Anybody ever went fullbore into Linux and then went back to Windows?

[gibhunter]

I played around with Linux since I had Win95, then finally I said screw it. Formatted my machine and just ran Linux. Once I had everything set up the way I like it, I realized that while all is nice and dandy, I still prefer windows. I just didn't like the structure of Linux and the overall feel of the system.

With XP, I now don't even think about Linux. I stilll like the open source apps though. I really like Open Office 2 (1.9.95), Firefox, Thunderbird, 7ZIP, BNR2 etc.

I think I could do everything in Windows with free apps that are available for download with the single cost to the system being the $80 for XP Home.

How does everyone else feel about it?

 

[m3rcury]

I did that.

Got really sick of windows a while ago, and went fully into linux. Wiped my hard drive, and installed a bunch of distros (Arch, Ubuntu, FC). But the thing is, as secure and well designed and everything else linux is, the configuration is a chore.

I have an ATi 9600XT with VIVO. Its barely usable under linux. So I shelled out 50$ and bought an nVidia GF4MX. Wasn't happy with that either. My biggest problem with it is that it won't use my hardware to its full extent. Like my SATA drives don't have DMA under linux. The video card's VIVO is useless under linux. The extra mouse buttons can't be used (easily, that is. I dont want to spend 8 hours just to be able to use my 15$ mouse properly).

So now I'm back to windows 2000. QT4 was just released. So maybe when KDE4 comes out, I'll give it another shot. Till then ... its windows for my desktop.

Now if I want to run a server, there's no comparison.

 

[Nothinman]

I started with Linux way back in the RH5 days, I never cut over cold turkey because the initial learning curve was a lot higher back then. After I finally got the hang of it my Windows usage slowly declined, now I have a Win2K machine for work and that's about it. All of my personal machines run Linux and when I'm forced to use Windows it's frustrating how difficult MS makes everything.

 

[Mesix]

I dived in very cold turkey about a year and a half ago. While it's great and eveything (Leaving it on this computer), the gaming box I just ordered everything for is going to have Windows XP Pro. What's the point of having the awesome gaming computer when the only games you can play natively are UT, Doom3, and NWN? (All great games, just too narrow a selection. No strategy!). Later on I'm gonna dual boot 64-bit Gentoo. Thats always fun to do. I'm sure I'll be impressed with compiling speeds with a 3500+ Venice compared to a 1.1 Celery

 

[Brazen]

Personally, there are a lot of features with the KDE desktop that I like better than Windows. There are just too many things I can't get to work under linux, ie mainframe client, sync my pda...

My favorite feature in KDE is multiple desktops, and one of the funnest addons is 3d-desktop. Things like that would be nice to see in Windows.

edit: oops, I mean I wish I could get Windows things to work on Linux.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Windows doesn't make much sense to me, so I try not to use it.

 

[stars]

I started w/ a few different distros about 7 or 8 years ago, discovered Slackware shortly after that. I have tried many distros over the years on a test box but Slackware (for me) just feels right for my desktop. I like everything about it. I also use Windows (but keep it offline) and only use it for recording live audio amd song writing.

 

[Rapidskies]

I did the same thing but didn't pull the trigger on wiping my home system (was dual booting).

While linux is a much more powerful operating system, I got tired of having to "work" to get things to function properly. I work on computers all day so for a home system the last thing I want to do is have to dload a bajillion rpm dependecies in order to get a usb device to work, and find it caused some other device to stop functioning. WinXP has been rock solid and is a much easier system to work with when your main goal is a system you don't want to have to "tweak" to get things to work.

WinXP = low maintenance Linux = High maintenance

 

[Nothinman]

WinXP = low maintenance Linux = High maintenance

You have that backwards. XP's barrier to entry is lower, but overall maintenance is a lot more work. I've had the same Debian installation at home for ~6 years and so much of it "just works" that I've totally forgotten about a lot of the things I setup.

 

[ktwebb]

Nope, he has is right. If maintenance is defined by patching your system for vulnerabilities then I could get onboard with your view. Beyond that it's really an absurd statement.

 

[Nothinman]

Maintenance is whatever you deem necessary to maintain your machine, 99% of which is handled automatically for me or not necessary in Linux so how is that difficult?

 

[LiLithTecH]

Depends on what you are doing.

Never had as much fun as configuring Unreal Tournament to run under Mandrake
or Red Hat with a Vesa LB video card.....

 

[Nothinman]

The last UT (2004?) I tried to run ran without any configuration, but I hate UT so I just started it up and ran a round a bit to see if it worked.

And that's not maintenance, one time configurations may take a little extra work in Linux but you only have to do it once and it sticks. And 9 times out of 10 if you need to clone the configuration somewhere you just copy a config file and you're done.

 

[Basie]

I still enjoy learning about Linux. I'm self taught and so it's slow going at times and I even
give up for awhile but I always come back to it. I have tried most of the Distros out there
and still have trouble with Gentoo and Arch just setting them up. WinXPPro is my everyday OS and I find using it is second nature but when I get tired of the simple stuff I know I can
crank up one of my Linux Distros and be challenged for awhile.

 

[LiLithTecH]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
The last UT (2004?) I tried to run ran without any configuration, but I hate UT so I just started it up and ran a round a bit to see if it worked.

And that's not maintenance, one time configurations may take a little extra work in Linux but you only have to do it once and it sticks. And 9 times out of 10 if you need to clone the configuration somewhere you just copy a config file and you're done.

NO.

The Original Unreal Tournament.

My point was that under Windows, it was just Install, set profile, play.
Not so under Linux.

There is GOOD & BAD with any piece of software.
It just depends on what you do with it.

LINUX is fine for doing most of what people do everyday with a PC
(surf web, get-send mail, word processing, spreadsheet, etc.).

For LINUX to take on Microsoft, they need that ONE KILLER APP.
(can you say P H O T O S H O P or Q U A R K)

 

[Nothinman]

My point was that under Windows, it was just Install, set profile, play.
Not so under Linux.

So? To install Firefox on Linux I just type 'apt-get install mozilla-firefox' but on Windows I have to use another browser, go download it, walk through the stupid wizard and then create a default profile.

The fact that UT sucked on Linux is the fault of Epic not Linux.

For LINUX to take on Microsoft, they need that ONE KILLER APP.
(can you say P H O T O S H O P or Q U A R K)

Quark is ass and Gimp is good enough for me. For me apt is the killer app, it puts software installation/removal on Linux light years ahead of Windows.

 

[batmang]

it alls about preference.. i prefer winxp over linux as a desktop. ive ran linux many times, i have a second machine at home thats linux only for when i get bored with windows. but for general use and gaming, its windows all the way for me.

 

[LiLithTecH]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

So? To install Firefox on Linux I just type 'apt-get install mozilla-firefox' but on Windows I have to use another browser, go download it, walk through the stupid wizard and then create a default profile.

The fact that UT sucked on Linux is the fault of Epic not Linux.

So installing drivers is easier on Linux?
UT was just an example of intended use.

Quark is ass and Gimp is good enough for me. For me apt is the killer app, it puts software installation/removal on Linux light years ahead of Windows.

There is a large group of people who would disagree.
While GIMP is good enough for you, it may not fullfill the needs of others.
Again, intended use.

I am not attacking/flaming NIX, just the premise of what is easier to use and for whom.
Personally I think it is a shame that BEOS never got the respect it deserved.

Believe me, I am all for NIX replacing MS OS's in the Corporate inviroment.

:beer:

 

[hopejr]

I went to linux after lots of hype at my university (dual booted with Windows actually). Then there were things I really needed on Windows that wouldn't work with wine. I tried linux again a while later and just could work it out so went back to windows again. Still later, I tried linux again and then it stuck a bit longer until there was a dependency problem that rendered the whole system useless (couldn't even log into root). So I went back to windows.
Now I'm a mac user. That says a lot .

 

[Nothinman]

So installing drivers is easier on Linux?

For the most part yes, because it's not required. There are some cases that are problematic (i.e. ATI) but it's their fault because other companies (i.e. nVidia) have found a way to make it simple.

While GIMP is good enough for you, it may not fullfill the needs of others.
Again, intended use.

Other than proprietary plugins the only valid complaint I've seen about The GIMP is lack of CMYK editing. That and printing support on Linux is less than perfect, but that's not exactly The GIMP's fault.

I am not attacking/flaming NIX, just the premise of what is easier to use and for whom.
Personally I think it is a shame that BEOS never got the respect it deserved.

Obviously people find whatever they already know easier, but overall Linux is a much simpler system. There's no registry (ignoring the gconf stuff for now) and virtually every command is documented in a manual page. MS makes just about everything overly complicated, it's way too easy to bury settings in the registry some place that noone will find them and most of the CLI tools on the system aren't documented at all, a lot don't even support 'command /?' to list the parameters and those that do conveniently leave some out for no good reason.

Every time I tried BeOS it didn't support some critical piece of my hardware, the last time I tried it booted up with a black and white screen because it couldn't even go VESA on my video card and then panic'd because it didn't support my SCSI controller, which is a very well supported and popular Adaptec card. BeOS is a great example of how a decent system (from what I hear) can be killed very easily simply by being closed source. If BeOS was open source people would have written drivers for it and more people would have gotten to run it.

 

[pcgeek11]

Every time I tried BeOS it didn't support some critical piece of my hardware, the last time I tried it booted up with a black and white screen because it couldn't even go VESA on my video card and then panic'd because it didn't support my SCSI controller, which is a very well supported and popular Adaptec card. BeOS is a great example of how a decent system (from what I hear) can be killed very easily simply by being closed source. If BeOS was open source people would have written drivers for it and more people would have gotten to run it.

Linux as a whole has this very same driver support problems, UNLESS, you make sure you buy your components that do have drivers that work in Linux. Of course it has come a very long way in the last 5 years there are still TONS of hardware that Linux has problems with due to the vendors not releasing the hardware specifications. Look at the state of wireless cards in Linux. Thats what keeps Linuxant Driverloader in business.

Windows is simple for everyday task, not much thinking needed. I use both and I use linux from the command line when I want to think about what I'm doing rather than point and click. Linux isn't ready for Ma and Pa yet.

pcgeek11

 

[Nothinman]

Linux as a whole has this very same driver support problems, UNLESS, you make sure you buy your components that do have drivers that work in Linux. Of course it has come a very long way in the last 5 years there are still TONS of hardware that Linux has problems with due to the vendors not releasing the hardware specifications. Look at the state of wireless cards in Linux. Thats what keeps Linuxant Driverloader in business.

Linux has nowhere near the driver problems that BeOS had/has. Most hardware works just fine, there will obviously be exceptions like WinModems and WinPrinters but the only thing that will fix that is more Linux users. Usually if the hardware isn't supported by Linux, it's not worth buying anyway. And IMO wireless in Linux is just fine, there are a few chipsets that require ndiswrapper but many more don't. Most wifi manfacturers have decided that a binary-only firmware is good enough and GPL drivers are fine as long as the firmware is closed, not a great position to be in from the user's standpoint but it's better than nothing. And the wifi tools for Linux are much better than what's available for Windows.

Windows is simple for everyday task, not much thinking needed. I use both and I use linux from the command line when I want to think about what I'm doing rather than point and click. Linux isn't ready for Ma and Pa yet.

Windows isn't ready for them either. Neither OS is intuitive and Windows is worse because it makes the user think they're smarter than they are and it's a whole lot easier to get into trouble with viruses and malware. Give someone with no computer training a Windows box and a Linux box and they'll be equally confused with both. The only real difference is most people or someone they know has had Windows experience already so that's what they end up learning. What's even more fun is upgrading Windows on someone's machine and watching them get all confused because MS moved everything around for some unknown reason. 200->XP is entertaining but XP->Longhorn should be even better.

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: Nothinman What's even more fun is upgrading Windows on someone's machine and watching them get all confused because MS moved everything around for some unknown reason. 200->XP is entertaining but XP->Longhorn should be even better.

That happened to me took me about a full month to completely get adjusted to XP.

 

[TGS]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Give someone with no computer training a Windows box and a Linux box and they'll be equally confused with both. The only real difference is most people or someone they know has had Windows experience already so that's what they end up learning.

What I really dislike is when people tout the learning curve on windows compared to other OSes. It's just not there, no OS has a easy learning curve (for administration).

Pratically all OSes, you can load up and access the web, email possible, and some chat functions. All without doing a damn thing. Now try to run some admin functions on each... BAH 1-800-KNW-SOM1 for support. You can argue the install on programs are intiutive, but that's the wizards programmers write to make the install seem easy, not MS. Hardware, you ever look a relative in the face, and tell them they need to go to the manufacturers Hardware website and pickup the latest driver revision, because MS doesn't have it in the Everything-and-the-Kitchen-Sink? driver load and really think they will be able to figure out what piece of hardware they have in the box, and what revision is best (perhaps a Beta? driver) and get it loaded without any help what so ever... The answer is NO.

The thing windows has is a large familiarity base, with a fairly diluted solution process. Cripes man, some Windows people (I've done it too) still think that format/reload is a valid Windows fix. What kind of learning curve is that..?

Anywho, before I start foaming at the mouth I suppose, application support is King and MS gets the royal treatment. You merely need to follow the money to figure on why MS is a priority for software development. This holds true in regards to Apps and Driver support.

 

[Infohawk]

Yup.

Used linux for a year or two and was totally into it. Now I'm back on windows.

This will probably get angry replies (or suggestions that I am dumb or incompetent) but I found linux distros to be buggy, require a lot of admining, have a lot of hardware incompatibility issues, and finally not to be able to play as many games.

If you aren't busy and enjoy playing around with things linux is fun. If you use your computer for sharing documents with people who use word or if you don't play games, it could be cool. (And don't tell me about Openoffice because I'm a big office user and there are issues converting files between the formats).

Edit: also, I enjoy being part of a huge user base for support reasons. For almost every problem I have, someone's already had it and the solution is available. On linux, I could file a bug report and wait indefinitely for it to be fixed.