What do u miss in Linux

[nu2this]

In my case I miss being able to play 2 games in particular Feeding Frenzy & Zuma. These 2 do not work in wine, but I can & have lived without them since I got into Ubuntu. This question did remind me of them.

[slibuntu]

For me it just has to be the good flash support, its still laggy.
I'm an Engineering student so AutoCad is another one
I haven't been able to get Gnutella sharing working in Edgy, i've tried both Limewire and Frostwire.
Apart from that its just the one game, FM07. Its the reason my Windows partition is still alive!

[wargod]

A good uncomplicated driver for ATI graphic cards.

I mean only a FEW clicks and ready.

[flyinsquirrel992]

What I miss:

*Older lesser known games support (WoW and starcraft is fine but what if I wanna bust out rolar coaster tycoon)
*Simple display management (I think X should have a simpler configuration front by default)
*Not having to explain linux to people (bittersweet, i do enjoy converting people over - 5 is my record so far)
*All instalations being relatively the same (.Deb is fine but a lot of my friends dont understand .tar.gz and source code - I think an automatic compiling and installing tool is in need here assuming nowone knows of one)
*Microsoft Sam (Lets face it, hes on every XP instalation, and it's fun to type stuff in there)

What i dont miss:
*Windows update (seriously windows update sucked) - what other operating system requires a browser to update??
*Trying to get a game to work but not having enough information about the problem to fix it in the first place
*Viruses/spyware, anything that happens to my computer without my concent (Linux MAJORLY has an edge here for my preference)
*Microsoft Bob (lets face it, LOL)

Also as I'm typing on a Windows school computer right now what do i miss:

*Global spellcheck :(

[bocmaxima]

iTunes (sorry guys, AmaroK and gtkpod just dont cut, it, especially for 5th gen pods)
uTorrent
DVDShrink


Outside of that, theres really nothing...and I keep a Windows Drive for DVD Shrink and iTunes, but I log in there like once a month.

[Rodneyck]

Outside of that, theres really nothing...and I keep a Windows Drive for DVD Shrink and iTunes, but I log in there like once a month.

I use DVDShrink under Wine and it works perfectly. I suggest giving it a try, saves rebooting anyways.

[Pai]

Then there is gnupaint.
Honestly I dont sere why people want to use a 3 year old programmed paint app like MS paint.

Regarding MS apps, obviously Paint is not a real hearty program, and that is why I spend most of my time in Photoshop, but honestly, Paint is up there in my list of most used programs. For simple editing that doesn't require any of the utilities available in PS, paint is much more efficient. For example, I can take a screenshot, open paint and crop the capture before Photoshop even finishes loading.

Anyway, the only things I really miss in linux is iTunes and PS, since I've become really comfortable with them over the past few years. I'm using Amarok and GIMP as alternatives, which are both more than capable, but it's just not the same feel that I got so used to from past use.

[darrengoddard]

i miss the cup of coffee i'd enjoy whilst waiting for xp to boot up...

i miss my hard drive light constantly on while norton scanned everything all the time...

but seriously

i do miss a decent desktop publisher. i'm pretty new to linux but i've only seen 'scribus' and frankly it's infantile compared to m$ publisher.

can anyone suggest another?

darren
(off to make that coffee now):KS

[Brunellus]

i miss the cup of coffee i'd enjoy whilst waiting for xp to boot up...

i miss my hard drive light constantly on while norton scanned everything all the time...

but seriously

i do miss a decent desktop publisher. i'm pretty new to linux but i've only seen 'scribus' and frankly it's infantile compared to m$ publisher.

can anyone suggest another?

darren
(off to make that coffee now):KS
MS publisher was pretty infantile compared to Pagemaker and Quarx, as I recall.

Document management and typesetting are the realm of TeX and LaTeX, but desktop publishing is less clear.

[Rodneyck]

MS publisher was pretty infantile compared to Pagemaker and Quarx, as I recall.

Document management and typesetting are the realm of TeX and LaTeX, but desktop publishing is less clear.

Yes MS Publisher is no where in the same ballpark as Quark or Pagemaker. Actually, Adobe Indesign beats them all and I miss that program so much.

I have a cookbook, almost 200 pages so far, that is on hold because it is next to impossible to successfully transfer between formats, especially with that many pages. It can be done, but it takes about 3 programs and 5 different format saves per page. NO THANKS. ](*,)

Scribis needs some more time in the oven unfortunately for serious desktop publishing.

[flyinsquirrel992]

iTunes (sorry guys, AmaroK and gtkpod just dont cut, it, especially for 5th gen pods)
uTorrent
DVDShrink

I loved utorrent too, and actually from what I've heard utorrent runs with wine right off the bat. It seems like they took careful consideration into good programing standards.

[Frak]

I loved utorrent too, and actually from what I've heard utorrent runs with wine right off the bat. It seems like they took careful consideration into good programing standards.
Yep, making it compatable with WINE was in the plans when it was being created.

[emarkay]

Irfanview!!!

and M$ Flight Simulator 9!

[alyoung]

God, I miss FL Studio: I still can't get inputs to work properly in ASIO emulation.

Oh well.

Everything else seems to have been ported or 'forced' to work in some way: the ingenuity of the GNU/Linux collective is inspiration to me.

Photoshop 7.0, at least can be made to run in WINE in Edgy, it seems: http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iVersionId=1336&iTestingId=7832

[TheNewbie]

I miss being able to use programs like AOL Radio. If you can use that through FF in Ubuntu, someone let me know.

[flyinsquirrel992]

I miss being able to use programs like AOL Radio. If you can use that through FF in Ubuntu, someone let me know.
mm, not sure about aol radio, but amarok has shoutcast support, and they have like 1000's of stations to listen to.

[MontanaMax]

AutoCAD. None of the CAD packages that clone AutoCAD's functionality run well or natively in Linux for me. And I'm not interested in shelling out $600 for a CAD package that claims to run in Wine when I can't get any other CAD package built for windows to run in Wine.

If I had money to burn and a need for CAD I'd use it for a copy of Windows XP Pro and a $200 IntelliCAD license that is guaranteed to run well. As it is, I already made that investment a couple years ago and it's still the only CAD thing working for me.

[Wartooth]

AutoCAD is a major sticking point for Linux to be of much use in this household as we have a small machine shop. I've tried to get WINE to work on a previous installation of Ubuntu (different machine), with little success, and was unable to coax AutoCAD to work with it, which is a shame. Until I'm able to pull this off, we'll have at least two or three computers here with Windows of some sort. I think the current count is four.

Right now, though, the biggest thing I'm missing is sound (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=363365). :(

[Rodneyck]

I miss being able to use programs like AOL Radio. If you can use that through FF in Ubuntu, someone let me know.

Yes, as flyinsquirrel992 pointed out above, you don't need AOL to gain thousands of FM radio stations. Amarok is excellent as many are preinstalled, or just do a google for them. Most media players allow you to plug in the station's url and/or bookmark them.

[bocmaxima]

I loved utorrent too, and actually from what I've heard utorrent runs with wine right off the bat. It seems like they took careful consideration into good programing standards.

Interesting...maybe I will look into that. Adding uTorrent + DVDShrink would only make me have to boot into Winders like once a week, maybe less. Now someone needs to come up with a definitive iPod syncing solution (I have tried them all, and they just arent as goos or flexible as iTunes, even though the Windows version of it is a hog)

[crobruncato]

1) I miss outlook - I use exchange at work, and evolution (as of the last time I was messing with it) wasn't stable connecting to our server. Although it is getting better.

2) Wireless - This really needs to be worked on. Easy connections and working with WPA. I used WPA supplicant - but easy wireless should be built in.

3) my wife plays certain online web games. they only work in IE. (active x stuff?). If the wife ain't happy, I'm not happy:)

4) Easier accounting software (for the home user and small biz)

Those are probably the biggest - until I post this, then other ideas will come to me:KS

I hope 1,2,and 4 are resolved quickly - I'd love to push linux to small businesses.

Rob

[MetalMusicAddict]

Winamp 5. (please, nobody mention the linux clones. they dont even come close.)

[bocmaxima]

3) my wife plays certain online web games. they only work in IE. (active x stuff?). If the wife ain't happy, I'm not happy:)

http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

:guitar:

As for 4, I am not too versed, but have you tried Grisbi?

[Brunellus]

Winamp 5. (please, nobody mention the linux clones. they dont even come close.)
Winamp lost me at the Winamp 3 branch. Winamp 2.x was my favorite. . . but now I run rhythmbox.

[TheNewbie]

awesome. I will have to install Amarok when I get Xubuntu up and running. Thanks for the suggestion....

[MetalMusicAddict]

Winamp lost me at the Winamp 3 branch. Winamp 2.x was my favorite. . . but now I run rhythmbox.
Yeah. 3 was horrible. I think 5 made up for it though.

Im a Exaile (http://www.exaile.org/) fanboy atm. Its really coming along nicely. I use SVN and new stuff pops in daily.

[bender5788]

I miss my games thats the only reason i even have it on here (the partition is about 1/3 the size of my mighty ubuntu :).
Don't worry once i eventually grow out of it or we get good wine 64bit support ill just spend the time to figure it out after which i will cast windows into the pit of despair (otherwise known as my CD case)

[crobruncato]

Bocmaxima - Thanks!

[shining]

3) my wife plays certain online web games. they only work in IE. (active x stuff?). If the wife ain't happy, I'm not happy:)


I don't know about active x, but I know that several games require shockwave (like isketch.net), which isn't available on Linux :
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/

[crobruncato]

Shining - thanks for that as well. I'll try to figure out which.

[PartisanEntity]

I miss an MS Outlook alternative:

I used to use Thunderbird but needed cell phone syncing, appointments, tasks and calendar. So I switched to Evolution.

It's not bad, but for example the 'Contacts' feature needs to be worked on, more customization should be available in how the user would like the contacts displayed; it would be nice if names or categories were highlighted somehow (bold, size etc..) so they stick out and are noticeable.

[thewump]

OUTLOOK

Yeah.. I know there are great email applications, but when it comes to connecting to Microsoft Exchange Server, Outlook rules.

Yes, Evolution mail connects too, but it's just not slick. It crashes, it's much slower, and it uses the OWA mechanism ( like a phone ) so it's just not the same solid solution

Yes, you can run Outlook on Linux with Crossover ( and maybe even Wine too ) but they emulate Win2000, and most of the budget exchange server providors ( like mine ) require XP SP2 to specificy the correct http:// connect method.. I don't remember the detail - but I can't use outlook running on linux.

Also, the cloudmark anti-spam plugin for outlook is really a great solution for spam.

Apart from that.. I'm all set. My biggest worry about switching to Linux was XARA that I use for design, but there is a XaraLX version.. FREE ;-)

Keith

[BOBSONATOR]

Games & Sony Vegas.

[ArtInvent]

Have you seen GnomeFiles? I found TuxGuitar (http://www.gnomefiles.org/app.php/TuxGuitar) there but I have no idea how mature it is or if it fits your needs. Go have a look.

:guitar: :popcorn:

Thanks for the heads up on TuxGuitar. I have installed it and imported a midi that I had made using Tabledit. This looks like the most promising of the open source Tab music programs. Some programs don't even have standard notation capability.

Of course I would prefer a FOSS program. But I have thousands of pieces of classical guitar music in Tabledit (TEF) format, so I will be needing it for the foreseeable future. I need something with extremely good standard notation and print page layout controls, like published music quality, so it looks like TuxGuitar is not quite there yet. Tabledit isn't perfect, but if you really work it you can get it to do even the most complex music and to look correct as well.

The good news is I have gotten Tabledit to run in Wine pretty beautifully! There is one little glitch that apparently has been solved in more recent versions of Wine. Ubuntu Edgy packages through Synaptics seem to be stuck at Wine v0.9.22 which is many months old. Wine is one package that I would appreciate getting ported over to the Ubuntu repos as quickly as possible. Having the latest version of Wine often means things either work or they don't. I tried to enable the WineHQ repos, but that didn't make any difference.

Wine is really starting to get usable. I also have Photoshop 7 running near perfectly, with the only real drawback being that printing is not supported well. Wine is pretty obscure to try and get running, but once you do it's downright amazing. (Kind of like Linux on the whole.)

[ArtInvent]

1) Photoshop. I personally don't need every last bell and whistle; if there were a really great clone UI that fit over Gimp and read and saved photoshop files that would be fine and probably lure a lot of PS users. I especially need a really good RAW format manipulator like Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom and it needs to be integrated into the photo editor.


I have just discovered LightZone for Linux, www.lightcrafts.com/products/lightzone/ which is a fantastic commercial RAW photo file processor. It cost about $300 for Windows and Mac users, but it's free (at least right now) for Linux! I had really been wishing for a RAW program that can divide an image into sections using a path tool, and perform image adjustments independently to just those sections. It's much better to do these adjustments in the RAW file rather than in a TIF in Photoshop, because there is much more exposure flexibility in the RAW file and the resulting image will be much higher quality.

For instance, say you take a photo where the sky was dramatic but the foreground dark. You can bump up the overall exposure, but the sky will then wash out. You can divide the image up in Photoshop and apply exposure corrections to the sky and foreground separately, but you may lose detail and increase noise; much better to be able to do this in RAW.

This is exactly what LightZone can do. Fantastic. This may be the most advanced RAW tool out there.

[bash]

First of all I have to say that I really like Ubuntu and Linux for that matter. I used Ubuntu for a while now and I grown to use it as my only OS ditching that other one completly. I used openSuse before, but that Distro for some reason never really worked for me. Ubuntu on the contrary was easy, intuative and quick to use. Adding to that come the usual plus points I associate with linux system. You actually feel like your in control of your system. This is just my subjective view. But I think that with Linux if something is screwed (or you screwed something) there (mostly) always a logical wayof why it is that way or why something went wrong. On Windows went some was really screwed it always meant reinstall for me.

But as the topic goes, not everything is perfect in Tuxanistan and this thread is not about me highligthin the plus points of Ubuntu (which I could go on for quite a bit). After reading through the Fedore feature list for Fedora 7 (link (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/7/Features)), I started wondering what I personally am missing/would like to see in Ubuntu.

So here is a short list of what for me personally are important features that Ubuntu lacks/should have. They are in no particular order:


Ubuntu ships with a lot of good programs, but I miss a good, easy, quick and integrated Backup solution (including a nice GUI (GTK anyone?)). Found a program called SimpleBackup in the reps, but well its simple as in not to many features. I haven't started a big search for a good backup program, so anyone suggestions here are appreciated. For me backup is an essential part of your computing (don't like if all my work gets fried and I have no seconds).
Enhanced security. The basice concept of Ubuntu is already good. But I think it could be better. SELinux support should be extended. As far as I know it is in Debian 4 and since Feisty uses those Debian packages, this point might be optimised in the next release.
Better wireless lan support. Or for that matter better wireless anything support. As with the above point, apperently there are some advences in Feisty, but I still miss the easy of use of an "Wireless Network Center" in Win XP SP2. If you used it you might understand what I mean. Something like that for Ubuntu would be quite handy. And on the point of wirless. Better Bluetooth support would be something really wish for. At least for me it was quite hard to install, setup and manage to connect my pc with bluetooth to my mobile phone.
Installer option for an completly encrypted filesystem. Something like suggested in this (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/FeatureEncryptedFilesystems?highlight=%28CategoryF edora7Features%29) Fedora 7 feature. You can currently already encrpyted your whole fs with the help of some tutorials in the Ubuntu Wiki (I still haven't gotten down to write the Encrypted FS HowTo for Edgy :( ), but an option in the installer would be at least for me a way handier way.
Another feature I like from the Fedora 7 feature list (still I think Ubuntu > Fedora), is the better supported Fast User switching (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/FeatureFastUserSwitching?highlight=%28CategoryFedo ra7Features%29). I think the Fedora wiki entry says it all.
This last point is more of a general Linux one. Since now most of the big distros are LSB compliant, shouldn't we start to see installer packages that work for many different (LSB compatible distros). Wasn't it one of the goals of the LSB, to get to the state of only haven't one installer package for basically all distros and not one for Ubuntu, Suse, Fedora and so on. So why is there any progress? Or should none be expected? Or am I just misunderstanding something here. Im mainly curious about this thing. So if anyone got any links explaining this or other facts about this, would be appreciated.

[Boomy]

I still use Windows for music production. There are some incredibly good apps and plugins for Windows and Mac with no alternatives on Linux.

I'll tell you one thing I don't miss though. Spyware and viruses. I booted into my XP partition and even though I don't use the net on it, I had the ethernet interface enabled in device manager and somehow all these spyware apps were installed. I still can't figure that out (I don't use antivirus on it). All I know is Windows sucks, there is no excuse for malware being automatically installed. The only reason I use it is the software I have for it won't work in Linux.

[atr_hugo]

NERO and Picture Window Pro - came close to being a Mac user with Photoshop but PW convinced me to stay on DOS (until I got finally, totally and completely fed up with MS). PW was an elegant solution for image manipulation at a very nice pricepoint. Finding a comparable solution in Linux may be difficult.

[qamelian]

Nothing. Every application I ever used in Windows has a counterpart in the F/OSS that (IMO) is as good or better than the software I used under Windows. It wasn't always this way when I start using Linux over 8 years ago, but I haven't needed to do without anything in the past few years.

[SurR3AL]

hey there IS a way to get photoshop running in linux. Check this (http://blog.publicidadpixelada.com/how-to-adobe-photoshop-cs2-on-ubuntu-10-steps/) out :D

[Rodneyck]

hey there IS a way to get photoshop running in linux. Check this (http://blog.publicidadpixelada.com/how-to-adobe-photoshop-cs2-on-ubuntu-10-steps/) out :D

That blog has been around for some time and that method does not work, at least when I tried it. I got the same errors as others replying to that piece experienced.

You can find "portable Photohop CS2" and this works under Wine, but not all that well. There are functions that either do not work or cause the app to crash, but ok if you want to do general stuff under Linux. I think the reason is Photoshop uses activeX controls for their interface.

One similar app I use that does work by copying from a Microsoft install is Fireworks, both pixel and vector editor combined. You can open photoshop files and save as photoshop, but you can't do the CYMK stuff. You could also use Gimp/Inkscape under Linux.

[tbodine]

Spyware, viruses, rebooting, crashing, EULA's, and blue screens of death.

[Greyhair]

Let me see now.....
....blue screen of death.
....the insecurity of IE
....having to wait ages for security updates.
....paying for an OS, so I can Beta test it; for free
....having to use an inferior product.
....Bill Gates guidance and business ethics.
....innovative software.
....knowing that the code in MS don't violate anyones IP.
....Steve Ballmer

Seriously though................I completely dumped M$ 4 years ago, and have never looked back. Linux has everything that I require and need. I will never install M$ on any of my computers again; even if it was free!

[Ramses de Norre]

Support for the expensive sony hdd walkman I bought before I started using linux...

[DeadAmaranth]

Well, I've been using Linux on-and-off (the "off" being the periods of installation), testing various distros. Also, I dabbled with it a bit in the past as well.

So, my opinion comes from a newbie, definitely. Caveat!

I miss Foobar2000 with a passion! I mean, I like Amarok well enough, and it has some nice features, but... Foobar had EVERYTHING, (Well, nothing regarding last.fm if I recall, but), played any format I could think of, had wonderful skinability, and scripting, and basically gui-core manipulation. I mean, we're talking incredible tinkering powers here. And yet... you don't have to do any real tinkering at all to play multiple formats right from install. It pisses me off that Foobar isn't ported to Linux yet (or may never be). Oh....gapless .mp3 playback! I listen to albums which have contiguous-audio tracks quite a bit (Tool, and Floyd, for example), and having a gap between .mp3s realllly kills the experience. Especially for an album like Meshuggah's Catch Thirtythree, which is basically one convoluted song encoded as 13 tracks (for WHAT reason? Shrug).

I miss Irfanview. Quick, simple. Had great re-sizing/re-encoding, etc... Clean interface. Just works.

I miss uTorrent. Although I hear a wine solution might be possible. I couldn't get Irfanview to run in wine (it crashed while browsing for images *pout*).

I really miss PowerTab. I compose guitar/midi music and love how simple and yet functional PowerTab is. Haven't tried TuxGuitar (?) yet. Have my hesitations.

I miss Intervideo's WinDVD. MUUUCH cleaner interface than VLC, and incredibly more intuitive to configure (granted, it has nowhere near the capability... but I only use it for DVD).

I miss Nero.

That's all I can think of for the moment.



I do NOT miss having to re-boot Windows every time I install software/sys upgrades. What a joke!

I do NOT miss that something as simple as trying to install a Logitech QuickCam almost hosed my system. I'm serious. I even got bluescreen a few times from this, and I hadn't seen BS in over a year.

I do NOT miss that the default shell is difficult to replace. It can be done, but, ... ouch! XP comes with three themes default, and they really only change the color. Wow! Yes, I am aware of deviantart, but why only three for default? And why does the "Add more themes" (?) button take you to a location where you have to BUY a product? WTF?

I do NOT miss having to keep up-to-date on all my spyware scans & updates, antivirus (used AVG --excellent prog), and firewall (Agnitum Outpost --amazing!!!).

I do NOT miss how many programs require admin access. I'm talking games, and plain-jane apps.

On that note, I do NOT miss how XP makes doing incidental system admin stuff inconvenient (nothing beats su, sudo, gksudo, etc...)

I don't miss NTLOADER's stupidity,... how XP freaks out if it isn't the first HDD. Whatever. You shouldn't have to wade through google to find a working method for dualboot.

This reminds me, having to use another computer to copy my motherboard's SATA drivers to floppy (floppy! not CD!) on order to install XP at all... that sucked.

And I don't miss the fact that since I didn't pay enough attention and installed a volume license copy of XP for my mom's PC (which I built), instead of a regular OEM, now Genuine Windows Advantage is telling her she will have to get an entire new license! Another hundred dollars or more.... just because. I could wax on-and-on about how overpriced the Office suite is, but..... :)

On the other hand... some GNU (GNU-related) apps have been on my XP install for quite a while. Let me see: Cygwin, Gaim (love it --and they'll get video-chat eventually), GIMP, VLC.

But of course, I miss the games. Man, the games! I'm using ioquake3 (painless install), runs excellently! But, what about Morrowind? Or HL2? Or Mount and Blade (well, that's a homebrew, so ...)? Starcraft? SimCity, Civilization (the clones don't compare)? Pay for Cedega? If I have to. *pout*

Anyway. :)

[zorkerz]

games games games

[kuja]

Oh....gapless .mp3 playback! I listen to albums which have contiguous-audio tracks quite a bit (Tool, and Floyd, for example), and having a gap between .mp3s realllly kills the experience.
But Amarok can do gapless playback. Go to Settings -> Playback -> No Crossfading -> Insert Gap -- and set it to 0ms. Simple as that. I do see where you're coming from though .... I'd hate to have a gap between Parabol and Parabola ....
[B]I miss Irfanview. Quick, simple. Had great re-sizing/re-encoding, etc... Clean interface. Just works.
Best equivalent I've found for it is Gwenview. Especially when extended with kipi-plugins.

[Frak]

Well, I've been using Linux on-and-off (the "off" being the periods of installation), testing various distros. Also, I dabbled with it a bit in the past as well.

So, my opinion comes from a newbie, definitely. Caveat!

I miss Foobar2000 with a passion! I mean, I like Amarok well enough, and it has some nice features, but... Foobar had EVERYTHING, (Well, nothing regarding last.fm if I recall, but), played any format I could think of, had wonderful skinability, and scripting, and basically gui-core manipulation. I mean, we're talking incredible tinkering powers here. And yet... you don't have to do any real tinkering at all to play multiple formats right from install. It pisses me off that Foobar isn't ported to Linux yet (or may never be). Oh....gapless .mp3 playback! I listen to albums which have contiguous-audio tracks quite a bit (Tool, and Floyd, for example), and having a gap between .mp3s realllly kills the experience. Especially for an album like Meshuggah's Catch Thirtythree, which is basically one convoluted song encoded as 13 tracks (for WHAT reason? Shrug).

I miss Irfanview. Quick, simple. Had great re-sizing/re-encoding, etc... Clean interface. Just works.

I miss uTorrent. Although I hear a wine solution might be possible. I couldn't get Irfanview to run in wine (it crashed while browsing for images *pout*).

I really miss PowerTab. I compose guitar/midi music and love how simple and yet functional PowerTab is. Haven't tried TuxGuitar (?) yet. Have my hesitations.

I miss Intervideo's WinDVD. MUUUCH cleaner interface than VLC, and incredibly more intuitive to configure (granted, it has nowhere near the capability... but I only use it for DVD).

I miss Nero.

That's all I can think of for the moment.



I do NOT miss having to re-boot Windows every time I install software/sys upgrades. What a joke!

I do NOT miss that something as simple as trying to install a Logitech QuickCam almost hosed my system. I'm serious. I even got bluescreen a few times from this, and I hadn't seen BS in over a year.

I do NOT miss that the default shell is difficult to replace. It can be done, but, ... ouch! XP comes with three themes default, and they really only change the color. Wow! Yes, I am aware of deviantart, but why only three for default? And why does the "Add more themes" (?) button take you to a location where you have to BUY a product? WTF?

I do NOT miss having to keep up-to-date on all my spyware scans & updates, antivirus (used AVG --excellent prog), and firewall (Agnitum Outpost --amazing!!!).

I do NOT miss how many programs require admin access. I'm talking games, and plain-jane apps.

On that note, I do NOT miss how XP makes doing incidental system admin stuff inconvenient (nothing beats su, sudo, gksudo, etc...)

I don't miss NTLOADER's stupidity,... how XP freaks out if it isn't the first HDD. Whatever. You shouldn't have to wade through google to find a working method for dualboot.

This reminds me, having to use another computer to copy my motherboard's SATA drivers to floppy (floppy! not CD!) on order to install XP at all... that sucked.

And I don't miss the fact that since I didn't pay enough attention and installed a volume license copy of XP for my mom's PC (which I built), instead of a regular OEM, now Genuine Windows Advantage is telling her she will have to get an entire new license! Another hundred dollars or more.... just because. I could wax on-and-on about how overpriced the Office suite is, but..... :)

On the other hand... some GNU (GNU-related) apps have been on my XP install for quite a while. Let me see: Cygwin, Gaim (love it --and they'll get video-chat eventually), GIMP, VLC.

But of course, I miss the games. Man, the games! I'm using ioquake3 (painless install), runs excellently! But, what about Morrowind? Or HL2? Or Mount and Blade (well, that's a homebrew, so ...)? Starcraft? SimCity, Civilization (the clones don't compare)? Pay for Cedega? If I have to. *pout*

Anyway. :)
µTorrent runs just fine under WINE, in fact, on their site they show it as being fullly compatable.

For Foobar2000, I miss it too, try Beep, not the same, but kinda sorta not really close.

And they make Nero for Linux, but K3B is a million percent better IMHO.

[atdi4ever]

utorrent...under wine its just not the same to me
and games

[cowlip]

I miss video camera converting and editing apps (most linux ones are at 0.2 or something ;0), dvd authoring apps (although k3b is very close now---it will convert video to .vob files, it just can't create a menu yet!), and I guess Photoshop. Virtualization and Wine help a bit though.

[yabbadabbadont]

I miss video camera converting and editing apps (most linux ones are at 0.2 or something ;0), dvd authoring apps (although k3b is very close now---it will convert video to .vob files, it just can't create a menu yet!), and I guess Photoshop. Virtualization and Wine help a bit though.

Search the forums for the tovid howto. It does a decent job of converting videos to be included on dvd, (s)vcd, etc. It also has tools for generating menus complete with animated thumbnails and such. I stick with the command line utilities it provides, but there is rapid development going on with it's GUI.

[ArthurOrton]

Foobar!

Also games, but mostly just Foobar. I might actually switch back to Windows because of it. :(

[patrick1314]

I only really miss three programmes enough to require a dual boot Ubuntu/Windows. In no particular order:
- Paint.net - a quick, powerful and easy-to-use image editing replacement for MS Paint (GIMP is too complicated for editing, and the seperate windows are annoying at times)
- And two programmes that I can't live without are GIOS PDF Splitter/Merger and PDFTools. I use them alot for printing eBooks from Google Books. I've been searching for Linux replacements for them but apparently PDF software for Linux is pretty basic. :(

[DeadAmaranth]

But Amarok can do gapless playback. Go to Settings -> Playback -> No Crossfading -> Insert Gap -- and set it to 0ms. Simple as that. I do see where you're coming from though .... I'd hate to have a gap between Parabol and Parabola ....

Well, that is actually the default option, apparently, and the playback is NOT gapless. Perhaps it has something to do with reading from my XP-install NTFS drive? I don't have 2.6.20 kernel yet (read something about ATi proprietaries unable to handle it (yes, I use ATi. Yes, I know.) I should try it out by copying the afore-mentioned Meshuggah album to my IDE drive, too. Anyway, soon enough I'll be converting (or re-ripping, then converting) as much of my music into .ogg anyway. I preferred vorbis even in XP.

Best equivalent I've found for it is Gwenview. Especially when extended with kipi-plugins.

Ehhh... Just installed via Synaptic. Not seeing the "equivalence" so far. The default layout is atrocious, in my opinion. What's with images being viewed in a tiny box in the lower left corner, while thumbnail directory browsing gets a huge block of the app's focus? Also, I haven't done much tweaking yet, but it seems pretty slow to render. Irfanview blazes through loading jpegs (this issue reminds me of a highschool friend once showing off an image viewer for his 50Mhz 486. Corel, I do believe. Wooowwww... talk about slow rendering!)

So far, I like GQview much better, though it still doesn't hit the "sweet spot". Any other suggestions?

[jeffc313]

I missed GIMP until I realized that it was a native Linux app. seriously!

[DeadAmaranth]

Hahaha! That's pretty damned funny. :)

[Aliarse]

Foobar 2000. :'(

Really wish the Dev's would release the sourcecode so someone could port it over.

[Yellowbelly]

iTunes, Games, and using my printer. That's it. I can live without itunes (for a little bit) and games (since they waste my time, although I like them) but I really need my printer. I don't like to switch back to windows just to print something. I swear I installed the drivers but it still won't work. Dunno what the deal is, probably some code I have to put in. Gimp is cool, amarok/exaile's, gimp, and all those i'm fine with. Need my printer arg!

[kuja]

Well, that is actually the default option, apparently, and the playback is NOT gapless. Perhaps it has something to do with reading from my XP-install NTFS drive? I don't have 2.6.20 kernel yet (read something about ATi proprietaries unable to handle it (yes, I use ATi. Yes, I know.) I should try it out by copying the afore-mentioned Meshuggah album to my IDE drive, too. Anyway, soon enough I'll be converting (or re-ripping, then converting) as much of my music into .ogg anyway. I preferred vorbis even in XP.



Ehhh... Just installed via Synaptic. Not seeing the "equivalence" so far. The default layout is atrocious, in my opinion. What's with images being viewed in a tiny box in the lower left corner, while thumbnail directory browsing gets a huge block of the app's focus? Also, I haven't done much tweaking yet, but it seems pretty slow to render. Irfanview blazes through loading jpegs (this issue reminds me of a highschool friend once showing off an image viewer for his 50Mhz 486. Corel, I do believe. Wooowwww... talk about slow rendering!)

So far, I like GQview much better, though it still doesn't hit the "sweet spot". Any other suggestions?

I do believe that the gapless playback was a mentioned feature rather recently. I recommend upgrading to Amarok 1.4.5 (you can get the deb from this repository: "deb http://kubuntu.org/packages/amarok145 edgy main").

Gwenview does have some rendering options in its configure menu, have fun with those. Gwenview has two different views - the browsing view and the image view. I never really bother much with the browser view, but the view image view is what I like about it ..... that and the browsing options (scroll through a ton of images with the mousewheel? Sure, why not.)

[yesraaj]

Hi friends,
I need some application for using gmail chat apart from chatting i need to transfer files with my friends and call them as in gTalk.

[regomodo]

Serious Games, Photoshop, AutoGK, Proper use of my printer i.e not dead slow.

Also, if any1 knows of a linux equivalent of Nero Recode i'd like to hear

Edit : and Rivatuner

[zanglang]

Foobar2000, totally. It runs on Wine, but it's pretty unstable, and doesn't support all those funky newer .NET-based plugins. I haven't found another music player that can be both lightweight but fully featured yet. I miss playing with plugins. :(

[Frak]

Also, if any1 knows of a linux equivalent of Nero Recode i'd like to hear

Hmm... Equivilent of Nero would have to be either.... K3B or Nero, they make a Nero for Linux, and it runs fine.

[yabbadabbadont]

Hmm... Equivilent of Nero would have to be either.... K3B or Nero, they make a Nero for Linux, and it runs fine.

He said, "nero recode". That is a video extraction and re-encoding tool. There are several options. Search the forums for "dvd ripper", and you will find threads about the various ones available. While not very user friendly, transcode and ffmpeg both allow you to convert videos from one format to another. There are also tools like xdvdshrink and k9copy to resize extracted dvd video so that it will fit onto a single layer DVDR.

[regomodo]

cheers for those ideas. k9copy looks good.

installed gtktranscode (don't really know what gtk means, just hoped it was a gui for transcode). couldn't find the app so ran transcode in terminal -h

Holy moly, defintely not user-friendly. Just as well i'm dual booting

[Frak]

I miss easy driver installation.

[Brunellus]

I miss easy driver installation.
Funny. When I'm in Windows, I miss the fact that most of the drivers I need are already in the kernel.

[Frak]

Funny. When I'm in Windows, I miss the fact that most of the drivers I need are already in the kernel.
Yes that is true, but its bad in the fact of when the drivers not there, you have to compile it and install it, seems more trouble than its worth. I have yet to get it to work with my Linksys WMP54G v4.1 card with the RT61 Chipset. Thats why until Feisty comes out officially with the working drivers, I am Tri-Booting Xandros Home-Premium, Fedora Core 6, and OpenSUSE.

I just don't find the fact that you have to...
1. Compile and Configure information yourself relying on commands that work only 38% of the time, and some times the hardware still isn't even detected.
2. Having to recompile everytime you update your kernel, and
3. The pressure of other processes refusing to work, i.e. CPU Lockups/Overheating.
very satisfying in the long-run.

Again, more trouble than what its worth, but as you see, I still won't lay a hand on Windoze ;) The freedom of Linux is having more than one choice. :guitar:

[msaied]

for me
1- Photashop --> Gimp is close but not as versatile
2- Autocad --> no equivalent yet Qcad is not iven close
3- Vertualdub --> nothing yet

[flapane]

-Dreamweaver
-Last games

[bytor4232]

I've used Linux since 1998 almost exclusively, however there are two apps from Windows I do love:

iTunes:
It do love buying music on iTunes. Also, CoverFlow is pretty nifty. Sometimes when my iPod gets borked up, I have to have it.

MediaMonkey:
No better way to get your music collection tagged, renamed, and organized. It uses Amazon to download the cover image and other information for each track. Its been a lifesaver for me.

I noticed early in the thread there was some discussion about simple paint apps. Check out xpaint. Its what I use when editing simple graphics, like diagrams for my D&D games.

[DeadAmaranth]

Well, after doing some burning work with my new DVD burning drive (yay, finally!), I've decided I don't really miss Nero anymore. k3b works plenty fine enough for me, thank you. I especially like how you can change the backends for the actual burn/encoding, and all that. Not that I know enough yet to pick the optimum packages, but the principle is very nice.

I don't think I'll bother with linux nero anytime soon.

I'd still like to find a way to get gapless .mp3 playback, however. Other than that, amarok rocks.

...

I just noticed that I've listed two kde-based apps. I'm also pining for a way to get kxdocker to actually work. Right now I'm using gDesklets, with the StarterBar, as an "equivalent". Looks nasty in beryl, since it draws a box around the desklet whenever I move the cube. Oh well.

Is this a hint that I would prefer kubuntu? ;)

[kuja]

Well, after doing some burning work with my new DVD burning drive (yay, finally!), I've decided I don't really miss Nero anymore. k3b works plenty fine enough for me, thank you. I especially like how you can change the backends for the actual burn/encoding, and all that. Not that I know enough yet to pick the optimum packages, but the principle is very nice.

I don't think I'll bother with linux nero anytime soon.

I'd still like to find a way to get gapless .mp3 playback, however. Other than that, amarok rocks.

...

I just noticed that I've listed two kde-based apps. I'm also pining for a way to get kxdocker to actually work. Right now I'm using gDesklets, with the StarterBar, as an "equivalent". Looks nasty in beryl, since it draws a box around the desklet whenever I move the cube. Oh well.

Is this a hint that I would prefer kubuntu? ;)
Not necessarily, but it wouldn't hurt to give it a try.

[stokedfish]

Nothing.

[lalakis85]

Nothing but games...

[the.unclean.cpp]

Well.....I kinda miss WInamp's AVS, but XMMS is doing fine. Anyway, the biggest thing that's missing is StarCraft....I installed it with wine but is very choppy....If somebody knows how to fix it....please PM me.

[kinson]

I miss:

-Utorrent for one...but Azureus has been keeping me going, so its not that big a deal

-Media Player Classic. This so far has been my biggest disappointment :( I realli love that player, its contorl and its interface and that it plays everything. I have mplayer and VLC installed on my Ubuntu, but it doesn't quite cut it...some stuff plays in VLC, some plays in mplayer, some play in totem.

Cheers,
Kinson

[Spr0k3t]

From Windows:
DOpus 8 (I haven't found a single file manager that comes close to it in Linux.)

From my days on the Amiga:
DOpus5 Magellan (I haven't found a single file manager that comes close to it in Linux.)
RexxReqTools (What's with these small file requesters?)

Seriously though, I've tried quite a few of the file managers and I have yet to find one that I can really get comfortable with. Not to throw down the hate hat, but most of them feel like the sub par renditions of Explorer or a clone of the hideous Finder. The other thing that gets on my nerves is file requesters that don't utilize a good amount of screen space to where I can only see 5-10 files (if I'm lucky). There's a way to determine what screen resolution I'm using quite easily and therefor should change the requester accordingly.

[deepwave]

Every since I moved my winprinter off my computer... well basically I miss nothing. Not even games.

Now I wish Half-Life 2 and other Source games, played as well under Wine as in Windows. But since I bought UT2004, I have my gaming fix for Linux.

[deepwave]

I miss:

-Utorrent for one...but Azureus has been keeping me going, so its not that big a deal

-Media Player Classic. This so far has been my biggest disappointment :( I realli love that player, its contorl and its interface and that it plays everything. I have mplayer and VLC installed on my Ubuntu, but it doesn't quite cut it...some stuff plays in VLC, some plays in mplayer, some play in totem.

Cheers,
Kinson

Since I use Kubuntu, maybe you can try KTorrent for torrents. I recommend amarok for music playing, and Kaffeine for playing everything else.

[boga]

1. An Orthodox File Manager (say FAR or TotalCommander). There are MC and Krusader (others look like unfinished stubs) but unfortunately the former is plagued by "usable in any remote terminal" approach (resulting in notoriuos "double Esc" and other control inconveniences) and is sometimes damn slow and the later is not quite Orthodox with having to switch to/from command line all the time. Also neither seems to have good codepage support.
2. Sensible desktop security. Having to use sudo to do things like writing to a DVD or change the emoticons in PSI seems a bit too paranoid for desktop use.
3. Full UDF support (without 1Gb limit, etc)
4. ORCAD capture. Eagle or anything can be almost as good as but still I have to produce designs in ORCAD format.
5. A MIDI-compatible MIDI player. (I haven't tried Amarok yet but others seem to have problems with SysEx'es and don't reset a MIDI device before playback).
6. OpenWatcom (though hopefully it is going to be ported soon)
Oh, yes, also something like Windows Registry, that is some order and unification in programs' configuration files.

[Frak]

Since I use Kubuntu, maybe you can try KTorrent for torrents. I recommend amarok for music playing, and Kaffeine for playing everything else.
I agree

[deepwave]

Oh, yes, also something like Windows Registry, that is some order and unification in programs' configuration files.

I would hope not. The Windows Registry is like the Hell that all bad configurations go to. I think human readable /etc/ files, and possibly some good GUI frontends to deal with the majority of configuration issues, is inifinitely better than a Registry type setup.

[Nonno Bassotto]

Well, you have gconf, which is similar to a registry but human readable.

[boga]

2deepwave: Well, if there was a configuration demon that all applications DO use and that keeps the configuration in a human readable text form it would be much better than Windows Registry. But the present state is much worse ... have you seen Pure-FTPD configuration?
2Nonno Bassotto: gconf really has one big problem: no apps besides gnome itself seem to use it, or almost none.

[kinson]

Since I use Kubuntu, maybe you can try KTorrent for torrents. I recommend amarok for music playing, and Kaffeine for playing everything else.

I've tried Ktorrent before, but it didn't allow me to select specific files within the torrent when starting the torrent, or after the torrent has started. So I kinda moved back to azureus :p

As for music, I have amaroK installed, it seems a great music player, but its a little TOO feature rich for me. So I kinda dropped back to rhythmbox :P Its interface seems much cleaner (cause there's less functions).

Thanks for the suggestions though :)

Cheers,
Kinson

[kuja]

Well, that is actually the default option, apparently, and the playback is NOT gapless. Perhaps it has something to do with reading from my XP-install NTFS drive? I don't have 2.6.20 kernel yet (read something about ATi proprietaries unable to handle it (yes, I use ATi. Yes, I know.) I should try it out by copying the afore-mentioned Meshuggah album to my IDE drive, too. Anyway, soon enough I'll be converting (or re-ripping, then converting) as much of my music into .ogg anyway. I preferred vorbis even in XP.



Ehhh... Just installed via Synaptic. Not seeing the "equivalence" so far. The default layout is atrocious, in my opinion. What's with images being viewed in a tiny box in the lower left corner, while thumbnail directory browsing gets a huge block of the app's focus? Also, I haven't done much tweaking yet, but it seems pretty slow to render. Irfanview blazes through loading jpegs (this issue reminds me of a highschool friend once showing off an image viewer for his 50Mhz 486. Corel, I do believe. Wooowwww... talk about slow rendering!)

So far, I like GQview much better, though it still doesn't hit the "sweet spot". Any other suggestions?

I just upgraded to Feisty and now the rendering seems drop-dead slow. Something's wrong with this picture. I've not done any hardcore testing, but it seems to be a problem with scaling. I'll have to look into it.

[jariku]

I've tried Ktorrent before, but it didn't allow me to select specific files within the torrent when starting the torrent, or after the torrent has started.
The version I used when I was using Kubuntu Feisty allowed this.

[salsafyren]

I miss easily installable third party packages.

I just had a bad experience installing fakenes on dapper. It is _not_ in the repositories and it couldn't be easily compiled.

It can be compiled on feisty.

Until compiling is not required anymore, desktop linux is NOT ready for normal users.

[Antmannz]

Until compiling is not required anymore, desktop linux is NOT ready for normal users.

Exactly.

[Brunellus]

Exactly.
but it isn't...unless you're using unsupported hardware.

Desktop linux accounts for anywhere between 3 and 6 percent of all desktop users--that's about the same kind of market share as the Macintosh. Mac users have *always* had to deal with unsupported hardware issues since the very beginning. Nobody complains that the Macintosh isn't ready for the desktop!

Apple's solution to the hardware issue was to close their platform: The Macintosh *just works* because Apple won't sell you any hardware that won't work on it. In fact, Apple gets to pick and choose the hardware it wants to support, and then support it with the software it writes. Top-to-bottom, a closed system.

Linux users are *adapting* existing hardware to use new software. It's ridiculous to expect the kernel devs to account for every type of hardware out there--especially when much of the hardware must be reverse-engineered due to a lack of open specifications.

Of course, some vendors are offering "out of the box," pre-installed Linux machines, which do not require the end user to compile his own drivers. Dell, apparently, will go this route soon. Those vendors will be able to promise "Mac-like" out of the box experiences, since their hardware will "Just work" under Linux. But as soon as you add your own devices, well--all bets are off. YOU added the device, not the original vendor.

I'm frankly sick and tired of the double standard. MSFT leaves you at the mercy of third-party drivers at EVERY TURN. Your Windows CD comes with no drivers, or hardly any. (Good luck getting your SATA controller to work with the bare XP install.) And yet, Windows is somehow "ready for the desktop."

The ONLY qualification that Windows has for desktop readiness is the fact that IT'S ALREADY THERE. That's hardly a decision on the merits.

[freesitebuilder]

I'm going to miss NoteTab, IrfanView, and Evernote. And I'm going to have to learn the more complex stuff in OO, such as creating TOCs and indexes (or should that be indices? I'll miss WordWeb too!)

[Rutabega]

I miss playing fallout and a myriad of other games, although I'm glad in a way, as I would be devoting too much time to those than more important activities. (Did I just say that!) Being accustomed to Windows, so, having to learn a completely new OS.

[kinson]

The version I used when I was using Kubuntu Feisty allowed this.

Hrmm, maybe I couldn't find the setting. I'll give it another try some time soon perhaps. Cause azureus is starting to irritate me with its stupid pop ups, and keeps trying to force me to update. Not to mention it has this irritating pop up saying it didn't exit correctly if I shutdown the system without closing Azureus first :(

Cheers,
Kinson

[Antmannz]

but it isn't...unless you're using unsupported hardware.

Desktop linux accounts for anywhere between 3 and 6 percent of all desktop users--that's about the same kind of market share as the Macintosh. Mac users have *always* had to deal with unsupported hardware issues since the very beginning. Nobody complains that the Macintosh isn't ready for the desktop!

Apple's solution to the hardware issue was to close their platform: The Macintosh *just works* because Apple won't sell you any hardware that won't work on it. In fact, Apple gets to pick and choose the hardware it wants to support, and then support it with the software it writes. Top-to-bottom, a closed system.

Well, I say that Macs aren't really that user-friendly for a Windows user. Add to that the fact that you are really just paying Steve Jobs an inordinate amount of money for an underpowered machine with what is basically a Linux OS.

Linux users are *adapting* existing hardware to use new software. It's ridiculous to expect the kernel devs to account for every type of hardware out there--especially when much of the hardware must be reverse-engineered due to a lack of open specifications.

Of course, some vendors are offering "out of the box," pre-installed Linux machines, which do not require the end user to compile his own drivers. Dell, apparently, will go this route soon. Those vendors will be able to promise "Mac-like" out of the box experiences, since their hardware will "Just work" under Linux. But as soon as you add your own devices, well--all bets are off. YOU added the device, not the original vendor.

Driver compiling is not the issue here, as Joe Average probably isn't going to add new hardware.
Having to compile a program however, is an issue. Joe Average will not want to download source, extract, configure, make, make install, then modify a who-knows-how-long .conf file before managing to get his program to work; and that's assuming that all dependencies are satisfied.

I'm frankly sick and tired of the double standard. MSFT leaves you at the mercy of third-party drivers at EVERY TURN. Your Windows CD comes with no drivers, or hardly any. (Good luck getting your SATA controller to work with the bare XP install.) And yet, Windows is somehow "ready for the desktop."

The ONLY qualification that Windows has for desktop readiness is the fact that IT'S ALREADY THERE. That's hardly a decision on the merits.

How long has it been since you did a Windows install?? Win installs come with a huge pile of drivers for existing hardware (at the time of build). And most SATA controllers will be recognised by a Win install, even a Win2K install will recognise a large number of SATA controllers. You also have the option of specifying a driver to use during setup - dunno about Feisty, but that's not possible with Edgy - I should know; Edgy would not recognise my SATA controller on an nVid chipset. I even had Linux drivers I could download and use, but having to build my own custom Edgy distro for 1 machine really doesn't do it for me.

But as I said before, it's not drivers that are the issue. It's the need to still compile programs.
Repos go a long way towards solving this problem. My partner cannot believe how easy it is to search, install and uninstall using the repos. But if you want something a little left-of-field, that's where Joe Average is gonna be caught out.

[Brunellus]

1) Mac is NOT a Linux OS. It's not even (really) a standard UNIX OS.

2) Take up your gripe with the packaging system. If you absolutely MUST run bleeding edge programs or CVS/SVN builds, then you're better off with apt-build or, better yet, portage.

The "gotta build from source" complaint is a red herring. Windows users don't build from source because, generally speaking, the tools to do that don't ship with the OS. Linux (and other OSS) projects distribute source because it frees them from the bother of making binary packages.

Joe Average wants Joe Average programs, most of which are available in binary packages already. If Joe Average wants something exotic, he is by definition no longer an average user. Indeed, if you need a program that badly, you are presumed to be technically competent enough to do what you need to get it.

[Raval]

Winmodems. Wish you could simply plug in a winmodem and connect to the internet. Many ppl who I convince to try Ubuntu quickly uninstall it when they can't use their winmodems.

[Stickymaddness]

I miss games, and Photoshop!! :cry:

Edit: Scratch that, I don't miss Photoshop since I got it working in UBuntu!! :D

[salsafyren]

2) Take up your gripe with the packaging system. If you absolutely MUST run bleeding edge programs or CVS/SVN builds, then you're better off with apt-build or, better yet, portage.

The "gotta build from source" complaint is a red herring. Windows users don't build from source because, generally speaking, the tools to do that don't ship with the OS. Linux (and other OSS) projects distribute source because it frees them from the bother of making binary packages.

Joe Average wants Joe Average programs, most of which are available in binary packages already. If Joe Average wants something exotic, he is by definition no longer an average user. Indeed, if you need a program that badly, you are presumed to be technically competent enough to do what you need to get it.

This is not correct. Just because Joe Average wants the newest firefox, he is not allowed to?

Another example: User a reports a bug about a program. It is fixed in v2.1 but he is running 2.0 so it is not available before he upgrades his distro or he compiles from source. Expecting a user to compile is not good enough. The program should be available as a distro neutral package.

Distro-neutral packages should a standard NOW, I am sick of waiting for this.

Dapper was a fine distro. Now it is already outdated. You have to download firefox 2 by hand etc.

These problems would go away, if we could just download that single package and install it!

I think you don't realize the possible breakage that can occur when upgrading. So what happens if hardware stops functioning? Tough luck.

[Brunellus]

This is not correct. Just because Joe Average wants the newest firefox, he is not allowed to?

Another example: User a reports a bug about a program. It is fixed in v2.1 but he is running 2.0 so it is not available before he upgrades his distro or he compiles from source. Expecting a user to compile is not good enough. The program should be available as a distro neutral package.

Distro-neutral packages should a standard NOW, I am sick of waiting for this.

Dapper was a fine distro. Now it is already outdated. You have to download firefox 2 by hand etc.

These problems would go away, if we could just download that single package and install it!

I think you don't realize the possible breakage that can occur when upgrading. So what happens if hardware stops functioning? Tough luck.
Windows for Workgroups was a fine distro. By now it is hoplessly outdated. I can't install software for Windows 2000 on my Windows for Workgroups install. Windows is not ready for the desktop.

Firefox need not be compiled. Indeed, the .tgz as available from Mozilla is already distro-neutral; all you'd need to do is untar it somewhere in your path, and you're up and running.

[kinson]

This is not correct. Just because Joe Average wants the newest firefox, he is not allowed to?

Another example: User a reports a bug about a program. It is fixed in v2.1 but he is running 2.0 so it is not available before he upgrades his distro or he compiles from source. Expecting a user to compile is not good enough. The program should be available as a distro neutral package.

Distro-neutral packages should a standard NOW, I am sick of waiting for this.

Dapper was a fine distro. Now it is already outdated. You have to download firefox 2 by hand etc.

These problems would go away, if we could just download that single package and install it!

I think you don't realize the possible breakage that can occur when upgrading. So what happens if hardware stops functioning? Tough luck.

I agree with what you say here. Installing something that isn't in the repositories is a little more complicated (I think), and I still haven't gone to look how to do it. If I were to install Feisty when its released, it'll probably come with Firefox2, and then I'll need to figure out how to install firefox 1.5

I can't stand Firefox2 though :( The tabs are just so disappointing...and tab mix plus still doesn't fix it back to the way its supposed to be. If it weren't for that, I'd be happy to go with firefox2.

Cheers,
Kinson.

[harun]

1) Ultraedit
2) iTunes
3) Rosetta Stone
4) MikTex
5) The URL bar completely highlighting when I click in it in Firefox, in Ubuntu it doesn't highlight the whole thing, just moves the cursor there

[kinson]

5) The URL bar completely highlighting when I click in it in Firefox, in Ubuntu it doesn't highlight the whole thing, just moves the cursor there

Type "about:config" in the address bar, and change the value of the "browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll" preference to "true".

Here's a link to the post:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=393528

Cheers,
Kinson :)

[GoHabsGo]

Better support for laptops/Tablet Pcs and games obviously!!!

Besides that, Ubuntu Rocks !!!

[peregrine]

First my games.

Secondly I miss my graphics working right :). They work but are crippled compared to windows.

If your wondering I've got the ATI 200m; if your looking for a good time pick one of these bad boys up and search the forums.

Also I miss wireless I've got the bcm 43xx wireless. I've struggled with this so much I want to puke. I've got the drivers installed, followed every tutorial but I can never seem to get a connection every time. But when I do the range is less then leaving the room of the router. Unlike in windows i can use it outside 5 walls away, one wall kills linux. Maybe I'll work on this later.

I miss uTorrent. There is no comparison to uTorrent on linux. Ktorrent is closet but its upload speeds are crippled and the interface is gaudy. Deluge is lacking big time. And Azerus is bug city on linux. qBittorrent works with solid up and downs but its interface needs work too. Maybe I'll use Wine... Bittorrent is a large part of my life and I need.

I get my iriver clix back eventually and I'm hoping the updated release of Amarok will support my device.

And lastly this may sound dumb but I miss the control panel. Xfce tries but isn't very good. When you have all your settings and controls in one place its realy much easier then searching through text files to find the corrent one. Ubuntu has the best almost control pannel around but its still split up between admin and prefences, and some of the settings are crippled. Such as resolution. Maybe if I knew ever location of text files but its hard when it seems every update of the program they decide oh lets change our file structure(apache is a good example with the recent removal of httpd.conf I struggled with the settings for at least a day before i figured it out).

And lastly I miss how firefox/opera looked in windows. For some reason firefox is just ugly even with themese in linux although in Xfce its not so bad.And opera has this gaudy *** line right under the File Edit bar thing. If they could just seem the line. TO ME when a program looks good it feels better, even if your getting the same fuctionality.

What I don't miss are terrible start times, ugly interface, all the crappy programs floating around, adware/spyware/viruses, loading a virus checker a firewall a ati graphics panel and having all this take mins of time, I don't miss crappy windows update always asking me to download malware removal tool, I DEFINATLY don't miss windows update installing a new graphics driver that doesn't support my card and nearly bricking my laptop(it actually did this i know its unbelieveable), I don't miss the registry and lastly I don't miss being unable to remove some programs cause 'the files are corrupt'.

Thanks for your time :)

[kvonb]

Q. What do u miss in Linux?

A. Absolutely nothing!

[Aetherius]

I miss Norton lying to me. Trying to seduce me into paying for his definitions.

[use a name]

BSOD

Might have been mentioned already, of course, but I'm not gonna read 36 pages first...

Seriously: uhm... I can't think of anything. Maybe that's because I've never bought any software (apart from some games), so I'm not really used to or dependent on anything that only works under Windows. (And for the record, I do not use pirated versions either.)

[harun]

Type "about:config" in the address bar, and change the value of the "browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll" preference to "true".

Here's a link to the post:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=393528

Cheers,
Kinson :)

Awesome!

:guitar:

Thanks!!

[Frak]

Wpa-psk :(

[Compucore]

Games mostly over her. One of them happened to come off of a movie from 20 years or so ago. Tron itself since I moved over to linux over ehre. And don't really like working in windows that much at home. over here. Even though I have to use windows at work. :(

Compucore

[altaaa]

Wpa-psk :(

I use NetworkManager, and I can connect to virtually every wireless network.

[FoolsGold]

I don't miss games.

When I finally converted to Linux, I thought that gaming might be a problem. But with Enemy Territory and, recently, Urban Terror 4 being released (both free and standalone), I've got enough multiplayer FPS to last me for quite a while. I don't need no stinking counter-strike! :)

I also recently discovered that Ubuntu has fully-functional PDF support for all programs that can print. In Windows I had to use Acrobat Pro to create a PDF printer, which cost quite a bit of cash (and hence I pirated). In Linux, I can create whatever PDFs I like from any program which can print, and all for the cost of a few keystrokes. I know there are free PDF printers in Windows, but Acrobat Pro also provided the ability to edit PDFs. Fortunately there's free software in Linux which does that too, pretty effectively. Make me wonder what Acrobat is doing trying to sell such software.

[ziffnabb]

Absolom:

Try running PSP under wine. I have version 7 and it is running very well.

Ziffnabb

[Brandel Valico]

Well after a fun and enlightening time where I have learned alot. The only thing i miss is a decent gui based way to create and burn DVD's with Custom menus and images and sounds.

That does so at a decent speed.

Minus that and I'm sure it won't be a long wait. I don't miss a darn thing.

[Frak]

Have you tried GeeXBoX? It is a mega-mini Linux OS for DVD's for custom menu's and controls.

[M$LOL]

I miss MS Office for the access.This is what I use at college. I miss iTunes for managing my iPod. I miss games such as FIFA 2007. I miss Paint as in Linux we dont have basic image editing software. That is it. I dont miss enything else.

Tried Wine, Cedega or Crossover?

[granite230]

Since the release of Feisty the only thing I'm missing is Gimp skills. I miss Photoshop, but I ordered this book (http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/1590595874/ref=s9_asin_image_1/102-3820163-2571321?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0Q3M2RW2SK7G5JNQA265&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=278240701&pf_rd_i=507846) 2 minutes ago, so after reading this book I won't miss Photoshop anymore :)

[PryGuy]

iTunes, Adobe CS2, some games...

[sunexplodes]

I miss gaming on a more serious level. I've been wanting to play Neverwinter Nights 2 since it came out, but my attempts to get XP dualboots working have been thwarted by (GET THIS) the fact that XP can't seem to handle my wireless device without getting unstable. With that said, very rarely do games I'm interested in come along, so that's hardly a huge deal.

I miss Photoshop to an extent (largely just because my Wacom tablet worked wonderfully with it, and i've yet to make pressure-sensitivity a reality in linux) but aside from wanting to fool around with the application, the Gimp meets most of my needs.

I miss uTorrent, but it runs in Wine, and there's a couple linux torrent managers that do an okay job, even though none have managed to really match uTorrent in both the low memory footprint and the variety of features.


Other than that, I don't miss much.

[macogw]

Shouldn't the title be "what do you miss in Windows" if that's the topic? I read that as "what do you miss in Linux when you use something else?"

[Frak]

Shouldn't the title be "what do you miss in Windows" if that's the topic? I read that as "what do you miss in Linux when you use something else?"
How about "What do you miss from Windows while you use GNU/Linux"

[hellmet]

@ Frak, thanks for clarifying..

My-o-my... this thread grew big uh!! .. I think I've said this before, but what I like about this thread is that every 'missed' application is solved, with a nice alternative!! Great going.

[Hex_Mandos]

I miss Civ III & IV. FreeCiv is a Civ II clone, and doesn't include the nice features the new versions use (like cultural borders). Freecol is a great fix, though.

[Frak]

I miss Civ III & IV. FreeCiv is a Civ II clone, and doesn't include the nice features the new versions use (like cultural borders). Freecol is a great fix, though.

You could play Civ I or II in DOSbox. Kinda lame, but its the real thing :)
Ahh, what am I talking about. I'm glad Transgaming Cedega exists.

[specv]

2)Nero::The best DVD/CD writing app I've seen , but sadly
is not OSS or freeware..



isnt there a nero version for linux?

[hellmet]

isnt there a nero version for linux?
Yea there is.. but its severly impaired, and is nothing even light years close to the Windows version...

[yabbadabbadont]

Yea there is.. but its severly impaired, and is nothing even light years close to the Windows version...

Actually, the new 3.0 beta version is very close to the windows version. It even uses the newer version of gtk.

[afljafa]

I miss being able to simply stream from any radio station on the net without having to invoke seven forms of the blackarts to try and get it working under linux.

[Frak]

VLC has a pretty simple Radio Stream configuration. This may be a stupid question, but have you tried it?

[afljafa]

VLC has a pretty simple Radio Stream configuration. This may be a stupid question, but have you tried it?

Yep - I know i`m probably missing something.

[brim4brim]

I miss the games like HL2 and Doom 3 but that's why I bought an Xbox360.

I miss my external HDD being supported (known bug in Feisty).

Other than that, I'm even happier than Larry, their going to have to update the saying.

[hellmet]

Hey.. thanks for letting me know.. I'll check it out ..
I guess I'll be able to manage my cd-writing thing without going to Windows.. ( Linux apps cannot do everything that NERO can)

[hellmet]

Now, only if Google Talk and Y! Messenger were ported to Linux as nicely as Nero, every cybercafe owner would jump with joy of not having to use windows for Voice chat.

[runningwithscissors]

Now, only if Google Talk and Y! Messenger were ported to Linux as nicely as Nero, every cybercafe owner would jump with joy of not having to use windows for Voice chat.
Kopete does implement Jingle pretty well for voice chats with other Jabber clients and Google Talk users.

[hellmet]

I don't see Voice anywhere in kopete..I'm new to kopete tho.

[runningwithscissors]

I don't see Voice anywhere in kopete..I'm new to kopete tho.
I am not at a Linux machine right now, but if you are logged in to a Jabber/Google Talk server and you right click a Jabber/GTalk user you get an option for 'Voice Chat'. I've actually used it, so I can attest to the fact that it works. :) Kopete does have to be compiled with support for 'jingle', although I am quite sure that the version available through apt does that.

[hellmet]

Well.. forget it.. I'm better off with Pidgin for now. :D .. I'll wait for the official google version though.

[moredhel]

only the games, but i can a few of my favs in cedega ;)

[Simran]

Not much really, just Games and i kinda miss office 2007 :(

[vishnumrao]

I miss Yahoo Messenger, Google talk. I am a heavy duty user of voice chats, and quite often have video switched on.Though skype is available for linux, video support is lacking.

Hope we will see a version of the three that are equal in features to their windows equivalents. I miss nothing else.

[tim1980]

Google Desktop! why is it not available for Linux yet I don't know, it's a killer app for Windows

[y-lee]

Trillian, MSN, and the IMVU client..

[treblesix]

I miss VideoWave / Nero

[.t.]

I'm about to unsubscribe from this thread, as I feel I've become too involved with the Free Software community. Once you've grown to love a community, which is a core of real people, who talk to you, who you can relate with, it becomes very difficult to miss a "cold" software product or feature.

[DalekClock]

Google Desktop, I guess. I always used to have the side bar on(and still do under my Windows partition). I hope that a port or similar project pops up sometime.

[tturrisi]

Try dragging with the middle mouse button, or with the left mouse button and hold alt after mousedown.

For reference, the left mouse button modifiers:
ctrl - copy
shift - move
ctrl-shift - link
alt - ask

I like to use "move" option when moving a file from one partition to another.

When drag a file from one partition to another you now have 2 files, one one each partition. Then must do additional delete step. Even if use "cut file" or "copy file" it's still 2 steps.
I never knew about the context menu of middle button, thanks!

[treblesix]

I miss the games like HL2 and Doom 3 but that's why I bought an Xbox360.

I miss my external HDD being supported (known bug in Feisty).

Other than that, I'm even happier than Larry, their going to have to update the saying.


I am running Doom3 on Ubuntu, and it works great.

[hellmet]

I miss VideoWave / Nero
Hey.. Nero's version 3 for linux comes pretty close to its windows counterpart. But, K3b has had lots of improvements of late.

[Mr. Psychopath]

I miss the gaming, mostly. I also really miss being able to properly use Adventure Game Studio, which still hasn't been ported to Linux or Mac.

[LuisAugusto]

Mmm, I don't think I really miss something.:popcorn:

I don't play games in the computer.
I do perfect audio edition with Ardour.
I do perfect video edition with Cinelerra, and for simple edition, whit PiTiVi.

BTW:

-Photoshop CS 2 works under wine.
-Nero is avaible for Linux, and K3b is better anyway.
-GAIM isn't the only IM application out there.

See you ;P

[DalekClock]

Gotta be my home's network-attached printer that I can't find the driver for. :(

[simoneale]

AutoCAD is the only program I Realy Miss!... as I have to use it on a daily basis, so still need Windows installed on my machine!... :(

[steven8]

AutoCAD is the only program I Realy Miss!... as I have to use it on a daily basis, so still need Windows installed on my machine!... :(

Wow. You actually just HAVE AutoCAD on your machine? I've never known anyone who had it at home, just a license at work.

[yabbadabbadont]

Wow. You actually just HAVE AutoCAD on your machine? I've never known anyone who had it at home, just a license at work.

I still have the version that I learned back in 1985 or so. It even has support for the (then) shiny new EGA video cards.... It is the only software I have that can talk to my Houston Instruments DMP-60 drum plotter. At that, I had to make a properly wired serial cable for it. Fortunately, the manuals for the plotter are old enough that they include the complete pin-outs and wiring diagram. You don't see that in manuals these days. (probably because of little things like cabling standards... ;))

[djmaxmalta]

1) Miktex's auto retrieval of missing packages
2) Ability to play new games
3) Easy desktop resolution/monitor setup, had to edit the X11 config file to get an acceptable display on my laptop's external monitor(mirroring worked but wasnt good enough since the displays have different native res).

Things that i dont miss:

1. Spyware
2. Viruses
3. System crashes
4. Windows Genuine Advantage crap
i kinda miss the security fights against hackers, and stuff

Gaming is a major part. paint, Ares p2p, nero, virtual dj and some others...

[stmiller]

What do I miss in Linux?

Spyware, viruses, trojans, patch Tuesday patches, ActiveX security holes, needing a $350 video card for 3D effects, reinstalling every 6 months, and probably other stuff.

*sniff

[jgrabham]

Defragmenting :]

[juxtaposed]

reinstalling every 6 months,

You can go 6 months before reinstalling in windows?

What's your secret? I always had to do it much more often; not because of viruses, but it just got slower and slower.

Hey.. Nero's version 3 for linux comes pretty close to its windows counterpart. But, K3b has had lots of improvements of late.

It's just the burning rom part :/

The good thing about nero was nero recode.

i kinda miss office 2007

I tried it and found it to be too slow to be a good office suite, so I uninstalled it.

[djmaxmalta]

You can go 6 months before reinstalling in windows?

What's your secret? I always had to do it much more often; not because of viruses, but it just got slower and slower.



It's just the burning rom part :/

The good thing about nero was nero recode.



I tried it and found it to be too slow to be a good office suite, so I uninstalled it.
where do u get the nero for linux??? till now i use the ubuntus places one found it to be a bit good

[LastHylian]

Don't really miss much. It took me a while to get used to Linux, but I've totally found a substitute for every Windows app I had been using.

[Nakkis]

I only really miss a nice audio editor like Adobe Audition with a nice specral display. (Audacity is pretty close, but it doesn't have a decent spectral display)

[pay]

where do u get the nero for linux??? till now i use the ubuntus places one found it to be a bit good
It can be found here. http://www.nero.com/eng/nerolinux-prog.html

[djmaxmalta]

It can be found here. http://www.nero.com/eng/nerolinux-prog.html
thanks for it, erm and is this a trial thing? or free??? cos i had neru 6 and 7 on windows u think there codes will work?

[jacquesvn]

The blue screen ....... ;)

[Maps]

Hello all,

A suggestion (if it has not already been suggested):

For the absolutely needed Windows programs, I believe vmserver is free and will allow you to run Windows within Ubuntu. No need for dual-boot. Whenever you need to run a Windows program that you feel there is no Ubuntu equivalent, boot up vmserver with Windows and run the program.

Maps

[steveneddy]

decent video drivers that allow me to watch a dvd.

This is an old issue. My DVD movies play great.

Look here (http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Main_Page).

These are tips on how to get things like DVD playback working in Ubuntu.

Look under Ubuntu Administration and follow your Ubuntu Install (Dapper, Edgy...etc)

[Rhubarb]

I also miss winrar. From time to time files in torrents are broken down into multiple rar files, a foolish thing to do, but something that still happens. I try to make sure to avoid them now, but I wish I had the ability to easily use something to extract them. Running winrar in wine is not an option because it doesnt work with multifile archives.

Try using 7-Zip in wine, I'm quite sure it works for those stupid spanned rar files.
http://www.7-zip.org

[kamaboko]

Games and a browser that facilitates all the codecs I need to access everything Explorer can in Windows.

[Dave_Man]

games games and more games.

[NeoLithium]

I used to miss games, though I didn't play a gread deal of them. Diablo II works still; and I've become addicted to Enemy Territory; so it's not too bad at all. Well, I guess with that being said; I don't miss a thing. Maybe the fact of the Blue Screen of Death. That always gave me a laugh.

[kc5hwb]

Trillian. That's pretty much it. I know that there are other apps, gaim - kopete - pigeon, for *nix, but I use Trillian at work on windows and I like all my lists to match one another.

[-grubby]

Ms paint

[WanderingKnight]

Many people say games, but honestly, I started missing them even before switching to Linux... mainly due to the abusive price of the hardware needed to run the latest PC games. Nowadays I reclude myself to emulation and consoles. At least if I buy a game for those I'm reassured that it will work no matter what.

[@trophy]

registry hacking

[tyggna1]

Worring about security--strange, but from a novice-white-hat-hacker standpoint, true.

And, just to comment--I have more fun in Tremulous than I did in many other FPS games, and I can get all but Morrowind and Civ3 to work in Wine--not a big loss. A loss, to be sure, but not a big one--as I can just play them on my wife's computer.

[kuja]

registry hacking
:lolflag:

[3rdalbum]

I miss easy and successful video editing/transcoding.

I also miss Sound Studio (I used to be a Mac user); Audacity is a good program but moving tracks around is a bit clunky.

I don't miss Photoshop; I actually had a legal copy of it (legal as in "It's licensed for two computers, and my computer was the second computer").

[tjoel99]

I miss Acronis True Image for cloning hard drives. It is simple and works perfectly. I'm not very good at Linux yet, and I can't figure out for the life of me how to simply clone a Linux boot hard drive. I wish there was some software I could purchase to do this. Does anyone know of any? I say that I need software because I'm not not ready to be able to do it following Linux commands.

[arsenic23]

I miss Acronis True Image for cloning hard drives. It is simple and works perfectly. I'm not very good at Linux yet, and I can't figure out for the life of me how to simply clone a Linux boot hard drive. I wish there was some software I could purchase to do this. Does anyone know of any? I say that I need software because I'm not not ready to be able to do it following Linux commands.

You know Acronis has a boot disc you can use with linux, right? I still use Acronis myself even though I'm 99% switched over.

ANYWAY, back on topic.
When I first started using Ubuntu (Breezy) the list of applications I missed from Windows was pretty big. But now I'm done to about one and two halves.

I need a program I can use as a scetchpad using my tablet. I got my tablet working in Gimp, but while Gimp is a decent image editor for day to day use, it doesn't make much of a drawing program. So far Photoshop in wine doesn't read the preasure off my tablet correctly, either.

I need BCDC++. DC++ for linux is running perfectly on my system right now, but I share a fairly small upload limit with 2 other people and need to be able to restrict my upload like I can in BCDC++.

I'd like a better music program. Which is an odd thing to say since there are a tons of good open source music players, but I haven't found any that have a database as nice as the one in Winamp. I don't like storing my songs by album, because I don't really have a memory for what song was on what album. I store my music so that it's easy to share at LAN parties, which is as close to P2P music sharing as I get. So I have 6 folders, sorted by year, with no subdirectories, containing over 4500 songs. I really like Banshee, but it can take quite a long time to produce results when I type something into the search bar. Amarok seems to have the most robust database, but there isn't much else I like about it.

So I have no drawing program, a DC++ program that only lacks one feature, and a small issue with most of the music players. Really that's pretty good considering there are 6 or so things that I can do easily in Ubuntu that I either can't do easily in Windows or can't do at all.

[vinodis]

Miss Outlook. Evolution and Kontact doesn't cut.

[thevictor390]

Ability to be able to go find a random obscure program that does exactly what you're looking for (have fun finding a .jad creater for Linux).
Office 2007 (anyone who passed it off as just another office needs to try it out. Not necessarily worth the buy but I got it free from school).
Hardware compatibility. (still working on my network printer)
The fact that I know how to use Windows.
Games, if my comp could play them (Pentium III)
GUI installers.
Not having to compile anything, ever.
having an HDD more than 6.5 GB (dual HDD dual-boot on this comp, Windows has 30, but i set it up so Linux can use that too)
"Program Files" folder
Probably more, that's just off the top of my head. Linux is great as an alternative, but for me still can't completely replace Windows (that will happen when I never have to enter terminal commands again).

Linux can be rewarding but is still too difficult for most users.

[greymongrey]

Not one darn thing. I'm just glad to finally be free.

[UI-Freak]

All of the professional software that runs on Windows.

[Dylnuge]

Linux is not for everyone. I miss Viruses, Spyware, Unsecure Systems, Unstable Hard Drives, Random Crashes, and a Blue Screen of Death. Powerful developers like Microsoft realize the importance of these elements, and realize that a lack of them create a monotonous computing environment. I would give anything to go back to the days where excitement ruled the computer-where there was always the question of "Will this file be there tomorrow?" or "Where did all of these charges on my credit card come from?". Windows and Internet Explorer gave me thrills that just can't be replicated in Linux, no matter how hard you try. Even when Windows killed my hard drive, the thrill was weak, because Linux spoiled the fun. Microsoft does not make crappy LiveCDs which can do such boring things as "Recover all your Data" and "Allow you to experience the OS without installing." Seriously. You Linux guys need to improve your design teams, because Linux is just plain boring.

-Dylan

PS: This is (hopefully obviously) a joke. Do not flame or take seriously. Regardless of this disclaimer, I will still get flamed. I take no liability for these actions.

[fjgaude]

I miss not having Paint Shop Pro and its features, and the full features of Xara Xtreme Pro in XaraLX for Linux.

So, I run VMware and have my cake and eat it too.

frank

[LookTJ]

Miss Outlook. Evolution and Kontact doesn't cut.
what about Mozilla Thunderbird?

[FinMedBart]

Quicktime plugin for the rather great Opera browser.:(

[Earthwormzim]

This one is easy for me...particularly because I was just recently (in the past couple of days) desperately searching for a replacement for this app that could use on Ubuntu...and to my dissatisfaction, there are NO good replacements.

What is it?

Notmad Explorer for Creative Zen Jukeboxes (and other Creative portable products).

The only app on Linux that could even partly satisfy me was KZenExplorer...but this app freaking froze 95% of the time! And because of all this freezing...I wasted hours, daily, trying to do music transfers that should only have taken just a couple of minutes! As far as Amarok is concerned...it would transfer music via playlists, but the playlists themselves would not be created on the player! WTF??? Just one giant glob of music with no playlists! Garbage!

I tried several others, but they were all so terrible that they aren't even worth mentioning.

Anywho...Notmad Explorer has never given me any problems and does EXACTLY what I want it to do. The closest app that can compare is Winamp's transfer capabilities...but even Winamp's has a few glitches that annoy the hell out of me (like transfering a few songs that are already on the walkman, etc).

And it is solely due to this that I cannot switch completely over to Linux.

[butcher99]

Linux is not for everyone. I miss Viruses, Spyware, Unsecure Systems, Unstable Hard Drives, Random "Recover all your Data" and "Allow you to experience the OS without installing." Seriously. You Linux guys need to improve your design teams, because Linux is just plain boring.

PS: This is (hopefully obviously) a joke. Do not flame or take seriously. Regardless of this disclaimer, I will still get flamed. I take no liability for these actions.

I miss the days when a post like this could be put up without the disclaimer and everyone could then just pile on the idiots who would try to call you down for the post.:lolflag:

[Dylnuge]

I miss the days when a post like this could be put up without the disclaimer and everyone could then just pile on the idiots who would try to call you down for the post.:lolflag:

Here Here! :)

[Xavier Oddmon]

I miss winamp for playing music, trillian for chatting, and sonic for burning CDs.

I know that there's a good number of music players out there, but none of them were as feature rich as winamp:
-quick jump to dialog (probably the thing I miss most)
-AVS (Advanced Visualization Studio made it quite easy to make nice looking custom visualizations, if you've got a knack for mathematics)
-nice looking skins with transparency
-ability to use multiple folders as watch folders
-integrated CD burning
-crossfading
-incredibly extensive list of options and plugins.
-extremely intuitive media library

I've tried XMMS, amarok, and countless other media players, I'm not impressed.

There's also two particularly nice chat programs that i've encountered, being gaim and kopete. I though kopete was for me, until I realized that it was eating up all of my CPU when recieving a message, i can't figure why. Gaim (or Pidgin) has no native toaster function. And neither of them have the vast skinning and plugin abilities of trillian. I can't even, as far as I can tell, use trillian through wine, and winamp freaks out when running compiz.

Now, sonic, I wasn't really a big fan of, but it's the only program I know of that can burn CD Text, for use in my car CD player. Even though serpentine asks you for information on the tracks, i'm not sure why, because it doesn't burn CD text... And it burns incredibly slowly, and slows down other processes while running.

This isn't enough to go back to windows, and i'm sure Ubuntu will remain my OS of choice on this machine, but I would really love to be able to use these programs again.

--edit--

I also miss the higher resolutions, for some reason when I increase my resolution beyond 1024*768 (by editing xorg.conf, so this one is my fault), everything goes silent.

I also miss my reliable sound. Every time the computer shuts down incorrectly, due to power failure or whatever, I need to re-install the alsa drivers.

[Johnsie]

Being able to use my webcam in chats

[Xanatos Craven]

A full-fledged MSN Messenger client that isn't coded with Tk, two games, being able to watch and record TV shows without it being way more trouble than it's worth.

[neonl]

I guess I miss a lot of things. The fact that you have more freedom, that one, is not cost-free. I mean this because while configuring windows is plain easy for anyone who has a bit of intelligence for Linux it is not the same. Also I miss MS office (I really hate OpenOffice.org) and iTunes. I guess I do not like aMule either.
In the other hand if you have any problem you go to the message board for you distro (god bless ubuntuforms.org) and you have a good answer fast!

There are vantages and disadvantages but it's important to go on with open source!

[lisati]

One thing I don't miss is the "blue screen of death with white writing"

[BigSilly]

Wow, 45 pages in and still going. Anyone would think there's a load of Ubuntu users that do actually miss Windows programs! We're going to give people the wrong impression! ;)

I'm lucky I suppose. There's nothing I miss from Windows, and have found that everything I used Windows for has a quality Linux equivalent. Such as K3b for Nero, Amarok for Media Player, and OpenOffice for Word....all the biggies. In fact I've usually found the Linux progs to be superior, or just that I prefer to use them over the Windows equivalent.

Modern games would be nice I suppose. I can't say I miss them, even though I was a Windows gamer, but it would certainly be a bonus.

[karellen]

- yahoo messenger/windows live messenger with all their features;
- Paint.NET;
- winamp;
- ms office;

[n3tfury]

foobar :(

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/2230/foobarzy2.jpg

[3chris]

I miss a text replacement program like Shortkeys , this is a program recommended by PC magazine editor, I can't live without it. Can any programmer write a program like this?

[misfitpierce]

Fruity Loops... Way better than lmms sadly.

[andrek]

Nothing... ;)

[t0p]

Well... I haven't completely abandoned Windows yet - it still has a partition on my hard disk. I kept it, because the software Sony Ericsson gave me to enable file transfer between my cellphone and computer is Windows-only.

But I have since discovered that I can do file transfer just fine with Nautilus. So now I don't "need" my XP partition for anything really. I haven't logged on XP for months.

When I next upgrade my Ubuntu, I think I'll just wipe that XP crud off my hard disk for good. And that'll be a real "forever" thing, cos I've got no install disk.

So, what do I miss since taking up Linux? Nothing.

[stoodleysnow]

I run all my PCs, my Mum's PC, my brother's PC, two of my neighbours's PCs and a friend who lives down the road's PC on Ubuntu. I don't care about games, and can't think of anything I miss. My Mum's also perfectly happy with Ubuntu, and my little bro is getting by OK, although he wishes Axis And Allies would work better. The only computer in the house still running Windows is my Dad's. Meh.
:) :):):( :) :) :)

[UbuWu]

A full-fledged MSN Messenger client that isn't coded with Tk.

Have you tried emesene (http://www.emesene.org)?

[capink]

I miss a consistent clipboard that enable me to copy and paste across all programs.

[Mayfairy]

I miss a consistent clipboard that enable me to copy and paste across all programs.
I think there was a script/program that allowed copypasting like that. Can't remember its name for the life of me.

I miss:
- Adobe programs like Dreamweaver, Flash stuff creators and whatever those neat animation shops there were (GIF optimization and stuff).
- The thing that you could type in google what you wanted to do and then getting heaps of free/shareware programs to do it with. Now finding the right programs is quite a bit harder (though they are generally much better at it).

[Sunnz]

I'll answer in 3 parts:

"What do you miss in Linux?"

Performance.

"What are the applications that you miss??"

iMovie.

"What are the applications that you miss from Windows??"

Err... "Next" programs... but not really, I don't actually want it, just miss it.

[ellis rowell]

My Big problem is printer/scanner installation.

I have four printers:-
Minolta Magicolor 2400W
Epson Stylus C680
Canon Pixma IP1600
Brother DCP135

Three scanners:-
Canon Canoscan Lide 20
Canon Canoscan 4400F
Brother DCP135

The only one that I could get to work was the Epson Stylus C680 and now this has stopped working.

This problem needs to be addressed urgently, otherwise the there will only be a very small proportion of computer users using Linux. I have wondered if I would get on any better with Linspire rather than Ubuntu.

Come on developers, why not try to implement the Windows drivers for these peripherals.

[EdThaSlayer]

For me its just the games. But since I have found out that Linux also has pretty decent games, guess its nothing now.

[Frak]

Office '07
Run it in VB (I know its cheating ;))

[koleoptero]

I miss some very specific things.

- I miss tagscanner. I haven't found a tag editing program that has all the features I need in linux (or the ease of use).
- I miss media players with nice interfaces like the new winamp and mp11 (amarok is better and does everything but doesn't look good in ubuntu. In kubuntu perhaps...)
- I miss easy cd-da extractor :(


But I don't miss anything else. I've been using openoffice even in windows. Also I don't miss the abuse of system resources (especially memory)

I'm a true ubuntu user now. I log on to windows once in several days to tidy up any new mp3s and arrange them properly in my collection with tagscanner and then I return to ubuntu.

[DaveTheAve]

I'm a Music Addict and when I used Windows I feel in love with WinAmp; once I switched to Amarok - THERE IS NO GOING BACK! Amarok RULES! (and I don't even have the KDE4 port yet!)

Another program I miss would be Photoshop, I get seem to get it working in Wine correctly and GIMP just isn't the same. Perhaps when I get a new nvidia card (thinking 8700series) it will work better than my X800 XT PE.

If your wondering if I miss the daily crashes, buggy software, and constant restarts: I don't.

[001100]

Ok I have a pholosphy that you ca get windows apps to work if you convert them. What I mean is an app, nothing close to wine. I am going to start coding and getting more information. But heres the **LINUX** software that I will start designing it might take a wile though, I. Mini .ex3....Mini .ex3 will be a mini normal window sized emulator that will not require you to run in a termanial Its mainy for singl .exe files that don't install. II. is Convert win4lin(working on the name)..It will take .exe, .msi and more(ex. .dll, .oxc, and etc.) For example lets say that you have a Microsoft office 2007 dvd using convert win4lin It will be abile to convert all the files on that cd and store theme loally in a sutable format. It will show the normal .exe installer and user inter face but for linux. The same if you have a single file like steaminstall.msi it will convert that file in to a usable format. All with out touching the termanial.
e-maill me if you want to help and for any questins
e-mail: linuxisthebest@microcnr.com
The microcnr site is down for construction but the email still works.
soryy for any miss spellings
:popcorn:

[troy1of2]

I guess I'd have to say

1. Launchcast - I have a premium account as part of my package through my ISP so it was nice having all my music available. I don't even have Windows at all anymore since we sold all the computers in the house that had it installed. But I use Last.fm now, it's not a bad replacement but a lot of artists I like aren't available and lately it seems it disconnects a LOT.

2. Yahoo! Instant Messenger - Don't get me wrong. Pidgin is a nice little IM program and I like the ability to chat on multiple networks all the time but my wife and kids always enjoyed playing with the audibles and those aren't available on anything else. Well they sortof work on Gyachi! If you don't mind not having the animations I guess.

3. I don't game much but Windows is of course a great game machine in addition to being a great virus finder I suppose. The games I miss, the viruses, spyware, etc. I don't.

[Sunnz]

My Big problem is printer/scanner installation.

I have four printers:-
Minolta Magicolor 2400W


I have that printer right here and I installed the following drivers to get it to work:

espgs
foomatic-rip
m2300w

I am not exactly on Ubuntu right now, so you probably can't just apt-get them... but they are Linux drivers and can be installed on any Linux machine.

[befana]

I miss 4womenonly.

[n3tfury]

I'm a Music Addict and when I used Windows I feel in love with WinAmp; once I switched to Amarok - THERE IS NO GOING BACK! Amarok RULES! (and I don't even have the KDE4 port yet!)

Another program I miss would be Photoshop, I get seem to get it working in Wine correctly and GIMP just isn't the same. Perhaps when I get a new nvidia card (thinking 8700series) it will work better than my X800 XT PE.

If your wondering if I miss the daily crashes, buggy software, and constant restarts: I don't.

gimpshop?


3. I don't game much but Windows is of course a great game machine in addition to being a great virus finder I suppose. The games I miss, the viruses, spyware, etc. I don't.

i have to wonder why so many have problems like this in windows. there are tools to prevent and totally minimize these situations. you just have to use them.

[jimwhitend]

The only thing I miss enough to keep a windows box running is a printing utility called Fineprint. It is commercial software that allows me to print multiple pages on a single sheet, handles duplex printing on a printer without duplexing, prints booklets, and so on. It is really fabulous.

in CUPS printing to a samba printerI can't even figure out how to print two pages on one sheet. Are there any printing wizards for linux?

[Kosimo]

1, iTunes
2, iTunes
3, iTunes
4, iTunes
5, iTunes
6, iTunes
7, iTunes
8, iTunes
9, iTunes.....


I have the newest iPod Nano,... And I had to install WINZZOZZ again to manage it :'(

[kagy]

I'm missing all the time I invested learning how to get windows to do what I wanted, And I'm missing a lot of TV having to do the same with Ubuntu.

Well, I'm missing more tv 'cause my tuner card isn't supported :-( stupid power-theater / power-cinema thing

[DaveTheAve]

gimpshop?

Wow, not as good as the REAL Photoshop but it's more comfortable for me. THANKS!

[n3tfury]

Wow, not as good as the REAL Photoshop but it's more comfortable for me. THANKS!

yeah, probably not as deep, but the interface should make you feel a bit more at ease :) glad you like it!

[Boomy]

I miss the cute puppy when I do a search. :lolflag:

[glosman15]

MSpaint is the only thing from windows that I liked, everything else on the windows platform was freaking crap.

[Kingsley]

None. God created dual boot for a reason. But if for some reason I couldn't have Windows, I'd really miss Solitaire and Office 2007 on Vista.

[cmat]

Photoshop and AutoCAD. But I think WINE actually got CS2 working, too bad people are at CS3 now.

[toupeiro]

hmm... native window apps? I'd have to say hyper terminal. They took it out of vista anyway so now I can honestly say I have absolutely no regrets! :-D

The only thing I used paint for was to manipulate screenshots and save as jpeg, which I can do much easier in linux.

Windows apps in general -- the only thing I can think of is the windows version of skype for the video calling feature.

I'm completely sick of and disgusted at what windows software has become. Bundled, laggy, buggy, marketing infused, privacy intruding, resource hogging grossness. Seriously, I've never been happier on linux than I have been over the last year and a half.

People who say they miss MS access -- GROSS! :lolflag: I'm watching the programmers and windows support people of my company trying to unweed over 15 years of access databases and access driven excel spreadsheets that link to other spreadsheets which link to other access databases. PLEASE help support my cause to make MS ACCESS ABANDONWARE! run postgres! run Mysql. Hell, run MSSQL if you HAVE to, just please kill MS ACCESS!

[thx11381974]

I miss my printers,scanners,and monitors that don't work. I don't think Linux has any really good gps navigation software yet. I'm not here because to fight a crusade against MS, But Vista sucks! It's so slow also the DRM crap I just can't live with. I think Kubuntu(My flavor) is better than xp if you can live without some software and hardware support Ubuntu doesn't have yet.
I miss nothing from vista. Oh wait I miss have time to make popcorn & start a load of laundry while my computer boots.

[soxs]

1, iTunes
2, iTunes
3, iTunes
4, iTunes
5, iTunes
6, iTunes
7, iTunes
8, iTunes
9, iTunes.....


I have the newest iPod Nano,... And I had to install WINZZOZZ again to manage it :'(

Ever tried Amarok latest SVN version? (add the SVN rep to your sourcelist)
Or floola? www.floola.com
Or exaile? www.exaile.com (use SVN repo, 2.10 is ugly, 2.11svn owns!)

I myself use amarok @ home and floola for stuff elseswhere (as it does not require any installprocess and is very small and cross platform)

[dudeofthedead]

Not being able to play the newest batch of games can be quite a frustration (especially this new 'Games For Windows' label) but, hey, you can always choose to play older games again and again while the community is working on a solution.

[DjBones]

supreme commander haha..
other than that, it might the firewalls and anti-spyware programs lol

((maybe on a side note, hardware support))

[ventvent]

Games!!!

[RAV TUX]

I guess this is a novell way of askng the old.. but.. here is the
question.. what are the applications that you miss from Windows??
And Why..
Me::

1) MusicMatch Jukebox..Great Player.. Lets you queue files, convert them, play mp3pro,etc(of course these can be done in Linux but with some modding)

2)Nero::The best DVD/CD writing app I've seen , but sadly
is not OSS or freeware..

3) Norton Partition Magic..One great feature is that it allows you
to convert existing drives to another file system..

EDIT
4) Photoshop:: The BEST photoediting software..

Edit again::
5) Yahoo Messenger:
This one esp. for my mother who chats with
some of her frens and rel. overseas on Webcam, and Gyachi
is quite quite good, but still not as good as the Yahoo counterpart,
and I feel like spitting on Y! for not bringin out a good one for Linux
yet..

The only way I think we'd get all the above on Linux.. is
when there are too many users on Linux.. and there are
very few takers on Windows.. I am eagerly waiting for that day..
May God bless Linux

I miss viruses and spyware, honestly.

I used to have great fun trying to keep my system clean, why do the windows users get to have all the fun?

[JBAlaska]

FlashFXP (Filezilla is close but not quite there yet)
VirtualDubMod (Sadly I have not found any encoding engine in Linux to match VDub)

I did miss Paint Shop Pro until I found XSane Xtreme (xsane in synaptic), what a sweet program!

Other than that I do not miss windoze one bit.

[Billy_McBong]

truly i don't think i miss anything from windows anymore(except of course the viruses and spyware)

[Fbot1]

Orbiter

[phrostbyte]

Games

[iPower]

Toast titanium

iTunes

games

BBEdit

GraphicConverter (if it can't open the picture file then it isn't a picture file)

[Frak]

Toast titanium

iTunes

games

BBEdit

GraphicConverter (if it can't open the picture file then it isn't a picture file)
Also Stuffit Deluxe, love that program.

[Kosimo]

Ever tried Amarok latest SVN version? (add the SVN rep to your sourcelist)
Or floola? www.floola.com
Or exaile? www.exaile.com (use SVN repo, 2.10 is ugly, 2.11svn owns!)

I myself use amarok @ home and floola for stuff elseswhere (as it does not require any installprocess and is very small and cross platform)

I know is technically possible to use other software to manage music files. But at the moment there is no software (as far as I know) to sync album covers with the songs, something I really like to have in my iPod :( Coverflow is amazing!

[martsie]

I've just noticed that Adobe Shockwave Player is not available for any Linux platform. I searched the net and found some comments about this I entirely agree with so I thought to share it with you.

http://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?forumid=44&catid=185&threadid=1300245&enterthread=y

[n3tfury]

I know is technically possible to use other software to manage music files. But at the moment there is no software (as far as I know) to sync album covers with the songs, something I really like to have in my iPod :( Coverflow is amazing!

not sure what format you use, but if you embed the album art in mp3's, that would solve that. I use Nero AAC also, but not sure if the iTunes AAC allows this.

[Kosimo]

not sure what format you use, but if you embed the album art in mp3's, that would solve that. I use Nero AAC also, but not sure if the iTunes AAC allows this.

Not really.
iTunes is really restrictive and some important features of iPods are only fully usable when you sync using iTunes. Like personal volume and EQ for each album or song. The coverflow etc...


:(

[n3tfury]

that sucks. another reason i won't use itunes. but i thought that the iPod can read album covers in mp3's and display them in coverflow. i'm going to have to peruse hydrogenaudio and find out i guess.

[Kosimo]

that sucks. another reason i won't use itunes. but i thought that the iPod can read album covers in mp3's and display them in coverflow. i'm going to have to peruse hydrogenaudio and find out i guess.

Let me know if you get how to have coverflow without iTunes ;)

[n3tfury]

well, other DAP's that show covers read them from the id tag. hopefully your iPod does something similar.

[Bastaard]

I don't understand that everybody sarcastically says they miss Windows' spyware and viruses.

Even though I prefer Linux, you have to be a pretty big technical moron to get a virus in Windows. I've used the same XP install for about 2 years now, and have never gotten any virus or spyware and it's still running smooth and fast.

The thing I mist most in Linux is Photoshop.

[n3tfury]

Even though I prefer Linux, you have to be a pretty big technical moron to get a virus in Windows. I've used the same XP install for about 2 years now, and have never gotten any virus or spyware and it's still running smooth and fast.



i've already tried that angle on this forum. fell on deaf ears.

[FredB]

I used Windows XP for 3 years, and no virus. But I was very careful.

To stay on topic : I don't miss a lot of things, maybe a 64 bits java plugin.