rwenzori
Honorary Master
I'm intrigued. In what way is it "rubbish"? I'm not trying to troll you ( this time at least ), I'd really like to know why you think so.
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What Linux do you use?
- Thread starter StevenMcD
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I'm intrigued. In what way is it "rubbish"? I'm not trying to troll you ( this time at least ), I'd really like to know why you think so.
Honestly - as a windowing system it is not up to par with OS X or Windows for that matter. With millions of developers, countless distributions split into countless more distributions, and millions of dollars being thrown at various aspects of it (including sizable amounts from the likes of IBM and many others), it just doesn't catch up.
Windows and Os X are slicker. Video will always work as expected. And though most people knock windows, the majority of Windows apps are actually damn good. Games work on Windows natively - you don't need an emulator to get it going. Hardware has often got better support on Windows than Linux (blame the manufacturers, the fact remains that they would rather support a few flavours of Windows than countless flavours of Linux).
Windows and Mac Os X just look better. From the fonts right through to the slickness of window redrawing, Windows and Os X just do it better. My own disappointment with the extremely slow pace of making Linux look and feel as good as Windows and Os X is probably one reason for animosity towards Linux, but probably lending more to my increasing gripes with Linux is my undeniable hatred of sitting all hours of a morning rebuilding Linux boxes that have inexplicably fallen over while my MS SQL Server boxes hums along without any hassles whatsoever - as do my Exchange boxes and even my IIS boxes. .Net is actually quite awesome, and even the MS C Compilers are more standards compliant in my experience than GCC.
I wanted Linux to step up to the plate, but after more than 15 years of cheering the underdog, I've realised that even the stability and security that was once the pinnacle of all things Linux is not even 100% true of it anymore. In my lifetime I will probably never see a Linux desktop without at least a grimace on how freaking ugly it actually is. OS X is how things should be - and Vista is, well, just really really so many years ahead of any desktop Linux out there.
Windows and Os X are slicker. Video will always work as expected. And though most people knock windows, the majority of Windows apps are actually damn good. Games work on Windows natively - you don't need an emulator to get it going. Hardware has often got better support on Windows than Linux (blame the manufacturers, the fact remains that they would rather support a few flavours of Windows than countless flavours of Linux).
Windows and Mac Os X just look better. From the fonts right through to the slickness of window redrawing, Windows and Os X just do it better. My own disappointment with the extremely slow pace of making Linux look and feel as good as Windows and Os X is probably one reason for animosity towards Linux, but probably lending more to my increasing gripes with Linux is my undeniable hatred of sitting all hours of a morning rebuilding Linux boxes that have inexplicably fallen over while my MS SQL Server boxes hums along without any hassles whatsoever - as do my Exchange boxes and even my IIS boxes. .Net is actually quite awesome, and even the MS C Compilers are more standards compliant in my experience than GCC.
I wanted Linux to step up to the plate, but after more than 15 years of cheering the underdog, I've realised that even the stability and security that was once the pinnacle of all things Linux is not even 100% true of it anymore. In my lifetime I will probably never see a Linux desktop without at least a grimace on how freaking ugly it actually is. OS X is how things should be - and Vista is, well, just really really so many years ahead of any desktop Linux out there.
Aren't personal experiences great things? We run a number of servers all hosting critical services and the only ones that tend to fall over on their own are the windows ones. Interesting huh?
Yeah, personal experiences rock. We have over three hundred servers, and the linux boxes are definitely the most unreliable. We've even switched mail from sendmail to Exchange. All in all service from MS has been superb, whereas service from Linux is, well, who you gonna call?
rwenzori
Honorary Master
Thanks for your response.
To some extent the "windowing system" as you call it is a matter of personal taste. I have as my personal machines in my study a couple of XP machines, a Vista machine, a Mac and a machine running Linux/KDE. I "live" on the one XP machine because my favourite apps are Windows apps. The OS I most like is OS X - it is just so well presented and thought out, and I know Apple always put huge effort into the human interface. The Linux and Mac machines are most responsive under load - XP tends to be running a bit behind on its execution stack often! Personally I like KDE a lot and for me it is a lot prettier than the Vista interface which I find just plain ugly ( yes I know I can fiddle it, haven't had the time! ).
I have to agree. Not being a gamer, I tend to use lower-spec machines for Linux, and have mostly been lucky that it understands slightly older hardware. But that too is lekker - you don't need a "Vista-spec" box to run Linux pretty fast.
Each to his own I suppose. Those bloody ugly "glowing" close- and minimize-boxes on Vista are just horrific!
But the meat is in the apps - I don't run an OS for its own sake. And I do think that Windows has the desktop apps.
I run Ubuntu 6.10 with Compiz.....I use it for anything except gaming.
If you want n easy to use and install Linux try knoppix, best for users that don't know much about linux...and comes with a DVD version with loads and loads of software.....
My pref is currently OSX, Linux and then Windows....
If you want n easy to use and install Linux try knoppix, best for users that don't know much about linux...and comes with a DVD version with loads and loads of software.....
My pref is currently OSX, Linux and then Windows....
wab512
Well-Known Member
I started with Mandrake (Mandriva) but later on moved to openSuSE. I am pretty happy with it at this stage. Tried Ubuntu / Kubuntu and although it's not bad, I just can't get use to it and move back to SuSE.
And yes, I do have XP for gaming and syncing my iPod, but that's the only use for it...
And yes, I do have XP for gaming and syncing my iPod, but that's the only use for it...
I use XP for dev (.Net) and the odd game, and I've setup Ubuntu 6.10 for everything else - successfully so. That includes video (VLC), music (Amarok), email, browsing, Skype, GAIM and even syncing my K-JAM (That took some effort, I'll admit).
Ubuntu as a desktop may not be killer, but I've got further with it than I did with Suse 10.1. I don't have the hardware to support Vista, nor do I intend doing so just to be able to run it. Vista forced me to look seriously at a Linux desktop (I'd love to do MacOS, but that's even further up the price ladder).
I agree though - Windows has the apps (Visual Studio, 3D games) - although I see the *ix community catching up every day. I've even found the Edubuntu bundle to have value for my kids. Can't wait for Ubuntu 7.04...
Ubuntu as a desktop may not be killer, but I've got further with it than I did with Suse 10.1. I don't have the hardware to support Vista, nor do I intend doing so just to be able to run it. Vista forced me to look seriously at a Linux desktop (I'd love to do MacOS, but that's even further up the price ladder).
I agree though - Windows has the apps (Visual Studio, 3D games) - although I see the *ix community catching up every day. I've even found the Edubuntu bundle to have value for my kids. Can't wait for Ubuntu 7.04...
Everyone has their own likes and dislikes, some reasonable, most unreasonable.
Personally, I like.. scratch that, LOVE Linux as a server. As a desktop, not so much - mainly from the gaming aspect. In the business sense, as a desktop it can be brilliant, however you have to face it. A lot of companies don't want to throw their weight behind linux (ie, using it as a business desktop) because of the potential support difficulties. I can understand that. That's why many of them settle for Windows. Support for MS products is extremely easy (and cheap) to come by. Any (box) these days is an MCSE.
Trust me, if game developers ever pulled their thumbs out their bums and developed for Linux, I'd switch in a heartbeat.
Now that I have my 360, I doubt I'm going to be buying many more PC games.
Personally, I like.. scratch that, LOVE Linux as a server. As a desktop, not so much - mainly from the gaming aspect. In the business sense, as a desktop it can be brilliant, however you have to face it. A lot of companies don't want to throw their weight behind linux (ie, using it as a business desktop) because of the potential support difficulties. I can understand that. That's why many of them settle for Windows. Support for MS products is extremely easy (and cheap) to come by. Any (box) these days is an MCSE.
Trust me, if game developers ever pulled their thumbs out their bums and developed for Linux, I'd switch in a heartbeat.
Now that I have my 360, I doubt I'm going to be buying many more PC games.
I used to be a Gentoo user, but sitting and staring at lines and lines of compiling for who knows how long just became too much.
Then I discovered Arch. This one awesome distro! It has amazing package managment, and like Gentoo, you only install what you use. And unlike Gentoo, everything just works. You don't have to fiddle around with config files if you don't want to.
I'm running the 64 bit version without any problems. It's running on the Beyond Kernel, With Gnome 2.18 and Beryl for my Desktop environment/Window manager.
I've tweaked it to bits, and I spend 95% of my time in linux. I'm only in windows when I'm composing and editing my photos.
Everything else I need is in Linux. It has a better network stack than most operating systems out there, it has the best music player out there (MPD), my videos actually play better in Linux than they do in Windows. And for my web development, occasional dabbling in programming, it's awesome!
Each to his own, I guess.
Then I discovered Arch. This one awesome distro! It has amazing package managment, and like Gentoo, you only install what you use. And unlike Gentoo, everything just works. You don't have to fiddle around with config files if you don't want to.
I'm running the 64 bit version without any problems. It's running on the Beyond Kernel, With Gnome 2.18 and Beryl for my Desktop environment/Window manager.
I've tweaked it to bits, and I spend 95% of my time in linux. I'm only in windows when I'm composing and editing my photos.
Everything else I need is in Linux. It has a better network stack than most operating systems out there, it has the best music player out there (MPD), my videos actually play better in Linux than they do in Windows. And for my web development, occasional dabbling in programming, it's awesome!
Each to his own, I guess.
Have you ever taken a serious look at the newer versions of KDE?
The customizablity is mind boggling - makes XP look like Win 3.1
One can spend hours looking through all the window settings, desktop behaviour, etc.
Huh?! They only need to write the code once for Linux not for every distro.
The distro maintainers are the ones who can package it for their distros and even if they didn't the manufacturers could write a single binary installer.
Take a look at nVidia - they wrote a single binary installer for their graphics cards that works on Fedora, Suse, (K)ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo, etc.
The problem is that manufacturers don't even try!
Have you taken a look at Xgl/Compiz or Beryl?
They look even better than OS X.
These aren't good clips but you'll get the idea :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUSn-jBA3CE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD7QraljRfM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lawkc3jH3ws
The_Techie
Resident Techie
I only run Linux when I boot up Knoppix STD
Skeptik
Banned
I would recommend you try pcBSD1.4. (UNIX BSD6.2 with a friendly installer) It uses KDE and makes UBUNTU look silly.
PostmanPot
Honorary Master
Linux Ubuntu installation is imminent 
First time user (except a bit of fiddling with boot-from-CD Knoppix on a P2-350Mhz).
Looking forward to trying Ubuntu out, I also hear Starcraft runs perfectly on it since SC is the only game I play.
First time user (except a bit of fiddling with boot-from-CD Knoppix on a P2-350Mhz).
Looking forward to trying Ubuntu out, I also hear Starcraft runs perfectly on it since SC is the only game I play.
If Blizzard hadn't gotten their way you could've been playing Freecraft .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratagus
I've played Starcraft in Cedega. It should work with WINE. I would play BF2 in Cedega too but my PC only just does an adequate job on medium settings in Windows. Gaming is the only thing Windows is good for anyway
. That should wind up the Wintendo idiots that rushed into this thread to show off their ignorance 
.
To answer the original question that started this thread: Slackware and Slamd64.
.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratagus
I've played Starcraft in Cedega. It should work with WINE. I would play BF2 in Cedega too but my PC only just does an adequate job on medium settings in Windows. Gaming is the only thing Windows is good for anyway
. That should wind up the Wintendo idiots that rushed into this thread to show off their ignorance .To answer the original question that started this thread: Slackware and Slamd64
.