I have to say that was a very nice text. Wish I had more willpower to try and learn Linux. Perhaps when I stop playing games so much and start doing serious work I’ll swich to Linux too.
16 May 2007, 7:05 pmJeroen Brattinga:
I switched to Ubuntu a while ago. But since I’m an avid games player, I can’t live without Windows XP. That being said, I’m booting a lot more into Linux than in Windows. It just feels a whole lot better.
That feeling got confirmed after my latest hardware upgrade: a new motherboard, RAM and CPU. Ubuntu Gutsy didn’t even blink, but XP gave me a lot more trouble. Right upto the ‘re-activation required’ message. This time I couldn’t simply activate it by the internet, since I had activated it too many times (I guess the VirtualBox installation was one too many).
So I ended up disabling the activation for my genuine Windows XP. I hated using crack software, but I didn’t want to go through the MS activation circus again.
4 February 2008, 5:25 amOpen Source Depot:
I need to tell you that this article is refreshing. For once an honest review of problems and solutions with Ubuntu and Windows platform. The troubles you had very much reflected my own experiences in moving (slowly) from Windows to Linux. I’m not all the way there, but I’m moving slowly here’s my status
31 March 2008, 7:42 am1 Ubuntu
5 Windows + some combination of Ubuntu/Edubuntu/Geexbox in a dual boot scenario.
Psuedonym:
I am a beginner linux (ubuntu) user and from anything I’ve found, Ubuntu hates nearly every single piece of hardware in my laptop. Wireless card, sound card, hard drive. If your laptop in a HP dv6000, look for another distro.
31 March 2008, 7:11 pmDarkstriker:
Well, I can definitely relate to that situation since I myself tried linux several times and had some out of the box major problem which I couldn’t fix.
However, you are quite WRONG on that Vista fact. What is fact is that the OEM versions of vista can indeed only be installed on one machine and allow only one upgrade of the motherboard. Retail versions however do not have this feature since als the hastle is a bit outdated.
and why would you change to vista anyway?
6 April 2008, 11:20 pmAllan:
Starting out with Linux ?
15 April 2008, 8:43 pmTry Simply Mepis 7.0
It’s a linux distribution I have decide d to stick with.