Switching from Linux to Windows, a user's perspective

[Red Squirrel]

I thought this was pretty funny, because it's true!

http://www.brankovukelic.com/2013/01/on-state-of-windows-on-desktop.html

It's meant to be a parody but it actually holds some truth lol.

 

[lxskllr]

Good stuff, and it puts the "trying a new O/S" thing into perspective.

 

[ControlD]

That is a very entertaining read. I loved the "Windows Live" part. It really does put some things in perspective for sure.

 

[TheStu]

I'm usually the guy on the flipside of that, and I laughed pretty good. It's a good parody/satire of the situation.

All that said, even if Windows could read the FS that he was using on his external, it never would have shown up on his desktop anyway.

 

[Ken g6]

Just the other day, as I was uninstalling Java on a Windows machine, I found myself wishing it had a package manager. OpenOffice was installed on the machine too, and I wasn't sure if uninstalling Java would affect it. (It didn't, fortunately.)

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah the package manager does indeed make things better. The downside is when there is an app that is NOT in the package manager for your distro and you end up having to install from source. That's where the Linux problems start. Or even if it's just a stand alone RPM/deb, same story. Dependency hell. But it's definitely nice to go in the package manager do a search and click install and done. For most popular apps.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Great read, and so true.

 

[Jodell88]

Yeah the package manager does indeed make things better. The downside is when there is an app that is NOT in the package manager for your distro and you end up having to install from source. That's where the Linux problems start. Or even if it's just a stand alone RPM/deb, same story. Dependency hell. But it's definitely nice to go in the package manager do a search and click install and done. For most popular apps.

Depends on your package manager really.

Whipping up a quick PKGBUILD for Arch Linux is a relatively simple affair unless it's some crazy complicated program.

 

[mv2devnull]

RMS wrote in http://features.slashdot.org/story/13/01/06/163248/richard-stallman-answers-your-questions

However, this is not the only area in which more uniformity is desirable. Around 1990, I designed a protocol for configuring and building packages from source: you type `./configure; make install'. It would be nice if all free software packages supported this uniform interface, but they don't.

That (uniformity) does not solve the dependency hell, but it lets you concentrate on the problem.

 

[lakedude]

So true!

If it wasn't for games I'd use Linux over Windows (especially W8) every time.

 

[repoman0]

So true!

If it wasn't for games I'd use Linux over Windows (especially W8) every time.

Same here.

I recently shrunk my Windows partition to make some space for a dual boot Mint 14 setup. Found out upon booting the live DVD that I was still stuck on some crappy hybrid/nonstandard GPT+MBR nonsense from when I tried osx86 and Linux installer wasn't having it, which I definitely don't blame it for. Long story short, I was only able to fix it from within Linux, and ended up hosing my Windows install in the process. Went to reinstall Windows - when I got to the desktop and it was 800x600 resolution and had no drivers for my network adapter so no internet, I rebooted back to Linux (which ran 1920x1200 just fine from the live DVD and had me connected to wi-fi within seconds) and will not be dealing with Windows again until I get the urge to play Skyrim or something.

The install process for Mint 14 is ridiculously smooth and it comes with basically everything I want out of the box. Not to mention, literally boots in under 1 second once the BIOS gives up control to the OS.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Same here.

I recently shrunk my Windows partition to make some space for a dual boot Mint 14 setup. Found out upon booting the live DVD that I was still stuck on some crappy hybrid/nonstandard GPT+MBR nonsense from when I tried osx86 and Linux installer wasn't having it, which I definitely don't blame it for. Long story short, I was only able to fix it from within Linux, and ended up hosing my Windows install in the process. Went to reinstall Windows - when I got to the desktop and it was 800x600 resolution and had no drivers for my network adapter so no internet, I rebooted back to Linux (which ran 1920x1200 just fine from the live DVD and had me connected to wi-fi within seconds) and will not be dealing with Windows again until I get the urge to play Skyrim or something.

The install process for Mint 14 is ridiculously smooth and it comes with basically everything I want out of the box. Not to mention, literally boots in under 1 second once the BIOS gives up control to the OS.

It's kinda like how I ended up switching to Linux. I wanted to setup dual boot so I can get my feet wet and slowly start setting myself up, but still continue to use windows. Hosed the windows install when I did the partition resize (dual boot with win7 is a PAIN compared to XP) and after multiple triesI only ended up with a working Linux partition and a fresh windows install that boots into a blocky color screen. Blew the whole thing away again and just installed Linux. Ended up ordering another SSD for Windows so by the time that came in I was more or less fully setup in Linux.

Only downside with Linux now is trying to get 3 monitors to work. It still seems to lack that support. That may potentially be my breaking point making me go back to Windows but I really hope I don't have to do that.

 

[lxskllr]

See if this helps. It gives an example for two, so maybe it can be adapted to three...

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nouveau

You'll have to make some translations for Xubuntu, but it's fairly straightforward. Arch has some of the best documentation in the biz. It''s worth seeing what they have to say regardless of what distro you're running.

 

[SolMiester]

Hmmm, he must have some real new hardware if 7 couldnt find drivers for his hardware....i realise its a parody, however, its not even close to real.....

 

[postmortemIA]

Hmmm, he must have some real new hardware if 7 couldnt find drivers for his hardware....i realise its a parody, however, its not even close to real.....

new AMD or nvidia graphics wouldn't have driver, usb3, some storage controllers, web cams, etc. But yeah, most of it would work.

 

[lakedude]

Hmmm, he must have some real new hardware if 7 couldnt find drivers for his hardware....i realise its a parody, however, its not even close to real.....

Have you ever installed Windows from scratch? Not from a disk image, from scratch?

When you get all done installing you are likely to have a bunch of yellow marks in Device Manager. Most hardware comes with windows drivers so it isn't a huge deal but you must manually install drivers, especially if your network card has a yellow mark.

Linux installs so much easier!

EDIT: In fairness I'm typically running Linux on older machines. Windows goes on the latest and greatest gaming hardware and that stuff is a bit more finicky...

 

[Red Squirrel]

Have you ever installed Windows from scratch? Not from a disk image, from scratch?

When you get all done installing you are likely to have a bunch of yellow marks in Device Manager. Most hardware comes with windows drivers so it isn't a huge deal but you must manually install drivers, especially if your network card has a yellow mark.

Linux installs so much easier!

I had this motherboard where the install disc for the network driver actually told me to go online and download it! I used to think this was sad, and hilarious at the same time.

 

[ControlD]

Have you ever installed Windows from scratch? Not from a disk image, from scratch?

When you get all done installing you are likely to have a bunch of yellow marks in Device Manager. Most hardware comes with windows drivers so it isn't a huge deal but you must manually install drivers, especially if your network card has a yellow mark.

Linux installs so much easier!

In general I agree, although I have found with Windows 7 and 8 there are very few components that still require me to download and install drivers. Those drivers that do need to be installed are generally pretty easy to find and install (just run setup.exe and you are done). The same can not be said about Linux. If you have a piece of hardware that does not get recognized during the install process it can be a real adventure trying to get it working.

I still prefer to use Linux and it is my "everything but gaming" operating system these days. Still, every time I go through a difficult hardware issue that requires downloading and compiling source code, running a few trial insmod commands and finally getting things patched up I realize it still probably isn't, and probably never will be, an operating system for the masses. The same can be said on the software side if there isn't a package available for your particular distribution. I can't see most of my friends ever compiling anything from source, much less even knowing what that means.

 

[TheStu]

Have you ever installed Windows from scratch? Not from a disk image, from scratch?

When you get all done installing you are likely to have a bunch of yellow marks in Device Manager. Most hardware comes with windows drivers so it isn't a huge deal but you must manually install drivers, especially if your network card has a yellow mark.

Linux installs so much easier!

I just did a clean install of Windows 8 when it was released. All of my hardware was detected and drivers installed.

Last time I installed Windows 7 it didn't have my GPU driver. It had a generic AMD one that worked to get me running, but then Windows Update grabbed the correct one next time it ran. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

The article was funny, even if some of the stuff was a little outdated.

 

[lxskllr]

I still prefer to use Linux and it is my "everything but gaming" operating system these days. Still, every time I go through a difficult hardware issue that requires downloading and compiling source code, running a few trial insmod commands and finally getting things patched up I realize it still probably isn't, and probably never will be, an operating system for the masses. The same can be said on the software side if there isn't a package available for your particular distribution. I can't see most of my friends ever compiling anything from source, much less even knowing what that means.

A lot of that is chicken/egg type stuff. I hardly ever have to compile from source, but I appreciate having the option available. Beats "We don't support your system. Go elsewhere". Most people don't need anything that isn't provided by a major distro like Ubuntu, and edge support will increase if user numbers do. I just installed the latest F@H client, and I had to download and run 3 deb packages. It was just as easy as running a .exe on Windows.

 

[_Rick_]

Package management is great - but it's not what it's supposed to be, most of the time.

Package managers are all insanely slow (because of the bloatedness of most distributions), don't offer decent help to a user searching for a piece of software (most of the categories end up in lists hundreds of elements long), so you have to know what you're looking for, and if you don't know the exact name, you're lost.

Also, drivers, ugh.
Last year my kernel would regularly panic, either because I was on a bad driver version, or because the driver assumed a newer firmware was present for the NIC. That was not very funny on a previously stable production system, was expecting the main board to crap out on me.

What this post shows, that whichever way you go - it's always more of the same problems...

 

[ControlD]

A lot of that is chicken/egg type stuff. I hardly ever have to compile from source, but I appreciate having the option available. Beats "We don't support your system. Go elsewhere". Most people don't need anything that isn't provided by a major distro like Ubuntu, and edge support will increase if user numbers do. I just installed the latest F@H client, and I had to download and run 3 deb packages. It was just as easy as running a .exe on Windows.

I agree that it is always better to have options than not which is just part of the beauty of Linux. If you need something chances are someone out there has made it already. I guess my usage pattern is a little different because I find myself compiling source code for various things at least once or twice a week. Chances are most consumer level users that just need normal PC functionality would not need to do so.

 

[iGas]

My PC motherboard died yesterday, as I was editing photos that I took on my last trip in Asia. I didn't want downtime if I wait to buy another motherboard, so I went to Future Shop and purchased a new PC that came loaded with Windows 8 (for Lightroom). And, to my surprise MS has completely wreck the OS...IMHO it is the worst user experience that I have ever had ever seen.

I have to look around to find things, and it take more clicks to get things done.

At this rate I will have to go back to Linux and forgo Lightroom once again.

 

[ControlD]

My PC motherboard died yesterday, as I was editing photos that I took on my last trip in Asia. I didn't want downtime if I wait to buy another motherboard, so I went to Future Shop and purchased a new PC that came loaded with Windows 8 (for Lightroom). And, to my surprise MS has completely wreck the OS...IMHO it is the worst user experience that I have ever had ever seen.

I have to look around to find things, and it take more clicks to get things done.

At this rate I will have to go back to Linux and forgo Lightroom once again.

Not trying to take this thread off-topic, but what were you using in Linux in place of Lightroom? LR is one of the applications that keeps me going back to a Windows session on a regular basis.

In regards to Win8, if you really don't want to deal with the Metro part of the operating system try one of the many Start button replacement suggestions already mentioned in numerous threads and see if that makes things better.

 

[lxskllr]

Not trying to take this thread off-topic, but what were you using in Linux in place of Lightroom? LR is one of the applications that keeps me going back to a Windows session on a regular basis.

Tried Darktable? It's not something I use, but it purports to be a replacement.

http://www.darktable.org/