When you did use Windows, what did you like about it?

[Condoulo]

Ok, I just want to know, what made everyone like windows when they did use it before switching to Linux. If you still use Windows on your own time for stuff, then why? Is it cause of great gaming support? It was just "easy to use". Or was it just cause you had no idea of other alternatives at the time?

I personally liked Windows Movie Maker, cause it had what I needed to get the task done. I can't find any decent video editing software for Linux yet.

[teaker1s]

I remember the DOS days and ACORN ARCHIMEDES,
What I liked was the gui, the ability to write a letter or desktop publishing-just think before that if you made an error-start again on paper.

[manmower]

Oddly enough, the speed. Windows XP has consistently been faster than any form of Linux with a GUI on all machines I've had the opportunity to compare the two on. Even something like Arch Linux + Fluxbox feels sluggish to me compared to Windows XP.

[Jedi Penguin]

Adobe Photoshop, good Font Rendering, and the fact that I can test on Firefox an IE when webdeveloping.

[aysiu]

I still have to use Windows at work. I like that pressing Control-F will search the folder you're currently viewing and all its subfolders. I don't see that functionality yet in Nautilus, Konqueror, or Thunar.

[katabatic]

Gaming support, hardware support, and ease of use.

[neo_reloaded]

I chose "Other" for UI responsiveness and Gaming support ( shame that all vendors create games for directX)

On a rather un-related note, Apple iTunes

[SunnyRabbiera]

It was pretty easy to use and operate a good percent of the time, ease of use is windows greatest strength though in my mind its only strength as Linux can be just as easy depending on the distro you have.

[gvoima]

I installed windows on a separate harddisk that I found, ONLY because of the game support.
I play quite alot of BF2142 and it doesn't run so well in wine atm :P

Otherwise windows for me is pure agony :(
I'm linux all the way...it does many things better than windows from my point of view and it runs better on my machine.

[IYY]

Windows Movie Maker

A rather horrible piece of software. Better stuff can be downloaded freely on Ubuntu.

The start menu

Certainly not this! The start menu is the single dumbest user interface ever invented. In order to execute a program, here is what I have to do: click start (don't know why it's called 'start'), click the applications buttons (at least this one makes sense), select the name of the program manufacturer (I often don't even know the company name, or can't easily find it in a list of 100 names), select the program name, click on launcher. Why on Earth are all of these clicks needed, for a task that is repeated so many times daily? This menu breaks every interface rule ever written.

Windows Media Player

It's decent, but not as good as other free media players like Amarok or iTunes.

Great Gaming support

I wouldn't say it has great gaming support, but I did select this option because it's true: more games are currently written for Windows.

Everything you needed for business use

Notepad? MSPaint? It doesn't come with anything needed for business use! If you buy the full office package, however, you will have a lot of the needed stuff.

Other (Post what if you chose this)

Hm... I rather like the ease of configuring their equivalent of the X server (it will never kick you to a command line). I like the simplicity of MSPaint and Notepad for certain tasks. I like Microsoft Office. I like being able to install software with a graphical setup program.

I think that's it.

[karellen]

about windows..what did I like about it....well, for me it seems obvious that is the "windows ecosystem" (if I can call it like that, don't know a proper word) - I could find/I can find a lot of applications (many of them rather good) writen for and only for linux. we all know de classic examples....;)

[Sunflower1970]

I chose 'other'

I find I miss some of the video editing tools that I used (although not often..) DVD Decrypter, for one, and of all things, Nero. At times I miss iTunes, and I do miss the software which came with my printer telling me when I was low on ink. Also miss the program which would allow me to create CD/DVD labels then be able to print the label right on the disc. (Still keep Windows for that program, actually)

[nsleiman]

i like mostly the search options just whenever you click on "Ctrl+F" (also used to MS office but oo is not that bad).
I'm still on windows at work, uni and home linuxed

[Shin_Gouki2501]

i dont have to mess arround with the command line when installing or configuring new hardware!
-> Games "work", lots of apps exist
wbr Shin Gouki

[rennen01]

Oddly enough, the speed. Windows XP has consistently been faster than any form of Linux with a GUI on all machines I've had the opportunity to compare the two on. Even something like Arch Linux + Fluxbox feels sluggish to me compared to Windows XP.

Different for me. Every single Distro of Linux I have used has been so much faster than XP. :shrugs:

[Condoulo]

Different for me. Every single Distro of Linux I have used has been so much faster than XP. :shrugs:

Guess it's based on the hardware. Although slower Boot-up than Windows XP is universal no matter what hardwor Linux Distro you have. Which is one thing I wish would be improved with Linux is a faster Boot-time.

[cunawarit]

I still use Windows, and I like:

* Visual Studio 2005: despite a few annoying bugs it is an absolutely awesome IDE!
* Stability: Windows 2003 is phenomenally stable!
* Popularity: life is easy with Windows because it is so popular, there’s never a shortage of software and it feels like every vendor caters for you. Free or non-free there are tons of options!
* Ease of use: I’m used to Windows, I am comfortable with it, if I need to get something done I can.
* XP Fast: XP works on older hardware. Gnome and KDE are slow dog compared to XP on older hardware. But the opposite is true of Fluxbox or XFCE for instance.

[manmower]

Different for me. Every single Distro of Linux I have used has been so much faster than XP. :shrugs:There seems to be a general concensus that Linux is faster, I think it is in lots of ways but not in the GUI department (could just be an impression though, I haven't actually been timing my desktop). Other things are indeed noticeably faster in Linux e.g. the filesystem.

Guess it's based on the hardware. Although slower Boot-up than Windows XP is universal no matter what hardware or Linux Distro you have. Which is one thing I wish would be improved with Linux is a faster Boot-time.

Well we all know Windows is cheating in the boot-time department. :)
Also I don't really mind boot time as long as it's not in the order of magnitude of several minutes... and booting Arch Linux is quite fast anyways. I was referring more to the overall responsiveness of the GUI.

About the hardware, I have used and currently use both Linux and Windows XP on a P3 800 MHz / 192 MB of RAM with an nVidia graphics card and now a P4 3 GHz / 512 MB with first an ATI and now also an nVidia graphics card. Nothing out of the ordinary IMHO.

It's not that I really mind the difference (considering the amount of money that goes into Windows development), but it is very noticeable for me. I think it is probably due to either the toolkits used (GTK/Qt etc.) or the graphics drivers. In fact, I'm going to try later today to use the open source "nv" driver instead of the proprietary driver and see if it changes anything.

[insane_alien]

only thing i miss from windows is all the games. thats all. and i hope that soon game devs will realise there is a market in linux games(i don't care if they are binary). think about it, a geeky community deprived of mainstream games for a while, we'd buy them lke trekkies would buy spocks ears.

[darksong]

Windows Media Applications are far superior to most linux media apps. Take a look at Windows Media Player 11, no linux application can really compete with this. All in one Video and music player, simple to use and looks the best. Also look at communication apps - Linux apps such as Gaim just doesn't have near enough features as it.

This is why i will not make the full switch to linux - not until a desent media player application is realased and a fully featured MSN client.

[raul_]

I liked it becase I didn't know anything else

PS: Is it just me, or does this sound like an AA windows version meeting? :D

[igknighted]

There seems to be a general concensus that Linux is faster, I think it is in lots of ways but not in the GUI department (could just be an impression though, I haven't actually been timing my desktop). Other things are indeed noticeably faster in Linux e.g. the filesystem.



Well we all know Windows is cheating in the boot-time department. :)
Also I don't really mind boot time as long as it's not in the order of magnitude of several minutes... and booting Arch Linux is quite fast anyways. I was referring more to the overall responsiveness of the GUI.

About the hardware, I have used and currently use both Linux and Windows XP on a P3 800 MHz / 192 MB of RAM with an nVidia graphics card and now a P4 3 GHz / 512 MB with first an ATI and now also an nVidia graphics card. Nothing out of the ordinary IMHO.

It's not that I really mind the difference (considering the amount of money that goes into Windows development), but it is very noticeable for me. I think it is probably due to either the toolkits used (GTK/Qt etc.) or the graphics drivers. In fact, I'm going to try later today to use the open source "nv" driver instead of the proprietary driver and see if it changes anything.

I've always found the XP gui to be slow as death. Even with beryl, gnome and kde FLY compared to windows, and boot time is way less too. If you count all the way from when I hit enter in grub to when everything is done loading, linux takes 27 seconds for me (on my primary partition, which is Sidux, running Beryl and KDE w/ autologin). eINIT, which is coming on Sabayon soon, took my Sabayon install from a multi-minute boot time to under 30 seconds. Granted some stuff failed, but if it took multi-minute Sabayon down that much, imagine it on a normal distro when done... sub 15 seconds maybe?

This thread is about what I like about windows... and the only thing is the availability of commercial software. I would buy GOOD commercial programs for linux (games, math/engineering software, etc.), but its not available, so I give the edge to windows there. Overall, however, I cringe when I have to use windows. It always makes what I want to do more difficult and the slow GUI just pisses me off.

[will_in_wi]

I find windows xp to be faster than ubuntu with a fresh install. However it only takes antivirus to switch that.

It currently takes me 5 minutes to get from the poweron to starting firefox on xp.

As for the software I miss Visual Studio is really the only one. I have used linux almost exclusivly for about 9 years now and still cannot break into linux programming. I know a smattering of a bunch of languages, but the only language that I have been able to really get is perl. I can write programs in ruby but I really get tired of all of the work that is required with every single program I write that was done automaticly in VB.net. I really think that if someone were to create a VS like app for linux that would allow both web development and app development with ruby with the same ease as VS, linux would rapidly pick up developers. My other problem with linux development is that of choice languages. The best language in the linux world by my estimation (subjective) is ruby. However it is really the underdog. I can make any program I want in about any language I want in linux. The problem comes in when I want to help fix a bug in rhythmbox (C and the GObject system), or amaroK (C++ and the qt system), or Firefox (C++ and javascript and XUL), or a ubuntu developed program which tends to be python. I have to learn all of these languages (or a reasonable subset) to really be helpful in ubuntu development. I have a bug in gnome-screensaver I really would like to patch, but it is really hard for me to understand the C/GObject system. My perl/ruby skills are of no use here. Some decent documentation like MS's MSDN would be very useful for allowing new developers to get up to speed (KDE's new techbase is a very good start).

[M$LOL]

The only thing I miss about Windows is the amazingly small amount of time I spent on the PC because it was such a load of $%£"$%.

My only other regret is that most other people are using Windows, so if I want to do the same stuff as them (eg doing dev in Visual Studio) I have to use a VM.

[aysiu]

I kind of like that you can do "Sort by Name" on the Start Menu > All Programs items.

[rahrahgoodygoody]

i put the gaming and windows movie maker BUT i didnt really use windows movie maker for major film editing (i used adobe premiere). i put it because i have yet to find a good piece of video production software on linux

[Claus KJ]

Also look at communication apps - Linux apps such as Gaim just doesn't have near enough features as it.

That is certainly one thing I don't miss. GAIM does excately what it has to do, which is enableing me to communicate with people, without including ridiculous features like nudges, handwriting, and other useless crap. The only thing I found a bit anoying about GAIM is the initial lack of IRC features.

I guess the only thing I like(d) about Windows is that the world more or less is feared towards Windows users so games just run and hardware is supported instantly. I do miss the familiarity a bit (I've been using Windows for almost ten years) but I'm starting to get the same comfortable feeling after just a couple of months in the company of Ubuntu. Besides I'm learning computer stuff again which is always fun and it's a nice nostalgic feeling to get to use a command line again.

I'm still running a dual boot but as soon as I get my new hard disk I'll wave goodbye to Windows for good. As it is the only thing I keep Windows for is writing on the NTFS drives and printing stuff so I'm certainly not going to miss it.

KJ

[igknighted]

That is certainly one thing I don't miss. GAIM does excately what it has to do, which is enableing me to communicate with people, without including ridiculous features like nudges, handwriting, and other useless crap. The only thing I found a bit anoying about GAIM is the initial lack of IRC features.

I guess the only thing I like(d) about Windows is that the world more or less is feared towards Windows users so games just run and hardware is supported instantly. I do miss the familiarity a bit (I've been using Windows for almost ten years) but I'm starting to get the same comfortable feeling after just a couple of months in the company of Ubuntu. Besides I'm learning computer stuff again which is always fun and it's a nice nostalgic feeling to get to use a command line again.

I'm still running a dual boot but as soon as I get my new hard disk I'll wave goodbye to Windows for good. As it is the only thing I keep Windows for is writing on the NTFS drives and printing stuff so I'm certainly not going to miss it.

KJ

The inability to transfer files is a big minus for gaim. Email always has file size limits, and who really wants to set up an ftp when you could send it over aim.

[Memocjro]

It's been since 5.04 when i first ordered a couple of Ubuntu Live CD's. Was so curious about this. The first Linux distribution that doesn't give you a headache, or at leas that was how it was supposed to be.
My first PC was an IBM 300PL, with PII 450mhz, 256 Ram, and a crappy S3Trio3d video card, had no problem installing Ubuntu, damn was great! Then the first trouble came when i wanted to play an mp3 from my collection. Damn i said. It must be the audio driver. Went to the Ubuntu Device Database tool and did those tests. No sound. Damn, what should i do. As Google is a man's best friend, after a week i managed to get my driver up and runing. Then i had my WOW experience. Crystal sound from my CS4236 :P
At our university, many applications were developed for Windows. Thus me trying to get them working under emulated environment in linux was a big headache. After a while i found my self again wondering in XP's bits and bytes. Ubuntu went away.

Now i have a brand new home assembled PC (i have a degree in precision mechanics engineering, specialized in computer peripherals design and service, so i spared a few bucks by doing the "dirty" work myself).
Components:
MB: ASUS® P5B Deluxe;
Processor: Intel® Pentium® D 915+ 2800Mhz
RAM : 512 MB (went a bit over budget with the MB and Proc :( )
Video: ASUS® EAX550HM512.
DVDRW: ASUS® DRW-1608P3S

I decided to give Ubuntu a second chance (i got my former hdd from the old machine installed as second drive on the new PC) So i went downloading and burning the 6.10 64bit iso.
+After install did a dist-upgrade to Feisty Fawn. After restarting the sistem, it simply didn't boot. The Jmicron PATA driver is hell on earth. Found a solution on forums.
+Worthless to say that i had a hard time to get flash plugin working in Firefox. Still haven't figured it out how to get the Java plugin working, but still working on this issue.
+ATI driver gave me work to do for a couple of days.
+lm-sensors does detect my Winbond sensors chip but the current kernel refuses to load the module. (on lm-sensors site it says that my driver is supported only in .21 kernel, latest in feisty is .20)
+Still can't print and scan from Linux with my Lexmark X1130.

In fewer words, Windows XP has better driver support. After couple of hours everyone can have with Windows XP a completely functional environment that gets out the best from you equipment. Linux doesn't.

For the moment, having a 250 Gb HDD for Windows and a 80Gb HDD for Ubuntu, i will keep them dual booting. When i have time i boot my Ubuntu system and go on searching new solutions, reporting bugs, translating applications. Maybe this way we can get a better Linux :)

[3rdalbum]

I started using Ubuntu before I started using Windows, but there are two things I miss:

1. Commercial application developers make it easy to install programs on Windows, but they mostly want to make it as difficult as possible to install on Linux. Look at Unreal Tournament - it installs fine on Windows from the Anthology disc, but it took a clever hacker to modify the ordinary UT Linux installer to get it to install from the Anthology disc. Installing things on Linux certainly doesn't have to be hard. Return To Castle Wolfenstein was a cakewalk to install on Linux.

3D drivers are easy on Windows but more difficult on Linux. It certainly doesn't have to be this way. Installing proprietry 3D drivers on Linux could be as easy as on Windows, it's just that the driver's developers are too lazy to come up with an easy installer; and that leaves open-source people to fill the gap with programs like Envy.

2. www.gizmocall.com doesn't yet work on Linux. I reckon it would work better on Linux than on Windows; let's just hope a Tuxified version isn't too far away!

[raul_]

I started using Ubuntu before I started using Windows

(...)

2. www.gizmocall.com doesn't yet work on Linux. I reckon it would work better on Linux than on Windows; let's just hope a Tuxified version isn't too far away!

You're pretty hardcore :D

Did you check out http://www.gizmoproject.com/ ? At least they have the same name

[Eddie Wilson]

I still use MS Window to make copies of my dvd collection. You cannot do this in linux. I've tried all the linux programs and followed all the post but it will just not work. That has been whats kept MS Windows on my computer. :(
Eddie

[qlarsen]

wow that is actually a really good question. I guess over the years as things got more complex in computing more problems arose with windows and the malaise set in. Getting back to the roots (keep in mind I am only 23 years old but have been a computer user since age 10), there was DOS, i liked it alright but of course I only really used it to run games. The 3.1 (windows) wave went over my head, I didn't have the patience to wait for a gui to load when I could boot into dos and play my games. Win95 comes around and it definitely made life a lot easier, the point and click thing was easy to use and functional for what I was doing around that time. In 1997 we finally get the internet and then I become a habitual computer user, so much so my parents bought me my own computer within a year to keep me off of their box. Around windows 98 was when I started busting things. by the time I was 16 I was a computing Black Ace, I had crashed just about every system I had laid eyes on for more than a few days. This is how I learned how to do basic fixes and eventually build systems from the ground up.

OK after that long back story is I did very much like windows up until XP. I had my eye on linux for a long time but functionality and laziness (on my part) kept me from switching. Actually I just switched to Ubuntu about 2 weeks ago. 13 years of computers and I finally make the jump to open source, weird no?

Anyways I do owe quite a bit to windows, I got started there, learned things that I needed to know to keep my box up and running, played tons and tons of games, and first started usuing the internet with it. So there are a lot of good memories there, but now I am really looking for clean running, fast fixing, open source software for my "slowly becoming outdated" box. Windows was ok now that I look back on it, I just don't have the money anymore to keep up with the best hardware for the best games performance etc.

And not to bash but I will never use windows vista. never.

There's my two cents, not so much what features i liked but nostalgia.

[Condoulo]

And not to bash but I will never use windows vista. never.

Vista isn't that bad. I mean if you're still a gamer, it never hurts to use Vista, wel maybe once Service Pack 2 comes out. :P

[raul_]

Vista isn't that bad. I mean if you're still a gamer, it never hurts to use Vista, wel maybe once Service Pack 2 comes out. :P

It hurts like 200$ in my pocket :rolleyes:

[Condoulo]

Well if a true gamer were interested in the gaming section of Vista, I think they would end up buying a PC with Vista Ultimate pre-installed.

[noneofthem]

I selected "other" because I honestly cannot remember WHY on earth I was using windows. I would have to make something up.

none of them

[Quillz]

I think Windows is a great OS. It's great for gaming and productivity. I mean, let's face it... Microsoft Office is the de facto standard, like it or not. OpenOffice is great, but still behind Office is many areas.

[Condoulo]

I think Windows is a great OS. It's great for gaming and productivity. I mean, let's face it... Microsoft Office is the de facto standard, like it or not. OpenOffice is great, but still behind Office is many areas.

I thought I was the only one thinking that. Yeah, I happen to use office at school, and it has loads more features than openoffice.org, no matter how similar openoffice.org is to MS office.

[igknighted]

Well if a true gamer were interested in the gaming section of Vista, I think they would end up buying a PC with Vista Ultimate pre-installed.

If you're the true "ubergeek" gamer you are implying, you would have built your own PC most likely... or used a specialty vendor where you customized it. In which case either way you specifically choose the Vista version to be used (if included at all). A specialty vendor might install it for you, but if you built it yourself you are on your own.

[gigermunit]

Gaming is the only reason why i used this crappy software if they manage to fix ati opengl support for linux im so going to stop this dual booting

[raul_]

Gaming is the only reason why i used this crappy software if they manage to fix ati opengl support for linux im so going to stop this dual booting

I'm only keeping windows (i payed for it actually) for when something like Fable 2 comes out or something like that :P i'm not that much of a gamer. I just play ScummVM in Linux, and it rocks!! The Secret of Monkey Island is the best ever, IMHO

[gigermunit]

As soon as i either get ati opengl drivers for linux working or i get a new laptop with an nivdia card im gone...

[Condoulo]

For me, I'm not much of a Gamer, but I like playing stuff such as Roller Coaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon, pretty much the Tycoons. :P

[Cannonade]

Firstly, I hate Windows Movie Maker. For some reason, every time I use it, it crashes. I've never known why, it just does. It seems very funny about making videos with a non-standard resolution. I personally much prefer Sonic Foundry Vegas (now Sony Vegas).

Windows Media Player, I love it to bits! Wonderful program, brilliant looks, amazing choice of visuals, but I prefer to use Power DVD for DVD playback. I like Windows Media Plyaer 10, but it vanished when Windows 'tricked me' into downloading version 11 saying it was an update. I'm not too keen on version 11 because it no longer shows the total time of the playlist and you can't make the playlist window black anymore.

Gaming support, well, I can't fault it. I just wish it was a little more compatible with some of my old Windows 95 favourites like MDK and Scorched Planet. (Scorched Planet sadly no longer plays at all). Some of the old games tend to crash, but the program compatibility option to run under older Windows modes generally makes the problem a little better. Gaming support for Windows is just the best and nothing compares with it.

However, I do believe if publishers released games with a Linux install disk as well, then Linux will have fabulous support, almost to rival Windows.

[jbaerbock]

I enjoyed the gaming support and back a few years it was more user friendly than any of my Linux experiences. However now that I found Ubuntu I think it is as easy to use if not more so than Windows. The thing is it does some things differently (package manager etc...) and windows people, my brother, can't cope with the change. I love the idea of repositories and package managers etc... so I made the switch easy. In Kubuntu I didn't like Konq because it was sluggish but now that I use Ubuntu it runs smooth fast Nautilus so I'm happy.

[AusIV4]

I'd play a few games every once in a while, and I enjoyed being able to buy music with iTunes. Those are the only two things XP has over Ubuntu in my mind. Ultimately I decided those two things weren't worth the headache and money it took to keep windows going (a security suite costs $30-$50 per year). I still boot Windows every once in a while, usually just to download some show I missed on iTunes, and occasionally to play a game at a lan party or something, but usually it doesn't get used more than twice a month.

[umattu]

The one and ONLY thing I miss from windows is games. ( not that I have time to play them) my ubuntu machine boots way faster than XP did for me and the overall performance is better.(Norton Slowed down boot times drasticly)


Wait wait, one more thing I miss about Windows is picking up spyware from every other site I visited, OH and I miss having to staty on top of my virus definitions.. Hold on a minute now that I think even harder, I really miss having to "maintain" my XP install to keep it running decently, ie Defrag, running virus/spyware scans. I also miss having to hack applications because I couldn't afford to buy a license.

Sheesh now that I think about it, WHY am I using ubuntu???

:lolflag:

[mysticrider92]

Well if a true gamer were interested in the gaming section of Vista, I think they would end up buying a PC with Vista Ultimate pre-installed.
If I were a serious gamer, I would get no more that Home Basic or Business. XP Pro or MCE is even better. I answered Gaming Support because things like America's Army are no longer supported for Linux (and there are a decent amount of Mac OSX and Linux users who still play AA).

[Majorix]

Gaming support alone. I still miss those good old days where I inserted the disk and just clicked install to play. No Cedega, no enabling direct rendering, no non-supported games...

[raul_]

Gaming support alone. I still miss those good old days where I inserted the disk and just clicked install to play. No Cedega, no enabling direct rendering, no non-supported games...

hear my advice, fellow ubuntuer. Scummvm rocks! :D

[DrBeaverhausen]

I'm an XM radio subscriber and you can listen to XM online, but it takes windows media. I really miss the gaming support for WoW. I finally got it running, but it runs for crap. But overall I'm happy I converted, I got a chance to use Vista and didn't like it at all.

[dgrafix]

Other=better HW support, theres one thing you cant fault Windows on (XP at least) its the hardware support.

For everything else (except the games and 3d apps) however it is shyte.

[Lucifiel]

New ubuntu user here:

I just liked the fact that even though you'd to search and download most of your programs, the fact that they could be installed just by double-clicking was really good. And mostly problem-free too. :)

Also, that they support games is awesome, too. :) I've plenty of indie games and fat chance that they'll ever be supported in Linux. :p

[raul_]

New ubuntu user here:

I just liked the fact that even though you'd to search and download most of your programs, the fact that they could be installed just by double-clicking was really good.

Ubuntu packages (.deb's) are installed by double-clicking

[LaRoza]

I don't use XP's start menu, but Vista's start menu is a vast improvement.

[M$LOL]

Ubuntu packages (.deb's) are installed by double-clicking

And Add/Remove in the Applications menu couldn't be simpler.

[tidge87]

I dual boot Ubuntu and Windows XP.

I basically keep the XP partition for a few games I like to play. Apart from that I dont use it much.

I like Ubuntu but there are a few gripes I have with it.

1. Its getting easier to use, but downloading some programs with all these different formats is confusing and annoying. Besides .deb's you have to muck around just to get something to work.

2. Windows has more support for hardware although I appreciate the way its getting better in Ubuntu.

3. Some programs are just better in Windows.

Now I know that some open source programs are better than Windows apps. But some Windows programs are simply better. You cannot argue that.

4. The eye candy is not there.

Ok so we've got Berly (which is nice). But I'm talking about the icon themes and programs such as GAIM. They all work, but just lack that appealing look. Also the Ubuntu Human theme, its ugly.

I know you can add your own icon set, but why have an ugly theme in the first place.

5. I hate Totem. To me, it sucks. After installing all of the codecs and plugins (why should I have to do this in the first place?) It still wont even recognize a DVD disc.

In fact I cant get any Linux apps to play DVD's!

6. I'm not so sure about this one but what sort of Media Center does Ubuntu have or can get? Is it as good as WMC?

I really enjoy using Ubuntu :) don't get me wrong. Having freedoms and a clean virus free computer is awesome :guitar:

[binneypl]

I could play DVD's. All the Ubuntu players I've tried crash when doing so (on the same hardware) - as per my separate post (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=327030).

[Dragonbite]

.NET

Most of my programming experience has run through the VB process (VBA , ASP (VBscript), VB6). My work uses ASP.NET and has sent me to a number of classes on the subject (free education? I'll go learn anything!! I like getting edumekated! ;) ). I would still consider myself a beginner programmer.

Most of my experience is VB.NET and Mono is heavily C# so it is not so easy to go use Monodevelop. With Mono 1.2.3 there is supposed to be better VB.NET support but I haven't tested it yet.

So I continue using Windows for .NET, well actually for Visual Studio (Express at home).

If Monodevelop gets strong VB.NET support and form designer, I'll give that a try, but until then Visual Stuio is the most comfortable means of doing any programming.

I have heard, though, that C# has a similar feel to Java. Eventually I may move
VB.NET -> C# -> Java
but first I have to get comfortable with VB.NET.

EDIT: Oh, that an my wife uses Windows and if it doesn't "look" like she expects she gets lost...

[GSF1200S]

In a nutshell, the corporate support.

Linux would be just as easy, with all the fancy graphic installers, etc, if the corporate world was behind it. But, alot more money can be made with windows, and thats why Linux can get complicated.

All the hardware setup issues... All the different ways of installing things... All the command terminal stuff... Its all because millions of people have different approaches to doing things.

The games are for me the biggest thing. I dont miss it because I dual boot, but still. I miss how everything is done one way, primarily installing and configuring.

That said, Linux is alot faster for me, and im running a pretty nasty laptop. It doesnt crash, it has changeable GUI's (GNOME, XFCE, KDE), it has a terminal window for deeper control, it uses less resources, and it has a HUGE open-source community.

I will dual boot for a while. Maybe one day a few years down the road, Ill buy a top notch Mac desktop, and triple boot Mac OS X (if a newer version isnt out), Windows Vista Basic (with a Nvidia 8800 or higher and direct X10), and Ubuntu Linux. Talk about having the computer world by the balls!

[Abhi Kalyan]

Its more the non-nusence thing.
When other users are on windows , once it is set, they dont come bothering us as they are used to that thing.

I started on windows so i cannot hate it, but the point is that, People hate change. Me not being one of the mentioned doesnot make much of a differance

[M$LOL]

I started on Windows and I used it for years before I swiched to linux. I'd consider myself at the high end of the power-user scale and pretty much an expert if you'd call it that.

I hate it. Linux/Unix is just so much better in every way.

[LaRoza]

I like that installing Ubuntu over Windows is easy. If something ever happens with Windows all you need is a free disk...

I don't hate windows...I just choose the best tools I can find.

[daynah]

-When I was using it- I was obsessed with... the internet. That's all I used the computer for. Had my own domain, made my own websites. As a part of that, I would use Photoshop, but not for many super high projects. I just... surfed. Everything. I ate the internet.

Evenually, I got in some weird rut, though, where I had a hard time finding new stuff that I liked. Started having to use blinklist.com and other similar sites to get recommended websites that other people liked to go to. And I would just go to the same websites every day. I do that now. I think that's about the time I got a life. And then Ubuntu ate my life.

[ahaslam]

The free software ;)

[Dragonbite]

The free software ;)Do you mean as in so easily pirated that it's virtually free? I think that's a contributing factor as to why Windows is currently the dominant system.. it was so easy to copy programs without paying for them!

[raul_]

Do you mean as in so easily pirated that it's virtually free? I think that's a contributing factor as to why Windows is currently the dominant system.. it was so easy to copy programs without paying for them!

That's why people don't care that linux is free...they just download cracked programs

[Dragonbite]

That's why people don't care that linux is free...they just download cracked programsI have a friend who has this whole concept to justify his piracy including the idea that if you use a program then (if) when your company is looking to purchase something it needs you will recommend whatever it is you've used and so the software company still makes its money.

Honestly, I'd rather be 100% legal. It's a lot easier that way.

[Yink]

only thing keeping in windows is photoshop.

[raul_]

I have a friend who has this whole concept to justify his piracy including the idea that if you use a program then (if) when your company is looking to purchase something it needs you will recommend whatever it is you've used and so the software company still makes its money.

Honestly, I'd rather be 100% legal. It's a lot easier that way.

That's an internet myth :P

[danbrownlow]

I liked it because when you bought something new, you knew you could go home and (eventually) get it to work. If you wanted some software, you knew it would be available for windows. This is what I liked about windows. If was practical(ish).
There just isn't the vast software library on linux or even mac sometimes.
Of course, this is becoming less of a problem day by day :)

[Dragonbite]

That's an internet myth :PYou mean being "legal" or the means to validate piracy?

[chakkaradeep]

For Gtalk Voice Chat and Yahoo/MSN WebChat

[jharbert]

Being able to run all standard engineering software without any hassle is a nice thing - I have no desire to fight with WINE for a few days to make things work. I also prefer Excel (I do a lot of plotting and calculations and find Open Office to be lacking there).

[FuturePilot]

Believe it or not but before I discovered Linux I was quite content with Windows. It really didn't give me any huge problems and I always kept it in tip top shape. I'm not sure what exactly I liked about it though. I don't think there was anything I really liked about it. I did like the gaming and Windows Media Player. That is until I discovered alternatives and then I just gave up on WMP.

But as time went on I started to become dissatisfied with Windows mainly because of the lack of customization. If I wanted to change something I'd have to go buy some 3rd party software that would hog even more resources. And I started to realize that I don't agree with Microsoft's views, but that's another thread. Anyways long story short, that's when I decided to see what Linux was all about. And I'm glad I did.

[kevinlyfellow]

I liked how easy it was to edit the start menu, although, I wouldn't have needed it that easy except for the crap that gets thrown in every time you install something.

[Henry Rayker]

I liked that it is the standard. Never had to really worry too much about compatibility or anything...but that's not such a big deal anymore. For the most part, I only used it because I wasn't aware of the alternatives (that, and I was afraid linux was too hard and Macs too expensive)...I really should have made the linux switch sooner.

[zachninme]

Personally, I only liked it because I thought that was it. :P

[alan34]

The very best thing in windows is system restore - no honestly - my friends 1 month old vista laptop would only boot to a now black screen saying press to login but nothing worked. Put the cd in got to system restore all back working ok. Even got a free beer.:)

Only been using Ubuntu for 2 months sometimes wished it had system restore sometimes!!

[nenyalorien]

i loved the organized file structure and the way you can install programs. but i'm learning to love Ubuntu's and OS X's system. :popcorn:

[]Nbx*cmD[]

Is NOTHING a valid answer?

[roachk71]

When I had Windows installed, Windows Media Player and the gaming support were the best. But looking back, I had quickly gotten bored with the OS even with those strong points.

The interface quickly grew stale, the DRM added to the media player killed its appeal, draconian EULAs and life-destroying, addictive online games quickly weaned me from Windows. Oh, and it seems to me that the OS has only been getting worse with time...

And the real pain of Windows? That would have to be its inefficient NT Filesystem. It would seem that no matter what you do, the more files you store on your drive, the slower the system becomes. :mad:

Nevertheless, Windows does have its strengths, and I'd prefer it to most other OSes in cases where those are used.

[JerseyShoreComputer]

It was faster and easier to connect via wireless... Also Adobe programs, and i do like Outlook.

[kelvin spratt]

darksong try linn player in linux nero showtime in windows or cyberlink then say media player is good

[FoolsGold]

Gaming, and the hardware support.

[Billy McCann]

Other -

Hardware support.

[steven8]

Other -

Hardware support.

Windows-does-not-have-hardware-support. Hardware is created to work with windows. That is a huge difference that so many seem to just plain not see. GNU/Linux HAS hardware support because they have to create it from scratch.

[Billy McCann]

Windows-does-not-have-hardware-support. Hardware is created to work with windows.
Right. Hardware works. That's what I mean.

That is a huge difference that so many seem to just plain not see.
I'll remember that, thank you.

GNU/Linux HAS hardware support because they have to create it from scratch.
And they have my respect for it. :KS

[steven8]

And they have my respect for it. :KS

Yeah, the gnu/linux devs are basically gods to me. I have no idea how they do it! :guitar:

[motin]

i loved the organized file structure and the way you can install programs. but i'm learning to love Ubuntu's and OS X's system. :popcorn:

I had the same opinion. Now when I look back, I am surprised that I even had to care about the file structure! Everything I need is in $HOME, no need for looking all over C: to find saved files, settings and documents as before.

[soulfly7x]

Everything I need is in $HOME

I forcefully second that. I love being able to copy one single solitary folder and have everything I need. Open up Thunderbird in a new install and... Boom! Everything just like I left it, right down to the messages still unread in the inbox. Open up Firefox,.. Boom! All my bookmarks, passwords, settings, extensions, and themes just the way it looked the last time I closed it, on a DIFFERENT installation.

Try that with windows. (you can't)

Bwahahahahaha!

edit. Oh, wait. I'm supposed to post what I LIKE about Windows.

ROTFL!

[ShadowVlican]

well obviously gaming support

hardware support is excellent too.... all consumer products are made with windows in mind

ok there's too much to list.....

[lakersforce]

The eyecandy interface of XP.

[olddog58]

Quicken and TaxCut

[zugu]

I use Windows because I like the way programs are installed. Let me give you an example: I can install Firefox 2 and use it, and when the time comes I can uninstall it and upgrade to Firefox 3 without a fundamental upgrade to the operating system (try installing Firefox 2 from the repos on Ubuntu Dapper or Debian old-stable).

I also use Windows for gaming and multimedia - there's a plethora of software available for dealing with video and audio files. Also, there are some applications I just can't give up, such as Total Commander, WinRAR, FlashFXP or ACDSee 3.1 (yeah, it's that old), programs I have payed for and fully enjoy. I consider myself a power user. I built my only PC by myself, got a bargain price for XP, installed it and configured everything the way I want. With a decent antivirus, the latest updates from MS, Mozilla Firefox, a bit of web-vigilance and awareness of the things I install, my box is just safe and stable.

Vista does not really appeal to me, but if something forced me to upgrade, I would choose the Home Basic edition, as there's nothing in the other versions that I might need / couldn't find an equivalent for.

I used Ubuntu for a year, and while I was pleasantly surprised by its capabilities, the "WOW" started to die amazingly fast: unsupported hardware, clumsy or different equivalents to Windows applications, fundamental design decisions I was against, crashes and buggy applications...

Ubuntu is marketed as a possible Windows replacement for Joe Sixpack, but everyone seems to forget that even Joe Sixpack has some particular needs, such as the old image manager he's used to, the familiar keyboard shortcuts in his media player etc. It's like trying to make people switch from Firefox to Epiphany: while Epiphany is still a browser, it's really lacking features.

Just my two cents.

[metaphor-]

i miss not having to convert file formats or worry about compatability when working on multiple computers with networks. Windows was a bit of a time saver when it came to transfering files and data to other windows computers, but then again, explaining to people why It might take a bit longer to work between different computers has always been fun..

"What, your not using windows!?! how??What?"

As well the windows abilty to encode or create DVDs, either movies or personal projects has always been easy and kind of fast.

[whitefort]

1 Hardware worked straight off, without endless tinkering.
2 Wider range of reliable 3rd party software, frequently more 'polished' and high quality.
3 None of the updates ever broke my system.
4 Games.

On the other hand, if I started a list about what I HATED about windows (or what I love about Linux), it would take too long to type! So I'm sticking with Linux.

[jrusso2]

Ease of use, ease of installing, wide driver support, easy driver installation. Wide variety of applications.

[cogitordi]

1 Hardware worked straight off, without endless tinkering.
2 Wider range of reliable 3rd party software, frequently more 'polished' and high quality.
3 None of the updates ever broke my system.
4 Games.


With the exception of your point 4), my experience with Windows doesn't match yours at all.

In particular about your 1,2, and 3, I found that I often had to abandon purchased software that was broken by The Latest Version of the OS, and that software drivers written for the hardware often caused havoc that I couldn't really fix because I couldn't see the source and the authors of the drivers rarely answered questions from clients.

I don't care much for computer gaming but I know one reason why *NIX suffers. Windows succeeds and Gnome fails in the area of development tools.

[raul_]

I don't care much for computer gaming but I know one reason why *NIX suffers. Windows succeeds and Gnome fails in the area of development tools.

What kind of development tools?

[cogitordi]

C++.

I am very happy with Gnu, but I would like to build Gnome applications and the toolset appears to be broken, with some parts half-used or abandoned, and the documentation obsolete or incomplete.

If you can direct me to current information about a complete, working toolset for Gnome development, I would consider myself beholden to you.

[gashcr]

The windows only programs my teachers make me use in order to pass their classes

[goumples]

The windows only programs my teachers make me use in order to pass their classes

Heh. I had to take classes on Microsoft Office for I.S. degree. We had to take a whole class on Word.. yes you guess it, it was Keyboarding round 2. I have to digress right here though and say I DID enjoy MS Publisher.

[Xaimas]

Yeah, the only reason i use Windows is for the Gaming, other than that, its Ubuntu which can do anything Windows can apart from Gaming...

[regomodo]

I put Other down

Those "others" would be :

Engineering Apps
Easy Networking

[diafanos]

I vote for game support.

But it's not Windows that support games, BUT games that support Windows

[cprofitt]

Well if a true gamer were interested in the gaming section of Vista, I think they would end up buying a PC with Vista Ultimate pre-installed.

No, they would build a custom machine and still need to pay for Vista...

I would never buy a pre-built POS.

[cprofitt]

Hmm...

I started with MS DOS 1.0 then moved through Apple IIe, IBM 386 Dos 5-6, Windows 3.11 for Work Groups, OS/2, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista and since Windows 98 have been dabbling with Linux distros. At this point I have not fully migrated to Ubuntu but am laying the groundwork to do so after a side .Net programming project is complete. (I will maintain it from VMWare).

The things I will miss are:


a) paying $350 for an OS
b) being able to buy and play first rate games without issues due to Wine/Cedega
c) turbo tax software -- either Linux gets one or I will likely have to purchase a Vista license... that saves WAY too much time.
d) easy driver upgrades with GUI installers

[Shin_Gouki2501]

scanner and printer work easily!

[kevCast]

Nothing. Nothing in Windows appealed to me that hasn't been equally appealed to or more so surpassed by Linux.

[Dennis123]

I for myself like the Vista start menue, with its search box and my shortcuts in the user directory, which ar easily accessed from the start menue. And of course I like VS2005(Debugger, editor, IntelliSense(I'm lazy)).
The third point is the hardware support and the fourth is the new compositing window manager(I know this was first on linux...), which gives me the possibility to move a window over the heavily filled VS2005 GUI without any flickering or any other annoyance. Another point is the Vista color scheme and that I'm having a x64 version. The bad things: spies all over the planet....

[gusjones]

Fugawi OS software... I use it to plan out mountain-biking trips.

Currently have to run it at work as I don't run Windows at all at home anymore.

I'm not aware of any (OS 50:1 / 25:1) map software compatibile with Linux.

[timzak]

Still use it on a limited basis.

I like that I can burn CDs and DVDs at my drive's rated speed. There seems to be a known bug in Linux OSes that severely reduces burn speeds. Gnomebaker won't burn a CD faster than 20X on my 52X burner; k3b tops out at 16X. And from what I've read here on the forums, I've got it good. Many folks are capped around 2-4X burn speeds.

I like how easy it is to back up my DVDs.

I like Nero's advanced tools, like Recode and VisionExpress, for video-editing. Nero's Linux port doesn't have these and I've yet to find a Linux-based app that does what these apps do.

I like the wealth of benchmark apps that let me test my system for stability when overclocking. I like the hardware info apps in Windows better too (like CPU-Z, SpeedFan, Sandra, etc).

I like simple installation and good documentation. Anything through Synaptic is easy, but if it's not in Synaptic, chances are the installation won't be quite as easy as double-clicking on a file. Also, there's a lot of undocumented information on Linux apps that it seems you almost need to find out the secret handshake to get the info. I've gotten help on various forums for using programs and that info should have been on the program's man or wiki page, but it wasn't.

Despite these, I still use Ubuntu as my main OS on my main rig and only end up booting back to Windows a few times a week for brief periods of time. I hate that I have to boot into Windows at all, but unfortunately, it's my reality at this time.

[loserboy]

Other -

Sonique media player was my favorite program ever till it got bought by lycos like 5 years ago and become a ad/bloat/abandon program. It had the best visuals ever among other things

when I learned you could use shell replacements I was using XP and that started a long phase in my life of something I enjoyed doing (Litestep, windowblinds, talisman, nextstart).

edit: oh and here's a pic of my beloved Sonique before it got bought out

[Death & Taxes]

I liked the font rendering (hard to set up on any Linux, and it still looks wrong, even though you get used to it) and the Explorer. I know that many people hate the concept behind the Explorer, but I really liked it. Couldn't find anything comparable which runs on Linux so far...

[steven8]

I never disliked anything about windows, the os. It was just fine. I dislike Microsoft as an organization. That is why I am here in Ubuntu-Land.

[vinodis]

I still double-boot to Windows XP, because there are no real good Microsoft Outlook alternatives out there. Yes, I am saying this after I tried Evolution, Thunderbird and even CrossOver Office's Outlook 2003. None works well. If Evolution were to connect to integrate with Exchange Server as seemlessly as Outlook , I would completely quit Windows XP.

As far as other Microsoft Office applications are concerned, I have found OpenOffice and Google Docs to be sufficient most of the time.

[LuisAugusto]

Notepad? MSPaint? It doesn't come with anything needed for business use! If you buy the full office package, however, you will have a lot of the needed stuff.



Your answer is pretty much lame, he isn't talking about: The out of the box experience, he's talking of anything you possibly like. Like PhotoShop for example, of course, it doesn't come whit the OS, but... so?

BTW:

- I some times miss the Windows Movie Maker, there's no single linux replacement, PiTiVi lack options, Cinelerra it's too resources hungry (but it rulez!), Jokosher crash every single time, LIVE has a rare and hard interface, and crash a lot, Kino sucks.

- Windows Media Player 11 it's good (I like it more than iTunes, but less than amarok)

----------------------------------

I liked:

-Foobar2000.
-Windows Media Player 11
-MSN Messenger
-PhotoShop
-RPG Maker (in my awful boring moments)

And that's all.

[Dragonbite]

... - I some times miss the Windows Movie Maker, there's no single linux replacement, PiTiVi lack options, Cinelerra it's too resources hungry (but it rulez!), Jokosher crash every single time, LIVE has a rare and hard interface, and crash a lot, Kino sucks.... I'm hearing very good things about KDEnlive (http://kdenlive.org/). Haven't tested it out myself yet.

[Rick Z]

I used windows because of Coldfusion and Dreamweaver. I should get some book and learn php mysql.

[skyttan]

Great software/gaming support...

Miss my Chess Assistant, ChessBase and Fritz :(

[hessiess]

nothing, its done nothing but anoy me

[gedzilla]

So glad I'm not using windozezzzZZZzzz anymore. A constantly frustrating experience. I'm very new to Ubuntu (Feisty Fawn), and find it immediately easier to use... and these forums are great. Every problem i've had, i've been able to resolve through these forums - and i've even been able to figure out a few of them myself! (apart from the one with mp3 player - which i'm not too fussed about anyway). won't be using windows again (except at work >yawn<) and can't honestly see why people bother with it when there are such great alternatives, with such great constant support. The free bit doesn't hurt either! I could go on for ages about how chuffed i am with my new operating system (how sad!), but i'll just leave you with this;

there's absolutely nothing i miss about windows

:D

[russell.h]

I voted other.

1. There are lots of good games for Windows. I find it a stretch to attribute "great gaming support" to windows, but most games are made for it (mostly for the user base, and only a tiny bit for DirectX).

2. When you have a huge budget Windows can actually be used fairly successfully and easily in an enterprise environment. Linux is great for servers, but it just isn't nearly as easy to set up in a server/client model. Not to mention the fact that no self respecting business would run Ubuntu with its default theme (although Ubuntu isn't really aimed at business).

[dgrafix]

Heh, i now boot windows quite rarely to support my windows software ive written and play games.

But, "POP;POP;POP;POP!"
Each time i do i have to go through a million virus update, windows update, firewall access requests and other popups with the HDD running full pelt. Then it starts scanning, which i usually stop because it makes it unusable for an hour.

Then i load my game. I am just getting into it when it bombs out of fullscreen with a message. "scan interrupted!"-(five minutes after i stopped it) or "there is a new spyware database (or) software update, download now?" Bottom line is windows XP is ok when you use it every day, but leave it 2 weeks and its hell.

ARGH leave me alone, I just wanna play my game!

[fjgaude]

It's simple for a graphic designer: the quick workflow between Xara and Paint Shop Pro. <smile>

frank

[hobs0n]

gaming support without a problem. Gaming is the only reason Im running XP these days.

[Baby Boy]

Great gaming support. Period. Nothing else.

[gn2]

What I liked about Windows?

Nothing.

I still have to maintain XP on my wife's PC and it's a PITA.

So I voted "Other"

[FredB]

It was for me windows 3.1 my first one. I learn a lot on how to format a disk ;)

And installing / setting up windows (from 3.1 to XP) in less than 2 hours was an interesting game ;)

[.Michael]

https://devar.washington.edu/departments/im/helpdesk/manuals/workstation/Images/shutdown.jpg
BEST. FEATURE. EVER.

[init1]

For me it was being able to run any program I wanted. I didn't have to worry if they had a Linux port. I just got the .exe and ran it.

[Dragonbite]

For me it was being able to run any program I wanted. I didn't have to worry if they had a Linux port. I just got the .exe and ran it. I was very pleased when I plugged in my IEEE 1394 (Firewire) card in and viola! it was detected.

Ubuntu wasn't bad, but I had to go in and change the permissions on /dev/raw1394 before Kino would see it.

[markp1989]

decent printer support

[oneadvent]

one word:

MSPaint

I know there is kde versions, but I want a gnome version.
I do not want to have to download all that stuff on my pc just for that one program.

Yes I know there is gimp, but if i just want to draw a line, or change the color of something, that is way overkill.

[timmyw29]

Gaming: I used to be a solid gamer, I've begun gradually moving away from gaming all the time now, though.

Business Use: Studying at university doing a lot of programming, naturally I needed proper support for the .NET framework and (more recently) the DirectX SDK... amongst other things. It was part of the course work that I needed to use these things... so I used 'em.

Other: I love to dabble in things I have no *real* flare for. Photoshop, for example, and other things.

Of course, having been using Ubuntu since Gutsy was released as my first real Linux experience... I'm impressed. I wouldn't want to go back to Windows anything if it meant living without some of the impressive features that Compiz-Fusion provides me... On the other hand I'm also starting to see that although most Linux distributions are free financially, they can be quite costly in other ways (it can take a lot of time to accomplish some things that are natively available in Windows).

I hope this didn't go too far off topic.

[sayuki288]

when i first used windows all i thought about is playing games on it :lolflag:

[misfitpierce]

Yes there is no doubt that windows run unrivaled in the PC game world. Soon hopefully more developers will look into openGL creation as ID games has done. Yes prob around 70%+ of games work running through wine,cedega or some other method but lets just hope for more game devels direct through linux :)

[sayuki288]

http://images.wikia.com/uncyclopedia/images/4/40/Startrek-BSoD.gif

best windows feature :lolflag:

[sin]

The only thing I liked was being more certain that a game works. Most do work on my kubuntu, but not quite all. Not a big loss.

For everything else I've found as good/better replacements.

[Dragonbite]

one word:

MSPaint

I know there is kde versions, but I want a gnome version.
I do not want to have to download all that stuff on my pc just for that one program.

Yes I know there is gimp, but if i just want to draw a line, or change the color of something, that is way overkill.Have you looked at Tux Paint? Oh.. there was a thread somewhere here that went over the same information (just not sure where it is). They had some good alternatives for pixel-art including Gnome and KDE centric as well as a Java one.

In Windows, I prefer Paint.NET (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.getpaint.net%2F&ei=FrkcR5abJ5igevP1wMwH&usg=AFQjCNE3VbYjhEFNFcKm-exOdRitxnc9vQ&sig2=h89lKyXz9ILXHWwgTYeE4w) because it's the ease of use of Paint (and tools), while including features of more file types, layers and transparency. It's like Paint on steroids (and it's not an official Microsoft product). Highly recommended!

And if you are looking for something linux, the Mono group has been poking around trying to port it to Linux and they've gotten close (but no cigar yet) I think.

[glotz]

Nothing. Missing poll option.

[oneadvent]

Have you looked at Tux Paint? Oh.. there was a thread somewhere here that went over the same information (just not sure where it is). They had some good alternatives for pixel-art including Gnome and KDE centric as well as a Java one.

In Windows, I prefer Paint.NET (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.getpaint.net%2F&ei=FrkcR5abJ5igevP1wMwH&usg=AFQjCNE3VbYjhEFNFcKm-exOdRitxnc9vQ&sig2=h89lKyXz9ILXHWwgTYeE4w) because it's the ease of use of Paint (and tools), while including features of more file types, layers and transparency. It's like Paint on steroids (and it's not an official Microsoft product). Highly recommended!

And if you are looking for something linux, the Mono group has been poking around trying to port it to Linux and they've gotten close (but no cigar yet) I think.

Ya, well I looked at Tux Paint, but I would feel like a giant kid using it. The gui that MSPaint has is almost perfect. Its almost like there was one smart guy at Microsoft, he made MSPaint in 1995, and then left the company. It never really got updated, and remained a very simple image editor.

If Paint.NET was available in linux, that would be perfect.

EDIT: the paint.net that I tried to use would not install without .net and I have wine and mono installed. I will keep trying though, because it looks like what I have been looking for

[Dreamy1]

I use Windows primarily because I am used to it, as well as most programs can work with Windows, its also generally friendlier for use, as its not so rough around the edges.

Of course I'm not fan of Windows, but it suits my purposes, since it has Windows Media Player, I can watch and listen to quite a lot of things that with Linux I can't unfortunately. Ubuntu wins me over as the alternative, but I can't work without Windows. :)

[geeree]

Its been three years after I last worked on Windows. That was Windows 98 and then 2000. I touch XP on and off on my laptop but that is rare. Looking back, the only thing I probably admired was the text appearance — Windows has lots of good fonts and its text rendering engine is pleasant. (Although, I must say, Gutsy competes with Windows now on that count.) Later on one of the few things that took me to XP were lack of support for my Conexant modem in Ubuntu.

Girish.

[Dragonbite]

EDIT: the paint.net that I tried to use would not install without .net and I have wine and mono installed. I will keep trying though, because it looks like what I have been looking for
If you get it working, let me know (PM, Email, whatever)?!

[peatrap]

Xp worked well for me and filled my needs, but I got tired of the flack from microsoft ever time I changed my hard ware. As long as I am running just one copy of my xp disk Microsoft should but out. This is my cure , I have xp on one hard drive on which I plug in once a month for updates then remove and place back on the shelf. Video editing and down loading from my video camera is the only thing I really use xp for, Pinnical studios is the software. MY PRIMARY OS is ubuntu started with 6.06 and have moved up to 7.10. serves me well and yes ubuntu still has bugs, I'll take the bugs and deal with them over having to deal with microsoft .

[new2*buntu]

I have never liked it.
I only use it for TVUplayer (because I dont have SpeedTV to watch F1)

[tom66]

Nothing, much. I just used it, like the thousands of other mindless zombies. Then I stumbled across a Slashdot about 7.10 and it hit me - why am I bothering with Windows? It's graphical glitches (of which I have made an entire 150 picture archive of), it's incompatibilites, the UGLY Luna skin in XP and Aero didn't look any better and MS is a huge evil monopoly and I like free stuff, so why am I bothering with it/them/the thing?

[mr32123]

The best thing about windows had to be the availability of software, albeit free or expensive haha, there was tons of it, for everything you needed.

I am an engineering major in college right now, and linux doesn't have enough software to support my needs. I'm not even talking about CAD programs. The office programs were easier to use and such.

and... Why run programs in an emulator if you can just install the OS and be done with it? Eye candy can only go so far.

[Presto123]

Hrmmm...well, here's what annoys me about crashing my Windows: I just lost 3 years of Virus protection that I bought for XP a few months ago. Thing is, I will not buy XP or Vista for that computer if I can help it. I have my laptop running Vista, so, I will be satisfied with that...maybe I can move it to this computer without any fuss. The Ubuntu PC will be used for GAMING (!!!) and I hope I can find/install some good games for it.

I'm just happy that I saw that BF2142 works in WINE!! :))
I have to have my fix of blowing crap up...or else I will go nuts.

[Hairy_Palms]

omg i cant beleive 25 people have voted for windows media player.... for me its 2 simple things, games and circuit simulation software. i have circuit layout software in linux its the simulation thats needed

[vincentvee]

movie maker for sure, but it did have great virus support
i think stupidity made me like it

Ok, I just want to know, what made everyone like windows when they did use it before switching to Linux. If you still use Windows on your own time for stuff, then why? Is it cause of great gaming support? It was just "easy to use". Or was it just cause you had no idea of other alternatives at the time?

I personally liked Windows Movie Maker, cause it had what I needed to get the task done. I can't find any decent video editing software for Linux yet.

[Dreamy1]

omg i cant beleive 25 people have voted for windows media player.... for me its 2 simple things, games and circuit simulation software. i have circuit layout software in linux its the simulation thats needed

Over 500 million people use Windows darling, but I refuse to buy Vista because of cost, expectations and more importantly the restrictions that come with it. I think Microsoft has become evil more than ever now. :(

I am forced to use Windows regardless, so many things require it you often wonder if this world would just allow all to use software, but it seems the market is dominated by Micro$$$$oft. But to be honest with the people in this thread, XP is my first and last Windows OS I will ever buy because I am fed up with Microsoft is trying to shove down my throat.

Linux Rules. :cool:

[jpittack]

Windows comes preinstalled on any machine that I wanted to buy. I liked that it wasn't a dirt slow mac that I used at school. I was using 98se for my first computer, so I got to learn a lot about how to fix a computer that was old, dying, and did not have much hard drive space. Now that Ubuntu can be bought on a computer or that I know how to put Ubuntu on a computer of my choice, the only thing that really matters now is that games run on windows. Once I get all my games working on Ubuntu, and school or a future work does not require windows, I'm ditching it.

A small note: When ever I tell my dad I am doing something with Ubuntu on my computer, the first thing he asks is "Is that going to mess up Windows?"

[Dreamy1]

My school forces students and staff to use Micro$oft products regardless, its almost like Bill Gates has created monopolies in schools now. However I had this wild idea to go and take my Ubuntu CD and put it on a machine, I wonder what would happen?

[Kappity]

I miss one function of Windows, the simple "tile windows" command available by right-click from the taskbar. With this you can tile all open windows equally, and, if you have a large enough monitor to read all of them, easily go back and forth between different applications, while keeping an eye on the others. Trust me, I sometimes have reasons to do this

In Mac OS X, you can laboriously re-size all the windows by hand. Or you could hit F9, to show small versions of all open windows, but as soon as you click inside one, it comes back to the front. Or you can cycle through open programs with command tab, but that's not the same.

If Ubuntu has anything similar to this Windows function, I have yet to learn it, but I'd be happy to learn that it does.

This one thing wasn't enough to keep me with Windows, though. Programs to do anything I want are available for Mac, and, it appears, for Linux as well.

[doppis]

Gaming support for ubuntu would complete me.

[JeffoOfMetal]

The ONLY reason I am forced to used Windows is because of Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver. I'll try to install those under Wine, though.

[kentl]

I like:

Lots of software. Commercial software for Linux defenitely is lacking, and in some areas your only choice is to try Wine/Crossover Office and hope for the best.
Hardware support, as Windows is the "de-facto standard" most vendors support their hardware better for Windows than Linux. Of course there are exceptions, but in general I find this to be true.
Sub-pixel rendering using Windows Cleartype looks better than when I use Linux.
It's easier to get up-and-running. Linux has a steeper learning courve.

(I mainly use Linux at home on my three computers. But it would be off-topic for me to tell you why.)

[wiscoteiger]

The only real thing I like about M$ is the fact that its so complicated to fix a problem, that lots of people need help. Then they're very thankful when you help them out :)

And I really like the 'start' menu in linux, listing apps in categories? What a concept!

[Dragonbite]

The only real thing I like about M$ is the fact that its so complicated to fix a problem, that lots of people need help.

Until you teach them the 4 'R's of Microsoft
'R'estart the application
'R'estart Windows
'R'einstall the application
'R'einstall Windows
and the unofficial 5th 'R'....'R'eplace Windows with a 'R'eal operating system :lolflag:

[Vadi]

That it has Compiz.

But I don't use it usually at all anymore.

[Kernel Sanders]

There is exactly one thing I like about Windows. Microsoft Office Compatibility.

[tedk89]

games games games, the only thing really I have missed on linux. Although the more I learn about using wine I have figured how to make some cool games run. Plus now that I am getting smarter some of the things I am doing for bio tech and genetics we have some of our own software. The only thing maybe i missed in windows was I could trouble shoot almost anything as I worked with windows for so long...

[got awesome?]

I love my games ( <3 ), and I haven't got WINE working very well yet... I love installing a new graphics card and using it 5 minutes later without any hitches. I love mp3 support by default, seeing as I have 400GB+ of the suckers and my sanity depends on it!

I was weaned on DOS and Windows, so I find it a lot easier to use in general, and to troubleshoot my system, I'm still a bit lost in Linux.

I have no love for IE though, no love at all, that browser has shitted me up the wall for years. No love for virus' and no love even for AVG (free) because it slows my system down too much. I also have no love for random blue screens and hard reboots.

[Vince4Amy]

I feel that XP faster than the Window Managers I've used on Linux, also I've found it easier to multi-user setups. Although I've done this in Linux with proper file sharing and restrictions, I found it to be quicker to do on Windows.

[Jeff Rage]

I still use Windows at work and on one box at home. My 2nd box has Ubuntu. I'm still new to the Linux world. What I like about Windows is that most of the time, I can do things/solve issues just by "playing around." For Linux, everything requires research (mainly here).

Of course, maybe one day Ubuntu will be easy as Windows for me. :)

[Dragonbite]

I finally set up Windows XP at home and got the Edubuntu LTSP (thin client) server running nicely.

Funny thing is that it has been easier to get Edubuntu to see the Windows machine and shared folders over the network than it has getting Windows to see Edubuntu! I have to figure out how to do this, though, as I'm setting up another Linux box to become a file server (among other things).

[dgray_from_dc]

When I used Win9x, I could use autoexec.bat and config.sys to force Windows to do exactly what I wanted despite the inability of the windows GUI to allow me to setup things like networking, sound and drive letters.

Despite its age, instability (if you didn't know what you were doing), and limited support, I liked Win9x because I could break it, fix it, hack it, and make it my bieotch!!

[chips24]

ummmm, linux has everything you need for work use...
like open office- its compatible for everything!!!!

[Dragonbite]

You know, one thing I like about Windows that is probably seen as frivilous, are the icons, toolbars and fonts.

It seems to me that Windows icons, menus, toolbars and fonts are tighter than Linux applications.

Gnome / Gtk application buttons seem to be a larger button and are spread out from each other. This makes it feel more "childish", plus I prefer a larger workspace/screen to work in and small toolbar icons give me more space.

KDE is a little better but still there is a lot of empty space.

I'm not sure if I am describing it right though.

[void_false]

On windows it took me 2 clicks to make bridged connection.
On linux it took me few hours of research on TCP/IP, routing, kernel patching/recompiling and boot-scripts writing.
How the hell such common thing as bridged connection isn't implemented in linux distros by default???

[Dragonbite]

On windows it took me 2 clicks to make bridged connection.
On linux it took me few hours of research on TCP/IP, routing, kernel patching/recompiling and boot-scripts writing.
How the hell such common thing as bridged connection isn't implemented in linux distros by default???

What's a "bridged connection"?

[void_false]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_bridge

[thiemster]

The best part about windows was the support for .exe files. I know you can use some applications with WINE, but applications such as iTunes (which I really want to use on Ubuntu), do not work.

[kellemes]

The amount of software available for it, and compared to GNU/Linux the quality of software often is much better. Although times are slowly changing..

[Dragonbite]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_bridge

I know it says it is the English version but I don't understand it.
Maybe my questions would have been better if I asked "how does and where would one use a bridged network?"

[housam]

The only thing that makes me use windows, it is my company installed system which I've to do my job on it.

[RudolfMDLT]

Microsoft Outlook in the corporate enviroment and WINAMP!

[Kevin Funnell]

The ability to be able to print out any file in any format, something I have not been able to do in Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon. At least I know the printer is alive as all it does it make a clicking noise (heart beat).

[linuxjuicer]

windows supports my iMon Ultrabay, w00t. anyone know how to configure it on ubuntu? didn't think so...

[russo.mic]

Support for Steinberg's Nuendo and my Motu 24 i/o. That's pretty much it.

[digger95]

The speed mostly. Windows XP booted faster and loaded programs faster than any Linux distro I've tried.

[HyperHacker]

The taskbar. I put it vertical at the right side of the left screen of a dual-monitor setup and it worked perfectly. Start button at the top, then something like 6x6 icon grid for quicklaunch (ultra-convenient), then nice stacked window buttons, then at the bottom shortcuts/popup menus for a couple folders, system tray, and full date and time. So very convenient and well organized. As opposed to this one, where the buttons expand to take up all available space (eww), I can't have anything else on it or it'll become huge (no 6x6 icon grid, because the icons magically become like 120x120 pixels), and maximized windows will go right under it. So I have to also have a bar hogging up extra space at the top of my other screen, to do things that the taskbar itself did a great job of in Windows.

Also, that you could assign sound effects to things like programs starting, menus opening, etc. That was neat.

[dgrafix]

The speed mostly. Windows XP booted faster and loaded programs faster than any Linux distro I've tried. Youve got to be kidding me, either your ubuntu was not set up right or you had very little installed under windows.

Ive been a IT engineer with windows for 15 years and i can tell you that windows suffers from severe progressive slowdown. Especially if you want to make your PC anywhere near secure theres all the security, scans, updates etc after login. If using a single core then this makes the machine practically unusable for at least 60-120 secs AFTER login.

On my laptop Ubuntu boots up in about the same time it takes vista to boot(when no vista updates are involved) and is about twice the speed of XP.
Oh, and its consistent, same every time and theres no delays after loging in. (except on the 30 stroke disk scan which is can be a little irritating but is certainly the lesser of 2 evils).

[scouser73]

I've just reinstalled XP for my brother, and I hated every bleedin' minute of it, all the downloads gahh.

I don't miss that anymore thank god.

[vikasvishnu]

I love Linux with my life but that doesn't mean I hate Windows. I love Linux much much more when compared to Windows. Because its stable, secure, customizable and beautiful! I still use Windows because I want to run iTunes. I use Apple products (iPod Nano 3G and IPhone) and both of them needs iTunes.

I know I can use applications similar to iTunes, but its not as good as iTunes itself when ripping movies for my iDevices. iTunes is more user friendly. I tried using iTunes with Wine but its not satisfactory like running the latest iTunes on Windows platform!

Also Gamers will find Windows as a heaven since 99% of the games are designed for it.

As for me, when Apple reveals an iTunes for Linux, I might stop using Windows. But its just me!

Just revealing thoughts and no offenses!

Regards,
Vikas

[ikt]

a good majority of the time it worked fine, I didn't get viruses or any malware because I was aware of basic internet safety, winamp, games and generally the look and feel of it kept me there.

XP still feels smoother/snappier than ubuntu.

[Living2007]

I first used Windows in 1997 when 98 was released (correct me if im wrong) and when XP was released, I was hooked. The GUI was the "WOW" before vista and the new programs got me attached. I have XP at home, and the GUI just looks disgusting, I have to use WindowBlinds or another Shell theming to make it look better.

[vikasvishnu]

a good majority of the time it worked fine, I didn't get viruses or any malware because I was aware of basic internet safety, winamp, games and generally the look and feel of it kept me there.

XP still feels smoother/snappier than ubuntu.

I see something wrong in your post itself "a good majority of the time it worked fine". Hmm.. I prefer something which works fine all the time. So I use Linux. I also know how to play safe in the Internet world, but is the chains what you want? I want to roam free in the Internet not fearing anything about viruses, malware and trojans. If I see a flash which looks interesting to me, I used to stay back because I feared some malware must be getting into my system when I click on it. But I no more have that feeling since I started using Linux!

But I must say, this is not kids stuff. To get the real happiness of using computers, try using Linux. You can learn more than just wandering on top of an Operating System doing nothing other than playing games and encoding videos without able to tweak their performance graph. Its no geek thing, just try that yourself.

Regards,
Vikas

[NightwishFan]

I would rather use ME than Xp I hate that OS so much. I did like Windows Media Player back then, though. It looked so modern compared to the rest of Windows ME. (yes I am aware for my own good I should not attach an internet cable to a ME box, but I wouldn't on Xp either it always seems like a risk. :lolflag:)

[ikt]

I see something wrong in your post itself "a good majority of the time it worked fine". Hmm.. I prefer something which works fine all the time. So I use Linux. I also know how to play safe in the Internet world, but is the chains what you want? I want to roam free in the Internet not fearing anything about viruses, malware and trojans. If I see a flash which looks interesting to me, I used to stay back because I feared some malware must be getting into my system when I click on it. But I no more have that feeling since I started using Linux!

But I must say, this is not kids stuff. To get the real happiness of using computers, try using Linux. You can learn more than just wandering on top of an Operating System doing nothing other than playing games and encoding videos without able to tweak their performance graph. Its no geek thing, just try that yourself.

I use ubuntu desktop on my work pc and ubuntu server on my home torrent box :)

Hmm.. I prefer something which works fine all the time.

I do to but more often than not I have issues, https://bugs.launchpad.net/~noname420 is some of the ones I've had, not inc. those I've posted on these forums about.

[vikasvishnu]

I use ubuntu desktop on my work pc and ubuntu server on my home torrent box :)

Perfect! I also use Windows Vista Ultimate to play my NFS Series, UT3, Comanche, Gears of War etc. I rarely work on it though :)


I do to but more often than not I have issues, https://bugs.launchpad.net/~noname420 is some of the ones I've had, not inc. those I've posted on these forums about.

Its better than getting a paid support, right? The bugs filed in Launchpad are sorted of 98% of the time. Atleast they are being looked into! When I have issues, I get the fixes from "Googling" itself. I have just filed one bug in Launchpad and that was addressed and sorted out with in 2 hours! I cant find anything better.

:Vikas:

[dmacdonald111]

I have to say that I miss the whole feel of XP. I know that in the background, XP is a mess, but the gui always felt 'safe and comfortable' Something which I haven't been able to replicate on linux. Still, linux wins over XP.

[toni_uk]

Well I love the graphical interfaces - everything is graphical.

Really liked that drivers and codecs were readily on the system and did not need switching on, installing.

Hardware if not already supported comes with Windows drivers.

--> Hated that things would work nicely with XP and once Vista was installed I had to purchase new USB mouse and keyboard.

[heartburnkid]

Windows Media Center is a nice piece of software, slick-looking and eminently extensible. The FOSS options are just as good, though.

[Ikis]

WinXP 'decent' hardware requirements (compared to Vista's). At work I'm forced to use it but at home I've wiped out windows and use ubuntu full time.

[nenyalorien]

:lolflag:

I loved only MS Encarta and MS Word. Srsly.

I think the system just sucked. But the applications that can be installed with it... It's a different story.

I wish there was an encyclopedia for the Mac and Ubuntu Linux already. Is there? I better Googlie. :) Heheh. (misspelling intended)

[psb6m]

Just one thing: desktop publishing programs. There are really good ones for Windows and the Mac, and not for Linux. Sorry, Scribus is clunky and lacks advanced typography, and LaTeX is really a different beast, though good in its own way. Nothing would get me back to Windows, but DTP and widespread support for advanced typography keeps me on the Mac.

[ikt]

Its better than getting a paid support, right? The bugs filed in Launchpad are sorted of 98% of the time. Atleast they are being looked into! When I have issues, I get the fixes from "Googling" itself. I have just filed one bug in Launchpad and that was addressed and sorted out with in 2 hours! I cant find anything better.

:Vikas:

yeah definitely, beats ms support (or lack there of) any day!

[mshiva]

I use Windows a lot, because that's what is used in my school sylabus

[Hypnot]

I still use Windows. The reasons:
1. Game support (although I don't play games as often as I used to)
2. Hardware support(drivers are easier to find for some devices)
3. Habit (Lots of things are still strange in Linux I'm still in the transition phase :) )

[someonestolemyname]

I miss the drivers for my video card... I used to get way better battery life because of them. I have an ATI video card.

Other than that, games. I am Windows-free now because Counterstrike works great under WINE, but other games are flaky.

As for movie maker, Kino is way better IMO. The start menu was pure crap. The Gnome menu is *way* better.

The single thing I miss the most, however? Microsoft OneNote. Best note-taking app ever.

[prd]

none...
I don't like windows, but I HAVE to keep it because of foobar, media player classic and games. Oh.. Daemon Tools :D

[CrazyArcher]

For me Windows is optimal for office use. Offie 2007 is jsut too good.

[kd5ful]

There's simply more software for it.
I don't really like Windoze, never really did.
Back in '96, it was pretty much the only game in town, so to speak.
As soon as I was introduced to RedHat 6.0, I was a spoiled brat.
Now I use Ubuntu solely.
I will be alot happier when I can play Quake in Ubuntu.

[Captain Oblivious]

it came with my computer

[Jiraya]

The Great Gaming support is one of the most attractive things.

[Jiraya]

For me Windows is optimal for office use. Offie 2007 is jsut too good.

In that case there are some great alternatives for linux, like OpenOffice.

Ubuntu (http://www.linux-archive.org/ubuntu/)

[Jiraya]

I use Windows a lot, because that's what is used in my school sylabus

That's true. I don't know why schools didn't teach linux instead. :(

Ubuntu (http://www.linux-archive.org/ubuntu/)

[Jiraya]

I still use Windows. The reasons:
1. Game support (although I don't play games as often as I used to)
2. Hardware support(drivers are easier to find for some devices)
3. Habit (Lots of things are still strange in Linux I'm still in the transition phase :) )

Hehehe
I agree with you in the 3 topics and I'm still in transition phase too :D

Ubuntu (http://www.linux-archive.org/ubuntu/)

[Beatbreaker]

Plug and play

[gameryoshi600]

i personally like the gaming, hardware support

[FFighter]

Windows Media Player 11 is, IMHO, better than anything GNU/Linux currently has. Rythmbox does its job, though.

A+ Gaming support is also a great plus of the Windows platform.

[astrophoenix]

my first "pc" had MS-DOS 5.0 on it, and windows 3.1. I didn't like windows, really. I usually used DOS and only ran windows when I had to run a windows-only app. then in school I started using UNIX machines, so it was a simple choice for me, when presented with windows 95 or Linux, to choose Linux, and I've never looked back. now I have to use Windows once a month to enter my time for work (and then only because the time-entering-page uses an active x control).

[Stefanie]

i used to like activesync, it's easy to use and setup for syncing contacts, calendar, music, tasks and mails. i got opensync working now on ubuntu but it really is a pain to install (and you can start al over again after upgrading to hardy) and it can't sync music.

but activesync isn't perfect either, after installing it the explorer.exe process crashed every few hours :-)

another nice thing about windows is that the "upgrade firefox" button is not greyed out.

[Darkade]

I like windows DVD Support, I haven't found a decent DVD player for linux, and by decent I mean that it supports menus and that sort of stuff (because mplayer is a good DVD player but not what you would want)

iTunes Playing *most?* *some?* formats of music and *some* video at the
same time is priceless. of course MP4 and all those formats are really not great but playing video and audio in the same player is great

I like that windows XP is really fast to boot... about the first 2 months or so :lolflag:

and of course THE GAMES. Wine is great but not everything works on it. and VirtualBox ain't bad but it can be kind of slooooooow

[Darkade]

Plug and play

:confused:Come on plug and play won't work half the time

[Mr. Scott]

"Come on plug and play won't work half the time"
Hence the term often being referred to as Plug'n'Pray.:)

I like the game support, but don't play enough games that I would miss it if I didn't have Windows.

[Yuki_Nagato]

Windows IME is solid for the East Asian languages. That is about it.

[Beatbreaker]

Windows Media Player Classic

played everything everytime, no bugs, never crashed. Nothing has compared to that. Not even VLC IMO

[Unix_Slayer]

I chose other. I miss minesweeper. The rest is junk. Why am I posting in here. http://www.tech-faq.com/emoticons/free-animated-emoticons/smiley_49.gifThis is a thread for MS junkies. Take it one day at a time my friends. Remember the twelve step rule.http://www.tech-faq.com/emoticons/animated-emoticons/smiley_03.gif [Your all a bunch of addicts]http://www.tech-faq.com/emoticons/animated-emoticons/smiley_39.gifhttp://www.tech-faq.com/emoticons/animated-emoticons/smiley_14.gifhttp://www.tech-faq.com/emoticons/animated-emoticons/smiley_10.gif

http://www.tech-faq.com/emoticons/animated-emoticons/smiley_48.gifhttp://www.tech-faq.com/emoticons/animated-emoticons/smiley_36.gif

[dgrafix]

To be honest, ive found the "plug and play" or hotplug or whatever its called better in ubuntu and fedora than any OS ive tried. Windows detects stuff great but half the time doesnt talk to it without an external driver.

Ok linux doesn't have as much crapware support but as far as most common major hardware is concerned, it is better at it IMO.

I miss minesweeper Lol, resolved. Try menu > games > mines :D

[quickshade]

Nothing has toppled office 2007 yet, It's just an amazing program, and shows MS still can do it right. Openoffice is a bit slow, and the UI is ugly to me. Koffice 2 is looking good, but they are so far behind it will never be done.

I also like gaming and large amount of apps I had in windows, and that since it had a huge userbase, websites always worked.

[LaRoza]

To be honest, ive found the "plug and play" or hotplug or whatever its called better in ubuntu and fedora than any OS ive tried. Windows detects stuff great but half the time doesnt talk to it without an external driver.


I agree. I plug in my webcam (USB) in Ubuntu, and it works no matter which USB port I use (I have 19). In Windows, I installed the driver CD, proprietary software, and rebooted and it still doesn't work.

Nothing has toppled office 2007 yet, It's just an amazing program, and shows MS still can do it right. Openoffice is a bit slow, and the UI is ugly to me. Koffice 2 is looking good, but they are so far behind it will never be done.


Well, could you see the reactions of OO did that change first? People would be saying OO is "fecal matter" and that is even worse. MS Office does it, and it is suddenly the standard.

Well, about OO, I saw some new things coming to it.

[krmguy]

I love Windows because I don't need the terminal...
I love Ubuntu because I can use the terminal...


Of course, booting between 4 operating systems (Vista,Ubuntu,XP,OSX) allows me to do pretty much whatever I want... including wasting my time waiting for my computer to restart, but still- there are definitely advantages to being compatible with everything.

[Flying caveman]

I didn't like anything about it.


....Well, maybe it was that I didn't feel the need to respond to these silly polls.

[powerpleb]

I liked Winamp. Not only could it play anything. But the visualization plug-ins were truly mindblowing, especially in recent versions, and you could have them as the desktop background.

[LaRoza]

I love Windows because I don't need the terminal...
I love Ubuntu because I can use the terminal...


There are some tasks that require the use of the terminal in Windows. Windows Vista requires it more than XP.

[ComputerGeek31618]

I voted other because I actually like many of the poll items. However, to me, Windows is the "standard" operating system, and has the best gaming support, business/office tools, and I'm used to it. I understand "how" it does what it does and how one accomplishes something. I'm still relatively new to Ubuntu.

[Unix_Slayer]

I liked Winamp. Not only could it play anything. But the visualization plug-ins were truly mindblowing, especially in recent versions, and you could have them as the desktop background.

WinAmp works in Ubuntu. It runs perfectly through Wine. I use it all the time.

[Kain000]

I liked the ease of plug and play, i mean for the most part ubuntu out of the "box" was plug and play, but I am still trying to connect to my windows mobile smartphone to download some podcasts and a new music library, and from what i've been reading about it connecting to my printer/ shared usb HDD via the apple airport extreme is a nice thought.

[LaRoza]

I liked the ease of plug and play, i mean for the most part ubuntu out of the "box" was plug and play, but I am still trying to connect to my windows mobile smartphone to download some podcasts and a new music library, and from what i've been reading about it connecting to my printer/ shared usb HDD via the apple airport extreme is a nice thought.

I wish Vista knew about the "ease of plug and play", it somehow matters what USB port is used for my webcam (I have 19 of them), and it requires a reboot after installing the driver. On Linux, I just plug it in, and it works.

[id1337x]

____ ___ ___ ___
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[gameryoshi600]

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:lolflag:

[Unix_Slayer]

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See.... Who needs Photoshop, or Gimp when you have code.

[izanbardprince]

Gaming support.

Some stuff will work in Wine, with some hacking and possibly infecting it with Microsoft redistributable dll's, but it's not the same.

It wasn't enough to convince me to keep it on any of my systems though, I'd rather stick to Ubuntu and take my chances.

[dgrafix]

I like windows DVD Support, I haven't found a decent DVD player for linux, and by decent I mean that it supports menus and that sort of stuff (because mplayer is a good DVD player but not what you would want)
Actually, out of the box windows has no DVD support. Media player also needs codecs to play them.
Mplayer does it fine with the dvd codecs installed, is there a difference? ive not noticed any.

Edit:
oh yeah!!, just put a dvd in, no menu. Not noticed that before! (saying that i dont watch many on it!)
There must be one that supports menus :O Im SURE i used to be able to use menus!!


Edit 2:
Ahh, i know why! I was using VLC or totem-xine before i reformatted my machine.
Yeah, try those, they had menus if i remember.

Edit 3:
Yep, just installed VLC, definitely what you want i reckon.

[Bloke down the pub]

What I used? Excel, Word, Lotus Notes, SAP.

Why I liked it? I got paid!

[steve101101]

some programming and cad programs

[Corfy]

In the late 1990s, I got into several Windows vs. Mac arguments with a co-worker of mine, with me taking the Windows side. Unfortunately, at that time, Linux was below my personal radar. I had heard of it, but I wasn't familiar with it beyond the name.

These discussions took place largely before OSX and XP, and were mainly Mac 8 vs. Win95/Win98.

My biggest arguments at that time were price (yes, Windows is expensive, but most Windows computers were cheaper than Macs), the command line (if something happens in Mac, what, if anything, could be done to fix it?, whereas the DOS prompt allowed a lot of flexibility, although this functionality was reduced in Win98/95), and the proliferation of software available for it (where could you get programs for Mac?, and if you could find some, they were usually more expensive).

I find it somewhat ironic that pretty much every one of those arguments I used a decade ago to explain why Windows was better than Mac is now true of why Linux is better than Windows, although there are a few others that I now add for Linux (like freedom).