Windows Why Don't You Use Linux?

A lot of this is very interesting, last year, I was running 98 and Suse 9.2 on a dual boot m/c as the curs-ed XP would not install on the hardware at all! It was great and I would probably still be using it although it couldn't support my Canon printer. I am on XP now and yes, it does run all my hardware but I like the idea of a viable MS alternative.

And as for beginners, my missus is a total n00b when it comes to computers and she had no problem running the net on Suse or wordprocessing or anything...

The only reason that I have not got right into it again is my Autocad and my games...

 

Just to add my £0.02, I run a Linux server (mandravia) for my game servers, and XP on my main PC. I don't use Linux day to day as it won't run the games I play.

 

I dont understand why people brag about you need so much time to install Linux. i got Fedore core 5 installed last weekend (firsttime linux user) and i didnt think it took long to install or to config it. no problems with hardware and so on. All that for 0.1€ which is the price for a sincle DVD if you buy bulk over here. Compare that to the price of an Official XP with Office.
just my 0.02£!

 

i like linux. it just doesn't like my machine very much. if give it the chance every 6 months or so, but it's just not there yet.

until i can get a distro fully configured and working HOW I LIKE IT, i'll hold off.

in the meantime, i'll just keep using my mac. all the unix, none of the faff. and did i mention it has photoshop.

 

The problem is generally one of a few things:

1)people haven't used Linux for several years, and are assuming it hasn't progressed at all since then. Yes, a few years ago digicams were a pain to set up---now they're pretty much plug and play...

2)people tried to install it but were totally unwilling to do any kind of thinking for themselves---"I have to read a page of text? OMG!!!!!1111!!!! Linux suXXooRR$$$$!!"

3)People have funky hardware, or some of the (increasingly rare) more common hardware that doesn't work. Personally I blame the likes of ATI for their lack of Linux drivers, rather than blaming Linux, but different folk don't see it that way.

Sam

 

Been running Steam (HL1, HL2, CS:S) since last year under Cedega. WoW works under WINE/Cedega AFAIK (never played it ). Granted updates do tend to break things, but fixes usually turn up within a few hours.

 

bjd does cs:s run faster in linux or windows?

also, is it possible to run bf2 in linux? and is it anygood?

 

When I can Remote Desktop upto 64 clients, maybe I will.
When I can run .NET framework and Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 with all the gadgets and fastest coding tools in the world, maybe I will.
When I can click start, run, cmd....maybe I will.
When I can run atleast 99.99% of windows programs, maybe I will.

BTW, on Mandrake 9.0, I did a fresh install....and then opened up XMMS or some kind of media player that was installed...it crashed.....mandrake crashed with it.

 

yeh everyone loves to pretend that linux never crashes... bollox it doesnt. thats practically the main reason linux is not popular when you look at it realistically.

for home users linux has a lot of catching up to do... linux wont be that popular for another 10 years or more at least i reckon

 

You probably had to install drivers for your :

cam

iPod

Mouse - if its a silly multi button one anyway.

Wifi

I didn't and they all work out of the box, literally Plug and Play. Windows has never know the goodness of my home box, as its only ever had Ubuntu on it.

I can honestly say I am not at any disadvantage to any windows user I know. Most of the time I have to screw at windows machines for limiting me.

Command line is a powerful tool, and in most common distros it is used for diagnosing and solving problems. You can get a lot more feedback about whats happening to your computer using a command, than windows will ever provide you with.

 

You maybe crashed X, but I doubt you crashed the whole system.

Sam

 

When nothing responded. It was literally frozen and the only way to restart was to press and hold the power button.

What scares me is...what kind of a operating system gets crashed by a media player? I use Windows 2003 and it has YET to crash on me (with the exception of 3 times regarding nvidia driver hell).

I do managed hosting for my clients and have dedicated servers (all win2k3) for them. Some of the applications are RESOURCE intensive. Hwoever, the server haven't been restarted for a very long time (iam estimating 6 months+). Those who say windows (server os) cannot handle long uptimes is just plain wrong.

 

Did you try Ctrl-alt-backspace? Or opening a different logon with ctrl-alt-F$x? I'm not trying to be difficult, I just find it very hard to believe that xmms would crash the kernel...

The closest I've ever come to actually crashing my Linux box is when I had video card driver issues---the box was still working (I could ssh into it) but I couldn't do anything with the monitor. Thankfully that only happened once

Sam

 

Bah, use whatever f'n OS you like. I use the 3 main ones now, OS X, Linux and WinXP and I like each one for their own reasons.

I'd currently not give up any OS as it is impractical, and all the OS X is the best... Linux can do this... and windows sux... crap is annoying. Just use whatever OS(es) you like and have fun

 

No idea, never played CS:S under windows. Never had any performance issues though.
Never played BF2 at all, it seems it has worked but the latest update has broked it :S

 

No

No

No (Yes it has lots of buttons)

No

But come on drivers for wifi?, ndiswrapper is a joke.

BTW I don't want to give the impression I hate linux far from it ive been using it waaaaaaaay back

 

Well, you at least had to install software for your iPod, I don't know how it works in Linux, but since iTunes for Linux is non-existant, then it's PnP.
The distros that I have tried (vaious versions of SuSe, and Ubuntu) worked with my Wifi card straight away. Didn't even have to install anything, configure anything, it just connected to my network.
Both Windows and Linux (and OSX) have their fair share of problems and advantages. The argument is noever going to be won.

1)That is a Windows Server edition, I'm betting, which can handle long uptimes, because it is designed for servers.
2)The problem is not with it not being able to handle long uptimes (although I do think that Linux does this better), it is the fact that you have to reboot on Windows for nearly everything you install.
One thing which I like so much about Linux (well, Ubuntu)
apt-get
I want something, I go to my terminal, search for the app, "apt-get install *" and it's done. With Windows, I have to Google it, find the version I want, download it, install it, and usually reboot.
I have to admit that I do run Windows on my main PC, but not for much longer.

 

Haven't there been quite a few security update for Windows recently. Does that mean you haven't installed them? (I'm out of touch with Windows)

6 months isn't really that long for a production server. Then again OS uptime isn't very important, it's service uptime that's business critical.

 

Just to add something to the "windows just works" side of the debate:

I recently got a copy of Red Alert. I had to hack it to get it to work on XP. Ok, fair enough, it's an older game, but I thought XP claimed backwards compatability?

Secondly, I'm in the middle of a game of Red Alert. I've been playing for several hours (luckily I'd saved my game about 5 minutes earlier). Suddenly the screen goes all fuzzy and I'm looking at a screwed up, colours wrong, resolution about 400x600, desktop, with a thing saying "windows has updated, do you want to restart now?". Err, no thanks, I'm running another program. Can I go back to Red Alert? No, it's crashed. Can I close Red Alert? No. Can I even get my screen to go back to normal? No, I have to reboot.

"windows just works", my ass

Sam

 

if you've set windows to automatically install updates then shame on you!

as a hardened gamer you should know by now that auto install updates causes problems and to turn it to "ask me to install"