To those who still have Windows, when can you get rid of it? [Archive] - Page 4

motin

September 29th, 2006, 09:45 AM

Glimps, there's a simple way to get around this like I have done:
When your neighbour's computer dies because of an infestation of virii and turns into a botnet zombie during the process, simply wipe the lot, install ubuntu, then when you're over the other side of the world (like I am now), just VNC in when ever something happens. In my neighbour's case, this is usually a few stray icons and a menu bar that'd moved "by itself". All these "problems" were between the keyboard and the chair. Much much less problems (no severe ones either) since moving to ubuntu.

I've spread ubuntu onto 7 computers not owned by myself so far, I've got 2 laptops running ubuntu currently.

I just need to install XP whenever there's a firmware / BIOS update for my laptop (windows only installers - grrrrrr). Then it's good bye to xp and hello to ubuntu again.

Great initiative

pianoboy3333

September 29th, 2006, 05:50 PM

Games..... but I'll suck it up, I blew winbloze off my machine a few weeks ago when I installed Edgy.

SirPecanGum

September 30th, 2006, 04:46 AM

As I try to get the Realplayer plugin working in Opera I see your question. This is just one reason. There are lots of others.

As much as I like Ubuntu (more so than any other Linux distro I have tried (have you seen Saybayon? Looks great!)) and as much as I want to like it, Ubuntu has a long way to go before I wipe off XP/Vista. I will do what I can to help and encourage Ubuntu to help myself delete XP/Vista but I won't be holding my breath in anticipation. Thank you very much to all who make Ubuntu possible. I notice some real improvements in Edgy but still I struggle to get working the BBC website video in Opera and mozilla. The problem seems to be more with a lack of third party software than the operating system itself.

gotak

September 30th, 2006, 10:53 PM

I agree totally that Linux has a long way to go. It's a great tool for specific situation but as a general purpose desktop OS it's not so good.

Someone mention that XP's a few years old and why are people staying with it. Indeed we should ask why because as it stands things usually works better in windows. What's preventing me from deleting windows? Linux is preventing me from doing that. When everything I need to get my work done works in Linux without costing me hours to figure out how to get what's essentially beta software to work then I would do that with a huge smile.

joehill

September 30th, 2006, 11:41 PM

I use Sony Minidisc for my fieldwork, which DRM-locks all my recordings and required me to use Windows to convert them to WAV. About a month ago I removed Windows from my laptop and instead installed it on a VM on my server (because the server has much more space), although I haven't needed to boot it up yet. I'll probably boot it up next time I do a field recording to rip it to WAV format. But that's the last time I buy a recorder that records in a proprietary format or locks up my own recordings with evil DRM.

Other than that, I can do 100 times more on Ubuntu than I could ever do on Windows. I don't care that I can't watch the footage on some news sites. I'll watch whatever people put in a format I can read.

wwitthoff1

October 1st, 2006, 01:01 AM

difficulty of making my external modem to work.

I have an internal and external.

Jodokos

October 1st, 2006, 07:50 AM

Now I've got everything to work:
My Photoshop Elements 2 runs in wine.
Picasa in wine is slow and eating a lot of resources, but surely there are other alternatives.
Evolution and firefox are for mailing and surfing.
VMWare server for running windows XP and doing my .net coding.
at the moment xmms for audio and vlc for video.
Linux is running fine with my finepix f30 digicam and has "out-of-the box" support for it.

The only thing that holds me completely back is that NASTY error with my "TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-W163A" sata dvd-burner which stops ubuntu from booting when plugged in...

ephemeros

October 1st, 2006, 11:30 AM

i use mainly the windows boot for testing compatibility with files saved from linux or how they "see" things, also for gaming.

ArneLovius

October 1st, 2006, 04:39 PM

Several device management applications that talk directly to serial ports. Having multiple remote desktop sessions running at the same time, Viso, Outlook 2003, Virtual Server client.

Now that IE6 can be run under Wine, thats removed a couple more.

carlossousa

October 1st, 2006, 06:32 PM

Playing back original encrypted dvd's from a out-of-the-box installation, and then we still have to fiddle around in the shell .....

Word!

SirShaggy

October 1st, 2006, 07:12 PM

Honestly, I dumped it on everything but the laptop. I hope to eventually dump it too. I just like having the ability to use windows if something goes terribly wrong with my Ubuntu and I just can't throw out the $1000.00 of software I purchased for Windows!:(
I last used XP in June, until last night. I booted XP just to update all my anti-virus/malware/spyware/adware software. It took me 2 hours to do! Was that worth while???? I am not sure yet.:-k
I did burn a CD while I was on there with Nero's newest 7 Ultra update I got. I sure do love that! I guess only Nero and Musicmatch Jukebox I will miss. The rest can go fly a kite!
SirShaggy

statikeffeck

October 1st, 2006, 09:30 PM

My reasons:

Adobe Creative Suite (CS2) - I purchased it.
I'm a long time user of Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I know there are alternatives, and I do use them on Linux if it can get the job done. But for serious production work, right now Adobe is on top.

The Half-Life 2 engine (think CounterStrike: Source). What an amazing technology Valve has developed; its a shame they wrote it for the DirectX/Windows platform.

I think eventually as more people start using Linux these companies will begin to have more solutions for Linux.

mdsmedia

October 1st, 2006, 11:14 PM

I converted to Linux in October last year, but still have some (very few) things I need Windows for.

I'm a tax accountant, in Australia, and the tax software that is approved by the Australian Taxation Office is available for Windows only.

I've considered trying to get it running in Wine or putting Windows in VMware on my Linux partition, but I'm not completely comfortable with Wine, and putting Windows on VMware requires that I remove everything, reformat, repartition, just to free up the required space. I will do that at some stage, but I'm not 100% confident the software will work properly....or if I'm 100% competent in getting it there.

Maybe I'll wait til the tax season is over and try it then.

I have a couple of games that I like playing in Windows, one of which I believe is playable natively in Linux, but I'm not so into games that it matters terribly much. I loathe booting into Windows, but occasionally have to.

My Brother MFC7220 installs ok with a HowTo I found for another Brother MFC, the printer works but I still haven't got the scanner working (I can't find drivers for the MFC3100, although it's listed by Brother as one that drivers are available). So when I need to scan stuff I have to use Windows atm. It's more annoying having to boot into Windows than it is not being able to do everything in Linux.

I don't mind that Ubuntu/Linux isn't perfect. I have to get my hands dirty occasionally, but I think the benefits far outweigh the downside.

So I'm getting ever closer to a Linux Only machine, but not quite yet.

As for those who say it's ok for specific tasks, but not for general use, I think just the opposite. Linux is GREAT for general use, but falls down a bit with specific tasks. But the specifics that Linux has available that are not available in Windows I believe far outnumber the alternate.

kopilo

October 2nd, 2006, 06:01 PM

Now that IE6 can be run under Wine, thats removed a couple more.
Seriously, as having built my own browser using the same DLL that IE uses, you are better off going with firefox.

R Smit

October 9th, 2006, 10:42 AM

What is preventing me? My Palm handheld; synchronizing calendar/notes etc, is difficult. Synchronizing Doc2Go, eWallet, MobileDB, Avantgo difficult or impossible. I am very sorry about that.

Zaggy

October 28th, 2006, 10:18 AM

What me prevents from deleting my Windows partition(s):

1 Opensource alternative(s) for the following 2 programs:

(freeware)
Filemon (http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Filemon.html)
Extremely easy way to see which program is reading/writing to which file by which user.
Nothing bugs me more then hearing my hdd churn and not having a clue what exactly is happening.
(I haven't found a nice GUI, heck not even a frontend for lsof)

(commercial)
Netlimiter (http://www.netlimiter.com/)
Extremely easy way (read: pretty GUI!) to see which program is using how much bandwith up and down.
Also you can set how much bandwith up or down those programs may use.
(I searched around alot, but all the programs I found are either CLI or they don't live up to expectations)

2 Burning CDs/DVDs is VERY slow:

I have new BenQ firmware for my BenQ burner, I made sure it runs udma2:

zaggynl@AMD3200L:~$ hdparm -i /dev/hdc

/dev/hdc:

Model=BENQ DVD DD DW1650, FwRev=BCIC, SerialNo=KWVC503204SC0
Config={ Fixed Removeable DTR<=5Mbs DTR>10Mbs nonMagnetic }
RawCHS=0/0/0, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=0
BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=0kB, MaxMultSect=0
(maybe): CurCHS=0/0/0, CurSects=0, LBA=yes, LBAsects=0
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 *udma2
AdvancedPM=no
Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-3 ATA/ATAPI-6

* signifies the current active mode

zaggynl@AMD3200L:~$

Still, every app I tried: k3b, Gnome Baker and nautilus burn burn at slow speeds (around 2.0-3.0x)

In WinXP I can burn at 16x!

Okay, now some positive stuff:

I can do the following things in Ubuntu just fine:

-Watch Movies(DVD's, avi's, etc)
-Play Music(Rhythmbox + global hotkeys = pleasure)
-Play Games(Half Life -with mods- and Warcraft 3 run perfectly in Wine)
-Access windows shares!
-Browse internet
-Use P2P software like linuxdcpp (DC++ in Winxp) and Utorrent (with Wine)

I'm very close to leaving windows :D

DJ Wings

October 29th, 2006, 05:59 PM

draeath

October 29th, 2006, 06:40 PM

Propellerheads Reason.

Absolutely flat-out refuses to run in Wine.

maddog39

October 29th, 2006, 08:52 PM

The reason I still cant remove my linux partition is because I am a VB6/VB.NET developer, so windows required there. Also my printer doesnt work period in any of the 45 billion distro's ive tried (it's a lexmark Z700 series, not supported yet). On top of that my faovrite game which is also made for linux wont run because ubuntu doesnt automatically load nvidia drivers anymore so it changes the resolution to something god awfully low and messes linux up when I try to play it, that game would be Wolfenstein Enemy Territory. Although I havn't experienced any problems with IM and MSN yet, or not that many, very few.

bubz_the_troll

October 29th, 2006, 09:23 PM

I don't have windows on my ubuntu pc. I have a separate pc for windows. It makes an excellent dust collector.

thinklife

November 14th, 2006, 02:23 AM

1. My father uses them
2. My parents paid for Windows XP and I dun think it is a good idea to just chuck the idea and waste their money.
3. I wanna play gunbound on XP.
4.A dual-boot system is really cool.....

steven8

November 14th, 2006, 02:41 AM

My wife.

Sukarn

November 14th, 2006, 03:08 AM

Lemme see...
-I have over 200 songs in iTunes, and my iPod hasn't shipped yet (one of those new, uber-tiny Shuffles);
-I'm one of those sick, twisted people who draws stuff in Paint (pixel art, though... gimme some credit);
-My parents use it.
Other than that, I'd ditch it and hope it burns in hard-disk purgatory. I've already cleared it off my laptop (3 times...), and set up a triple-boot with Mepis and PCLinuxOS.
-Alternatives for paint are available.
-There are softwares which can transfer music to ipod (amarok is one of them I suppose?)

The reasons I have Windows -
1) Cedega and Wine both seem to run games too slow on my old graphics card
2) I have a Creative Zen Portable Media Centre. It requires Windows Media Player 10 on a Windows XP. (Gnomad 2 is able to transfer from the device to HDD, but not the other way round)

katgfan

November 14th, 2006, 03:14 AM

The reasons I keep my windows partition is:
1. Games
2. iTunes - It still handles my iPod better
3. Branded PC comes with licensed Windows. Its a waste for me not to use it.
4. Did I mentioned Games?

atrophic

November 14th, 2006, 04:58 AM

The reasons I keep my windows partition is:
1. Games
2. iTunes - It still handles my iPod better
3. Branded PC comes with licensed Windows. Its a waste for me not to use it.
4. Did I mentioned Games?

1. Get a gaming console (even Xbox 360 if you're a fan of microsoft ;) ), imo they're better suited for gaming anyway.
2. Have you tried Amarok for your iPod?
3. I'd have to disagree there... Rather than a waste of a license for not using it, I'd say it's a waste of a good computer for using it.
4. There are lots of games that work natively under linux, and a lot more that work through wine/cedega. Granted I'm not a PC Gamer, but I'd find it annoying to reboot into another OS to play a game when there's a perfectly good console hooked up to a much larger monitor downstairs ;)

Shuja

November 14th, 2006, 05:04 AM

One word, Games.

maagimies

November 14th, 2006, 05:34 AM

I'm keeping Windows around for games mainly.
1. Get a gaming console (even Xbox 360 if you're a fan of microsoft ;) ), imo they're better suited for gaming anyway.
<>
4. There are lots of games that work natively under linux, and a lot more that work through wine/cedega. Granted I'm not a PC Gamer, but I'd find it annoying to reboot into another OS to play a game when there's a perfectly good console hooked up to a much larger monitor downstairs ;)What if you don't like console games?
Unless someone ports games like Dwarf Fortress, Daggerfall, Morrowind(the Xbox version doesn't count, you can't mod it :D), Fallout, Baldur's Gate, and such to consoles, I might consider switching. Console games are too simplistic for me ;)

turkenator

November 14th, 2006, 09:56 AM

nothing i wiped it off my pc over 7-8 months ago although i miss playing games sometimes and wine isnt always an answer

studiesrule

December 9th, 2006, 11:46 AM

I'm been browsing this forum, and I'll have to say that gaming is the MOST required improvement for linux, and is I guess THE clincher for an OS these days. I've never tried Cedega, and I'm not a hardcore gamer (and my ATI doesn't work in Linux. I don't want to buy any games for Windows), but I'm really satisfied by some Linux games (Battle for Wesnoth is the most amazing game I've played in Linux),

I keep windows just incase somebody gives me something or asks for some help which will only work in Windows (which is pretty much always).
As I said, I'm not a gamer, so it's not an issue.

Nythain

December 9th, 2006, 01:45 PM

Deleted my windows partition about 18 hours after discovering ubuntu... a little research led me to wine and cedega... the only reason i would ever need windows WoW, City of Heros, Civ4, Sims2... gaming... all of wich run pretty well on linux via cedega.

Funny story... the first time i dabbled with cedega/wine was a few years ago... i went to a roomate and was like " I need a directx game to test a program". He handed me Thief i believe... wich wouldnt run on his xp machine at all. So i load it up, and poof it works. He wasnt to happy

Lster

December 9th, 2006, 03:24 PM

::lol::

amar

December 11th, 2006, 08:14 AM

On my desktop:
I want to keep windows to check files i send to others are good to read, useful tool to help fix problems
if something in ubuntu stops working (liker the printer) and i don't have time to play with it, i can switch and (almost) guarantee to get it to work

mainly just piece of mind.

on my laptop:
at the moment ubuntu takes 5 mins to boot (if i am lucky!) There is a definite bug in there but until i fix it i will keep windows around

after that will depend if i need the hdd space

Verminox

December 11th, 2006, 08:55 AM

1. Games.

I can't afford a gaming console and the few games that I have are Windows CDs. I know I can make them work in Linux via Wine/Cedega but I have never tried yet.

2. MSN Messenger.

The first poster said it all. GAIM and Kopete are both useful, but there are still quite a lot of things that don't make the instant messaging via MSN good enough on linux. I'd consider stop using it, but most of my friends use MSN so until I take over the world, I'll have to use it too.

3. Parents

My parents are not illiterate. They are, however, not very comfortable on linux. Simple things like downloading a patch/library for a certain app to work and using a few console commands gives them the creeps. Plus they are used to Windows and its GUI at work. I know this is a myth and Linux is very user friendly, I prefer it over Windows myself, but it's not easy to change my parents' minds.

eilu

December 11th, 2006, 08:57 AM

hoagie

December 11th, 2006, 08:59 AM

my little sister. It's a weird reason, but I'm supposed to "share" the PC with her and she doesn't want to learn Linux. That kid can whine up a storm, so it's a lot easier to just keep windows around for her.

Well said, try creating a very attracting desktop in ubuntu, with ponies and dolls and all that. She might get interested after that.

Azriphale

December 11th, 2006, 12:40 PM

Tis like the reason i bought my own PC :) I share it with me! And my brother when he is out from the UK, he is the only other person i give free access to my PC, and he picked up Linux from me at some stage in the past so its all good.

My desktop is actually only running WinXP at the moment, and my laptop (as of yesterday) only Edgy. After installing it I thought it might not be such a good idea for bluetooth. Got it working after a day of messing around. Problem is it needs to be enabled through software, and it took me a day to find some software that would work. But now (hopefully) if I can get a couple of apps to work in wine (for university, can't scrap them) and get MATLAB to work properly, I'll be sticking here and converting my desktop to Ubuntu soon.

Of course that does mean two WinXP Pro licences go out the window. Not very cheap.

Oh, and as soon as my sister gets her Apple, my dad's PC will go completely to Ubuntu as well. Leaving zero windows PCs here.

iPower

December 11th, 2006, 02:07 PM

Don't have a Windoze partition on my PCs

jdhore

December 11th, 2006, 05:38 PM

i basically already posted this in the Windows forum so i'm just gonna copy and paste my post from there:
i have both Windows and Linux...and i have never completely made the switch...here's why:

1. i NEED dual-monitor but luckily i got that working about 3 days ago.
2. I need mIRC...i've tried other IRC clients and none match up to it (i just got it working in Crossover Office)
3. i need a good, fast torrent client (i can't figure out how to poke holes in ip tables to get fast torrenting in Linux)
4. i want to run FF3.0 easily
5. i haven't seen good .mov, h.264 support in Ubuntu yet

i run Edgy and if anyone can help me out with those 3 things, i would greatly appreciate it...that's literally all that's stopping me from making the permanent move to Linux...also, one final question, can i play the music on my iPod while i'm accessing it in either GTKPod, AmaroK or Banshee like i can on iTunes in Windows(it doesn't matter which one works as long as one does, i already have all 3)?

u-blunt-2

December 12th, 2006, 02:32 PM

I am a bio-informatics graduate student and have been using Ubuntu for about 2 years now. I had some difficulties getting it configured properly (especially older versions of Ubuntu), but now mostly everything works perfect.

The main reason I still keep winblows on my hard drive is for MS PowerPoint. Open Office just cant deal with complex animations and tons of shapes (not yet at least ; W000t for developers!).
Obviously, installing and playing the lattest FPS makes windows pretty handy. Some drivers for printers and webcams are still not well supported by Ubuntu, but getting there.

Besides these minor setbacks, Ubuntu still kicks ***. Ive converted a few of my winblows friends over, and they are most happy also. What other linux distro has such great user-friendliness and support forums ?? Not to mention the continuous updates. Let's see how much linux-inspired functionalities M$ Windows Vista will have....

eilu

December 13th, 2006, 07:24 AM

Well said, try creating a very attracting desktop in ubuntu, with ponies and dolls and all that. She might get interested after that.

LOL... she's not that young! Although she's recently been complaining about how windows crashes a lot and she keeps losing her homework files (why she doesn't save often is beyond me), and I told her "well, Ubuntu doesn't" ... a few more crashes from windows and we'll have her converted in no time :p

fraction

December 13th, 2006, 07:38 AM

The only reason I've still got windows is beacuse I'm too afraid I'll mess up my machine if I format the partition. (it's marked as the boot partition for some reason). As soon as I work out if I can safely do it or not, I'm getting rid of windows for good.

Chinkostu

December 13th, 2006, 08:04 AM

Photoshop
Games (yes, there is cedega, but i get horrible lag that isn't there in windows)
the family (they'd be stuck, especially my brother who isn't very patient)
full MSN support (yes, there is aMsn, but i hate the interface)
Printer support (theres nothing for my lexmark as of yet)
dual monitor (i did it at first for a gimmick, and its quite handy. but i can't find a way to get dual monitor over 2 different devices with different chipsets in ubuntu)
MIrc. i tried XIRC or whatever, and hated it.

otherwise i could stay in ubuntu. i no longer have modem troubles (invested in an ethernet modem!)

max.diems

December 13th, 2006, 08:42 AM

What Windows partition? I wiped it during install.

max.diems

December 13th, 2006, 08:44 AM

my little sister. It's a weird reason, but I'm supposed to "share" the PC with her and she doesn't want to learn Linux. That kid can whine up a storm, so it's a lot easier to just keep windows around for her.
Ah, but it's *your* PC, I assume. Install Ubuntu, and if she doesn't like it, it's not your problem-- you'd let her use it if she wanted.

ngch

December 14th, 2006, 12:07 AM

jdhore

December 14th, 2006, 12:50 AM

Lack of proper support for bluetooth, touchpad, laptop battery and dual display are the annoying things that made me retain WinXP on my laptop. But to be fair these are mostly hardware driver issue, so it's not really linux's fault.

Otherwise though, I've moved much of my computing tasks to Ubuntu, and I've never looked back since. All hail free software! :-)

i admit that Bluetooth and Touchpad stuff isn't really "there" yet, but my battery info in Ubuntu is accurate and i have dedicated Nvidia graphics in my laptop and it was so easy to setup dual monitor using Twinview once i had the Nvidia drivers installed...it's literally about a 30sec process of looking what your monitors are labled as and adding 2 lines to Xorg.conf

coder_

December 14th, 2006, 02:57 AM

Nothing! :) 100% Linux.

I've probably replied to this thread multiple times, forgetting about posting here by now, but oh well :P

karellen

December 14th, 2006, 03:53 AM

I need the programs from my windows partitions, programs like visual studio, corel draw, and even ms office and yahoo mess ( I hate the fact that I can't do photosharing in gaim or kopete)

SuperMike

December 14th, 2006, 04:19 AM

I don't fit exactly into this mold, but close. At my office I have a Windows workstation and I tsclient/rdesktop into it every day with an icon from my Ubuntu. The problem is that my office only uses MS Exchange Server email, and they have blocked IMAP and POP access to it. The webmail interface is there, but it's not as effective. Also, the admins still have me on the old Exchange Server that isn't supported with Evolution and won't upgrade me until middle of next year. Even at that, I discovered that the Exchange connector for Evolution is a kludge because it merely interaces with the webmail for Exchange 2000 and up, meaning mail will be slow and could potentially be disturbed by the screenscrapes and reformatting.

Besides the old Exchange Server, here's some other problems I have:

* No MS Visio file format support to read/write these files in Linux.
* No MS Project file format support to read/write these files in Linux.
* Unlike slow OpenOffice, I use GNOME Office because it's reliable, zippy fast, and I can read/write MS Office formats. There's only one drawback -- it doesn't come with a PowerPoint knockoff product and I wish it did.

Most of my problems for requiring Windows are because of the proprietary Microsoft file formats.

thebucksstop

December 14th, 2006, 07:55 AM

Only switched over a couple of weeks ago, and basically there aren't that many reasons I'm keeping the Windows partition. Those that there are, though, are:
1) Photoshop. Whilst i'm only a pretty basic user, I'm attempting to learn, and from what I can tell the GIMP just doesn't quite cut it. and I prefer Photoshop's interface
2) Games. Mainly FPS. Though I'm in the process of sorting out TC:E, which will more than likely solve that problem for me!
Loving Ubuntu though!

PartisanEntity

December 14th, 2006, 08:28 AM

I recently needed to edit a word document that contained both English and Arabic text. While the Arabic text was displayed properly in OpenOffice, the English text in this document was displayed incorrectly (even though it was aligned on the left side, the text direction appeared to be similar to the Arabic). I was not able to rectify this in Ubuntu and had to switch to Windows XP to edit the file in MS Office.

This may have been due to my own newbiness and ignorance, but for now I am keeping Windows XP for such emergencies. Apart from that, eve since installing Ubuntu (or even Linux in general) for the first time ever 1 month ago, I have not logged into Windows anymore.

mykalreborn

December 14th, 2006, 01:48 PM

i just gave up windows. it's great. takes a little time before you set it up though: codecs, flash, ati driver etc...
but once you do it it's great.
now i just have to tell my father about it. "what? not from microsoft?!!! it's going to flood us with viruses!!!bla bla bla"
a dirty job, but someone's got to do it ;)

deep.tinker77

December 14th, 2006, 02:03 PM

I only have 2 things keeping me from killing windoze altogether.

1. Itunes. I havent had time to look for any other media sources that can give me movies, tv shows and music.

2. Games. Not so much really, I would just like to have the option to play games on my laptop every now and then.

I've acutally gotten Wine to work, so all I need is a replacement for itunes.

jefferson101

December 14th, 2006, 04:03 PM

For me the only thing is my printer. I've got a Dell all in one that doesn't work at all. Any time I need to scan/print something I've gotta reboot, which is a pain to print out my roommates stupid homework... Other than that I never use xp. When I get some money I'll just buy a new linux friendly printer.

Get_Ya_Wicked_On

December 14th, 2006, 06:45 PM

Microsoft Visual Studio. After my VB Class, it's gone.

I need to finally finish learning C anyways...

PrairieShaman

December 15th, 2006, 04:54 AM

nothin is preventing me anymore!!

as of today I removed windows completely, formatted my computer and reinstalled ubuntu! :D

STREETURCHINE

December 15th, 2006, 05:31 AM

so far i only need windows for printing,cant get one to work,
and i think there is only one or two outhers but i dont seem to be able to get them to work with wine .
if i could fix those problems i would not have windows any more..:D

xopher

December 15th, 2006, 05:32 AM

I had some help from above 'deleting' my Windows partition:

The HDD with windoze on it failed completely. And you know what? I DON'T CARE :)

nsleiman

December 22nd, 2006, 08:44 AM

Thanks God Ubuntu exists :) i do not use windows home/uni but just at work :(. i only wait for the outcome of an office suite that is really great!

[L2G] Slapshot

December 22nd, 2006, 08:46 AM

I have no windows partition on my machine now, but I had to leave windoze on my wife's p.c. and install my photoshop on there.

Slapper

aristotlewilde

December 22nd, 2006, 10:38 AM

I now proudly sport an Ubuntu-only PC. However, it does sit right next to my XP only machine. Finally a proper KVM switch has enriched my life.

My windows machine is mainly for gaming and managing my video ipod now, while my Ubuntu machine does everything else.

mindtrick

December 22nd, 2006, 10:46 AM

Only games I can't run with Wine.

crony

December 23rd, 2006, 04:41 PM

I've been running dual boot Ubuntu / Windows on my work laptop for a short time to see if I could get away from using Windows completely. Unfortunately, there's at least 3 things holding me back.

1) UltraVNC MSRC4 Encryption Plugin
We use UltraVNC with the MSRC4 plugin on many NT/2000 servers at my organization. UltraVNC works great in Wine, except for the MSRC4 plugin which doesn't seem to be supported. I realize there are other open source plugins for UltraVNC that do work in Wine, but unfortunately, that's not an option.

2) Groupware ICQ98a
This thing is ancient. Again, doesn't work in Wine for me. It crashes immediately upon startup. I've looked around for a Linux client that uses the 98a protocol, but no luck so far.

3) In-house Ticketing Application
I use this application very rarely, usually only to troubleshoot any reported issues from our client. It installs in Wine without a hitch, but I receive some type of visual basic error when starting up.

Items 2 and 3 aren't too big a deal for me, but item 1 is. If I could find a solution it, I would be golden :( I've already thought about booting up Windows in VMWare but that's more of a pain than it needs to be.

Crony

ragadanga63

December 24th, 2006, 06:29 AM

1. Photoshop CS
2. Coreldraw 13

That's it.

Bad_Byte

December 24th, 2006, 02:55 PM

Q: "what is PREVENTING you from deleting your Windows Partition?"
A: Games

patrick295767

December 24th, 2006, 03:04 PM

Just microsoft word & skype

that s all

drewwa

January 5th, 2007, 11:29 AM

For me it is two things.

1. Games. (Mostly for the kids, but I'm also into MS Flight Sim with lots of mods)
2. Semi-Pro Astronomy applications. Telescope control, remote camera operation, specific drivers. Working on getting this to go on Linux, but long haul I suspect.

However, all mainstream usage (email, web, office etc) is Ubuntu and will not be going back! my Windows partitions are screened from network activity.

Cheers,

Drew.

Mateo

January 5th, 2007, 11:33 AM

issue with my fan turning on while watching live tv in mythtv (doesn't happen in windows media center). that a few minor issues here and there.

puppy

January 5th, 2007, 11:55 AM

Games (I don't find Cedega reliable, and support arrives months after games launch if at all, and I like playing the latest titles :D )

Everything else I can do in linux, absolutely everything (well support for my printer is ropey, but I should have done research before buying it - my own silly fault - it needs replacing anyways... it's a Canon. I'm going for one of the supported HP models next time) :cool:

I do have to admit that Skype is a bit dodgy too, but I hardly use it - those Skype guys should really get their fingers out and provide a better linux version (I mean, updates for the windows version seem to appear about once a month [-( )

robc02

February 2nd, 2007, 02:26 PM

My daughter's need to use Sony's Sonic Stage software and a couple of occasional things with my son's Creative Zen (Gnomad2 does most - he reckons he needs to use Creative's own software - Windows based - for pictures etc.). Left to me, Windows would go.

whitefort

February 2nd, 2007, 02:40 PM

1) A 3D Character animation program called Poser. I use other windows programs, but this is the one I absolutely can't do without, and there's nothing even similar to it for Linux. (Blender is wonderful, but a very different sort of app)

2) Also the fact that too many things don't seem to work 'out of the box' in linux. I mean, it really shouldn't be a major struggle to get so many things working - some printers, USB modems, network stuff... These are things that even older versions of Windows handle easily, but some of the latest Linux distributions still struggle with. I have Linux on two machines, but the third is the one that actually connects me to the internet, and from what I've read, if I put Ubuntu on that, my Broadband is likely to be kaput. Too risky.

3) And, I suppose, the occasional game, like some other people.

But I could put up with everything else and totally delete windows if there was a decent Poser substitute.

Niko38752

February 2nd, 2007, 02:40 PM

A game called Urban Assault. Although I don't play it all the time, sometimes I just get the irresistible urge to play it once again. It doesn't work on wine (well, don't know about cedega, but from my experiences with the game on different versions of Wine I'm not too eager to try) so yeah. However, it ALMOST works on the newest version of wine, so there might be some hope in the distant future.

shining

February 2nd, 2007, 02:42 PM

Nothing now, but there may always be something in the future.

m1215

February 2nd, 2007, 02:59 PM

the only reason i kept windows on my hd was the ability to backup dvds. i always make copies for the kids to watch because they mess up the originals, same with games. after a lot of searching i managed to get around that issue.
about a month or two ago i dumped xp and never looked back. now every computer in my home has ubuntu. for my 5 and 8 year old i installed edubuntu and vmware so they could use xp and play their win based games. i also didnt want to mess them up because in school they use xp. did the same thing for my oldest because he has to use m$ office for college. whats amazing to me is that the young ones get around linux better than the older ones. they can even load vmware and play their games. if i give then too much info they will be fixing my computer in the future. :lolflag:
i know for me it was hard to get away from windows because it is everywhere, home and work. the first distro i ever used was redhat 6 and i have used linux off and on for years. i came across ubuntu dapper and figured it was one of the few distros i haven't tried, so i decided to give it a test drive. it has been my main os until i upgraded to edgy. anyway enough of my rambling, my point is its hard to change. but dont give up on linux, it has come a long way. if there is something in windows that you need to do, i have no doubt you will be able to accomplish it with linux. just keep looking and you will find a way to do it.

Choad

February 2nd, 2007, 03:11 PM

Here is a slightly different question.

My Internet is covered with Firefox (Which i use in windows also).
My email client is Thunderbird.
Crossover drives my office2000 copy (I'll consider OOO once it gets better.
Its a very good suite right now that deserves lauding, but its still behind Office).
When I want to game I got Cedega CVS curteosy of Linux Gamers.
When I need numerical cruching, mathworks provides a Linux version of MATLAB (thank god for cheap software being a college student!)
BMP provides my MP3 playing capabilities and other things
K3b provides my burning (I know, I know!!! Its KDE, but I can't find a nicer program ;) Although I heard there is a Nero Linux and since i'm used to Nero on windows I may take a peek
SCIM provides me with foreign language input for my language classes

But you know what keeps my windows activity on?

INSANT MESSAGE. I can never send a file right...maybe 10% of the time it works~ the other 90% it never does! Also, MSN support is REALLLY weak. I can kind of understand the fact I don't get winks or I can't "nudge" someone...but I can't even use "non standard" emoticons!
If sending a file via AIM or MSN could be fixed...and get MSN support up to par, then I would wonder why Windows is on my HardDrive. But until then I find myself booting up over and over in windows because I want to send a file to a friend, or because a friend is using many different emoticons that Iwant to see.
Linux isn't absolutely perfect...I know that. But its dissapointing to see how long the New MSN has been out with no real progress in that (and just file sending in general!)
things keeping me with a windows partition:

1. linux +acpi = OH MY GOD PLEASE KILL ME

thats it :). ubuntu will not cold boot, suspend, resume, hibernate or shutdown with any kind of reliability.

Sunflower1970

February 2nd, 2007, 03:13 PM

My PDA, and the licensing I paid for on Zone Alarm Pro (176 more days to go before it expires--I want to get my money's worth out of it :) ) I'm not comfortable enough yet to try and get the PDA to work with Linux. And...I admit, I like Nero 7 for burning CD/DVD's. Although K3b is slowly beginning to win me over.

One of my computers though is Windows-free.. I'm hoping to be completely Windows free by late summer.

aeto

February 2nd, 2007, 03:28 PM

have u guys tried alternative IMs? Like Mercury Messenger?

Brainfart

February 2nd, 2007, 04:34 PM

Visual Studio and pending employment at Microsoft once I finish school :twisted:

I do prefer Linux for my personal needs though...

venik212

February 2nd, 2007, 06:55 PM

mykalreborn

February 2nd, 2007, 07:40 PM

After using Ubuntu 6.10 for two months I found several main reasons for keeping a WINDOWS partition:
1) Incompatibilities between OpenOffice (in both Writer and Calc) and MS-Office, which prevent collaborations among people on different platforms. Let's face it, most people still use Windows.
2) The lack of Adobe Acrobat (not just the Reader, but the full Acrobat). It has features that I think do not exist in Linux (page extraction, notes, test editing, etc.)
3) Poor hardware support: flaky drivers for printers, video cards, mice etc.
4) The need to recompile the system's kernel, including some restricted parts, just to use a higher resolution monitor.

you probably used a really beta version of edgy because adobe reader can be installed via automatix (http://getautomatix.com), the drivers work for most of the hardware - exceptions being just a few of them, but ATI as well which is kind of bad. but it's not linux's fault, it's the hardware manufacterer's fault for not providing open source drivers.
linux has come a long way and it still will ;)

slimdog360

February 2nd, 2007, 07:50 PM

3) Poor hardware support: flaky drivers for printers, video cards, mice etc.

You mean great hardware support, it's certain companies that have poor support for Linux.

aeto

February 2nd, 2007, 07:53 PM

i think he means the full suite..not only the reader :)

anyway, hardware vendors would provide drivers to and for popular things..M$ pays these vendors money to make the best of experience out of the hardware. As Linux did not start out as having a niche area on the desktop, seeing how things are now, im very optimistic. Not many people would take the time to write an opensource driver tho..

TheOtherLinuxFreak

February 2nd, 2007, 09:06 PM

school

randomnumber

February 2nd, 2007, 09:08 PM

Half Life 2 episode 2 plus Portal

If you have not seen the portal game preview from valve, its' awesome.

and The fear of having to reinstall windows

EmilyRose

February 2nd, 2007, 09:17 PM

Nothing, tis gone... though that was, honestly, an accident incurred whilst installing linux... but uh, yeah. I do still have 15 gigs set aside in case I NEED windows for something, though thats looking more and more likely to get trashed and given to my /home here soon =)

galvatron1983

February 2nd, 2007, 09:24 PM

Certain items of commercial software that I use on a regular basis. Nuff said!

bender5788

February 2nd, 2007, 09:52 PM

Games and Visual Basic for TAFE other than that i think the last time i booted to windows was basically to walk someone through repairing the huge virus infestation they had. (734!) Still runs like dirt because i refuse to run someone so stupid through an reinstall of windows.

DrMega

February 2nd, 2007, 10:00 PM

One of my machines freezes all the time under linux. It is getting a new graphics card soon so hopefully that will solve that problem (the Radeon 7000 thats in there features a known issue with the driver).

On my better machine, I reluctantly keep Windows around so I can play my commercial games. I refuse out of principle to try Cedega, as it is more expensive than Windows XP (£3 per month over 2 years = £72 compared to Win XP home costing £60 with free support until something like 2011) and also because although the vendors are acting within the letter of the GPL they are not in my opinion acting in the spirirt of it (they took Wine's source as their foundation - people work hard for nowt for someone else to capitalise on their efforts).

Appologies for the rant, but there's my reasons for keeping Windows around.

Gerard Barberi

February 2nd, 2007, 10:06 PM

Dreamweaver... I can't get it to run on top of crossover. I know there's other environments, but there just not the same to me.

Also, my girlfriend. It's like she's afraid of my Ubuntu box sometimes. She keeps asking me "how do I do this?" or "what program does this?". I keep telling her "it's like Windows, just the programs have different names."

euler_fan

February 2nd, 2007, 10:56 PM

There is some software I have to use for my job which is windows only and I don't feel like trying it under WINE yet, especially since it is about 10 years old and I keep waiting for them to release a new version (its in-house stuff).

Other than that, I can't remember the last time I booted to Windows. I would say I am 99% windows free.

manmower

February 2nd, 2007, 11:04 PM

The major thing that's holding me back is the fact that I'll be performing a usability study comparing Windows, Gnome and KDE as part of research for my thesis in the next few months. I haven't actually booted into Windows for anything else than testing this experiment for months now. Once this is all done I'm going Arch Linux / Gnome only.

Unless the study changes my mind and I go with KDE of course :)

JAPrufrock

February 3rd, 2007, 12:04 AM

I have 2 boxes. On one of them XP is slowly dying, probably due to a virus infection. I've decided not to reinstall, because that would mean I would have to reinstall Ubuntu also (thank you MS). So when it dies, it goes to its grave, and Ubuntu will take over its partition.

So all you dual-booters out there, here's a suggestion-when XP (and Vista) die, which they will, let them die in peace, and don't resurrect them.

By the way, I think I have a MS virus on my other box ............

wersdaluv

February 3rd, 2007, 05:18 AM

Objectives Of This Thread
1. To have Linux Users state why they still use Windows
2. To hear opinions on when Linux Users can get rid of Windows

My Personal Reason why I still Windows (sometimes ;))
I dual boot because there are some applications for Windows that do not seem to have Linux counterparts, and because not everything I plug to my computer is supported by Linux.

Why do you still use Windows?
Is it because of games? Third party support? Hardware compatibility?...

When can Linux Users who still use Windows do away with it?
I have been hoping that one day, I will get rid of Windows for good. Can I ever, without having a hard time, get rid if it? Will you ever, without having a hard time, get rid of it?

Notes:
1. Please avoid to be off topic. Please try to post nothing other than answers to the questions of this first post.
2. This thread is meant to be answered by people who still have Windows in their machines.

drfalkor

February 3rd, 2007, 05:23 AM

It is to have Photoshop CS2/and CS3 when it comes out to be fully productive of the hardware + have my wacom tablet working nicely :)

WalmartSniperLX

February 3rd, 2007, 06:04 AM

Honestly Im ready to get rid of windows anytime. Right at this momment I have a release candidate of vista installed, and only vista (since earlier today). Before then (for the last many months) Ive hand Ubuntu/GNU/Linux installed ONLY. But I decided to switch to 64bit Dapper. When I switched I realized a lot of programs arent out for 64 bit, and just wont work in a 64bit os unless you compile it yourself. This is NOT a problem for me at all but I got a little impatient and decided to screw around with vista for a while before I get rid of it FOR GOOD.

Now with that being said, I will keep using vista for a while just to get used to it so if I ever have to come across it (at a friends, work, school) Ill have experience. I know that the RC Vista is a little different than the full version, but in general its the same.

Other than that, the ONLY thing keeping me to windows now is just me being too lazy to re-set up linux. Really, its stupid. But when I feel ive addapted to Vista, it will be goodbye windows, again.

As far as other users, I think the main thing that keeps people to windows is just the simplicity of its GUI. Linux is a little more technical, and a simple average user may encounter splitting headaches when trying to work with it. However, Linux isnt hard to use at all. After learning so much about the os, I find it just as easy as using windows.

The problem we face in society is that so many people are raised and taught on Microsoft software, making it seem as if linux "isnt user friendly" and scarce. If more people were raised on Linux, it would be the opposite (or due to the extreme simplicity of windows today, linux may not be easier, but rather just as easy in general).

NOTE: Oh and also most of the hardware support out there is for Windows :( making it difficult on linux users sometimes, but it never bothered me :D well.. except the HORRIBLE ati support

Tifred

February 3rd, 2007, 06:23 AM

Almost get rid off it
Need:

Full Homestudio support (SoundCard / Software)
Full PDA support (WM 5.0 / SynCE / software installation)

But i only use windows one or two times per month

staib

February 3rd, 2007, 06:52 AM

MS FlightSim - it has been part of my life since the days it was distributed by SubLogic for the Commodore 64 and has always been the excuse to keep upgrading PCs every few years.

Video Editing - maybe I am just more familiar with the various programs I already learned to use, but I do use XP for that.

But I notice that my time on XP these days is the bare minimum...

Kernel Sanders

February 3rd, 2007, 07:01 AM

I'll get rid of Windows when Linux gets even more n00b friendly, and even more easy point and click functionality.

Enverex

February 3rd, 2007, 07:07 AM

Games and hardware drivers.

taux

February 3rd, 2007, 07:15 AM

I use windows for:

* Games
* Microsoft Word (i know there is ooffice but when you export ooffice document to word format you can never be sure about text formatting. And these documents are read by people who use word)

RAV TUX

February 3rd, 2007, 07:44 AM

moving to the windows forum(for Linux users)

jincast90

February 3rd, 2007, 07:50 AM

Well. I don't really need windows, I'm hardly ever booted into it, but I am not running out of space on my hard drive, so I just keep it installed. If I need to reinstall my OS I will probably just erase my windows partition at the same time.

bigken

February 3rd, 2007, 07:55 AM

to run data recovery software for clients machines

but never use it for anything else realy :)

venik212

February 3rd, 2007, 08:19 AM

I did installed the Adobe Reader. I was talking about the full Acrobat, not just the reader. Read the post again.
As for drivers and hardware, I agree that it is not the fault of Linux, but that is very little comfort or help to the user. As for supporting "most" hardware, just count how many Nvidia related posts you can find on this forum, to get an idea how widespread the problem is. The user needs Plug and Play, not finger pointing.
Don't get me wrong-- I am all in favor of open software. But only if it does everything we need it to do.

OrangeCrate

February 3rd, 2007, 08:21 AM

I have no intention of getting rid of windows. True, I don't use it very often, but 800 million other users do, and I communicate with my fair share of them on a pretty regular basis. So, I'll just keep windows.

Why does the decision to use Linux or Windows have to be "either/or", why not just "and"? My computer doesn't seem to mind which operating system I use.

mysticrider92

February 3rd, 2007, 08:59 AM

I got Windows mainly to watch DVDs without questionably legal software. I just put it (XP) on my system, so I won't get rid of it anytime soon, despite the amount of reasons to not have it in the first place (my computer is so much faster running Ubuntu than XP).

OrangeCrate

February 3rd, 2007, 09:34 AM

I'll repeat and expand on what I just said in a related thread...

I for one, have no intention of getting rid of windows. True, I don't use it very often, but 800 million other users do, and I communicate with my fair share of them on a pretty regular basis. Absolute compatibility, without any questions, is a must in the business world. So, I'll just keep windows on the box.

And, before anyone mentions the negatives of MS, I go back to DOS 1.1, and went through the original browser war between Netscape (big fan) and IE. I dislike MS as much as the next person, and have earned the right to question their marketing and general business practices. But, you can't argue with the success and implementation of windows worldwide.

Why does the decision to use Linux or Windows have to be "either/or", why not just "and"? My computer doesn't seem to mind which operating system I use as my primary one. They live side by side in their own partitions, and seem to get along just fine.

reiki

February 3rd, 2007, 10:43 AM

I have 3 drives in my machine. Two SATA drives and one old IDE drive. SATA1 has Dapper (for reliability). SATA2 has Edgy (because I like it and it's working great for me so far). And the IDE has a pretty clean WinXP install on it. I've been using Ubuntu since August of '05. No regrets. However I have ONE piece of software..... I use a machine at night to keep me breathing. It has a smartcard in it that holds data related to what the machine was doing all night in order to keep me breathing. I have a smart card reader and once a week I pull the card from the machine, stick it in the reader and download the data. There is NO linux equivalent for the software (although there are people working on it), the largest hurdle being to simply get a driver for the smart card reader that interfaces correctly. Something about encryption.... regardless.... that's it. That's the sole reason I have a WindowsXP installation at all. Otherwise I'd be MS free. I do not use MS Office. I use Open Office. Seems to work fine for me and it really does ok with the old Word docs I had so no problems there.

I used to use PhotoShop (yeah I know that's not MS) but The Gimp works fine. Took a bit of time to get used to the interface, but it works for me.

Firefox, Thunderbird, ... I'm pretty much set. No problems finding editors (I still dabble in web stuff even though I'm mostly retired from that)...

Ubuntu works with all of my hardware pretty much out of the gate. WindowsXP required me to actually USE the driver CD that came with my motherboard for things like sound, network and activating USB2.0.

I do have a couple of niggly bits about Ubuntu. Probably because I've come to EXPECT a lot from it in terms of ease-of-use..... Multimedia stuff should just plain work. People expect that. I don't want to hear about "just try this" or "just try that" and have to experiment with several different playback programs. If I stick a music CD in teh drive, it should play. If I stick a DVD movie in the drive, it should play. I shouldn't have to be messing with "this" or "that". And SOUND... Let's get that a little closer to working out of the box 100% of the time. Either that or point me towards something a little better than alsamixer. :)

When I surf the web I want flash and all that other stuff to work. Now I realize this is an extra step even in Windows and that's ok, but why don't we get an organized, unified, easy to understand restricted formats kind of download place. After you install Ubuntu why not be directed to "This is what you want to do next to get all of the stuff we could not legally INCLUDE in the Ubuntu install for whatever reason".

There are lots of HowTos out there to get this stuff working, but.... and maybe I just haven't looked hard enough... why not give me that information right when I'm installing or right after, so I KNOW there's a little more to do. Part of the PROBLEM is that there's a lot of HowTos. Some are outdated, irrelevant or just plain incorrect. Look there's STILL instructions out there telling me how to COMPILE WINE after patching sources in order to run World of Warcraft. Compiling WINE is now totally unnecessary. That's just an example.

I think Ubuntu is WONDERFUL and the devs are doing a GREAT job. I'd just like to see some focus on making sure that the basic stuff just works....reliably.

And again... since August '05 a lot has changed and maybe some of what I'm asking for already exists. I'm old.... and I've gotten lazy in some regards. :)

xpod

February 3rd, 2007, 10:57 AM

24467

Go Virtual......and watch that baby burn:lolflag:

Pikestaff

February 3rd, 2007, 11:24 AM

The main reason I am keeping Windows XP around is because I really enjoy playing a lot of commercial computer games, and I've had issues with Wine. So until Linux becomes better at being able to handle Windows programs (or games start being compatible with Linux out of the box), Windows is (sadly) sticking around. =P

Pikestaff

February 3rd, 2007, 11:43 AM

I use Windows for games and for any potentially "hardcore" video editing I have to do (I'm a film student, after all. =P)

all4linux

February 3rd, 2007, 11:55 AM

........
When I surf the web I want flash and all that other stuff to work. Now I realize this is an extra step even in Windows and that's ok, but why don't we get an organized, unified, easy to understand restricted formats kind of download place. After you install Ubuntu why not be directed to "This is what you want to do next to get all of the stuff we could not legally INCLUDE in the Ubuntu install for whatever reason".

I see your point about most of the things you mentioned wanting to work right out of the box. On the other hand, I feel that if you asked 100 people what the top 5 improvements they would want, you would get 2 or 2 hundred different suggestions. I guess we each have our priorities. (Getting Flash to work on my web browser isn't that important to me. If they want me to see all the content on their website, they should publish it in standard HTML) But my top priorities would be network file and print sharing, printer and peripheral support, and wireless support.

And to answer the question of the thread..... I only have a windows partition on my drive because I paid for it, and I haven't yet used up all the other space on my drive.

Dickey_b

Coelocanth

February 3rd, 2007, 01:09 PM

Games. Other than that, because my needs and wants are pretty simple (but even if they were more demanding) I can do everything else I want without troubles in Linux.

I'll keep XP dual-booted on my system, but when it comes to the point where I'd have to upgrade to a new MS OS and very expensive hardware just to play games, then I'll stop playing games that aren't supported on Linux.

aysiu

February 3rd, 2007, 01:16 PM

Merged with the other similar thread.

3rdalbum

February 4th, 2007, 02:38 AM

emry

February 4th, 2007, 03:35 AM

There are two simple things keeping me from changing all together (possibly a third at the moment).

1) Games.
2) WiFi support. Even with the game issue, if I can get my wifi card going under linux, my laptop will probably lose all need for windows.

Dapper seems to not like my WiFi very much. ^^;;

emry

February 4th, 2007, 03:38 AM

When my digitiser, Crisis Team, Hard Truck, and my MP3 player work on Linux.

And when there's a decent set of video editing and DVD authoring packages - the latter is especially holding me back to legacy operating systems.

Hollywood is heavily to blame for that.

The fees required to be able to produce propper DVD software are insane. Redhat, Suse, etc need to seriously concider going in that direction, because none of the free (as in beer) distros are going to be able to afford to do it legally.

erlyrisa

February 4th, 2007, 06:37 AM

When I can print (to a printer i just bought)
When I can use the modem (without having to search for one that works - although recently linux distros have been kind to several of me modems)
When i can get more reasonably finished high-end software eg Inkscape - it works, but that's about it.
When i learn to use it to it's potential....
otherwise I have just recently been aquinted with .net and VS free ed and am loving intellisense., i am also getting moreoverly interested in powershell, i know it's only a direct link to .net (which is another abstraction layer moving me away from the os, but if we didn't look to the futre then we'd all still be hex cpding)

a note: VSe .net and Monad have made me give up on .. Python, VIm, and linux in general...

hope to see linux distros with a .net3 com[atible sytem and some programmers ide's get a bit better. - and thanks to Msoft all printers should be able to read xps therefore eliminating the need for installation drivers (can we thank Msoft for helping the linux community?)

sureinlux

February 4th, 2007, 10:44 AM

Hi there,
My laptop runs Kubuntu Edgy Eft and desktop(at workplace) runs Xubuntu Edgy Eft. Am a full time (almost) user of Linux desktop. The only thing I have to go back to :( "Wingdoze" is for my number crunching using Statistica.. Although I can learn to use statistics using R, am not in a situation to spend time doing it.

Catsworth

February 4th, 2007, 10:51 AM

As soon as I have got the following things working, or have learnt how to do them in Ubuntu:

1. Installed Guildwars and got it running (working on that now)
2. Got my Creative Labs Zen Vision:M connected and can transfer music files
3. Learnt how to rip CDs properly
4. Found a decent online poker site with a client that runs in Ubuntu

Rodneyck

February 4th, 2007, 11:38 AM

I rarely go into my Windows XP on the second drive. In fact, I often delete it and try other linux distros, then put it back on when I need something. I tried a copy of MS Vista the other day just to see what all the hub-bub was about. It offered nothing new that I thought was innovative, infact, I would sum it up as XP with beryl. It also took up a lot more space on the hard drive, around 10-12gig I believe.

I would never go back to MS if the following happened:
1. Better support for games, one in particular for me, Neverwinter Nights 2.
2. Wifi card worked in ubuntu - still trying.
3. I run Adobe Photoshop CS2, ImageReady CS2, Fireworks 8, Dreamweaver 8 and Flash 8 all under wine. Would be nice if Gimp, Inkscape and something to replace Flash were better or available (Flash), not quite up to par yet.

mk04

February 5th, 2007, 01:34 PM

I just can get myself to delete windows. I never use it. Maybe once a month for 5 or 10 minutes. I keep on thinking I am throwing away the $150 I paid for it.

smiggs

February 5th, 2007, 07:53 PM

Games although I've managed to get a few to run in Wine, my Windows install will be kept around as long as I'm buying something that only supports Windows. If I see a bug in a game I won't be able to get support for it if I'm emulating it in Wine.

Work, unfortunately Windows is the desktop OS at work so if I needed to vpn into the office I have to use the Windows vpn. Hopefully Checkpoint will see fit to release a client for Ubuntu but until then I'm stuck unless I can trick Checkpoint into using a 3rd party vpn client.

mailbox

February 5th, 2007, 09:58 PM

the fact that i cant get half-life 2 or hammer to run.
other than that, i love linux.

Falkon

February 5th, 2007, 10:41 PM

For me it's games like Battlefield 2142, Civ 4, Oblivion, etc. Although, since I haven't had time to install any yet, I could easily switch to Cedega CVS (assuming that actually works without too much hassle).

Also, sorry if someone else already posted this, but have you tried Gaim for IMing?

venik212

February 6th, 2007, 07:48 AM

I vpn into my Windows machine at work, and then use a VNC viewer on that machine to log remotely into my Ubuntu machine, using the Remote Desktop. Slow but functional.

atact88

February 6th, 2007, 08:04 AM

Yeah, Windows isn't going anywhere for me, simply because of its compatibility with just about everything else. I certainly agree with someone who stated earlier that there's no need for a competition between Windows and Linux. They both work, they both do different things well. It's like asking when can you replace a semi-truck with a tow truck.

indyspcguy

February 7th, 2007, 04:15 PM

i dont use windows as of this feb 1st still havent found a publisher program so that is all i need, and need to figure out how to use wireless at the local hotspot. Laptop is soso but he desktop is rock solid

ubuntu will kill xp just a matter of time and i think it is already better than vista lol funny isnt it.

qazwsx

February 7th, 2007, 07:27 PM

This one is pretty weird. My XP SP1 OEM-DVD don't have any idea what partitioning means. So the only option I have is formating whole drive. If I need windows in future and I had deleted my xp partition I actually have to delete Kubuntu, my documents etc. So xp is only there doing nothing.
I actually installed NTFS support to modify my windows installation :lolflag: I don't remeber when was the last time I booted into windows.

ricardo06

February 7th, 2007, 08:01 PM

My darling does not really find computer exciting.
She needs stable things that does the job right-away without having to think of how to install the non-free packages and why this conflicts whith that and why an upgrade just killed her favorite application.
Richard

mykalreborn

February 8th, 2007, 05:40 AM

pretty cool dude!

dgrafix

February 8th, 2007, 02:20 PM

Still have to use windows for blitz3D (and most other 3d stuff) and games really
in a word... i guess directX

jdhore

February 8th, 2007, 02:27 PM

well...after a long amount of agony, i no longer run Windows on any of my computers (except 2...a laptop which i rarely use that's not Linux-friendly...AT ALL and a desktop i have that's also not very Linux friendly)...so 8 out of 10 isn't bad...i'd like to run Windows in VMWare on Linux, but it's difficult for me because VMWare alone takes up like 500MB of space...not including what i set aside for a Windows "partition"...overall, i'm pretty happy with the switch...i'm missing a few semi-essential apps, but i think i'll be ok...

Trebuchet

February 8th, 2007, 08:25 PM

ubuntu will kill xp just a matter of time and i think it is already better than vista lol funny isnt it.It's always nice to see people with an active fantasy life.

The only thing which will "kill" XP is Vista. Linux hasn't even appeared on the average computer user's radar. Ask your man on the street what he knows about Linux and (if he's heard of it at all) he'll say he's heard it's an OS for geeks and is too hard for ordinary people. That's not accurate, of course, but Linux still has a long way to go before it's ready for Joe Average. Not all of that is even the fault of Linux coders; plenty of blame can be placed on programmers for games, hardware, and peripherals. But it's still a considerable distance.

Coelocanth

February 9th, 2007, 12:22 AM

A good point. Nothing is going to kill the Windows OS, be it XP, Vista, or whatever comes after (except maybe Microsoft itself). The simple fact is: as long as new computers are sold with a Windows OS, Microsoft is still going to control the vast majority of the desktop market. The 'average Joe' does not install or reinstall his OS. The average Joe just fires up his computer with his pre-installed OS and goes about his business.

spamzilla

February 9th, 2007, 05:24 AM

I have a windows partition on my laptop as for college, I am given certain programs to work with, and I know that they probably won't work on Ubuntu, so I have no choice. As soon as I finish college in May, I'll remove XP for good :D

Thar

February 10th, 2007, 01:51 PM

For me, it's some video editing/transcoding apps. Namely avisynth. Version 3.0 will be based on gstreamer, so i will say bye to Windows :]

kevmartin

March 3rd, 2007, 04:36 AM

whitefort

March 3rd, 2007, 05:38 AM

I am still very new to Ubuntu (a few days) ... what I have not yet found answers to that I need to maintain Windows for:

3D Graphics Work (Poser, Vue, Bryce, Carrara) - I have yet to look closely at Blender

Me too. 3D graphics is now the only thing keeping me tied to Windows. I have Ubuntu on 2 of my PCs, and love it (It does take a bit of time and hassle to get stuff like the mobile phone etc working, and it's all a bit of a learning curve, but IMO it's well worth it)

However, on my most powerful machine I have to keep windows for Poser, Vue, and Flash. I've been told that Poser is 'usable' under WINE, but while I've been able to get it to install, it just won't run.

Initially you'll find Blender a bit off-putting. The interface is extremely nin-intuitive, but designed to be very fast - once you know what you're doing. It's an astonishing program and IMO actually better than software I've paid hundreds of dollars for. There's a great range of on-line video and textual tutorials.

However, it's overkill for what I need. I'm an animator, not a modeller. With Poser there's a vast range of pre-created stuff, but it seems that with Blender I would have to make most of it from scratch, and I don't have either the talent or the time for that.

But welcome to the world of GNU/Linux - there'll be times in the coming weeks when you want to tear your hair out, but it's worth perservering!

castoroil97

March 3rd, 2007, 04:21 PM

I just went to Ubuntu on my desktop. I run XP on my laptop. Office is the only thing I need to use now (that is for school). When I want to play a game, I play PS2. Once Open office improves, I can convert the laptop.

kevmartin

March 12th, 2007, 02:15 AM

I am still very new to Ubuntu (a few days) ... what I have not yet found answers to that I need to maintain Windows for:

3D Graphics Work (Poser, Vue, Bryce, Carrara) - I have yet to look closely at Blender
My financial data in Quicken - probably I will find a Linux alternative, but I need it to import my existing data from Quicken
2D Graphics - I use Photoshop Elements and from first looks GIMP dies not stack up in the areas I use it for - I read that I can get Photoshop CS2 running under WINE - so will have to try that I think
Web design work - need to test for IE compatibility in IE - haven't yet tried the Linux wed design alternatives - but did read that Dreamweaver will run under WINE
Flash - I don't use it often, but do use it regularly. I read that Flash will work under WINE, but I also use some automated/convenience flash-making gizmos to save myself a lot of time - it seems doubtful these will work in Linux.
Oh also Xara Webstyle I use regularly for quick banner designs etc - not exactly professional grade but very quick and convenient.

Hardware issues - still to test my Digital camera, media card reader - am very doubtful about mobile phone connectivity - and haven't tried wireless router (though the last is not an essential right now)

All up I am hoping most of these will be overcome by installing WINE and learning it - which I have not yet done (at least the software ones).

Seems like a lot when I list it all lol - but I'm very hopeful and excited with Ubuntu so far.

Cheers

A week down the track, and I've made some good progress :-)

WINE was a dead end - I couldn't get it working, but then I found Virtualbox and that runs really well. So I have Photoshop and Photoshop Elements both installed in a Windows partition in that now, so they can be used without booting out of Linux. Haven't installed them yet, but I imagine Flash, Flash gizmos and Xara will also be fine that way. I didn't find a good replacement for quicken so that may also be virtualboxed - gnucash came close, but didn't cope with importing all my qifs, because some are in $US and some are in $AU. I am very happy with BlueFish for web design instead of Dreamweaver (so far).

Digital Camera works like a charm - no problem there. Likewise my external USB floppy drive.
My wireless router and card even works (which didn't under Windows, though admittedly I gave up quickly on it in Windows as I had little need for it)

Mobile phone and digital card reader untested yet. And the only thing I'm tied to my old Windows partition for niw is the 3D work - I upgraded to 3Gb RAM on this machine for a reason, and I think trying to run Poser and Vue simultaneously in the VirtualBox would be a bit crazy :-)

rennen01

March 12th, 2007, 03:24 AM

I haven't had the time to get my Steam to run properly. I need to play CS: Source. :p

Once this is done and I have tested more of my critical apps using Wine, then I should be able to be 100% Linux.

I am somewhat new as well, and I am still testing other distros.

Oh and I can't get my soundcard to work on Ubuntu :(

ShadowVlican

March 12th, 2007, 01:19 PM

To those who still have Windows, when can you get rid of it?
i can get rid of it when linux is ready for the desktop ;)

the fact that there's a huge thread about this very topic (found in the cafe) means that it isn't 100% ready.. maybe 80% ;) :lol:

gus sett

March 12th, 2007, 05:50 PM

there are frustations in all camps/walks of computing. Windows is a keeper
but there are ways to broaden your horizons. Visit yahoo.com for E-mail
and other services and let know what you like there.
can tell you are quite bright. I encountered MATLAB on the US west
coast when supporting a SunOS network for Airtouch. I suppose some
of the cell sites they picked out are still in service for Verizon.

Here is a slightly different question.

My Internet is covered with Firefox (Which i use in windows also).
My email client is Thunderbird.
Crossover drives my office2000 copy (I'll consider OOO once it gets better.
Its a very good suite right now that deserves lauding, but its still behind Office).
When I want to game I got Cedega CVS curteosy of Linux Gamers.
When I need numerical cruching, mathworks provides a Linux version of MATLAB (thank god for cheap software being a college student!)
BMP provides my MP3 playing capabilities and other things
K3b provides my burning (I know, I know!!! Its KDE, but I can't find a nicer program ;) Although I heard there is a Nero Linux and since i'm used to Nero on windows I may take a peek
SCIM provides me with foreign language input for my language classes

But you know what keeps my windows activity on?

INSANT MESSAGE. I can never send a file right...maybe 10% of the time it works~ the other 90% it never does! Also, MSN support is REALLLY weak. I can kind of understand the fact I don't get winks or I can't "nudge" someone...but I can't even use "non standard" emoticons!
If sending a file via AIM or MSN could be fixed...and get MSN support up to par, then I would wonder why Windows is on my HardDrive. But until then I find myself booting up over and over in windows because I want to send a file to a friend, or because a friend is using many different emoticons that Iwant to see.
Linux isn't absolutely perfect...I know that. But its dissapointing to see how long the New MSN has been out with no real progress in that (and just file sending in general!)

hobieone

March 13th, 2007, 05:34 PM

only real reason here is my addiction to everquest 2 otherwise linux will fill all my needs

kevmartin

March 13th, 2007, 10:01 PM

A new one added to my list - zip files with passwords. I tried 2 linux apps - the default one had no support for passwords, the other I downloaded claimed to have password support, but gave an error when I tried to use it. It's not often I need this, but it does happen regularly.

Sir_Penguin

April 6th, 2007, 11:53 AM

Counter-Strike Source. Period.

kevmartin

April 6th, 2007, 06:42 PM

Counter-Strike Source. Period.

I guess that's one of the 'game' things I keep hearing about 8-[

I haven't been near a computer game in years - but I did see a doco on TV recently about Second Life that intrigued me enough to register and download it - haven't played with it yet though.

super.rad

April 14th, 2007, 06:31 AM

Running games (havnt tried wine yet) and also some of my music software such as pro tools, cubase and reason. If all of those worked perfectly in ubuntu i would happily wave goodbye to microsoft

motin

April 14th, 2007, 09:31 PM

Have you checked out Ubuntu Studio?

Bubs

April 14th, 2007, 11:48 PM

I would like new versions of photoshop to run. I know its about gimp but I just like photoshop more and would love to run it in linux. another is a good dvd ripping and burning software. like dvd shrink or clonedvd2. without wine.

YokoZar

April 15th, 2007, 04:39 AM

dan171717

April 16th, 2007, 03:48 PM

halflife2 and my ubuntu partion is only 4.5gb so i cant relly use it more? and alsomy wireless doesnt work on ubuntu and my other data

super.rad

April 16th, 2007, 07:15 PM

Have you checked out Ubuntu Studio?

have just seen it and once it's released i'll definatly be downloading it

sebbouckaert

April 16th, 2007, 07:43 PM

motin

April 17th, 2007, 06:42 PM

If you are up to it - why not give your opinion on what the market-shaping features of either Ubuntu, Windows and/or OS X are?

- What are the ultimate features of Vista that Ubuntu needs? (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=409721)
- What are the ultimate features of OS X that Ubuntu needs? (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=409722)
- What are the ultimate features of Ubuntu that neither Vista nor OS X has? (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=409720)

I believe defining these will help the community focus on aspects that would make the community stronger.

whoismilan

April 29th, 2007, 07:16 AM

I've tried using Ubuntu full-time for about a year now, but I have decided that Windows still does a lot of stuff I'd want Linux to do, so now I've accepted that Linux is only a part-time OS for me.

I'm still using Windows for:
- Photoshop (for retouching photos)
- Developing Windows applications
- iTunes
- Gaming
(and some other smaller stuff, such as I prefer uTorrent over any other torrent client)

Now, for gaming I could just boot into Windows for those times, I could develop Windows applications in a virtual machine (e.g. VMWare), and I can do many of the thing I usually do in Photoshop instead in ufraw and Krita. That leaves only iTunes... I have yet to find anything for Linux which can sync my music library the way iTunes does (including play counts, ratings, and artwork), and add to that I am using Nike+ (and don't know of anything else which can send workout data to nike.com).

STREETURCHINE

April 29th, 2007, 07:44 AM

well i would say since i payed for windows xp i am going to use it,albiet not much but it still has its uses,so windows is here to stay till it is no longer useable at all,...

drf_av

April 30th, 2007, 06:14 AM

I'm using Windows to run Steinberg Cubase. Thanks to a dual boot system I can use Windows solely for audio production (it even hasn't got network support installed) and Ubuntu for 'normal' PC use (office, mail internet...) Works great!

Please, try Ardour2.
Audio production was one of the reasons why I chose Linux.
I've never reached such low latecies with -rt kernels in win. Really.

sebbouckaert

April 30th, 2007, 08:24 AM

I am always open to give it a try, but I would have to get my USB audio/midi interface running in Linux for a start. It's a recent Tascam model (an US-122L, not to be confused with the earlier US-122). I haven't found a way of getting it working so far, but I guess it's just a matter of time before someone on this forum comes op with a working solution.
But then there's also the question of all the knowhow, and money I've invested, not only in the Steinberg software itself, but also in the numerous plugins and virtual instruments I collected over the years. Would it be possible to get them working in Ardour?

In the meantime I will certailnly browse around for som more info on the specs and possibilities of Ardour.

drf_av

April 30th, 2007, 02:36 PM

Damn! I'm using a Tascam too!
Unfortunately... I have a Tascam US-122, and works flawlessly. I know there are some problems with the 122L, try to ask the guys @ alsa, maybe they can give a better answer.
About the plugins, I have to be honest: it's a matter of luck. If the question was: do VST work? answer is yes. If it was how, well it depends. I had success with some and failure with some others.
It's always about trying. I recently gave up with VST because I found that LADSPA give about the same quality with 1/4 of CPU usage compared to VST and are natively supported.
Trying doesn't cost you anything, if you don't like Ardour you can always get back to Cubase!
And don't forget RoseGarden for MIDI and JaMIN for mastering.

goumples

April 30th, 2007, 08:35 PM

I'll get rid of windows when they make an MMORPG for Linux :) . Until then I'll always have a tiny windows partition just for games.

FoolsGold

April 30th, 2007, 10:05 PM

I like Photoshop. I have a copy of MATLAB, but only the Windows version, and Wine isn't working particularly well enough for it. I use Altium/Protel to view my schematic capture designs and PCBs. That's pretty much it, but I also need Windows for anything that comes along which I really need to use but can't support in Linux for some reason.

Gaming use to be a priority, but I figure my life will be more fulfilling if I can eliminate gaming and put more productive hobbies in its place, so that's not really an issue anymore.

OttifantSir

May 1st, 2007, 07:08 PM

I can get rid of it when I have searched the forums for some time more to find the solutions to all I want to learn about Ubuntu. Running a Dell Inspiron 9400 I got for my birthday, I need to find solutions for wireless, widescreen, DVD-writer, if I can run certain programs with Wine (I have, in the two months I have had this computer, paid for quite a few programs, and I would like to get my money's worth out of it. MediaMonkey, Tunebite Platinum and Cucusoft being three large and expensive programs) I have also paid for a membership at a website that only lets you download WMV-files with DRM, so I won't be crossing the bridge to all-time Ubuntu just yet. I would probably get there faster if I had a second computer to try it out on, but that's not an option at the moment.

Most likely, I will retain an XP-partition for those that wish to use my computer and can't see the advantages of Linux over Windows.

zergberg

May 1st, 2007, 11:04 PM

Whenever Alpha Centauri works on Linux.

So, several years ago when Loki's version wasn't crippled by incompatible libraries.

Photoshop would be nice too.

cmat

May 2nd, 2007, 01:05 PM

If my wireless Atheros works, which it doesn't. I've tried madwifi however the system isn't detecting it as a wireless ethernet card. And if my sound card begins to work, i will gladly get rid of my windows partition.

jerrylamos

May 2nd, 2007, 01:23 PM

I can get rid of Windows when I can do a nozzle clean and cartridge change on my Epson printers. There's a Ubuntu driver, but when the output gets streaked I have to fire up Windows to fix it. For whatever reason that comes up frequently. And no, Wine won't support the Epson Windows printer utilities, and from a communication, has no intention either. Maybe in future if there are enough Linux out there, Epson may have utilities for their latest printers, but not the present ones I have.

Cheers, Jerry

lakersforce

May 2nd, 2007, 04:32 PM

Whenever the institutions around us stop using Windows. As long as they do, I am forced!

TheKid965

May 14th, 2007, 11:54 AM

Gaming aside, the second there is a workable, easily reproductible solution for Ventrilo (which I am required to use for certain jobs and projects), I'm outta here. None of the solutions I've seen here or elsewhere have worked for me, resulting in crashed clients at best and total X freezes at worst. Plus, apparently asking about the Linux Vent client on their forums is a taboo subject, resulting in locked threads or even bans, and the program's author appears to be ambivalent, if not openly hostile, toward the Linux platform in general. (Don't quote me on this, but I believe I remember reading somewhere on these very forums that he has no intention of ever releasing the native Linux client, and only keeps the reference on the site to shut everyone up who asks about it.)

Unfortunately, Ventrilo is the chosen voice-chat platform for the group I'm a part of, so Ventrilo is what I must use when these groups have meetings. Unless and until they decide to switch to something like TeamSpeak, or if Ekiga or something ever gains the ability to operate on Vent servers, I must always keep at least one XP partition around.

Annoying... but at least with proper precautions and software choices XP isn't all that bad these days.

xpod

May 14th, 2007, 01:02 PM

XTREEM|RAGE

May 16th, 2007, 04:30 AM

Well I will get rid of windows when it will fully support the games I play, without having wine or something. When I can w8 video’s with beryl/desktop effects on(in feisty). Now I need to do a silly hack to watch my dvd’s/video’s when I have those enabled and the picture suxx. When it’s off it works like a charm. If that get fully supported then I’m ready to be ubuntu all the way. These are the things I really don’t like and sometimes hate. I really love ubuntu, more then any OS I ever worked on/with. :guitar:

But some small things that need to be supported

zheepeez

May 16th, 2007, 06:07 AM

When someone ports Battlefield 1942 to Linux with full multiplayer support.

Oh, and it actually works...

gilang27

May 17th, 2007, 07:24 PM

I just deleted my Win XP on my laptop last week because I was so sick of freakin hell antivirus and antispyware that slowed down my computer. And now I'm using Ubuntu feisty fawn that has been upgraded to Studio and with Beryl. Which is very nice, especially for Hydrogen, I can play drum there. Besides all the good things, I have reinstalled my Feisty because of error. Well, learning takes sometimes.:lolflag::guitar:

lakersforce

May 19th, 2007, 10:59 AM

When my net-banking begin to support anything else than just ActiveX (which does not work properly under IE4Linux).

suziequzie

May 19th, 2007, 12:37 PM

OrangeCrate

May 26th, 2007, 10:13 AM

Deleted the windows partition yesterday. Linux only now.

deadguy87

May 30th, 2007, 07:03 PM

I liked the question It made me feel like I probably would if I cheated on a girl and someone aske why. Does tha t make sense? Anyways tthe only reason I have a tiny, tiny partion with windows on it is, my MP3 player. It displays pictures and plays movies on it's cute little screen but I need to use software that won't run under wine to do that, and I've still yet to find a way to put tunes on it without WMP. I'm sorry Ubuntu please don't be made at me.

Simran

June 2nd, 2007, 04:19 AM

when i can play games games games games and more games. but i do get some benafits from just running ubuntu, means i'll do my work instead of playing games.... bout it really

kknd

June 16th, 2007, 10:39 PM

I use pidgim 2.0.2, and my file transfers are always good. In fact, is better than the original messenger.

Sir_Penguin

June 16th, 2007, 11:11 PM

I almost never use Windows now, I've got CSS (Counter-Strike Source) running great and everything I need, I've still got a Windows partition but once I have the means to back it up, I will probably remove it, or reinstall it on a much smaller partition so as to play CSS a bit better.

Depressed Man

June 17th, 2007, 12:14 AM

When can I get rid of Windows?

When I either
a: dump my boyfriend (it is there mostly for him)
or
b: get a newer computer (Kubuntu only with a partition dedicated to trying out other distros) and give him this one.

That's pretty much it.

Dump him! For being a windows user! ;)

Kidding of course, anyway...I'd easily dump Windows in a heartbeat if the games I played worked on it. Not all of them work under Wine and its variants. Like Supreme Commander, CNC 3, etc..

LordKael

July 9th, 2007, 07:08 PM

I'm recently (about a month ago) installed Ubuntu in my laptop. Dual boot with Windows Vista.
After that I cleaned the whole system and reinstalled WinXP with dual boot for Ubuntu (default).

Now I'm running Ubuntu only, and I have VirtualBox running a virtual machine of Windows XP Professional so I can work on .NET and SQL Server projects (I've seen some alternatives for Linux, but I need Visual Studio @ work)

Oh, and Adobe CS3, also need Windows XP for that atm...

cobrn1

July 9th, 2007, 09:41 PM

I couldn't get rid of XP due to gaming... even if I could, i reckon i'd still keep it around, just in case. Maybe for nostalgia if nothing else...

I'd quite like to set up a 3 partition pc, 1 for ubuntu, 1 for xp (gaming) and the other experimental, ie, to try vista (curiosity...) and other linux distros...

Sockerdrickan

July 18th, 2007, 07:01 PM

When Resident Evil 4 runs with wine and SimCity3000(Atleast not starting for me)

kamaboko

July 18th, 2007, 07:16 PM

Why would I want to?

cmat

July 19th, 2007, 01:16 AM

AutoCAD and Photoshop. Once those are gone it's bye bye to windows from all my machines.

g2g591

July 21st, 2007, 09:53 PM

it wouldn't take much for me to switch, one open source game that seems like it will work in wine once they get a bit better dx. Thats about it - currently Ubuntu-75% Vista-25%. Man vista is so slow for my 512MB ram, 15 min to boot and 10 to shut down. Ubuntu-1 min or so to boot, 1 min to shut down.

kserg

July 22nd, 2007, 08:33 PM

Photoshop CS3 wine support.

I'll probebly always have windows on my test partition/drive that i commonly remove and reinstall. But that's the only reason i can't live with out it.

nick.inspiron6400

July 23rd, 2007, 05:51 AM

I would give up Windows but Crossover won't install.

Writh

July 24th, 2007, 07:41 AM

I'd say Guitar Pro and games.
Of course, when XP support ceases, I'll just move most of my gaming to the consoles.

Nessa

July 24th, 2007, 10:45 AM

Once I get divx and my ipod to work here, XP is gone.

darksong

July 25th, 2007, 07:55 AM

When linux is as compatible as Windows, or when Sabayon or Freespire reaches its best.

b20963a2

July 25th, 2007, 08:17 AM

When I find a replacement for

Garmin Mapsource (already exists for Mac)
Polar Precision Performance Software (Sportstracker seems rather limited)

starfry

July 25th, 2007, 08:31 AM

Well I decided to jump to Linux when Feisty was launched. It's been a mixed bag of successes and failures, but most issues have been ironed out. There is a lot of "detective work" required to get a system up and running the way you want and none of this would be possible without forums like this.

I have persevered and am winning through. :)

I have now moved one step away from Windows by retaining it but only in a Virtual Machine and then only for the things I really need.

But I do find some things frustrating (and hope there are answers I just haven't found yet). My big bug-bear at present is the File Manage, Nautilus. It simply is not as good as Windows Explorer and, believe me, I hate saying that. It's the little things like dragging a file from a mail attachedin Thunderbird and dropping it in the File Manager, or right-clicking on an image to do simple things like rotating it, etc. Now, I have found the Nautilus scripts feature and may be able to use that to solve some of these issues BUT I shouldn't have to.

I'm not sure Linux is anywhere near the mainstream desktop world just yet. I will presevere however ...

diffuze

July 25th, 2007, 11:06 AM

Gaming is the only thing that keeps me dualbooting unfortunately.
I do everything else in Linux. Instant messaging, graphic design, webdesign, online flash games, you name it.

Browsing the web in one way or the other is what I do mostly though, and my setup is quite nifty. I have my firefox profile on a shared partition (read/writeable from both windows and linux) so that I'm using the same bookmark file, cache and everything, regardless if I sit in win or lin. Very nifty.
I'm also using the same IM client on both platforms. (Psi)

So yes.. gaming.

ndube

July 25th, 2007, 03:37 PM

I have been running Ubuntu since 4-2006 and absolutely love it.

I have Steam games running flawlessly in wine

WPA2+AES encryption on my wireless card using ndiswrapper

The only thing holding me back is webcam support. I use Ubuntu 99% of the time and only run WinBlows for webcam.

chalewa

July 25th, 2007, 07:51 PM

Once I get divx and my ipod to work here, XP is gone.

there is a good bit of support out there for getting both of these to work relatively easily within ubuntu

deadowl

July 25th, 2007, 10:12 PM

I can't get rid of Windows because there's a lot of Windows software I'm required to have for school. I'm actually CSIS major, and while the CS department actually has RHEL dual-booting on most of their machines and Sun Workstations in a lot of classrooms and offices, and many classes actually have you ssh into a unix machine, it doesn't even require you to have your own computer.

The Dept. of Business Administration, however, requires you to have your own laptop and have installed Windows, as well as software such as MS Access, Excel, and Visio. I actually haven't needed to use Windows for my first two years of college (although I've had to use MS formats like xls), but next semester I'm taking MIS (which is the kicker with Access and Visio). I don't think my other BSAD course will pertain to Windows too much, Business Law mwahaha...

Thankfully I may actually afford to be able to buy all of the damn books.
Operating Systems - uses OS book.
Artificial Intelligence - uses two books
(the biggest news in this area is that someone just cracked checkers)

I know the latter professor sticks to Unix for the most part, and the former I would imagine uses Unix a lot as well. I'm not sure about Linux.

MIS - uses a freakin' NEW book (expensive up my ***, and past classes haven't required a book)
Legal & Political Business Something - uses a few HBS cases and in-house course packet
Physics - no reply from professor (and I may put it off to my senior year in favor of an independent study to kill my VB requirement)

Pafed

July 26th, 2007, 09:52 AM

I'm still trying to extract my monies worth out of win 95. But seriously, I have refused to move up to the later ms versions, because they’re all crap. I use them at work, and I am not impressed. Now that I’ve tried Ubuntu, I am migrating as fast as I can get my drivers installed, and develop a basic understanding sufficient to feel comfortable. Then I’m pulling the plug on ms for good.

D--

July 26th, 2007, 11:45 AM

Windows can go when Linux provides me a way to burn DiscJuggler or Nero images (needs to understand that one image contains multiple sessions: mixing it all down to an ISO is no good), and when Wine offers a way to run QuarkXpress. To even suggest Scribus as a replacement is to admit you know nothing about Quark.

To be fair, I have accepted GIMP as a Photoshop substitute. And everything else about a system is covered by Linux. In fact, I'm sure there is some black magic to even burn those images I mentioned, though no good CD recording software with a UI exists. But Quark is the sticking point. As long as I need it, I will always have to have a VMWare server running Windows.

MacDuff

July 26th, 2007, 02:38 PM

I installed ubuntu with enthusiasm thinking that it could replace Windows XP on our communications computer, because I believed everything I had read about it.... silly me!

After almost a month of (admittedly not full time) use, purchasing two books on Ubuntu and about 35 queries to the forums, I still cannot get proper network connections, cannot get USB devices to un-mount, and cannot install software that is not in the repositories.

I have become very frustrated with the cryptic help information that does not, to me at least, seem to fully address the problems I have. The responses on the forums are very well meant and people are quite generous with their time. I applaud their contributions but most of them are people who have a depth of knowledge that will take me years to achieve and when they offer assistance they take for granted that I know more about the subject than I do. They will suggest using the control panel to accomplish a task but will not include simple but essential steps in their advice because they know Ubuntu so well that they hit the keys without even thinking. They are ignorant of the fact that a new user need to be told to change a directory or to back up a file etc. using such and such a command or to insert a tilde or something else that an experienced user would take for granted.

The result is that the user tries something without knowing EXACTLY what to do and can get him/herself into even deeper water.

Then there is the problem that some FOSS software runs far, far better under Windows XP than it does under ubuntu. A very good example is FireFox which I have found to work wonderfully under Windows XP even when using a Virtual XP machine, but just crawls using Ubuntu in it native form. After weeks of making enquiries the only advice I have received that has worked is to: "run firefox in a virtual XP machine" or use another browser such as Opera". I have trouble getting my head around the fact that one of the reasons Linux is praised is that FOSS applications supposedly work better under Linux than under Windows.

Obviously I am not only ignorant but naive as well.

When I return from vacation, I will give Ubuntu one more try and if I can't solve the problems, it will be relegated to the round bin.

I am ashamed to admit that I am unable to get Ubuntu to play for me, but surely I am not the only one to have encountered these problems and since we know that , statistically, only about one person in 1000 will admit to having problems and seek help, I can take comfort in the fact that at least 1000 other people have tried ubuntu and have quietly given up on it. I expect that the number is probably far more.

They return to Windows and grudgingly put up with gradual slowdowns, unexplained system crashes etc because they know that they can pick up the telephone and get some friend or associate to talk them through whatever problem they encounter. "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't"

At this point I would say that Ubuntu is probably a reasonable option for someone who is new to computers and who does not want their computer to do anything more than handle e-mail, do simple web surfing, run OOo applications, store some photographs, and perhaps play a few games. If their needs are any more complex, forget about it.

There I feel much better now!

jackmc

August 1st, 2007, 07:41 PM

there are two things:

1. I cant burn DVDs in Ubuntu
2. I have software from uni that will only run in windows

darksong

August 1st, 2007, 08:32 PM

When there is a set of applications avalible to linux, which include the functionality of windows Media player and center, a fully function controll pannel so i will never have to touch command line, and when the file systems of linux is changed so you don't get the POTENTIAL domino effect of 1 application breaking and the rest depending on it go with it. (I don't like the risk) Also full support for MSN. (Gaim is very basic, i love playing games like poker with my mates across the internet.) When wine matures and has full supprot for the games i want to run - guildwars gave terrible frame-rates on my last PC, halo was unplayable. Untill then its Vista.

Motoxrdude

August 1st, 2007, 08:36 PM

Counter-Strike source is the only thing. I got all my other games working in wine; war3, gta3, oblivion, etc. I decided to give cedaga a shot so i bought it but css still crashes randomly when playing.

markusf21

August 6th, 2007, 12:41 AM

As soon as I don't have to share a computer with windows users

kulturloseramerikaner

August 6th, 2007, 05:17 AM

As soon as I figure out what the heck I'm doing w/ WINE/CEDEGA... Or better yet, as soon as they start writing software and drivers for 'Nix also.

fontenot_1031

August 6th, 2007, 02:02 PM

I can get rid of windows if I can run Fruity loops on Linux

m1 grant

August 10th, 2007, 09:28 PM

Until most or a near majority of new games are able to be played on linux, M$ is staying on my desktop. Good thing I have a laptop running linux for every other task though.

PPBoy828

August 11th, 2007, 08:13 PM

The only reason I stilll use windows is for gaming and AOL chatrooms. I really enjoy the chatrooms on AOL and I've already sent them several requests for a Linux Distro. Also, I have a friend who isn't that bright when it comes to windows, let alone Linux. as soon as he has some sort of an idea, I'll make the total switch. Perhaps I can run AOL software through WINE or Crossover. I don't know, yet.

LemonadeMe

August 13th, 2007, 08:29 AM

WoW is the only reason I still dual boot to Vista (it came with my laptop). My account runs out in September so I will probably ditch it then (I will also be starting college again too - 14 years after leaving school! :confused:). I have just tried Xubuntu and I think I've found the right distro for me :) The only other games I play are with Emulators and I have no doubt there will be ports for those in Linux.

happysmileman

August 13th, 2007, 09:01 AM

I don't use Windows, my brother uses it sometimes for stuff like webcam in MSN (and no, Kopete doesn't do it for me, our connection is so NAT'd and stuff that it takes many tries to even log in and I usually use meebo)...

I have no need for W£indows, and my brother probably wouldn't mind if we didn't have it, but on the few occassions my mam needs to check email and stuff she really wouldn'yt want to use Linux, dunno why... She's just been using Windows since 95(and I think even before then) and won't change

FrancoNero

August 13th, 2007, 09:18 AM

I will get rid of windows as soon as ubuntu is capable of suspend/hibernate on my HP Compaq nx7400 without denying me any human interface devices after return, error messages or simply non-working.... power management features are just essential for working on a notebook computer. on Windumb it just works, on Ubuntu it just does not.

another thing is how relatively ugly and unsharp fonts look in ubuntu, and buttons n stuff in firefox. also in openoffice for example. i see improvement there, but it's still some way to go.

resizing windows and all that stuff is still a bit jitty in ubuntu (gutsy nightly) with compiz and all that. in windows, all buttons are nice and small, window borders fine and everything is just nice down to the very pixel. ubuntu looks a big like legos.... a bit more professional and the entire thing would be a lot nicer to work with.

evolution is fugly and just looks like it's years behind thunderbird. which, on the other hand isn't a full blown PIM, so i'm a bit torn....

my university requires either vpn or a new EAS/Wpa2 security client for their wireless lan. i don't think i can run either in linux right now...

ubuntu uses more battery, my laptop gets warmer, than in windumb

did I mention how firefox looks uglier?

and i have problems running HD videos (apple trailers etc) in ubuntu in full resolution, especially with compiz etc on, hardly a chance...

just some things that come to my mind

clove

August 13th, 2007, 09:36 PM

As soon as I can run my Adobe apps under Wine (or similar):
Photoshop CS3
Dreamweaver
Premier Pro
Illustrator

For now, I'm looking at running these under Virtualbox, but for my main desktop machine, I'm not sure if Virtualbox will support a dual monitor setup that I use with these apps....still testing

8rdx

August 15th, 2007, 12:22 AM

Well, ah, when I get my next Mac, I guess...
Still plugging away with ME. I have a removable hard drive bay and one drive with ubuntu and the other with 'doze. There's another hard drive in the box and that is data storage that both os's can access.
The ONLY reason I bought this PC was to try linux (got all the hardware because it was suppose to be linux compatible). And as it turned out Windows isn't really all that bad. It's just bad when it doesn't work. I still use it for CorelDRAW and PhotoPaint, among other thigs.
As for Macs I have SIX of the damn things and I wouldn't try linux on any of them because Mac OS is just fine. It IS integrated to the hardware, after all... none of this 'hardware compatability issues' crap. If it fits it works and if not it doesn't.
ubuntu does many if not most things better than Windows (I've always had a better audio cd burn with 'nix than 'doze for example), but being a Mac user since 1985 I will say that anything a Mac can do it already does the best.

;)

ZuruxKakyn

August 15th, 2007, 07:24 AM

As soon as i get a better machine with sufficient ram to boot windows in a virtual machine (for gaming), I'll definitely go 100% linux, (not sure whether it'll be 100% ubuntu, but i think ubuntu will be the main OS, for it's more user friendly)

Beezleblub

August 17th, 2007, 11:48 PM

Will still have to use windows at work, .Net projects and no choice, stuck with XP for now...

At home, Only 1 silly program forces me to revert back to windows, it's my Polar Heart rate monitor program,
According to Wine database , the online version of this works under Wine, but I haven't figured that part yet..
But Soon....Getting very close to being MS-free :)

chacham23

August 21st, 2007, 09:59 AM

Photoshop + babylon ...

stolid_agnostic

August 21st, 2007, 10:54 PM

if I could get my lexmark printer, smartphone, and ipod to work, I would drop xp in a hearbeat

I am working on all of them at the moment (with mixed success, I am rather a n00b)

can get the ipod to mount but not sync - but it's one step closer :D

DownTown22

August 21st, 2007, 10:58 PM

I can easily get rid of XP at home - which will be happening soon...but that will never happen at work. We use way too many windows-only programs. :(

ashmew2

August 22nd, 2007, 12:58 AM

There were only two things keeping me on windows ,
Yahoo messenger.
Counter Strike 1.6

But now both of them are solved , Counter strike runs better under cedega/wine than it actually does in windows (i really mean it , try the openGL). As far as yahoo messenger is concerned , i use the Virtual Box , although i only need to fix up some things in the VBox like shared folders but its cool.

:guitar:

cyanide taco

August 24th, 2007, 02:11 AM

only reason i keep windows if for Elder Scrolls: Oblivion :)

cyanide taco

August 24th, 2007, 02:12 AM

only reason i keep windows if for games like Elder Scrolls: Oblivion :)

i have a 512mb video card just for games

TeaSwigger

August 24th, 2007, 02:33 AM

2000 Pro will be out the er window when there's finally support for my HP scanner, or when I can buy a new compatible scanner.

Focus more on optical drive and scanner support and functionality and less on adding features to perfectly satisfying software, that'd be my suggestion to the devs. But that's me, hehe :)

Evil Dragon King

August 24th, 2007, 06:49 AM

The only reason I still keep my Windows partition is because it has the boot sector on it :P.

(I'm too lazy to reconfigure everything again, and I have to put some time into College applications and the lark).

the.dark.lord

August 24th, 2007, 08:17 AM

. As far as yahoo messenger is concerned , i use the Virtual Box , although i only need to fix up some things in the VBox like shared folders but its cool.

:guitar:

Have you tried Pidgin yet?

http://pidgin.im

pwnedd

August 24th, 2007, 08:27 AM

Chinese input support, and to a lesser extent, fonts as well.
SCIM has progressed a lot over the years but It still just not as convenient as the windows IME.

karellen

August 25th, 2007, 10:40 AM

Have you tried Pidgin yet?

http://pidgin.im

pidgin doesn't do all that yahoo messenger can

darksong

August 25th, 2007, 07:14 PM

I hope pidgin the pidgin team starts to add more features to their IM, if you use it for chat only i personally think it is the best, but for me who uses web cam, plays the odd game ect its not good enough. Pidgin beats MSN now - no bloatware with it.

Fonon

August 25th, 2007, 07:18 PM

I only keep Windows for stuff like SW: BF2.

lamnk

August 26th, 2007, 12:31 PM

Have you tried Pidgin yet?

http://pidgin.im
Pidgin still doesn't offer voice & webcam.

windoze_pwnage

August 27th, 2007, 12:42 AM

sadly we have to use windoze. :cry:
but i still got ubuntu on vmware :)

WeeWillyWacko

August 27th, 2007, 01:21 AM

Frankly, I am OS agnostic. Every OS has its strengths and weaknesses. I own a Mac, and 12 PCs. (as if Mac isn't a personal computer ... but that is a different rant). The Wintel systems run Debian, MS XP Home, MS XP Pro, MS Vista Ultimate (x2), MS Vista Business, and a wanna-be Ubuntu system. Of all my systems, Linux is the hardest to get running right, the hardest to get a clean out of the box install, and a clean integration with the rest of the world. I have yet to get Ubuntu to install correctly on a nice system that has been running Windows Home Server beta for six months. People buy and use based on their perception of reality, not on facts. I would never recommend a non-geek to attempt Linux. On the other hand, I recommend that people get a Mac all the time. The difference is 1) how often something goes awry, and 2) whether the local geek squad/nerd birds/tech-support clowns can fix it. Don't get me wrong. I think that many distros of Linux are much worse! But, there are some better too. SUSE 10.1 for example has much fewer "rough edges". I personally like the fact that there is some control in the MS world over how installation, removal, and interaction is *supposed* to be handled. The Mac is an ultimate UNIX machine that is spoiled by lack of supported hardware. It always grinds on me the way that zealots (choose your variety) contend that their choice is the best thing on earh for everything. To me this is the "microwave syndrome." Remember when the microwave first came out? (if you don't bear with me) There were all kinds of ways to cook cakes, steaks, etc. and some people swore they would never need any other kind of stove. Ha! The same applies to computing. Once you get past the basic OS services, there are many different reasons to choose different OSs. <rant>Maybe I'll feel different about it once I get this @#$% 7.04 to successfully install. </rant>

HarshReality

August 27th, 2007, 01:37 AM

Truth be told my machine I just built was supposed to be Ubuntu only. It wasnt a rash choice Ive got a dual core 64 and it runs great... Windows 32 bit.. well most of the apps I do use in windows just dont like Vista, so I backtracked to XP64 and guess what it has the 32bit vs 64 rant... hell I couldnt even run a 32 bit AV program it refused to install it. Ubuntu ive dabbled with on my laptop (got everything except the card reader running but that is a broad issue and quite well known) so I figured it was time. Put it on the box and it ran... I wont say it ran well, but 1/2 the fun of linux is once you set it you can forget it but hell 1/2 my hardware was "unknown" turns out its using an nForce 630a chipset for the entire board. While nVidia's video drivers work for the video the entire board is black flagged since it doesnt know what to do with it effectively. So, I have a 64 bit system that runs like a 386 and a GB LAN that tells me it will take 2 hours to transfer 100 M of data locally. Maybe after another release or 2 this will be worked out and I will be able to switch.

Bottom line hitch in linux vs windows is everybody is making their hardware "Windows ready" out of the box while alot of the linux end is about at the end of life for the hardware (6 months to a year in). I and many others with that wasnt the case but it is what it is.

Taino

August 27th, 2007, 02:05 AM

Linux owns my servers, from file to web to game server they are all on some form of Linux.

I dual boot my desktop with Ubuntu and WinXp but i use Ubuntu a good 98% of the time.

I dual boot my laptop with Xubuntu and (now Vista) because i just got a new Laptop and again i use Xubuntu a good 98% of the time.

I currently only use Windows at all because its there and i got stuck paying for it so i get what use i can from it, but i truly despise the bloatness of Vista especially since Xubuntu on my laptop flies like a darned rocket, and Vista uses so many resources that it makes my Laptop crawl in comparison even with its (1) Gig of Ram.

To be honest at this point i could live without Windows if i had to, But i dont think i could live without Linux its become my mainstream OS.

:KS

FrancoNero

August 28th, 2007, 04:46 PM

i can get rid of windoze when...

.... hibernate works out of the box in ubuntu
....fonts in all programs don't cause eye cancer anymore out of the box

thiebaude

August 28th, 2007, 11:06 PM

I already got rid of windows.I'm just using 7.04 on my computer and nothing else.

saxuntu

August 28th, 2007, 11:38 PM

I put Ubuntu on MY computer in June, i deleted XP in July. I haven't regretted it since.

The only computer with Windows still on it is my wife's laptop. She has a couple of work programs are windows only. She did finally let me put Ubuntu on as a dual boot. My frustration is she really won't give Ubuntu a try for everything else. Hhhmmm i think i smell a new thread.

meindian523

August 29th, 2007, 07:13 AM

Resistance to change is the biggest obstacle to progress.

My family which is my parents and sis have never seen anythin but windozze in their whole lives.The day I convince them[on the way,showing them that the sites which work in Windozze work in Linux too,the Net is same for all....:)],out goes /dev/hda1,/dev/hda3 and /dev/hda8.I need that space for my /usr,/var and for extension of my /home partitions anyways......

PS:Can't people read?This is for those who still have Windows!

DEagleson

August 29th, 2007, 08:05 AM

I use Ubuntu & Windows.

Both OS got its good and bad sides, because Ubuntu doesent support games if you dont use WINE, and Windows cant use my favourite apps from Ubuntu.

joshzam

September 2nd, 2007, 03:28 PM

I'll remove my Windows dual-boot when, in my Ubuntu,:

1) Skype supports video conferencing (now that my entire family is on Skype and they want to see the new baby).

2) MP3Gain gets a GUI. This one is avoidable, but I've been spoiled and very reluctant to learn the command line method.

3) EasyTag has as many automatic options as Tag&Rename. At the moment, it doesn't! It'll handle anything manually, but searching the internets for tag info (and covers!) is not all that... Easy. I also visit Windows to use the aptly named Album Cover Art Downloader.

Those are the only reasons I revisit my Win install (about once every two weeks).

EDIT: I just found Album Cover Art Downloader for Linux. One less reason to visit Windows :)