Whats Keeping me from quitting Windows [Archive]

ztrek7

October 19th, 2005, 04:51 PM

After this Ubuntu Breezy Distro, most of my linux quams have been satisfied. It just works. Hibernation, Wireless Network Switching, Read NTFS, Application Maintenance, the list goes on.

But there are two things keeping me from booting to ubuntu every time.

1. No decent calendaring that works with my Pocket PC PDA (I realize it's windows, it is what the boss ordered) I have searched and searched, seen some things about multisync and evolution. I don't want to have to do all that. I want to put my PDA in the cradle and sync contact, calendar, files, and emails automatically. If anyone knows of such a program, please post and let me know! (That is why I am posting)

2. No decent website managing software. I currently use Frontpage 2003 (I can hear the boo's), but, it works. WYSIWIG works, resize images in wysiwig AND optimize. Drag and Drop, move local files to remote seemlessly. I have tried NVU, and thought this was my answer, but it is still to rough. I would PAY for a decent website managing software if it was available (also would pay for calendaring solution as well), some kind of dreamweaver port or something. I know I can use fp 2000 with wine, but, I hate 2000. Alot of the features I like about FP are in 2003 only.

If anyone has any suggestions, please post. What are the true "converts" using? I am using Thunderbird for email (IMAP), tried the calendar extension, but still buggy and my mail server is still implementing iCal (MerakMailServer.com)

Thanks,

Jeff Hunter

October 19th, 2005, 05:05 PM

Star Trek watching, linux using, slashdot reading, can never leave my computer alone and keep messing with it till I break something, surprised I have a wife, Geek.
Yup...you are a Geek, alright.

Good to have a few of you around...sometimes feels lonly without the company of other Geeks to talk to.

Anywho, I am Quad booting Win98, Win XP Home, and both Hoary and Breezy. Will replace Hoary with Gentoo in the near future (mostly because I am trying to teach myself Linux...like any language, it is good to know a few of the different dialects, but I really like Ubuntu and will likely keep at least one partition for it). Win98 for nastalgia purposes (and for better DOS app compatability), Win XP for everything-else compatability (and also because I am a tech and need to keep current with the evil empire until it falls...makes me more marketable) and gaming (still have not tried Cadega).

Anywho, that is what keeps me on Windows, but I am spending as much time as I can with Ubuntu Linux, along with reading a Linux+ book and any other materials I can find.

I will always have a touch of MS on my computer, but less and less as time goes on. I always like to keep my tools ready if needed. After all, I did pay perfectly good money for it.

Sionide

October 19th, 2005, 05:44 PM

2. No decent website managing software. I currently use Frontpage 2003

The best html editor / web editor is called Bluefish - search for it on Synaptic, it's in the Universe.

bonzodog

October 19th, 2005, 06:09 PM

well, not 100% ubuntu...I dual boot another linux distro...Slamd64, which is even more raw than ubuntu, very much distro-in-development. I GPF'd win98, and found it too easy to use...It was boring, I wanted something to hack around with, so started manually altering .ini files until it broke....that switched me to linux, 7 years ago. Have used linux ever since as a sole home OS, apart from a brief spat with winXp, but found it too hard to configure and keep running so erased it again. LInux for me is easier to use than windows. I find the CLI easier to understand, and I like to know what the system is actually doing when running commands.

ember

October 19th, 2005, 06:13 PM

Actually I'm booting windows quite often the last days. Strangely my Warty installation ran smoother than Breezy does now.
And the other thing is, there is no such thing like Visual Studio for C# and Webservices in Linux. But I guess as soon as I will work more on my diploma thesis, my little penguin will get happier ;)

Best,
ember

Chris Cromer

October 19th, 2005, 06:23 PM

Well I dual boot... but I havn't used windows in months. I have it there just incase.

chaumurky

October 19th, 2005, 06:45 PM

My main box is 24/7 Ubuntu but until Freevo is available (Python issues are holding it back I believe) I'm still running Meedio on XPHome for my HTPC. MythTV just doesn't cut it for plugins and sheer looks. Also, running Linux, I can't run an Nvidia card with PAL widescreen timings through my VGA (interlace not supported) and on an ATI card I can't get motion compensation decoding DTV so it runs the system hard. A specific but deal-breaking issue. In Windows, the ATI sings and I can decode HD using 15% of my CPU. So I wait...

EDIT: tipoes

Rovenhot

October 19th, 2005, 06:50 PM

I haven't gone brown yet, because I wanted to make sure Ubuntu supported a good deal of everyday applications, and this thread convinced me, since many of you only dual-boot windows because it supports more popular software, e.g. games, etc. As for palm syncing, I don't own one. So, thanks!

souled

October 19th, 2005, 07:18 PM

I used to dual boot with Win XP and Hoary, but I rarely every booted into Windows. After Breezy came out I just wiped my primary hdd and installed Breezy by itself. I'm happy I'm finally Windows free!!

MadMan2k

October 19th, 2005, 07:21 PM

Malphas

October 19th, 2005, 07:27 PM

The main thing really preventing me from using Ubuntu full-time is the lack of a decent DVD backup tool (such as DVD Rebuilder) for GNU/Linux. Everything else I use regularly that doesn't have a native Linux alternative should probably run under WINE.

gw90se

October 19th, 2005, 07:33 PM

Well, I answered 100% Ubuntu, because at home that's what I use. I still have Windows at work, but it's not my choice to make.

reet

October 19th, 2005, 07:34 PM

for me it is speed which keeps me from kicking winXP. Ubuntu is simpy slower; slow boot, slow desktop handling.
Really? I have found that Ubuntu is faster at everything compared to windows. I guess maybe it depends more on what software and desktop environment you like to use.

All my programs that I have installed on both windows and Linux run faster on Linux. Ex. OpenOffice, Firefox, Acrobat Reader..For me Linux blows Windows right out of the water in speed.

The *only* reason I still run Windows is for games and for a few programs that there are no Linux version of (fancy electronics software for school). Linux is lacking in the professional software department. No AutoCAD, Protel, SolidWorks, etc.

billyjac

October 19th, 2005, 08:01 PM

well the reason i have not gone 100% linux yet is need win xp to run my games. I am totaly new to linux and not sure how to be able to run my games on here yet. But i do like this and in time i think i will go 100% but for now hace to have xp around just for my games

burntorange

October 19th, 2005, 08:18 PM

I would toss windows xp tommorrow, if I could get on the internet with my newly downloaded 5.10.

I have a speedtouch usb modem, and I have tried every guide there is to get it working, no luck. I just dont understand why they overlook this incrediably important aspect of their OS. Other than that, I think it is amazing. I have no idea why anyone would ever buy another copy of windows.

BIGtrouble77

October 19th, 2005, 10:36 PM

I have windowsXP running on my desktop machine dual booting with Breezy. My main machine (my laptop) has breezy running now.

There are two reasons why I have a windows partition. The first is games. I love strategy games like galactic civilizations, civilization and cossacks. They just don't run all that great in cedega so I need to keep windows around for that.

The second is work. I develop web applications in eclipse and some of the custom jar files I use are only supported on windows. Of course they work in linux, but if I have a problem I will get no support if I'm working on my linux machine. So, I work in linux and copy over my project to my windows partition whenever I have a problem. I also tend to break eclipse alot in linux so I need a reliable backup. It's usually permissions releated.

I hate windows and have been doing everything possible to get off of it. But i'm not going to do that at my expense. I promise you all right now that I will never use a vista machine. Things like trusted computing and drm sicken me and that's what vista is all about.

johnnymac

October 20th, 2005, 12:32 AM

Windows.....BAH!!

I haven't used windows for about 2 years now. I initially started off with Gentoo but that go to be a pain in the butt everything I "messed up." So, switching to ubuntu has been great. So great, as a matter of fact, that I used it at home and on my workstation and development boxes at work....GOTTA LOVE THE LINUX - Die Butterfly Die...

zachtib

October 20th, 2005, 12:36 AM

Almost completely converted. My laptop is pure ubuntu, but my desktop is dual boot for gaming. I finally got 3d acceleration working on ubuntu, though so both my computers may be pure linux before long

Iandefor

October 20th, 2005, 12:56 AM

No Windows for at least 6 months. My computer is old as the hills (5 years), so
it mainly gets used for web browsing, IM, WP, and music, which are all things Ubuntu handles at least three times better than Windows, IMHO (Plus it doesn't cost a thing!). Anyways, technically I'm not 100% Ubuntu because my school uses Mac OS X (Although I've been tinkering with getting the director to switch to Linux...).

darrenrxm

October 20th, 2005, 12:58 AM

I think my brother and his girlfriend are going 100% ubuntu. Because I fix his computer and I am getting sick of doing it. I try to teach him about spyware and why he needs a firewall. And he won't stop using programs that contain spyware.

Im running ubuntu without a firewall, spyware monitor, or antivirus. I could never do that with windowsxp. It would get wreaked for sure.

bored2k

October 20th, 2005, 01:00 AM

Ubuntu with Dual Boot Windows. I need to have my other Operating System.

Princey

October 20th, 2005, 01:12 AM

Omnios

October 20th, 2005, 01:19 AM

I dual boot though rarely use Xp anymore other than free online games. Id say I use 99% Ubuntu.

djSeverin

October 20th, 2005, 01:51 AM

100% Ubuntu. It can be a pain at times to find software with the same functionality as windows, but overall, its a great OS.

The more of us who support it, the more people will consider it an option and the more software will be released for it.

Finally, the more people who use linux, the more weight there is on vendors to consider releasing native drivers for their hardware. :p

gregh

October 20th, 2005, 02:02 AM

100% Ubuntu at home (Toshiba A70 laptop) and work (generic P4 desktop) since I have worked out how to join an active directory domain and access our exchange 5.5 server.
Gnumeric and abiword take care of my document writing, bluefish takes care of my development work and I dont play many games anymore (other than mahjonng)

owdeuk

October 20th, 2005, 02:09 AM

100% Ubuntu since Hoary. What finally did it for me was finding AVIdemux and NFSapp for my p908. UT runs quicker than in Windows on my machine, richer more stunning colours as well. Plus kill Ubuntu, and it takes an hour to re-install. Kill XP and it's two days off and on with all the SP's, patches and software I need. Specially the ATI AIW drivers...Absolutley rediculous installing them.

Never thought I'd get used to Gnome, but I have. Just like I got used to VMS, DOS and Windows many moons ago.

Ubuntu can be a pain some times, but there's always help around and if you feel like smashing your computer, chill for a cuple of days, come back and try again. 9 times out of 10 you'll fix it.

Oh yeah...Free Cd's help. :p

A-star

October 20th, 2005, 02:13 AM

Well I keep windows in VMware, my wife wants to keep using windows and this is the way to keep her happy.

Don't underestimate the wife-factor when switching to linux.
:)

jatos

October 20th, 2005, 03:18 AM

Well I just kicked Win98 if my lappy...

Only problem is I can't get the PCMCIA usb 2 host adapter to work on my lappy.

Jonne

October 20th, 2005, 04:08 AM

I dual-boot here, but this is not at home. I'm learning Linux here, and Ubuntu seems to be an excellent distro, and I don't really miss anything. In fact, I haven't booted in Windows here in a whole week now ;).

There are basicly three things keeping me from installing Linux on my laptop at home:
-limited disk space. I have quite the download addiction. I already have about 20 GB of MP3's, lots of tv episodes, etc. I don't have the disk space for two OS'es, even though I have a 60 GB hard disk.
-Shareaza. The best P2P software ever ;) swarms between gnutella, G2, bittorrent and ed2k, and has a great interface. Unfortunately, it only runs on Windows. I've tried some other apps I could get through apt-get, but none of them seemed to do it for me (MLDonkey is crap, sorry). I could try running it on WINE, but that has stability issues when trying to do anything in the interface. G2 is an excellent network, sadly there isn't a Linux available client that connects to it in a decent way.
-Games: Linux has some great games, but I'm still a bit addicted to GTA San Andreas. So until I get sick of the game, I'll have to keep running Windows ;)

That's all, really. My experience with Ubuntu on this machine has been a very pleasant one, and on Windows I use basicly the same software I do on Linux.:
The GiMP, Inkscape, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Notepad++ (Scite on Linux, they're basicly the same), Firefox (+chatzilla), Thunderbird, Opera, Lynx, IE (Don't laugh, I'm a web developer, I can't afford sites not running in IE, can I?), Gaim, ...

So I'll switch to Linux completely if:
-Shareaza gets ported to Linux (which will take years, as it's not a priority and a hard thing to do, given the current code)
-I get sick of GTA San Andreas -> not happening anytime soon
or
-I get a second machine, so I can dedicate one to gaming & Shareaza

Hardware detection doesn't seem to be a problem at home, video and wireless seemed to run ok when I tried the Hoary LiveCD.

hoy_pogi

October 20th, 2005, 04:10 AM

Ubuntu boots about 10sec slower than my XP installation. It also doesn't have very good game support. Maybe we should have a sticky "Cedega how-to: setup, installation, usage, maintenance" in the forums.

My pocket PC wont sync with anything other than with activesync and microsoft outlook. I wish there were a palm desktop style PIM for PPCs and linux, very reliable and simple to use.

Jaymoid

October 20th, 2005, 04:18 AM

I am sort of saving for a enw pc so my existing PC can become my ubuntu PC!

Until then several things are stopping me moving over in order of priority:
1. Adobe Photoshop.
Not had any luck running this ubuntu, it runs slowly in windows anyway so I guess it will be slower ported over to ubuntu.
2. Video/Music Support
I havent had much luck finding a player as good as winamp for ubuntu, video always seems out of sync.
3. Games
Occasionally I play games, although ET is one of them - I still cant get the sound working in ubuntu.

I also have a raid interface on my motherboard I need to install in ubunu, that will help the change over.

Zonkle

October 20th, 2005, 05:24 AM

I love Ubuntu so much and even my niece who is 8 years old loved it and working with it :) and he always asks me about it :)

I still didn't get the latest Ubuntu breezy, cuz I have slow connection ... I will try the shipit. I have the 5.04.

What is keeping me from completely switching is:

On my laptop the modem didn't work ... so no internet.
However I don't play so much, but I need to play sometimes ... and games companies still not considering Linux users seriously.
I am a .Net Developer, and I know there is Mono project but it looks like the IDE is not as good as the Visual Studio .....

I think with days I will completely switch to Linux just as soon as .Net becomes more stable in Linux.

Thanks.

fog

October 20th, 2005, 06:25 AM

From 10/13/2005 nothing :)
One OS, one distro: Ubuntu Breezy Badger 5.10

mike998

October 20th, 2005, 09:14 AM

Unfortunately, I have to use Windows at work, but otherwise at home, we are 100% FAT free!!

Andilek

October 20th, 2005, 09:53 AM

Dual boot and I am afraid it will stay so. Reasons:

1) PDA sync
- I have PocketPC and 2 choices. Linux (familiar + GPE/KDE) or WM2003. None of them is usable with 5.10 for lack of sync support.

2) Bluetooth support
- I have Nokia mobile phone and do not plan to change it. However the bluetooth support is very weak, so all I can do is obex file transfer and send SMS or connect via GPRS
- No contact, calendar, todo sync with mobile phone

3) Color management and ICC profiles
- First, there is no chance to calibrate my colors using proper tool (kind of measurement tool). I have to reboot to windows to generate ICC profile
- Second, xorg finaly started to support icc profiles, so if there is some how-to or tool to set ICC profile, I would be quite happy.

4) this is minor, but I am looking forward for next gstreamer codeks, because the current have small bugs and some videos are not supported still.

Footer

October 20th, 2005, 09:56 AM

Been using Ubuntu (Kubuntu) for the past 4 months or so, Linux for the past 4+ years. My main desktop at home is 100% Kubuntu. Two things mainly that keep me going back to Windows:

1. Some "flash" type programs at Nick Jr. that my kids play of which there is no Linux support.

2. XPs Camera & Scanner wizard for grabbing pics off my digital camera along with the resizing powertoy. Is there anything like that in Linux? I know I can do those things with Digikam and other Linux programs like it but too cumbersome. The XP solution is so simple.

I'm hoping these things will develop over time and then I'll be 100% Linux!

Corvash

October 20th, 2005, 10:37 AM

3 Computers running ATM.

Laptop, Ubuntu Breezy
Primary Desktop, Fedore Core 3
Dev Server, OpenBSD 3.5

Zwack

October 20th, 2005, 10:48 AM

As everyone who is dual booting is writing in...

I'm Ubuntu only at home.

The only windows programs I need run under Wine...

Palace - An old graphical chat program. The company that developed it went under but the application is still kicking around.

Rocket Librarian - To synchronise with my ebook reader. There is a Java suite but I haven't tried it yet. As I need Wine for Palace it's not an issue to have it for this.

Both of these run in Wine without a Windows install so no Microsoft OS on here...

At work I have two desktops... Ubuntu on the one I use and Windows on the mail/remedy machine. I could use Evolution at work to deal with the Exchange crud, but I don't like it, and I have two machines anyway.

Z.

Samy_Merchi

October 20th, 2005, 10:51 AM

Dual boot Breezy/XP.

Can't leave XP because:

* Ubuntu can't edit my NTFS files, so I have to boot back into Windows whenever I want to do some writing or whatnot.

* Gaming: Freedom Force, City of Heroes.

* Haven't found a MUD client as good as MUSHclient is for XP yet.

Luffield

October 20th, 2005, 11:08 AM

I just installed Ubuntu a few days ago, but even if I find it to be much better than Windows I will have to keep windows for a few years at least - until there are good racing simulators for Linux. If anyone is interested, Motorsport (http://www.motorsport-sim.org/) needs developers...
on Windows I use basicly the same software I do on Linux.yup, same here. I try to use FOSS on windows when possible.

ztrek7

October 20th, 2005, 08:12 PM

Well I keep windows in VMware, my wife wants to keep using windows and this is the way to keep her happy.

Don't underestimate the wife-factor when switching to linux.
:)

Wife factor is what keeps my home pc xp!

PaganHippie

October 20th, 2005, 08:25 PM

Hmm, left out my choice: Ubuntu with a side of Windows. I keep M$ around because [1] XP makes a passable router; [2] I dislike the idea of emulating M$ in Linux & I don't want to 'wine' about it; [3] Flash animations & .wmv files still play better than on Linux (at least for me they do); [4] I do still have a few games & other proggies that don't have Linux ports or good equivalents. I use my Ubuntu PC as my primary, but keep my XP setup going just because it's still useful enough to me to justify its existence.

dtfinch

October 20th, 2005, 09:46 PM

I use Ubuntu at home, and occasionally use remote desktop (rdesktop) to access my old Windows machine, which is now headless except for a wheel mouse, to tell Windows that remote clients might also have wheel mice. I keep Windows around for occasional Windows software development tasks.

Enough games run on Wine or have Linux ports that I'm not hurting, and I expect that vanilla Wine will have accelerated Direct3D support by the end of the year, which I couldn't predict even a month ago.

At work we use Windows on the desktops, but Linux (CentOS) by all measures far outnumbers Windows on our servers. We have one Linux desktop which we occasionally use for tasks that Windows can't handle well, but a full migration would be far too costly because of our dependence on some very hard to substitute Windows-only software.

kyotodude

October 20th, 2005, 10:19 PM

iTunes. Nothing else, just iTunes. However, not actually Microsoft's fault, amazingly! If only Apple would get off their high horse... Ah well :)

BIGtrouble77

October 20th, 2005, 10:34 PM

iTunes. Nothing else, just iTunes. However, not actually Microsoft's fault, amazingly! If only Apple would get off their high horse... Ah well :)
Amarok annhilates itunes. In fact, amarok is the greatest media library/player in existence.

PaganHippie

October 20th, 2005, 10:39 PM

Hmm... you *almost* make me willing to dump Win entirely (especially after the BSOD & 2 spontaneous reboots I've endured just this evening alone). I was under the impression that wine required you to own a copy of Win for .dll support...?

dtfinch

October 20th, 2005, 10:44 PM

Wine does not need Windows. It's a rewrite from scratch, not an emulator.

PaganHippie

October 20th, 2005, 10:48 PM

Yes, I grok that, but please understand that the only docs I've seen on wine (admittedly about 5 years old) indicated that wine did not fully support every single Win API and so one might require a valid copy of Win to 'fill in the gaps,' as it were. If this is no longer the case, much of my resolve dissolves....

humina

October 21st, 2005, 02:36 AM

Amarok annhilates itunes. In fact, amarok is the greatest media library/player in existence.

I really wish that there was some sort of daap client so that I could use my itunes server, an NSLU2, and only maintain one music library. Amarok and rhythmbox both do not stream itunes servers. I keep my ibook around to listen to music and for portability. I keep windows around for games and I keep unbuntu for everything else.

WickedImp

October 21st, 2005, 03:25 AM

Well some first of all Linux evolved! Dude, I recognize times using 2.4 kernel with some more or less early version of xfree86, kde and alsa. Nothing worked in fact... no games, no multimedia apps, no IDEs, no nothing - not really nothing, many betas and alphas etc...
Using Ubuntu for half a year now. I'm happy with it. (Happy like a Hippo...). What I use to work with it is: (I'm a god damn web developer, doing OGL OAL and stuff as a hobby)
- Ubunto GNOME Desktop: easy to use, saves some mem for the user ;)
- Evolution: Well they are trying the best to get this exchange stuff working 100% - and it quite good now! But we got a Exchange Server 2003
- Bluefish: Simple HTML/PHP/MySQL Editing with GNOME fs stuff support (Samba)
- Samba/Winbind: Have to be registered in a Windows Domain
- Anjuta: Developing C/C++ software
- Gaming: Ports of Doom3, AAO, UT2004, etc... like it! Doom is a bit faster than under WinXP - good old Carmack!! He rules.

BUT! :) I still use WinXP. Have to... Need Outlook 2003 to properly work with the exchange. Notes and Tasks and such stuff.. Wonder if I ever understand how to use this nifty wine thingy... (somebody got a good tut or a link or something). But once there will be a time where all of us can use Evo or the KDE stuff to really work with Exchange2003 100%!

rama

October 21st, 2005, 04:07 AM

Dual boot with Windows ... Why?
1. I m quite new to linux so I need to have a backup plan in case something goes wrong and I really need a computer to do something. Lately I tend to try and solve the problems I encounter in Ubuntu rather than reboot and switch to Windows to do something.
2. Haven't managed to make Wine, Cedega CVS run properly and I really want to be able to play a game (e.g. CS) once in a while. Will retry this weekend though.
3. There are certain things that are windows only. eg a special application that a customer gives me to test/alter, a firmware update (came across this one the day before yesterday ... damn you Plextor!), a solution/project writen with Visual Studio or Visual Studio .NET ... things that I have to be able to run/see and are specifically Windows based.
4. I would not trust VMWare to run a firmware update or complile complex code. Maybe I 'm wrong as I have not tried it yet but ...

ivanjs

October 21st, 2005, 02:31 PM

Don't underestimate the wife-factor when switching to linux.
:)

That SOOOO needs to be made into a bumper sticker, lol.

fnando

October 21st, 2005, 02:40 PM

I'm still use Windows cause:

1. I use Macromedia Flash (F4L isn't good enough yet)
2. I use Photoshop (I'll give a try to pixel32)
3. I really like Bradbury Topstyle 3 (i have tried bluefish, scintilla, quanta but still think topstyle is better)

That's it!

Benchrest

October 21st, 2005, 02:54 PM

rykel

October 21st, 2005, 03:34 PM

I still use windows mostly. Waiting on my shipit of breezy.

OpenOffice is missing Database function, but I understand that will be resolved shorty.

Am still playing with GRAMPS to replace FTM. It seems porting pictures from FTM is not an option. All pictures will have to be reentered.

Havn't looked yet at a replacement for NERO.

I have an old Mustic 1200 scanner that I need to migrate.

A replacement for MusicMatch jukebox probably exist.

I am running dual boot on my laptop. I hope to put Breezy on a seperate harddrive on my desktop as soon as I get it running on the laptop so I can work on more of the conversion.

If a person was starting out with a home computer it would be easy, but I have 15 years worth of junk to convert. Many other programs and lots of files. Right now I'm still learning Ubuntu and taking some online Linux courses.

Rich

Friend,

I am glad to tell you that:

1. OpenOffice.org 2.0 now indeed has a Database.

2. NeroLINUX is now available for free download from nero.com. I use it all the time!

3. RhythmBox is really quite wonderful if your music demands are not too high. And being open source, it will only get better!

As for me, I am running 90% Ubuntu and 10% Windows XP.

Why? Because:

1. Canon PIXMA printers cannot work in Linux. No drivers from Canon - on this note, if you are planning to get a printer, DON'T get Canon, unless you can live with switching back and forth between Windows and Linux.

2. Google programs are truly refreshing and some are highly interesting... MUST try them out to experience it... Google Talk, Google Earth, Picasa (Oh I LOVE Picasa!).

3. XSane is horribly broken in Ubuntu Breezy. I cannot run it as a user, only as root. I wonder what the developers have done to turn this wonderful program into a piece of junk in Breezy.

4. Installing the latest programs such as OpenOffice.org 2.0, Gizmo Project, Skype and Firefox etc. is waaaay much more easier in Windows than Ubuntu - so I can try them out without having to wait for Ubuntu developers to package them all for me.

No "dpkg" or command lines, no "alien" or "searching for debs... just click on .EXE files. To be fair to Linux, AUTOPACKAGE (http://www.autopackage.org) does give me the ease now, but the Linux software developers are still not taking full advantage of this very wonderful installer.

5. The "joys" of scanning, finding and cleaning up viruses (a few times failing to do so) can currently be found only in Windows! hehe

Other than the above points (just the first 4 are serious), Ubuntu Linux ROCKS ~ faster, more stable, secure, virus-free and GNOME is fun!! :KS

ymmotrojam

October 21st, 2005, 03:39 PM

The only reason is that I'm a newbie and I needed a windows partition to fall back on just incase my first install of linux didn't go as planned.... other than that:), I'm trying to work out some sound/recording issues as well....

gabhla

October 21st, 2005, 08:14 PM

I duel boot, w/Windows & Ubuntu, and occasionaly use Windows. It's my safety net.

Malphas

October 21st, 2005, 08:49 PM

Amarok annhilates itunes. In fact, amarok is the greatest media library/player in existence.
I take it you've never tried Foobar2000. I agree that iTunes is complete crap though.

Edit: Here is a list of the main reasons I can't yet quit Windows that I posted in another thread similar to this one.

The applications still tying me to Windows XP are:

A decent DVD backup tool that allows use of a third party encoder (DVD Rebuilder (http://dvd-rb.dvd2go.org/)) and a decent MPEG-2 encoder.

A good, customisable music player such as Foobar2000 (http://www.foobar2000.org/). There have been discussions at Hydrogenaudio on creating a Linux port (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=4941) but the application core remains closed source, it's thought to be heavily tied to the Win32 API, and the author hasn't expressed any interest in a port.

Epson Print CD

Various video tools: AviSynth, VirtualDub, DGIndex. AviSynth 3.0 is currently in development and is being coded in Python and should be cross-platform; the author of VirtualDub has expressed an interest in porting to Linux (http://www.virtualdub.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=39) but hasn't attempted to due to a lack of expertise.; and an attempt was sort of made to port DGIndex to Linux (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=98036) but failed for whatever reason, probably because the author, while happy to answer questions, had no real interest in seeing a port.

Occasionally I'll play a game, but not often enough to justify subscribing to Cedega.

Other than that I'm happy to use native Linux applications. Often I prefer them to the Windows alternative.

Now that I think about it, a secure audio extraction program such as EAC (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/) would also be important to me. I don't know of a GNU/Linux alternative that is as secure (or an alternative on any other OS for that matter).

randlieb

October 21st, 2005, 09:39 PM

got my first computer (gateway windows 95) nov. 1999 at the age of 48. was surprised at how much i took to the computer and became pretty proficient with windows over the years (upgraded to xp in 2002).

but being a tree huggin', radical, leftist i came to the point that i didn't want to keep supporting some mega-gazzilionaire anymore and started looking into open source alternatives. started downloading apps like firefox, nvu and openoffice onto windows to get a taste.

don't remember how i came across ubuntu, but was quite taken by their philosophy (not to mention the name's meaning "humanity to others"!). so this past spring i ordered the hoary cd's and installed my first linux. had to re-install a couple of times but each time learned a bit more of ubuntu/linux.

at first i partitioned to keep xp as a just in case while i learned how to setup ubuntu. what i wanted from my computer was:
1. dvd and cd playback, realplayer to play a couple of streaming music stations, and other media related matters (i do all my media from my computer)
2. internet (of course!)
3. good PIM app (i use kontact in gnome)
4. alarm/timer
5. web design (plan on going to all hand coding with css so i hope dreamweaver won't be such a huge loss)

i can print, download pictures from my camera, essentially do all i need to do that i was doing with windows (i'm no gamer so that's not an issue). yes, it took some doing to get everything to work, but it was very refreshing to keep working at the problem until it all came together!

so now i have breezy ubuntu on one partition, kubuntu and edubuntu ( i have 2 sister/schoolteachers who i may try to convince to look at this version) on their seperate partitions....and NO WINDOWS....!!!!!! yep, installed right over windows a couple of days ago.

so my driving force behind going ubuntu/linux has more to do with my outlook on life than with any of the software issues. it was time to put my money (figuretively speaking, of course!!!) where my mouth was.

i am happy to be a linux lover.

LONG LIVE LINUX!!!!

EpiLePTiC FaiRY

October 22nd, 2005, 09:27 AM

I dual boot Ubuntu and Windows too, but after nearly a week of trying I couldn't get my old Centrino wireless chipset to work on WPA-PSK encrypted wireless networks. All the advice generously offered on the forums unfortunately seemed to make things worse. Now wireless isn't even recognised any more!

I gave up and only use Ubuntu when I have a wire now. I'll go back to it when I have the time. Windows Zero Configuration wireless system is just so rediculously simple!

Pigmudgeon

October 24th, 2005, 11:30 AM

I'm an absolute newbie to Linux/Ubuntu, but I'd been a faithful follower of Brother Bill since about 1986. Unfortunately, Bill has gone nuts lately, and I've decided to make the break.

Anyway, Microsoft has two killer apps -- Office (especially Word) and Visual Basic. I'm a developer with eight years of experience, and developed a lot of software for one of those big, giant, fascist American drug companies that was partnered with Bill. Under Microsoft's benevolent direction, they oursourced 85% of all programming to shops in India and Eastern Europe including the jobs of me and my team.

So I have these "madd skillz" which I still use, though my income hit bottom. I am still able to put together publication-ready books and write complex programs with MSOffice, and it's hard to kick a habit like that. And there are no patches or gum for leaving Windows.

Open Office is great, but it still lacks some of the power of MSOffice. None the less, I intend to learn it and use OOBasic to port what I can of my code library. I think it will be about 60% compatible -- the core language is more like 90%, but the object models are different. At least I will be able to do a little to bring the development along.

And also, I use an audio stream player that I like and occasionally record from. I couldn't even get a stream from Firefox, though I've read I'd really need to get version 1.5 AND use something like mplayer for the audio plug-in.

Finally, there is a lot of learn. I enjoy a challenge, but I simply can't wipe Win2k off my system and go 100% Linux (though I would like to). I'm sure I'll always need to have a Windows box handy, but I'm aiming for a complete personal committment to Linux by the end of the year.

Microsoft has always survived by being piratable by home users; business people have then felt comfortable in investing in the system at work. But with their new licensing and permission system, it will be far too difficult to do. Microsoft stands to lose a huge number of home users and make a lot of their bosses less inclined to upgrade as fast. My own point of view, as a shafted IT worker, is that I refuse to pay $900 to keep up my subscription to the whole development package when I can't get a job coding for Office or even the desktop.

And in spite of my being Yet Another Whining American, I can't understand how these prices can be borne at all by people in the less affluent countries.

Windows is a great operating system that has (always) been hobbled by the greed and control-mania of its owner. By using a decentralized control model, Linux is assured of a future. If Microsoft does not change with the times, it will find itself in the position of being the last dodo on Madagascar in a few years.

--p!

pato101

October 24th, 2005, 12:04 PM

llebegue

October 24th, 2005, 01:11 PM

Like many of you I keep a dual boot on win 2K in order to play my favorite game : Everquest II.

For everything else I run Linux (I will even change my Canon printer who doesn't work under Ubuntu).

Malphas

October 24th, 2005, 01:11 PM

Don't know about DVD Rebuilder... but, why do not buy a DVD ram drive, and do:

rsync -auvH path/ /mnt/dvdram/path/ ?

A DVD-RAM capable drive is nowawadays cheaper than a Windows license... don't know about DVD Rebulider license... The only issue is that DVD-RAM disks are not cheap, but they are not so expensive (about 6€ the disk, or even cheaper if you find the right provider)

Note that this approach even works with remote machines, thanks to ssh:

rsync -e ssh -auvzH machine:path/ /mnt/dvdram/path/
It would make more sense just to use dual-layer media if I was prepared to pay that much. The whole point of DVD Rebuilder is that you can compress DVD-9 video DVDs to fit on inexpensive single layer media whilst maintaining far better quality than transcoding tools such as DVD Shrink.

jshipley

October 24th, 2005, 01:14 PM

I have a yahoo unlimited account, which only works with windows -- with IE and Media Player

Other than that, I find Ubuntu much more useful and much more fun.

groovywombat

October 24th, 2005, 01:53 PM

What's keeping windows on my computer. well the single most important thing, is that I can't figure out how to access my RAID0 on my linux partition. i've come so far with it on my own but I haven't been able to figure the rest out, and I am afraid it will never happen.
that and sound quality seems to be sucking.

Master Shake

October 24th, 2005, 02:21 PM

Don't underestimate the wife-factor when switching to linux.
:)

So true! My wife's first experience with Linux was a bad one, because she couldn't get on the internet with Firefox... She loudly proclaimed to me "I Hate Linux!" Then I called our ISP, and found out we had a service outage... Big laugh to me, but not my wife, although I keep Ubuntu up all the time, which forces her to reboot the coputer when shewants to use the XP partition.

My kids (6, 4, and 2) LOVE Ubuntu! Specifically, they love Tux Racer. My six year old knows how to load it up, and start a game..

What's keeping me from switching permanently...

1) Haven't gotten my online poker client running under wine, nor my Frugal Video Poker trainer either.
2) Can't find a good blackjack game in Linux
3) My favorite puzzle games aren't in linux -- yet. The programmer is porting them currently
4) Games in general
5) iTunes
6) Google Earth

That's about it.

zyrixnet

October 24th, 2005, 03:20 PM

Hello,

I barely boot Windows 98 on my other hdd(/dev/hdb) to be exact. I am so paranoid for my systems health, that I partitions (/dev/hdb) into two, the first one containing Windows 98, deepfreezed, and the second partition being thawed for access in both Windows and Linux as vfat. The only reason I even set foot into Windows 98, is because my webcam is only supported by Windows 9x. I use a Logitech QuickCam VC(USB version), which there are no v4l drivers for it yet, besides one that requires the kernel-headers which Breezy has now removed :confused: . But until either I buy a new cam, or Linux supports my camera in at least one distro. I have no choice if I wish to take picture. I really enjoy 'The GIMP'. Linux has every application that I need from web development(PHP, PerlCGI) to office applications, and beyond. I am already used to Debian itself, using Ubuntu couldn't be easier. I can still use all of my old Debian packages that I know and trust, Ubuntu made it easy for me to install a Debian-based distro with ease and also administrate it. I noticed that on Debian tho, which I still have a partition for it, I can play every multimedia format without flaw, but Ubuntu has problems with properly managing some browser plugins and multimedia applications, and codecs. Breezy installed totem-gstreamer by default, which I perfer totem-xine more. But besides the multimedia, I rate Ubuntu 10 out of 10, and would recomend it to anyone seeking an alternative to MS-Windows.

My system specs for those who really want to know what Linux can run on at a great speed:

Authentic IBM Aptiva, AMD K6/2 400Mhz
384MB of RAM, 128MB of Swap partition
ATI Rage 128(Mach64)
TTX Monitor(1024x768 at 24bit color)
LITE-ON 52x32x52x CD-RW Drive
High speed Internet connection(512KB bandwidth limit)

I have also heard from my friends point of view, my friends use P2P(Peer2Peer) file sharing programs under windows, they are with the same ISP. Their download speeds are much slower then mine. My downloads use my maximum bandwidth in Linux, but not in Windows. Linux is truly the innovation for Internet computing, since it does power more then 3/4 of the Internet. I use gtk-gnutella btw, the ultimate P2P application for unix-like systems only. My friends only dream of having it, but are to scared of the Linux revolution.

Sorry for the incredibly long post here. But when I begin to talk about my utterly favorite thing in the entire universe, even more inportant then life it's self. Truthfully I'd die for the sake of Linux, I believe that Linux can and would succeed on the Desktop platform in every home across the world someday. Linux is my life, if it fails so will I, don't let a 22 y/o's dream go down the drain, let Linux into your hearts, into your community, and most of all, into your home PC. I fully believe this world best asset is community, and peace. In the Linux world, almost every developer works together, like a community, there's no fights on rights, besides when the commercial software begin to try and break us apart by talking patents, and other such gibberish. Long live and prosper Tux the penguin. Penguins are cute until you tick them off, then they get aggressive. Don't mess with the best. We love you Tux! Who ever thinks I'm crazy raise your hand.

sourc3

October 24th, 2005, 03:33 PM

what's keeping me from quitting windows is the fact that there are no good programs for musicians like I am. I don't know the reason of such a lack of music stuff in linux, but until that moment (why you at propellerheads software don't do a linux version of Reason???) I'll keep that 10 GB of Windows stuff... :(

munkymonkjr

October 24th, 2005, 03:43 PM

i am 100% ubuntu as of yesterday on my laptop. my desktop has been 100% mepis for almost a year now :).

sailor420

October 24th, 2005, 04:09 PM

Games and webcam, which I'm trying to get running under Linux. Various other little bits and pieces as well--I've got a digital camera that won't play nice; nor will my printer.

I must say though, I'm using Ubuntu at least as much as I use Windows, maybe more at this point. Ubuntu has by far done more for the "it just works" problem than any other distro I've ever tried--and I've tried most of them.

pato101

October 25th, 2005, 03:35 AM

OK. I wrongly guessed it was a backup tool.

drummer

October 25th, 2005, 04:04 AM

I've got WinXP on my box as well as Ubuntu, but I voted 100% Ubuntu since I can't remember the last time I booted into Windows.. I must have done that only once or twice in the past 6 months. And I plan to get rid of my Windows partition when I upgrade to Breezy, either by wiping the whole disk or reformatting the Windows partition for time being for extra storage space for my music or something.

Games were what was originally keeping XP on my computer, but I've found that I get plenty of gaming time playing native Linux games such as Quake, UT2k4, ET, and emulated SNES and N64 games :D

JGJones

October 25th, 2005, 05:08 AM

99.9% Ubuntu - I use it for everything.

Windows XP - games only (EVE-Online et al) - while I could use Transgaming for them, but I have an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, their OpenGL driver isn't that great (actually I tried an NVidia FX5200 - it's faster on Linux....gah) so becuase of my card choice I still use Windows for gaming.

Very rarely, I do boot into Windows for Dreamweaver trial - sometime there is a load of HTML documents that I need to edit (ie move into a new directory) - Dreamweaver is the only editor I know that would automatically update all the links in all HTML pages to reflect the changes. Recently I was working on a website but everything was all in one root directory...so I wanted to move all images into Images folder and so on.

Can't do that with Nvu, so I used Dreamweaver to move them all and auto-update changes.

LinuxWiz83

October 25th, 2005, 09:36 AM

Single

October 25th, 2005, 11:14 AM

Microsoft Exchange.
Evolution simply doesn't work. Always unable to authenticate. I miss the Outlook 2003. :(

Mizzou_Engineer

October 25th, 2005, 05:02 PM

I hear you. My computer is not quite as old as yours (3 years) but it is certainly has seen a few moons. I can pretty much do anything I want under Ubuntu and it still works- maybe a touch slowly, but it works. XP will generally choke after I have more than just Outlook, Word, Firefox, and Winamp going.

I do dual-boot just because a few things I have to deal with for class only run in IE6 because of ActiveX junk. But those things are thankfully getting fewer and farther between.

I gave up using Windows for more than once a month about a year ago- that's when SP2 pole-axed all the drivers and I saw more blue screens than I did non-blue ones! I ran SuSE 9.1 and stuck with the latest SuSE releases until 10.0 came out and barfed at my laptop's old ACPI. So I looked at Distrowatch and decided to grab a CD of the distribution that had the most hits/day and it was Ubuntu. It immediately got a home on my computer because it was about twice as fast as SuSE and apt gets rid of the occasional RPM dependency hell that I encountered. It's pretty slick and Gnome in Ubuntu is far better implemented than Gnome in SuSE. They're a KDE distro mainly and I have grown to like Gnome over KDE in the last few releases.

mikedtemple

October 25th, 2005, 05:11 PM

The only thing keeping me from going ALL Ubuntu is my office, for some unknown reason, is Microsoft-centric. They love it. I haven't gotten around to installing the mppe-kernel-patch so I can PPTP VPN using Ubuntu (I could only wish for a change to IpSec). Once I do that, Windows is going bye-bye.=;

joshuapurcell

October 25th, 2005, 05:16 PM

Well, I answered 100% Ubuntu, because at home that's what I use. I still have Windows at work, but it's not my choice to make.
My situation exactly. I've been using nothing but Linux (Ubuntu) for quite some time now, and I use Linux for the most part at work. There still is a need for Windows though at work due to a couple of programs, but it's out of my control.

fukusayo

October 27th, 2005, 12:45 PM

Althought I haven't booted windows in about 2 weeks I still keep windows for 2 functions which I can't get working in Breezy: Webcam and bluetooth headset.
Oh, and Google Earth is pretty cool and is only available in Windows. :(

EDIT: Webcam now working, thanks to Arnieboy's Howto.

ipn1nj4

October 28th, 2005, 07:48 AM

Not sure if someone mentioned this but nvu is an excellent WYSIWYG editor

http://www.nvu.com/

pauljwells

October 28th, 2005, 08:42 AM

I have dual boot with XP MCE on the desktop and dual boot with OS X on the laptop. I'll be keeping all four OSs and use them all at some point.
XP - bizzarely because I have VMWare installed and I can run multiple OSs including a 'testground breezy' for dodgy installs and the like. (Yes I know there's a linux VMWare, but I had so much trouble getting any distro not to crash out during install it was the only way I could learn enough linux to finally get a distro (ubuntu - fortunately,I suspect because the 504 installer is text based) to install properly!

Also I have Xplane which runs nicely on XP, and the PC was sold as a 'Media Centre' so it comes with TV support and a remote and some other toys, I don't actually use this much but It's quite convenient when I've run out of hacks to try and want to watch 'American Chopper' instead :)
The main reason though is Excel. I do a lot of analysis in Excel and have a library of little macros that don't work on any of the OS spreadsheets. The day job is all windows too so it's good for compatibility when I bring stuff to do at home.

All that and I paid money for it, so why throw it away?

As for the mac, the main problem is wifi support so no linux could ever replace OS X. In any case, OS X is such a sleek OS and will probably remain the one I ultimately trust when it is really important, for some time to come

beercz

October 28th, 2005, 09:13 AM

I dual boot with XP Pro and Ubuntu.

I need to edit MS Publisher files occasionally, so I use Windows.

Other than that it's Ubuntu all the way.

I also use an ubuntu server and three debian servers, and my family uses 2 windows XP desktops.

The office (apart from me) uses Windows.

ofek

October 28th, 2005, 10:48 AM

I'm using only ubuntu. but i can admit i had lots of problems with linux at the start (about a year ago).
The biggest one was that my 3Com wireless card just didnt work not with prism drivers not with ndiswrapper, nothing helped, but if u want something enough nothing can stop u.
i finaly found that ndiswrapper because prism54 module was interfiring it.
anyways right now i do ALL my work on ubuntu and enjoy's every minute of it.

Irony

October 29th, 2005, 11:53 AM

I dual boot XP Home and Ubuntu 5.10. I find Windows works with everything and is very stable, however I don't like its licensing.

I use Ubuntu most of the time, however the lack of cd/dvd re-write capability and the usb memory stick not working properly in Ubuntu still ties me to Windows. These are major things.

Also I haven't really figured out how to use qcad and I find nvu irritating because it keeps adding it own styles instead of using my css sheets. I'll try Ooo html and experiment more with qcad.

Also need to sort frontcam and virtual dub.

I've gradually sorted out most of the problems with Ubuntu, its just a few things to go.

ACK!!

October 29th, 2005, 12:21 PM

100% at home

dual boot at work -- Remedy ticketing client. That is the kicker for me.

I kind of miss the games but I was never much of a gamer. Bought one game a year maybe.

Getting ALSA and ESD to play nice and work with system sound turned on would be frickin' nice as well.

Faster booting would be nice. And a lot of projects need to focus an entire development release cycle on just optimization. With 512MB+ linux is easy as fast as Windows in my experience but ..... with less it is slower.

Btw, if WYSIWIG is not a big thing for you try screem very good web content manager.

squidy37

October 29th, 2005, 01:04 PM

If you want to run Frontpage 2003, you can use the new Crossover Office 5.0

chroniker

October 29th, 2005, 01:06 PM

Waiting on the CD's, but I'll dual boot with XP until I get comfortable enough to switch.

jasmuz

October 29th, 2005, 01:15 PM

I have my main machine wich i use on dual boot, 90 % Ubuntu and 10% Windows (darn games!)...On my secondary machine, wich is a server i run 100% Ubuntu!

william_nbg

October 29th, 2005, 01:27 PM

For 2 or 3 months I dual booted - Ubuntu, xp. Kept my work in windows and every now and then tinkered with Ubuntu, but I wanted to learn a bit of Linux, really learn a few things, and the only way was to dump xp for good and learn to work in Linux. After 6 months of Ubuntu, I can't image going back. Linux is just better. Everything I did in windows I can do in Ubuntu. I'm a web designer and have created about 40 web pages , big and small. In the beginning I ran dreamweaver on crossover as well as photoshop and fireworks. But now I do all my work on Linux apps: for html: bluefish, quanta+ (favorite), and NVU. And Gimp for most graphic needs - Gimp is a fantasitic graphics program, equal to Photoshop.

I'm sorry that I am a little arrogant in my profession, but I know a lot of web designers and web programers and none would use frontpage in their worst nightmare. It's a crontrol issue - most professional web designers want to have more control and flexibility over their projects.

towsonu2003

October 29th, 2005, 01:30 PM

1. the worry that some hardware (to be purchased in the future) won't work, or that some hardware will just stop working

2. play dvd w/ no tweaking necessary

3. play fifa 2005

4. 3d works in xp (go to reason #3)

5. compatibility with everyone else (can't risk OOo doing something wrong when converting to .doc .xls etc and not be able to see that error --> professors won't care what os i'm using)

6. a place to fall back when network in linux stops working due to driver scarcity.

7. it already came with the laptop, why delete st. I already paid for...

Moebius

October 29th, 2005, 05:24 PM

Still using Windows XP, but almost on a < 5% basis.

I've been trying linux for the last 7 years, most of the time I'd install it to do some college work then lost interest.
In the last 3 years I tried SuSE, Mandrake, Fedora, Caixa Mágica (Portuguese Distro)... until Ubuntu came into my life some 5 months ago.

Ubuntu became my OS of choice, my only usage of Windows XP nowadays is related to college projects, or when ever my girlfriend wishes to use the computer.

The last month Windows XP has only been used to connect to a VPN gateway wich enables me to download my mail via my college POP address (they wont do a pop3 to outside the college nework :S).

I'm hopping that when Ubuntu get's a more up-to date version of Network Manager, then creating a VPN connection will be easier (at least from what the screen shots on the fedora page seem to imply).

I wish I could say games, but a this point in life I can't find any time to play them, specially my two beloved underdogs, FS: Screamin Demons over Europe (FS:SDOE or just SDOE) and Strike Fighters Project 1 (SFP1).

Cheers,

Moe

deltwalrus

October 30th, 2005, 04:33 PM

What's keeping ME from quitting Windows?

Well, despite the fact that it is bloated, not free, and proprietary, simple things like, oh say GETTING THE FREAKING UI TO WORK (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=32495&highlight=pcie) are not pull-out-your-hair endeavours with Windows.

"Just Works?" LOL!

I hate to sound like a troll, because I'm really not, I absolutely love Linux, but the simple fact is, people really DO want a computer/OS that "Just Works," and, I'm sorry to say, Windows is much closer to that goal than Ubuntu or any other flavor of Linux.

I understand that the payoff is great when you take the time to learn how to fix complex issues with Linux. But, um, I didn't buy a $350 video card so I could learn how to make it "Just Work" with Ubuntu/X.Org. I bought it to play games, many of which [are not ported to|do not play well with] Linux.

I applaud the Ubuntu developers and user community for helping create such a great product. But, and it pains me to say it, even the best Linux distro is sorely lacking in user-friendliness when compared to Windows. And no matter how many cute penguins, "Free Your Code" stickers, or nifty open source software packages you wrap it up in, no version of Linux "Just Works" like Windows does...

Mantra Locust

October 30th, 2005, 11:13 PM

I've tried a lot of Linux distros. Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSe, Slackware, Debian. I've always went back to Windows after installing each one. When my Ubuntu CDs arrived in the mail, and I ran the Live CD, I was convienced this would be the one I could dump Windows for, and sure enough, I'm still running Ubuntu! I've finally made the switch to Linux. And it feels good!

(This message not paid in part of the Ubuntu Foundation)

;)

allupinya

October 30th, 2005, 11:34 PM

Well, i`m running Ubuntu 5.10 for the most part..
The windows, for me is left for 3 things.

1. Gaming...windows just still does all the games...The ones i can get to run with wine/cedega work real well, but the ones i play most, don`t run well, if at all...YET...:p

2. Website design. Designing websites and the acutrements. IE: Flash, and some of the others..Still run better in xp..."boo" but true...I wish it could gain support for linux, and well should. After the "Vista" incedent i tried...That is one big steaming heap of poo and pure **** on a wasted DVD disc!!!!!!!!!
Anyways,
3. The learning curve.. For some the learning curve for linux as a whole.."Though Ubuntu has made great strides in that area".
Still leaves a bit to be desired for some tastes...Which is a good thing as it keeps "most" idiots away from the main linux scene, which is fine by me!

Once these finalities get worked out, i see "Big Bill" getting the hose:p
Which he too is by the way , An closet Ubuntu user:razz: :razz:

patsissons

October 30th, 2005, 11:46 PM

I'm just waiting for a decent clone/port of CloneDVD2 for linux/posix. Once one of the current projects reaches that point, i will have no real reason to boot into windows. Every other situation where windows is necessary (or convenient) can be solved using VMWare. That being mostly complex MS application documents that OOo or Koffice cannot read/display properly.

allupinya

October 31st, 2005, 02:40 AM

If that is all that is holding you up.

Go to the Cute dvd burner website.
There product and viable and does a beyond avarage job.
Plus it is easy to make into "freeware";)

Hope that helps

Joh_

October 31st, 2005, 06:08 AM

What keeps me attached to Windows are still a couple of things.

The Guild Wars support in Cedega sucks nowadays even though it's supposed to be officially supported.
No decent MSN clients. Only one that supports most things (Mercury (http://www.mercury.to)), but it doesn't support UPnP for file transfers, webcam streams, etc. and it's slow. They're working on UPnP support though.
Adobe CS2. CrossOver Office supposedly supports this, since they've got screenshots of it running Photoshop CS2 (http://www.codeweavers.com/site/compatibility/browse/name/?app_id=1288;screenshot=1), but I couldn't even install it. If there's something I REALLY need to do though, and don't wanna restart my computer, I try to use Gimp with modified menus to look like photoshop (Gimpshop), or I wouldn't find anything. :p Also Scribus is nowhere near InDesign.

markthecarp

October 31st, 2005, 08:45 AM

I think there should be a "100% Linux" option in the poll. My desktop box dual boots to Ubuntu Breezy and SuSE9.2. Public webserver runs on Debian which was installed 3 years ago, it gets upgraded weekly. Test websever running Ubuntu Breezy. I've an old SparcStation 20 dual cpu (whopping 50 mhz!). I tried to get Solaris running on it but found Debian much easier. It has 4 9 gig scsi hd's, two internal and two external. It's accepting rsync connections from the two webservers.

My laptop has the last remnants of m$. A 7gig partition w/xphome. When I installed Hoary on it the installer failed to add a grub/menu.lst entry for winders. That was like 8 months ago, I haven't fixed it yet.

-mark

hajk

October 31st, 2005, 02:07 PM

Two reasons:

1. MS Train Simulator -- only runs in Windows (unlike the original MS Flight Simulator that didn't need an OS).

2. Solver (especially nonlinear and mixed integer) add-on to MS Excel -- still nothing like it in OO or Gnumeric.

Otherwise, never use Windows (and never have).:cool:

nevin

October 31st, 2005, 02:12 PM

yeah, games. games pretty much.

Felipe_U

October 31st, 2005, 03:06 PM

I have a dual boot with Windows XP because I haven't managed to use eclipse to program in c#, and lately I'm enjoying very much Google Earth. Oh and I'm also using google software: Picasa, Hello, Google earth.

Greetings,

babyLemon

October 31st, 2005, 03:12 PM

See, for me, I can't completely get rid of windows because I need to use all sorts of things that's only available for Windows at work. Visio, Navicat... but yeah, my boss just said that I am getting a second box for my windows box... But yeah, I might try something geeky, like perhaps, if I can somehow link them and have them work together... tho it sounds more complicated than it worths... But what can I say ;) he he he...

At home, I am a mac geek, so, no comment there :cool:

Ziggurat

October 31st, 2005, 04:17 PM

The reason i keep a windows installation is that i am developing an app qith qt4, and have to compile it on windows (when i do a release). And the other reason is the games, but this is changing fast. Doom3 runs great. As soon as games become native on linux, windows is leaving my system.

jwolf

October 31st, 2005, 05:48 PM

I finally made the switch to 100% Ubuntu last month. I am in love. I should have done this a long time ago. Now that all of my major gripes have been addressed (at least in a fashion tolerable to me), it was relatively painless to make the switch.
Factors:

I had to have WPA support (which isn't perfect but works in breezy). I ended up writing some shell scripts to make the transition between WEP at work and WPA at home pretty painless.
My ALPS touchpad on my laptop works (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=434679&postcount=8). (Thanks William Szostak (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=47394)
I had to compile drivers but I got my Echo Indigo sound card working.
Open Office 2.0 is stable enough to use regularly.

3david

November 2nd, 2005, 05:28 AM

for me it's the lack of office tools in linux, openoffice is a real piece of crap, and i don't mind the slow startup times that everyone complains about (it takes about 10 seconds to start on my ubuntu),
my problem with openoffice is that it's too damn slow:
- just scrolling through the document jumps the cpu usage to 100%
- alt+tab between two open documents takes like 3 seconds, what is that about?
- it crashed when i tried to open a 27mb word file

I need to write a report for a project i'm doing at the university, and I'm starting to think that the only way is to go back to windows and use office2003 (which by the way never crashed on me, opens big files really fast and is very fast).

I've also tried AbiWord which is nice, but it's unstable, it kept crashing on me.

And about the linux-is-more-stable crap, that's just bull..., the linux kernel is stable, i'll give it that, but the ui here is extremely unstable, nautilus keeps crashing like 10 times a day, openoffice and abiword keeps crashing.

I'm using an Athlon XP 2600+ with 512mb ram and GeForce FX5200 (nvidia's official drivers installed).

How can people use OpenOffice?

I really want to stay with linux, but how can I do that when I can't even do something as simple as writing a document?

EDIT: I'm giving ooo2 another chance

jatos

November 2nd, 2005, 06:09 AM

I'm an absolute newbie to Linux/Ubuntu, but I'd been a faithful follower of Brother Bill since about 1986. Unfortunately, Bill has gone nuts lately, and I've decided to make the break.

Anyway, Microsoft has two killer apps -- Office (especially Word) and Visual Basic. I'm a developer with eight years of experience, and developed a lot of software for one of those big, giant, fascist American drug companies that was partnered with Bill. Under Microsoft's benevolent direction, they oursourced 85% of all programming to shops in India and Eastern Europe including the jobs of me and my team.

So I have these "madd skillz" which I still use, though my income hit bottom. I am still able to put together publication-ready books and write complex programs with MSOffice, and it's hard to kick a habit like that. And there are no patches or gum for leaving Windows.

Open Office is great, but it still lacks some of the power of MSOffice. None the less, I intend to learn it and use OOBasic to port what I can of my code library. I think it will be about 60% compatible -- the core language is more like 90%, but the object models are different. At least I will be able to do a little to bring the development along.

And also, I use an audio stream player that I like and occasionally record from. I couldn't even get a stream from Firefox, though I've read I'd really need to get version 1.5 AND use something like mplayer for the audio plug-in.

Finally, there is a lot of learn. I enjoy a challenge, but I simply can't wipe Win2k off my system and go 100% Linux (though I would like to). I'm sure I'll always need to have a Windows box handy, but I'm aiming for a complete personal committment to Linux by the end of the year.

Microsoft has always survived by being piratable by home users; business people have then felt comfortable in investing in the system at work. But with their new licensing and permission system, it will be far too difficult to do. Microsoft stands to lose a huge number of home users and make a lot of their bosses less inclined to upgrade as fast. My own point of view, as a shafted IT worker, is that I refuse to pay $900 to keep up my subscription to the whole development package when I can't get a job coding for Office or even the desktop.

--p!

If you have the time, you may want to see if FreeBASIC is of any use to you, www.freebasic.net

Also I think with the way Microsoft are going they are going to kill their core business at some point, and you know who I think will take over MS's position the way things are going? Apple with Mac-os, sorry but I don't just don't think the Linux world is ready to take on Windows yet...

How can people use OpenOffice?

I really want to stay with linux, but how can I do that when I can't even do something as simple as writing a document?

EDIT: I'm giving ooo2 another chance

Well I now I have got use to the OOo interface I found it a LOT more powerful than Microsoft office, and a lot nicer.

icekin

November 2nd, 2005, 07:06 PM

Running Ubuntu on all the old machines - a 300 Mhz Laptop and a 700 Mhz PIII Desktop. Run Win XP only on the 2.4 Ghz P4, but the former 2 machines are still faster than Windows. Then again, I use only Fluxbox for a WM.

I have enjoyed tinkering around with Ubuntu. Still can't get sound working on the laptop. Anyway, will probably never completely remove windows since everyone else in the house is a slave of MS. Will try to slowly urge people to use Ubuntu. Task will become easier as MS starts to make Windows Vista harder for pirates to crack and people start turning to alternate OSes.

jrib

November 2nd, 2005, 07:10 PM

For me, I am doing almost everything I used to do on windows on Ubuntu now. The only thing that requires me to boot up windows now is printing (which yeah is pretty annoying so I'm thinking of investing in the turboprint drivers but I wan't to mess with the GIMP ones some more). So I keep a dual boot, but I see myself removing windows completely, soon. Maybe I'll try another distro on the old windows partition just to compare it with Ubuntu.

unkemptwolf

November 3rd, 2005, 08:17 PM

Whats keeping me from quitting windows? On my laptop, the only thing is waiting for 5.10 to finish burning (yay! thank God NetworkManager is finally working!). But I selected "Windows with a side of Ubuntu" because of my desktop. I play Guild Wars ALOT (way more than I should, according to my girlfriend), and it just doesnt work right under Wine (and i refuse to use Cedega until they start contributing a significant amount of code back to Wine, a la Crossover). Guild Wars is getting there though, and soon I might be able to play without Windows at all, in which case I can format C:, install Linux. W00t!

mwillems

November 3rd, 2005, 11:14 PM

What stops me is:

a) Ubuntuhangs every day, freezes my PC hard

b) Media playing is terrible. I have it Kind Of Working - "kind of" meaning not all avi's playable, I get lagging sound, I get bad aspecyts ratios: all stuff that my XP PC does flawlessly.

c) Apps I need include Canon Digital Photo Professional, Pagemaker, and Adobe Photoshop - there are no good alternatives yet (Gimp: close but no cigar yet).

I do see improvement., so hopefully next year...

storywizard

November 4th, 2005, 01:05 AM

I have been playing with flavors of linux for a couple of years...Suse9.1/10 and a little Ubuntu...I guess I have to say its the frustration of things not just working like thay do in the evil empire(Winxp).I have scanner access problems in Suse, my Revolution soundcard is not supported....I like to support Linux but I dont have the leisure time at present to learn all the commands to free myself from the jaws of Bill....:(

Storywizard

Effect

November 4th, 2005, 01:42 AM

I'm currently dualing with Windows 2000 and back and forth between different distros of Linux. So far SUSE and Ubuntu are at the top for me. Spent the last few days in OpenSuSe 10.0 and pretty good but trouble with getting movie files to work and the like is annoying after a while. That's really the thing with me. Though lack of being able to play my games on any Linux distro is what is really stopping me from making a completely jump. I don't have a lot of PC games but what I do have I like playing. If i had two CPUs, this wouldn't be a problem. I'd keep one strictly Windows 2000 for games and the other for Linux OS. Have to keep fighting the urge to want to edit Windows files or run those programs while using Linux. Maybe I should just get a barebones system and do that in the future, oh well.

If only the whole gaming setup could be fixed. Or at least more Linux based games(don't have the be the same as PC games but different). I think if a company went in the direction that Nintendo kind goes in it might be good. While other companies are making all these realistic, shooting games and the like. Have a company that makes interesting games, hell I'd take more puzzle games or just straight up adventure games if they were made with Linux in mind. Guess the market isn't there for anyone to do it with serious dreams of making decent money.

hafuch

November 4th, 2005, 05:01 AM

Hey all,

I was running pretty much 100% Ubuntu Hoary 5.04 (I had a side of Windows XP Pro, but never really used it! Nothing personal against Bill Gates; Windows XP Pro always worked ok for me, but I just prefer choice, that's all) until recently, when I upgraded to Breezy 5.10. Unfortunately, this upgrade broke certain essential things on my system, such as my internet connection (I have a peculiar HomePNA internet connection), so I had to reinstall Hoary.

One bummer is that some important packages that were available through the Mirrormax backports are just not in the official backports since the loss of the Mirrormax mirrors.

Anyway, I'm back with Hoary 5.04 for now until I figure out how to get Breezy 5.10 to use my HomePNA internet connection (here's the thread for this if you care to add to it: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=81523&highlight=homepna).

While I'm not as Windows-free since the loss of the Mirrormax backport mirrors and my recent Hoary 5.04 reinstall as I once was, I'm hopeful that I'll be back at 100% Ubuntu under Breezy 5.10 in the near future.

I must say that I find Ubuntu to be MUCH faster than Windows in virtually all areas; and Windows, aside from inferior programming, is just too bogged down with all the anti-virus/anti-spyware software one simply MUST have to keep a clean computer.

Overall, what appeals to me most about Ubuntu in general is that I'm inspired by the Ubuntu community support and spirit, I like knowing the OS isn't running all sorts of strange automated processes without my knowledge (as does Windows), and I love the functionality of it! And such functionality and versatility in an OS that you REALLY OWN -- for FREE no less -- just can't be beat!

Respectfully,

Hafuch

BLTicklemonster

November 5th, 2005, 10:36 AM

About to install VMWARE and put xp on my drive and see if that does the trick. If it does, I'm done.

I have stuff I have to do from windows that can't be done from Linux, unless someone out there has a way to make UT maps in linux...

amazongalhn

November 5th, 2005, 08:39 PM

Hello - my first msg on the site.

I'm still keeping my Win98 on an 8gig partition; that gives me the min cluster size and still have enough room for a full install and some extras. I also have two 2gig fat 32 parts for modest expansion. The other 188 gigs is for BB linux. :cool:

Mainly the extras are games, but I also need to run IE in 800X600 to check on the web pages I build. Yes, I know, but there are actually some folks out there who still run in that format.

This is my 3rd Linux variation and my fave so far. I will probably stay w/ BB for a while.

higherness

November 5th, 2005, 09:31 PM

i switched 100%. backed up my music and videos and then went to town.

i had been on windows since i was like 5 years old, around when windows 95 first came out, then progressed to xp in about 2002. those 7 years with windows 95 showed me all the bad things about windows and microsoft and led me to eventually pursue linux. the things i didnt like about windows was how i had to pay for microsoft office, which is a "great" program compared to notepad and wordpad. there was also other minor things that just bug you. the good thing was that not once did i pay for the windows xp disc, or office disc's i used. i had a red hat disc in my little cd book for over a year, but never took the initiative to use it. but then i built a new computer, ran xp for a month with some compadibility issues, said "f#$% it" and went to ubuntu.

its been great ever since, the drawbacks being my mp3 player is useless and that my printer, a cheap canon from best buy, isnt supported-so i have to type out my things in texteditor, or openoffice, email them to my parents computer and print them. but this is solved because the printer is pretty cheap and does a bad job, i just save my printing jobs for the school librarys printer :D.

i have a 2gb HD from my very first computer (w95) that i installed XP on so i can use my mp3 player (i need it for the bus ride home from school everyday, 45 mins). its on a seperate drive, so i guess officially im 90%.

raellis

November 6th, 2005, 12:12 AM

As far as web page prep in Linux goes, nvu is good. And plain vanilla Mozilla includes a decent page editor. I must say that the use of Front Page strikes me as very poor web prep practice. It will substitute nonstandard Microsoft HTML codes for standard procedures so your pages won't be workable on many non-Microsoft browsers. The best guidance I have seen on web page design and programming (Musciano and Kennedy's HTML: The Definitive Guide, from O'Reilly) urges people to abandon all the canned software and just use a text editor. You'll learn more and in the long run you'll work much faster.

I started a thread at LinuxQuestions.org on what Windows software is still being used by people who are firmly committed to Linux. Graphics-intensive applications are high on the list. My own need to at least keep Win98 around is that I must be able to access old PageMaker files (and create new ones). There is desktop publishing software in the works for Linux (Scribus) but at this point I don't think it's ready for prime time; in particular, I don't think it can import files created with other DTP software. Other Windows graphics tools still used by Linux people include much of the CAD/CAM software. There are Linux CAD/CAM programs but apparently they're not yet in wide commercial use.

PageMaker and other Adobe programs may be likely to be ported into Linux fairly soon. The new MAC OS X is essentially BSD Unix with an embedded emulator that runs what Apply likes to call "classic" software like PageMaker. There is probably considerable pressure on Adobe to convert stuff like PageMaker and Illustrator to the BSD-based system, and when that happens, in effect they will have converted to Linux use as well. Apple's shift over to Intel processors will put still more oomph behind such a switch.

A native Linux version of PageMaker would be especially welcome because so far it seems to be very difficult to run it under either emulators or through adaptive tools like WINE. I sure haven't had any luck, and believe me, I have tried. The program will start up okay but doesn't seem to be able to work properly when you start to really use it. DTP programs are is generally among the most demanding of all software on GUIs and it is not surprising that both emulators and WINE have problems with it. Crossover Office hasn't managed to get it to work yet, either.

There are signs that the commercial market is waking up to possibilities for sales to Linux users. Nero has released a Linux version of its CD burning software. It doesn't cost much and it works great.

Many of the other Windows programs mentioned in the LinuxQuestions forum are games.

Spyware

November 6th, 2005, 01:00 AM

Wireless, wireless, wireless...all I got to say..It was impossible for me to set up my Wireless Card SMC 2802W and SMC2870W Wireless Adapter on hoary, thought breezy would fix that but nope. No internet on ubuntu isn't gonna work for me, not being able to get upgrades, updates, packages and whatnot...sorry just not gonna work..the new ubuntu NEEDS better wireless support..

I have Wireless Card SMC 2802W and SMC2870W Wireless Adapter will it be ok for ubuntu?

Will i be able to use internet?

thanks in advance for help

call to all ubuntu developers

please support Wireless Card SMC 2802W and SMC2870W Wireless Adapter in this ubuntu release

exkalibur

November 6th, 2005, 12:37 PM

I have three computers : one is an audio workstation (Win 2000) and the other machines both have removable drives. Running Win XP Pro with VMWare (for Win 98 : I have a version of Corel photo paint that won't run in anything else), XP Home, Mepis and Unbuntu. It a lot of hard drives (Windows have a separate "Data" drive) but it give me choices and redundancy.
I have too much money invested in audio software to "dump" Winblows but I for everyday use, I've been pretty satisfied with the *Nix alternatives. Also, the WIFE would drive me up the wall if I would take away the interface that she is finally getting used to.........

I know I'm not alone on this..........

ivanhelguera

November 8th, 2005, 12:14 AM

I dual boot with XP, as I need to run Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy CDROM - a 13 volume reference on a CD. I do have a couple of dictionnaries (eng, french) that I'd really be keen to have. Most of the time, this is not critical, as I can access the online dictionnaries.
Another thing: audio ripper. From what I've heard, EAC is ways above competition. Does anyone knows whether it runs under WINE?
Best,
IH

dariomanno

November 9th, 2005, 04:32 AM

100% Ubuntu 5.10 Linux. I decided to go cold turkey total withdrawal from windows. I DO NOT recomend this to people not knowledgable with computers because it involves sacrifices such as buying a new scanner (my Canon will never be suported - to damn complicated the hackers say :smile: ). Not all hardware works and sometimes you need to dig long and deep to make it work. No pirated software anymore, you've got to pull yourself together and learn to use the free apps. Problems with some MS Windows specific content - some MS Office files will not convert correctly and some Media Player stuff will not work. And so on - I'm sure there is more. :p

One thing that Ubuntu does have is wonderful online documentation - I solved almost all of my problems so far. You guys & gals are wonderful! ;)

REBELinBLUE

November 9th, 2005, 12:22 PM

What's keeping me on windows? apart from the odd game I play now and then (of which most work on Linux anyway) there are a few pieces of software and/or functionality which are keeping me from swapping.

The first being WPA-PSK support out of the box, with a GUI. It's all well and good telling people to download this package or that package but when they need the Wifi to connect to the net its a PITA ;)

There are a few bits of software also.

DigiGuide (http://www.digiguide.com/) - The only linux alternative I have found for this is XMLTV which I never got working and it didn't seem to support half of my channels

DVDProfiler (http://www.dvdprofiler.com) - Without this I simply can't keep track of who has my DVDs and when, I tried running it on WINE but it just doesn't work :(

Also other than Kate I've never found a decent editor that I like on Linux and since I use Gnome rather than KDE thats a bit of a problem ;)

SilverMachine

November 9th, 2005, 01:32 PM

Hello everyone! I've been dancing around this Linux thing for about two years. I have had different distros on and off various computers over that span. Now, with all this business about vista and DRM coming down, I've decided to take the plunge. This weekend I'll be reassembling one of my PC's into my primary workstation with Ubuntu as it's OS. The laptop seems to be more of a challenge as wireless drivers for my Linksys 802.11b card seem to be in short supply. I will keep the windows box that I have for my gaming needs. I've invested way too much time and money in it to do away with it...at the moment. Well...wish me luck!

st0ic

November 9th, 2005, 01:37 PM

I voted dual booting cause that's what I have on my desktop(win2k&hoary) and laptop(xp home & hoary), the desktop with windows is for games, but can't remeber the last time i booted into windows, and hoary just rocks for everything else, xp on the laptop is for support when i go to clients and need to login to their network/domain.

My goal for next year is to convert my desktop over to full ubuntu and buy a new laptop(that can support games) for windows and ssh into the linux box whenever i need it's functionality, long way off though because of the wife factor, "No new computers till you get rid of the ones you have". My machine total at home right now is five. The other machines run xp for a webcam to keep track of the dog durning the day, fedora domain/server testing, and case mod experiments. I'll either need to buy her a house and claim the basement/garage, or get rid of the excess machines.

Maverick911

November 9th, 2005, 03:14 PM

I would gladly dump Windows if my wireless would work without futzing around constantly with it. After trying for the last 3 weeks to get it to work reliably, reading forums and howtos until 2 in the morning, downloading and compiling new kernels and much more than you'd care to here about here, I'm ready to just go back to Windows and try again next year.:???:

Stormspace

November 9th, 2005, 06:14 PM

After beating my head against the wall calling MS for a 42 digit activation code everytime I needed to reinstall the OS, I decided that IF I really needed a Windows app, I'd run it in WINE. It feels good to not have to worry about miscellaneous crap hosing my PC.

Curlydave

November 9th, 2005, 07:35 PM

I use Windows about 90% of the time. It comes down to this: Windows runs my games, Linux does not. (or runs them poorly in terms of performance and IQ) I do not feel like constantly rebooting to switch operating systems, so I stick with Windows.

Browsing is also much better for me in Windows because FF for me is slow in Linux, and I have issues with Epiphany. (can't change scroll wheel rate, bookmark icons do not show up, can't get mouse foward/back to work, menus/tabs take up way too much space.)

LinuxWiz83

November 15th, 2005, 10:03 PM

There is no way to write to a NTFS drive and to much of data to repartition but other than that i have no dis like with Linux because i and many other see the growth....

ronmarley1

November 16th, 2005, 10:30 PM

I boot my laptop to Ubuntu all the time and also have a desktop that boots to Windows every time. We are a Lotus Notes shop, so I need to try CrossOver Office, as it supports Lotus Notes. Hve not tried Wine, yet.
rg

tabinin

November 17th, 2005, 02:21 AM

I am also dual-booting. I have only booted back into Windoze to send video via TV out to my TV. I haven't been able to get anything quite as slick set up in (K)ubuntu. When I can have dual monitors and TV-out in a few clicks, I am ready to go Kubuntu all the way.

aum11

November 17th, 2005, 04:05 AM

I am also dual booting and over 90% of my time is spent under Ubuntu.

The main reason I need XP is Dragon Naturally speaking, an amazing voice recognition program which I use for my writing. No other product comes near to it.

I hear that it cannot run under wine.

Also my canon scanner very occasionally takes me back.

ColinG

November 17th, 2005, 04:59 AM

I am dual booting Kubunto and WinXP. I use XP less and less and it is really only there to support my video editing needs. Even this though is a reducing dependency as Kino, whilst not being an Adobe Premiere, works well enough and does nearly all I need (it is just not quite so easy).

I'm getting to the point where I need more HD space so the boot is hovering over XP:D

Lifesteeler

November 17th, 2005, 07:33 AM

Im not dual booting, 100% Ubuntu Breezy here. Although it's on my laptop and I use Mandrake/Mandriva on my desktop pc...

william_nbg

November 17th, 2005, 07:58 AM

100% Ubuntu for 3 months now. Everything I needed windows for I have either migraded to open source software, or found a way to work it out.

Gimp does everything photoshop did for me.

Quanta +, and bluefish easily replaced dreamweaver and homesite

etc ...

Learning to work with all the new apps took time, but being a 100% felt great and I'll never go back.

XP is now over 5 years old, archaic in the OS world, and, from what I've read, Vista is more of an Orwellian nightmare than an OS for a private computer.

Now is the time to change.:D :D

Bengaul

November 17th, 2005, 09:40 AM

Graphics card drivers for ATI Cards. They just dont work under Ubuntu, COD2 works under wine and every thing else does. ATI drivers will not. And whats more frustrating is nobody knows fecking why!

Mombo

November 17th, 2005, 02:32 PM

Im stuck with Windows because of two reasons...
One is applications and games...all for Windows, the other is because I dont know Ubuntu like I know Windows. I dont know the coding/commands to become a true Linux user. Hopefully I will be able to move to full Linux in the future though

Chayak

November 17th, 2005, 02:58 PM

SteelValor

November 17th, 2005, 04:06 PM

The only reason why I stick with 98se/XP is to review & beta games. I have Ubuntu on an iMac and my aged P3. Someday I'll learn to read and use Ubuntu as my main OS, but until that day I comes I'll copy off someone elses paper. ;)

Syirrus

December 9th, 2005, 01:49 PM

Re: Whats Keeping me from quitting Windows - 11-02-2005

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

for me it's the lack of office tools in linux, openoffice is a real piece of crap, and i don't mind the slow startup times that everyone complains about (it takes about 10 seconds to start on my ubuntu),
my problem with openoffice is that it's too damn slow:
- just scrolling through the document jumps the cpu usage to 100%
- alt+tab between two open documents takes like 3 seconds, what is that about?
- it crashed when i tried to open a 27mb word file

I need to write a report for a project i'm doing at the university, and I'm starting to think that the only way is to go back to windows and use office2003 (which by the way never crashed on me, opens big files really fast and is very fast).

I've also tried AbiWord which is nice, but it's unstable, it kept crashing on me.

And about the linux-is-more-stable crap, that's just bull..., the linux kernel is stable, i'll give it that, but the ui here is extremely unstable, nautilus keeps crashing like 10 times a day, openoffice and abiword keeps crashing.

I'm using an Athlon XP 2600+ with 512mb ram and GeForce FX5200 (nvidia's official drivers installed).

How can people use OpenOffice?

I really want to stay with linux, but how can I do that when I can't even do something as simple as writing a document?

EDIT: I'm giving ooo2 another chance

I completely agree the statement above. I have been using linux on and off for about 5 years. I have used Suse, redhat, fedora, mandrake, slackware, lindows etc. Every two or three months I find myself excited by a new release of Ubuntu. So far it comes the closest to the "its just works" philosophy but its not quite there yet.

Simple additions need to be implemented, like having Ndiswrapper pre-installed without having to apt-cache search it. For someone who is new to Ubuntu / Linux it should be an option you check during installation "do you have a wifi card". Newcomers don't know what repositories are let alone apt-get / synaptic or what Ndiswrapper is. They are just trying to fully understand what root is and why they can't write to certain files on their hard drive. Another thing that's wonderful but needs refinement is that you can search repositories for cool useful apps. However, sometimes the naming conventions of these programs make them difficult to find.

I don't want to sound like I'm bashing Linux b/c I'm not. I'm floored by the support of Linux community more so that of Ubuntu. I will forever support it because its owned by the people and for the people and because of how stable, secure of a product it is (especally when it comes to server environments). Ubuntu is the best linux distro I have used by far. In fact, I use it as a webserver at a state university. In a year or two I hope to use it 100% of the time as my desktop OS of choice.

Syirrus

ninotob

December 10th, 2005, 03:11 AM

for me it's the lack of office tools in linux, openoffice is a real piece of crap, and i don't mind the slow startup times that everyone complains about (it takes about 10 seconds to start on my ubuntu),
my problem with openoffice is that it's too damn slow:
- just scrolling through the document jumps the cpu usage to 100%
- alt+tab between two open documents takes like 3 seconds, what is that about?
- it crashed when i tried to open a 27mb word file

....
I'm using an Athlon XP 2600+ with 512mb ram and GeForce FX5200 (nvidia's official drivers installed).

Something is wrong with your hardware. I'm sitting here at Athlon XP 2200+, 512mb, GeForce 4 MX440 (whatever -- I always get the best video card I can buy for under $60 when I build a machine -- is mine worse or better than an FX5200?).

I used the highly accurate method of counting "one mississippi, two mississippi ....": OpenOffice2 opened by the time I got to "nine missi", let's call that 9.41112 seconds, I could probably pull a few more significant digits out of my .... out of the air but that's close enough. That's from clicking the icon to having a prompt to type.

Then I opened another document and alt-tabbed between -- I couldn't even get to the "mississippi" part of the count. Therefor I conclude your system is borked or your hardware is borked. You should run faster than me.

EDIT: I run a law office on open office on even slower machines. No problems. I worked on a 250 page translation project in open office. No problems. I have had severe data losses in Word due to it's lack of "auto save" (the rescue function failed).

ninotob

December 10th, 2005, 03:17 AM

I wish I could vote -- I need a custom option: suse, ubuntu, dual boot OSX/Ubuntu, and OSX

pizzach

December 10th, 2005, 11:13 AM

Okay I have the answer to your problem. You don't quit windows. That is a Mac OS term and a random linux program term. You "Exit" windows. But if you truely want to get out of it you need to "Shut it down." I hope this helps.

Feel free to punch me or groan now if you got the joke. (Read the title of the thead.)

greenpenguin

December 10th, 2005, 12:17 PM

Oh dear...

I am pleased to say I have never owned a windows computer in my life :).
Currently I dual boot Dapper and whatever I feel like using at the time (SUSE at the moment, but Gentoo soon).

gavinchappell

December 10th, 2005, 12:17 PM

3. There are certain things that are windows only[...]a firmware update (came across this one the day before yesterday ... damn you Plextor!)Ironically, Plextor are the ONLY company I've seen which offer a firmware updater for Linux for their CD writers. I couldn't get it to work, but it's the thought that counts!

I dual boot Ubuntu Breezy and Windows XP on my work laptop. Reasons for dual boot:

1) MS Access. Our helpdesk system is written in it, so I have to be able to use it.
2) Novell Netware. ncpfs is OK for mounting my homedir, but doesn't seem as fast as Windows + Novell Client, and I don't get all the admin tools (NWAdmin, NDS Manager, etc). Some of this functionality is available in ConsoleOne, but I've never managed to get that to install on any distro properly.
3) I support Windows users, so it's useful to be able to have MS Office on hand so I can point them to locations of menu items etc.
4) Symantec GhostCast server (for deploying a single Ghost image to a lab full of PCs via multicast)

Other than that, almost anything I do on Windows, I can do on Linux (tiny bit of PHP development, surfing, IM, etc) so I tend to boot into Breezy by default. Looking at replacing the XP install with a VMWare Player virtual machine as I don't need that much performance just the functionality, but I haven't got round to starting that little project yet...

reckless2k2

December 18th, 2005, 09:46 PM

Most of the machines I own from Desktops to Laptops are multi booting juggling between SuSE, Ubuntu, and Windows XP. I actually only have two machines that have Windows XP in the mix and that's because of work related issues. My workplace mixes Windows and Linux enviroment so I am able to multi boot with Linux without a problem but the two areas that keep me from making the full conversion are:

1 - VPN to the Workplace

2 - OpenOffice can't open Lotus files

My one main desktop at home has an ATI All-In-Wonder card that offer no support in Linux for TV capture. Regardless, I spend 85-90% of my time in Linux.

I'd honestly like to see wifi done better along with VPN. I can muck around in Windows and convert my Lotus files to Excel and or ODF and solve those issues. I'll sell the All-In-Wonder for the PCI TV Wonder and be set in Linux for TV capture.

Can we get Wifi and VPN to workplace done like Windows? If so, I have no reason to stay.

esperantisto

December 19th, 2005, 04:54 AM

I'm still on Windows, first of all, because Ubuntu (and Linux in general) is still not good for translation work (here's my thread with more details: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=99727).

Besides, many things that are simple in Windows, become kind of puzzles in Ubuntu. Compare installing OpenOffice.org:
Windows: just launch setup.exe
Ubuntu: oops, you'll have to monkey around with the command line.

Besides, there are many nice useful programs for Windows with no match in Ubuntu. Take Total Commander — it's your swiss knife: from simple file browsing, to hadling archives of numerous formats, to an FTP client, everything is there. What can Ubuntu suggest? Nothing.

briancurtin

December 19th, 2005, 05:12 AM

i havent used windows on a personal machine for roughly 6 months and i really never plan to again. i used SuSE 9.3/10.0 for over 5 of those months, and the last 3 weeks were split between Fedora Core 4 and Ubuntu 5.10 due to some problems in SuSE that never went away (overheating). FC4 didnt do the overheating deal, which was good, but ran a bit unstable for my liking. it probably runs real nice on a desktop, but on my laptop it was kinda garbage, but i dont think its really like that on the whole. ubuntu 5.10 was next on my list since i had a liveCD i checked out back when breezy came out. ive been using it for about a week and a half and it has been great. doesnt seem to want to fry my processor like SuSE did (although i really did love SuSE except for that problem) and its just a smooth distro all around. i look forward to using ubuntu and learning more about it, and GNOME since ive been a KDE guy since i started.

jezjones

December 20th, 2005, 02:02 PM

I cant get my Aver media TV card to work.

It was installed when it was a win only PC, but with Hoary and now with Breezy it doesnt work. I did some investigation when i moved to ubuntu, but gave up.

The real thing that stops me completely switching is my time limit on tinckering. I am busy, so i will only spend a max of about 2 weeks trying to fix something. Then i will give up.

Unfortunately since Ubuntu and linux in general these days is very good at dealing with hardware, you only have to do it yourself when it is going to be problematic... so although there are less isssues to deal with they are more severe.

I did recently run Breezy on my laptop for about 2 months, but after still not fixing the sound (despite kernel re-compile and following every possible forum suggestion) I now dual boot with win 2003 server... i gotta be able to watch movies and stuff on the train.. .its a b*tch of a commute without.

Jez

duan

December 20th, 2005, 02:54 PM

I need to run SecureRemote vpn client to access my work network. Although I think I can buy a SecureRemote hardware firewall to get around that?

And the garmin mapsource GPS download(which almost installs under wine...).

Any suggestions around that?

randlieb

December 26th, 2005, 11:35 AM

Besides, many things that are simple in Windows, become kind of puzzles in Ubuntu. Compare installing OpenOffice.org:
Windows: just launch setup.exe
Ubuntu: oops, you'll have to monkey around with the command line.

OOOOPS....it's already installed as part of the base components. you don't have to do squat.

ctt1wbw

December 26th, 2005, 11:39 AM

That's almost shocking. Ubuntu makes WinXP Pro look like a snail on my workstation.

Yeah, there's something wrong there. Hoary smoked the living daylights out of XP Pro on my laptop. Simply smoke it to death.

Rovenhot

December 26th, 2005, 03:04 PM

How do you think Breezy should fare in speed against MacOS? I've tried the Live CD, and was pleased, but that isn't a good measure, as I've been told.

TheRealEdwin

December 26th, 2005, 04:21 PM

I'm 100% windows right now just because of games. I'm doing lots of reading before switching my gaming rig over to ubuntu, if I ever do. I really want to move over but I don't want to have to boot between OS's just to play games.

ElSorro

December 26th, 2005, 06:12 PM

I'm still Windows because of the Office documents incompatibility and the lack of 'serious' enterprise applications. I've even tested the latest version of OpenOffice and the first Word document I tried to open failed completely (Our company's fax cover. Completely scrambled). I don't want to risk to have this problem with more important docs. Waste of time is waste of money.

That's why I have Linux running on VMWare. When the rest of the world switch to Linux I'll do the same (Maybe... 2099 ?) :smile:

shut

December 26th, 2005, 06:16 PM

I have about 400GB in files which I cannot access through Linux. This is kind of MS's problem from what I hear with mucking around with NTFS, but if I could just get my work/fun stuff from the disks I could convert easily.

quincunx

December 26th, 2005, 06:34 PM

A few days ago I thought I had quit MSWindows, but after a couple of distros without 3D acceleration (from a 3Dfx card, used to be one of the only ways to use hardware accelerated 3D) I'm thinking about wiping my drives and installing XP.

I've spent days researching google/forums, making posts, playing with Synaptic, tar files, make command, etc (for Mesa and glide) and glxinfo still shows "direct rendering: No"

If I can get linux to make use of my 3D card in the next few days, I'll stay. If not, I've got an XP installation disk. I'd much rather stay, but having hardware accelerated 3D is essential to me. Ubuntu has been incredbly easy to use compared to the Slackware I used from 1993-96. Also quite stable compared to a distro I tried out last week. I'm surprised that I haven't broken something with all the "experimenting" I've done to get this to work.

ctt1wbw

December 26th, 2005, 06:46 PM

How do you think Breezy should fare in speed against MacOS? I've tried the Live CD, and was pleased, but that isn't a good measure, as I've been told.

I know Hoary is faster than OS X 10.4.3 that I'm using right now. I just can't seem to get the live ppc cd working on my iMac AT ALL.:confused:

Erich Pawlik

December 30th, 2005, 05:51 AM

I am running a dual boot configuration with XP and Ubuntu. What keeps me from quitting Windows is that there are a lot of difficult to solve little problems such as setting up a home network (in Hoary I had to compile Samba, in Breezy I spent a lot of time fiddling around), Firefox doesn't print in Breezy (from a default installation - has worked wonderfully in Hoary), no sound in Hoary (Audigy sound card because it was disabled in Alsa mixer, fine in Breezy), viewing DVDs was an uphill battle in Breezy and I still have probleme attaching my hp scanner (lack of sane support) and my brand new minolta color color laser printer (there is a driver on source forge, but the *.deb converted from the *.rpm in the web doesn't work because of name clashes). I am doing Office and some programming on linux, but I need plenty of help from the xp side of things).

The big advantage of xp ist that it just works for day to day stuff.

drfalkor

December 30th, 2005, 06:53 AM

The ONLY reason I dual boot with windows, is photoshop. I know I can run photoshop with wine, but it's not the same . :p
By the way, when pixel is finished with the beta testing - I will remove windows out of my box !:p

sbasak

December 30th, 2005, 07:18 AM

The applications I mainly work at home are not available in Linux! eg. VB.NET, SolidWorks. Also, Ubuntu still can't match the varities of software offered on Windows platforms.

phux

December 30th, 2005, 09:49 AM

Have to stick with windows because there is no (or at least i didnt find any) nice printing-tool for Linux...
I have to do pretty many printjobs a day and want to preview the result, print multiple pages on one piece of paper etc... Its strange, that there isnt a thing as fineprint for windows...

Thats the last thing, keeping me from deleting Windows!

truthfatal

December 30th, 2005, 10:35 AM

I see no poll option for Dual Boot: Ubuntu / Slackware...

:razz:

chattanoga

December 30th, 2005, 11:18 AM

When I got my Ubuntu disk (Warty at first) I wiped my computer clean and planned to first play around with Ubuntu before installing a dual boot XP/ubuntu. Well.. that was a couple of weeks ago and I still haven't got around installing XP, since Ubuntu has everything I (and the rest of the family) need.

So I could say 100% Ubuntu if it wasn't for my Dell laptop(XP) which is hardly ever used anymore.
I will probably squeeze in WinXP when I feel the urge for game playing.

Speaking of which... it seems that gaming is the No1 reason for not switching to Linux completely, shouldn't this be a solution for those who want to avoid Windows:
http://www.reactos.org/xhtml/en/index.html
Could someone initiated describe what it can be used for?

mattmcl

December 30th, 2005, 04:22 PM

My experiece with Win emulators is that they work OK for basic apps, but games are so demanding and complex that they don't work too well. Also, you're using a chunk of system resources to run Ubuntu, then the emulator, and that all takes away from the game. I'm not too sure the nVidia drivers for Linux are as robust as the Win versions either.

simohell

December 30th, 2005, 05:37 PM

Now that I've got a laptop that didn't come with an obligatory XP and that hibernates nicely straight after the install I have ditched Windows. Except that I do have CrossoverOffice interface for wine to do IE6 testing on the webpages I work with and for the Windows-only free (not open) Finnish bookkeeping sotware I need.
(I voted 100% Ubuntu since I'm not using VMWare)

The games I play are 60% dos-based --and thus I had to use dosbox even in XP. The next 35% are in Gnome, almost 5% in my mobile phone and one in Windows.

What I'm a bit worried about is if my GPRS mobile phone will work with Ubuntu.

jsmidt

December 30th, 2005, 08:05 PM

I really don't think Ubuntu needs to compete with windows for I believe "opensource" will eventually distroy propriety software. Look at the Wikipedia, encyclopedia companies are doomed. Why buy something when the free version is better.

Same thing with software, as people continue to contribute to opensourse the world will slowly realize: why buy something when the free version is better. All propriety software is in trouble not just Windows.

handy

December 31st, 2005, 12:31 PM

Dual boot: 95% Ubuntu.

I'm a tech' who needs to boot winxp to run Ghost, for backup & restore operations of drive/partition images for customer's machines, amongst other maintenance duties.

Whilst I continue to have customers using windoze, so will I...

Personally, I love Ubuntu, my machine runs faster, it is not a target for virus & spyware, internet is quicker, downloading is quicker, I can download LARGE files in their entirety first go, eg. iso's. I can access my word & excel files using OpenOffice V2. The very few uses that I have ever had for publisher will probably never see me boot to windoze on their behalf. DVD's play in Totem & gXine, off the disk, & VLC off the HDDrive (probably still my fault that one?)

Sound is great on SBLive, 3D graphics on the 6800GT are brilliant using the nVidia drivers, as seen in the game UT2K4 @ 1600x1200 resolution with everything turned on... :KS

I will try xDVDshrink as an alternative for backing up DVD's. I do use Dreamweaver occasionally for only 1 customer, I may just boot windoze for that, rather than go to the trouble of learning another application or combination of app's when I don't intend to grow that side of my business.

For just Dreamweaver, & possibly the need for DVDshrink, I don't want to run Wine, or start a payment cycle for CrossOverOffice. For games, I'm also not prepared to start a payment cycle with Cedega. As Wine develops I expect to go there.

It does beg the question:- How long before Wine develops to the point where it is essentially incorporated into Linux?

Cheers,

handy

erikpiper

December 31st, 2005, 01:02 PM

Games. I dual boot, but the only software on my windows XP installation besides games are firefox and security. Not even any word processing.

stardotstar

January 1st, 2006, 04:17 AM

I have been committed to Linux as a home/personal mobile computer user for the last decade and used most distros with various amounts of success.

I run a web server on Debian Stable and for a while, settled on RedHat as an easy to maintain desktop type system for my home PCs and Notebooks. While dabbling with Suse, TurboLinux, Mandrake, loaf etc...

When I tried Ubuntu I was convinced that the desktop was finally coming and that "it just works" was a worthy dream. Breezy has been a truism... An absolute breeze... The installers, updates, support, blah blah blah

I am privledged enough to be given a good IBM ThinkPad by work regularly enough to bother doing a really thorough build and not have to use the SOE (we are Novell, Notes and XP) - so I dual boot Ubuntu Breezy and XP (built on a minimum partition size as NTFS) with my data partition in VFAT so I can easily R/W on either side.

I suppose I spend almost 99% of my time in Breezy at home - firefox1.5/thunderbird and all the standard GNOME tools give me pretty much everything I need and the native UNIX tools I need for my web server make it a no brainer.

SoundJuicer and some of the MM stuff has come a long way and make it easy to co-exist as a Linux user at work (even though it is not really allowed ;) ) I have success with Open Office on the whole and even good success printing to the Canon iR printer/copiers we have...

The problems I have are:

We are a Notes house and I last had trouble with Notes on WINE but I am going to revisit that now that I have changed clients and Breezy has become my dominant platform.

I am a heavy Photoshop/InDesign user at work but do like the GIMP. (just can't use it as well)...

I do have a Canon PIXMA printer at home and that simply sux... I can get a test page scaled down in colour but otherwise its all downhill.

I also use VISIO heavily at work so I am stuck with my XP part.

I have to agree with someone who recently said that the latest interface of Gnome and Linux makes Windows look decidedly long(horn ;) ) in the tooth :D

Anyway, I will persist since I never saw a computer that was as sweet a computing experience as my Apple ][ till I saw Linux :cool:

Will

Selmi

January 1st, 2006, 09:16 AM

if wine will allow to play games and run demos in linux i will have no reason to have win98 partition at all - for private usage on my private computer.

for my job i would also need working win2000 because of palmos development tools - prc tools aren't usable for huge projects and also simulators and some other tools are so buggy that they don't run in wine (and don't run well in native windows either...). i am afraid that this can't b solved from linux side, it is palmone who makes problems....

i also switched to ubuntu computer used by my family (sister and parents) and for them the biggest problems are browsing (some online games don't work because there is no shockwave plugin for .dcr files + some other minor issues (some videos don't open etc.)) and office (powerpoint files don't work correctly with openoffice (no sound etc), also some excel and word files are sometimes broken but this is rare)

so overally i am satisfied, but if these issues could be solved somehow (and i don't think that ubuntu team has something with it) then i will be glad to rm -rf /media/windows :) )

grte

January 1st, 2006, 09:44 AM

100% Ubuntu, here.

I was gonna set up a dual boot at one point, and originally did. However, I wanted to move Ubuntu to my 80 gig drive and Windows to my 10 gig drive. So I wiped the 80, threw Ubuntu on it...And never really got around to installing Windows.

Just don't have the need.

AllenM

January 1st, 2006, 10:55 AM

(Although I've been tinkering with getting the director to switch to Linux...).[/QUOTE]

I like the look of KDE 4.3. I like the way Ubuntu works and looks. I like to use free softeware as long as it works. I do not know enough about linux to install it full time. I want it to be very reliaable.

The high school that I attend uses Windows 98, 95, and XP. I would like to put linux on the school computers, but I don't totaly know how to use it. It would save a lot of money per pc. I would buy microtype. Linux problems are a lot worse than micro$oft, in my experience. Our school system tech cordinator does not want to try it out.

Gray.

January 1st, 2006, 12:04 PM

I was gonna set up a dual boot at one point, and originally did. However, I wanted to move Ubuntu to my 80 gig drive and Windows to my 10 gig drive. So I wiped the 80, threw Ubuntu on it...And never really got around to installing Windows.Same thing happened to me. I had 20GB reserved for XP and ended up just mounting it as /media/extra. lol

Luke771

January 1st, 2006, 03:02 PM

I dual boot with XP, but I use Ubuntu almost all the time, I managed to download an ISO image of a X-Plane DVD but I couldn't install it in Linux, not even using Wine, I still run Microsucks Flightsim2004 some times, and some times I may want to check out a program that works only under Windows, and I use the MSN IM voice conversation feature to talk to people I know on the other side of the world, which is possible with Linux but it is much easier to log in under Windows/Msn7 and also much easier to connect to the other end through the Internet if both ends use the same OS and IM software, (and almost everyone else is using msn) and the last *and* least least importat reason to keep Windows is that I can have some relatives or some friends home and they might want to use my computer to check their e-mail and such, and for me is easier to launch Windows than to stay there and show them where to click and when. And how. And why.
Yes I know I should show them the marvels of Linux and maybe try to convert them, and I do that too, but sometimes they just want to do stuff without having to ask how things work.
But as I said before, that's the least important reason to keep Windows, the real ones are the ones about games, trying some Win-only software, and the Msn voice conversations.
*And*, I'm actually using Windows very little, lately, and I am thinking about dumping it for good and run Linux-only instead, which could happen as soos as I get both X-Plane and Msn voice conversations to work under Linux.

Norberg

January 1st, 2006, 03:23 PM

100% Ubuntu for a couple of days now :)

Gray.

January 2nd, 2006, 12:16 AM

I think the new Gaim will support voice over msn? Can't wait till Dapper.

seaan

January 2nd, 2006, 09:24 AM

The only, really the only, thing I find disappointing is the graphical performances.
I have installed Ubuntu two days ago (I'm a linux aficionado since years and experimented also Slack, RedHat, Suse).

Although with KDE the situation shows a little improvement (I'm on Gnome now) the distance in comparison with Windows on the very same hardware (I switch hard drive ) is really big.

Dragging Gnome windows around the desktop leaves a trail of frames, switching from one tab to another in Firefox takes almost a second (one second!), etc.

I really wonder how long we'll have to wait before having the same fluid window management we experience in Windows.

I know that X architecture is the main reason why we have such a different behaviour when it comes to GUI, but this to the non tech savvy end user is meaningless and one of the reason linux' breakthrough in the desktop market is long to come.

Having said that, I already fell in love with Ubuntu: I managed to make all of my hardware working pretty quickly, Synaptic is just magic and the support community is outstanding.

Happy New Year

hajk

January 2nd, 2006, 10:11 AM

Dragging Gnome windows around the desktop leaves a trail of frames, switching from one tab to another in Firefox takes almost a second (one second!), etc.

You must be running really old hardware -- even on my two year old PC, with a cheap and ancient GeForce4 MX 440-8x 64MB graphics card, switching between tabs in Firefox is snappy, and moving windows on the Gnome desktop is as smooth as it is in Windows XP. :o

dsierpin

January 2nd, 2006, 10:53 AM

I'm dual booting with Windows XP, because I think that my computer was made specifically for that operating system. I only have ubuntu on my computer as a curiosity, it's like a hobby trying to make things work.

I've been working on my modem since early November. The folks at linmodems told me I needed to install a new kernel in order for it to work, but that has been impossible so far. I guess the problem is that the Breezy kernel was compiled with gcc-3.4, and the distro comes with gcc-4.0 as the default compiler.

My touchpad is ridiculously sensitive, but I figure I'll move on to that when I get the modem taken care of. Multimedia software doesn't work. After I installed, I had to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to see the login screen. Now I can see the screen, but if I click on an mp3 my monitor fills up with pretty blue and white lines and I have to restart. Fixing this will require getting a new driver for my video card, which I will take care of after I deal with the touchpad.

As seaan was saying, the GUI leaves something to be desired. Dragging windows leaves a trail of frames, etc. I imagine fixing this will require compiling a kernel specific to my hardware. I'm extremely new at all of this, so that is pretty intimidating, but I'm looking forward to trying it. I'll get to that as soon as I'm done with the video card.

Oh yeah, touching the volume controls causes the system to hang, which requires a reboot. I'll look into that after kernel compilation is done. I don't know, maybe if I compile a new kernel, all of these hardware problems will go away?

In any event, I think that ubuntu would be a great operating system if it worked (i.e. played my music, allowed me to connect to the internet, allowed me to adjust the volume, use a multimedia player etc.). For now, ubuntu is the old rusty car in the garage that I enjoy spending hours working on.

seaan

January 2nd, 2006, 11:38 AM

You must be running really old hardware -- even on my two year old PC, with a cheap and ancient GeForce4 MX 440-8x 64MB graphics card, switching between tabs in Firefox is snappy, and moving windows on the Gnome desktop is as smooth as it is in Windows XP. :o

Well, you judge:
I'm on a Dell Latitude C610, 512MB RAM, ATI Radeon Mobility M6 16MB RAM, Pentium III 1GHx

Anyway, it's a fact that on the very same hardware I don't experience the same low GUI performances when booting MS Windows.

That's why I started searching the forums and the web for hints about how to improve them: to start with I just installed the kernel image optimized for my CPU.
Next would be to look at low latency patch for the kernel.

Any other hints?
Thanks

ctt1wbw

January 2nd, 2006, 11:38 AM

Dude, I think you have a lemon for a pc.

seaan

January 2nd, 2006, 11:49 AM

Dude, I think you have a lemon for a pc.
Pal,
you mean then that in order to run Linux in graphical mode I need the ultimate box ? :confused:
Everyone considering to switch will be pleased.
Thanks for the hint.

ctt1wbw

January 2nd, 2006, 01:30 PM

I had Hoary on a Dell Inspiron 8600 and it flat smoked Windows in every way. Way faster at everything. Mine had an Nvidia chip, that is probably the difference.

Carlwill

January 2nd, 2006, 01:44 PM

100% Debian / Ubuntu

-deadcats

January 2nd, 2006, 02:00 PM

Ubuntu/GNOME or SuSE/KDE. Windows in VMWare solely to test my wife's software--she's a Windows developer, har! :)

-dc

GeneralZod

January 2nd, 2006, 02:01 PM

Any other hints?

I've always found Firefox on Linux to be very slow and sluggish and easy to make "trails (etotheipiplusone.com/trails2.png)" on. Firefox 1.5 is said by some to be significantly faster (I've not tried it myself, so cannot judge); you might want to try installing (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FirefoxNewVersion) that.

jeffreyvergara.NET

January 2nd, 2006, 02:20 PM

im dual booting before, gave up my online games Y_Y but thats fine. im using VMWare now for Photoshop and Dreamweaver purposes only.. ^_^

socrazy143

January 2nd, 2006, 08:54 PM

100% Ubuntu on my laptop, pure Debian on the servers.

I have always wanted to toy with BSD and even gave PC-BSD a run but it just doesn't support enough for the desktop and I am too dang lazy to learn another flavor.

At the beginning of this thread someone was talking about FrontPage and I have to say you are better off learning CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and using a Text editor for your web design. Otherwise your sites are going to be WAY outdated with tables. I know CSS can be done in FrontPage but the nice thing about Ubuntu is you can host an Apache Web Server with all the fixins on your desktop for real world testing in all browsers. Yes you can do that on Window$ but LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) was not built for Window$. Notice the L in LAMP. You can port anything back and forth but natural environment is always better.

edwardcating

January 3rd, 2006, 12:38 AM

No support for several key Windows\Mac applications
1. Photoshop CS2 (Gimp is still 8-bit) for editing digital photos.
2. Dreamweaver or even (gasp) Frontpage (they just work).
3. Support in gimp\cups for high-end wide format printers.
4. Final Cut Pro.

There may be an argument for certain of these to be replaced, but customer acceptance and interoperability is a key for my business, so I am essentially locked into the MS (or Mac) operating system via the programs I require.

That's about it. Unfortunately, these applications account for more than 80% of my computer time; therefore ubuntu is relegated to second-tier status and only gets used for some web-browsing and open-office use. This is unfortunate, because I love the interface (gnome) and am getting handy even with using the command prompt for apt-get, etc.

I bet the majority of Windows holdouts have similar concerns. Perhaps if the gnu/linux community concentrated on just a few "key" applications more users could justify switching. Just a thought.

veratyr

January 3rd, 2006, 12:57 AM

I find I mostly go back to windows for Adobe Audition, Gordian Knot (dvdrip just isn't as good IMHO), and most of all GAMES!!! Yes while it's true I do have Doom3, Quake4 and a few others installed on linux (which run F'n sweet by the way), linux is seriously lacking in the game department. I have steam installed with cedega but source games look and run like crap compared to windows. While I hear some people say they have such and such games on linux and they're content with those few, I and many others am not. Also how many times has this point come up on forums all over the internet? All these threads about a lack of games in linux means theres not enough demand for it how...? Oh right the linux market share argument, a ******** statistical excuse. The fact is we use linux and want games. Give us freakin games!

nuke

January 5th, 2006, 06:02 PM

I run about 99% Linux and 1% Win98. I run Crossover office to be compatible with my colleagues. We pass many documents back and forth and as much as OOo has improved, the translating isn't 100%. It was too much work editing the files for formating. Crossover was critical to using Linux in our office environment.

Our office is a model MS world. I managed to convince the powers that be that we should test Linux to see if it was a viable option to MS. Naturally I volunteered to be the guinea pig. It was a success until our server needed upgrading and I couldn't convince our IT support person and others that Linux would support our needs. I found it extremely difficult to get our MS certified IT guy to come around even though he has been fiddling with Linux for some time.

My Linux ran well until that update to Exchange 2003. Since then, I have huge problems getting my Linux (Xandros) to work properly. For a month or two I had to run Win98 while I debugged the problems in my spare time. Of course our IT support couldn't help me too much since it wasn't a supported desktop. :( After upgrading to the most recent version it is still somewhat flakey. Hence my wish to Ubuntu my PC.

The remaining 1% is necessary in order to be able to sync my Palm pilot. This is a show stopper for us and part of the reason I was unable to get more or my work colleaugues to switch. I need to boot into Win98 each day so I can sync up Outlook to my Palm. Outlook is required because I haven't been able to get Evolution to work with Exchange 2003. I gave up in frustration after considerable effort of our IT support, my own testing and Xandros support.

I don't think that I am an unusual corporate user. Linux in general has to be easier to install, easier to configure and easier to integrate in order to really get a mass migration away from MS. It just has to work inorder for it to be so painless for the user that he doesn't complain of the changeover.

I am hoping that Ubuntu will be more user friendly. I have been using it as a live-cd for some time just to test. Looks good enough. So now I am ready to make the move to Ubuntu in steps. While I would like to do it all in one big step, I can't afford to be unable to work. I hope that it works better and that I can finally leave MS behind.

kingsidy

January 5th, 2006, 06:38 PM

some programs for school are not available in linux. the only that i really use that i got to work in linux is matlab. also games, otherwise linux most of the time

extraspecialbitter

January 9th, 2006, 07:14 PM

Gimp does everything photoshop did for me.

Quanta +, and bluefish easily replaced dreamweaver and homesite

I've been Hoary since May 2005, but I'm still booting XP at least part of the time. While I find that Gimp and Bluefish meet my needs on the graphics editing front, I've grown used to the look and feel of iTunes for Windoze and have yet to figure out how to get my Creative Zen Touch to work with my Hedgehog. There's also the matter of synching my Blackberry to something other than Outhouse, although I'm thinking of switching to another smart phone.

If anyone has any tips to help me resolve any of the above, I'd be delighted to make the switch. By way of incentive, it would free up one of my PCs, in this case a 600MHz HP Vectra with 512 MB RAM. :smile:

crhooker

January 12th, 2006, 10:06 AM

Nothing is keeping me from quitting M$ now. Last Saturday I decided to try the live cd after listening to a podcast where Ubuntu was mentioned. Leo Laporte (from the ScreenSavers back in the day) check out www.thisweekintech.com and the weekly Twit podcast, I also like the Security Now with Steve Gibson. Anyway I digress.

Loved the live cd, everything just worked, tried the KDE as well but had some issues so I installed Ubuntu, AMD64, it flies! I totally blew out my M$ XP install. Am having some issues on some things, my Brother MFC3220C will not print yet but I am working on it.

I am enjoying the community and the lack of the old linux mentality of, "RTFM don't bug me". I am a pretty smart guy but I need some guidance from time to time and the lack of a standard book to read means it will take some time and I will need to ask some questions. Is there a good book I should buy?

I go way back in computers (my first was a Timex Sinclair and then a TI99 before I got into CPM and then DOS) and no matter what there is a learning curve. I have seen some posts in other areas where M$ folks complain that they do not want to be a programmer to learn linux, well you have to learn any OS it is just a different thing. I needed a new notebook and went with a Mac iBook, learning curve there too.

I really am impressed when I see replies from community members apologizing that a M$ lurker in Ubuntu is having a problem and that M$ user was slamming Ubuntu. You folks are awesome and I now have Linux/Ubuntu religion.

To bring it all the way back to the subject, while just dummping M$ like I did may not be for you it certainly has me impressed and I am M$ free except for my office where I cannot change and I guess that is OK. For what it is worth let me suggest you back up your XP stuff, install Ubuntu exclusively, give yourself a week. You will probably find all the apps you will need and then not have to go back. Worst case, you just cannot because you absolutly positively have to have FP2003, then backup any docs you created, reinstall XP (which always seems to help XP performance anyway) and then install Ubuntu to dual boot.

For what it was worth.

carl

Thirsteh

January 12th, 2006, 10:09 AM

The only reason I still have Windows on my drive is my Sony Eyetoy for Playstation 2 which I have yet managed to get to work in Linux, so I use Windows whenever I need to use my webcam for something -- rather rarely, admittedly. Additionally, I only assigned 5 gigs to Windows, I have no need to boot it to play any games. World of Warcraft, Warcraft 3, Steam, Half-Life2, all those games run better under my customized Wine than they did in Windows.

tim.n9puz

January 12th, 2006, 12:19 PM

I work for a small company and among other things "I am the IT Department." We use Ubuntu for one file server and IP-Cop for a router/firewall. As far as desktops go we are still a Windows shop. Vehicle tracking and a host of other industry specific things like GIS apps are much better supported there.

I have set up a few folks outside work with Linux systems. An inexpensive 800MHz - 1GHz box from the used market and a fresh install of Ubuntu is an outstanding platform for folks who need basic office apps and are watching their pennies.

Linux is a great platform but it's not the only arrow in my quiver!

Mr_J_

January 12th, 2006, 12:53 PM

I exclusivelly use Ubuntu Breezy, at home, since the end of October 2005 and I made the switch "cold turkey". I still use Windows at the office and i'll always do that, but at home I don't trust my computer to anything but linux anymore.

I used windows for years and it's a nice gaming platform. That was the number one reason to use it. One day I just got pissed at the answer for every screw up.

- "Format" -

I love Ubuntu. It's got problems, but at least when the "**** hits the fan" I have the console to fix it.
The "forbiden" love of the console is so sweet and powerfull!:eek:

lysis

January 12th, 2006, 01:02 PM

i CURRENTLY am 100% ubuntu, although i am going to need to install windows on a partition for a short while to go through a training dvd that i recently received. unfortunately NO emulator will run it. i've considered installing windows through vmware but that's too much bs to be honest.

lapsey

January 12th, 2006, 01:16 PM

no fruityloops or any replacement vst -handling sequencer support :[

Mr_Grieves

January 12th, 2006, 02:42 PM

Dual-boot. I've only booted into Windows two-three times at home.. since November, to look at some fine arts that are in wmv format.. umm.

bgalan

January 12th, 2006, 10:50 PM

hi,
i find myself using linux more and more. now i rarely boot into windows, though i still need some software there. now that i can hibernate my laptop (thanks to the great howto for suspend2 in this forum, thanks!!!) and that i'm learning latex and bibtex, i'm writing my dissertation with emacs in linux; it's great ;)
thanks for everyone's help in this forum; i still consider myself a newbie but one who is learning lots from you and from not being afraid to mess with ubuntu (if i really mess up, i can always ask knowing that someone will kindly help me). so kudos to the developers, and everyone involved in this project. i'm becoming an advocate and promoter of the distro... THANKS!

benjamin

bgalan

January 12th, 2006, 10:56 PM

ender

January 14th, 2006, 08:11 AM

I've been using Ubuntu as my primary OS for more almost a year now and I am LOVING it. :KS
Unfortunately I just can't sem to be able to get rid of Windows. There are still too many programs that I need for school and that don't work with wine. :cry:

LanceM

January 14th, 2006, 11:14 AM

I have not run Windows at home for almost 1.5 years. I made the switch to Linux the third time I had to rebuild my pc because of spyware. I am not a gamer and I connect to work via pptp/tsclient as I did with Windows so right now, I can't think of any reason to reload Windows on this box.

e2k

January 14th, 2006, 11:52 AM

Dual-booter here, too much of a game-addict.. :(

5ketcher

January 14th, 2006, 01:31 PM

I have some PCs and servers at home. Ubuntu 5.10 is installed on every single one :-) windows is only a second choice OS on my fastest PC. I sometimes need it for gaming reasons. Ubuntu is running perfect on my machines:

IBM T30 (Laptop) 686 kernel
IBM T20 (Laptop) 686 kernel
HP e-pc (Mini-PC) 686 kernel
MacMini (Mini-PC) PPC kernel
Compaq Proliant DL360 (Server) 686 kernel
Self made (Workstation) AMD64 kernel

I forced myself to use Ubuntu because I wonted to get rid of Windows. It's like a language, you have to use it to learn is. I now reached a point where I don't have to use Windows anymore. I'm really happy about that because I don't have the time to set up my machines every second month because of stupid viruses or a ****** up Windows file. One of my Ubuntu machines was up for 137 days without a single reboot. The only thing that could stop it was a power fault :???:
I installed Ubuntu on some machines of my friends, too. After a small introduce they started to love it, too :)

my recommendation: use Ubuntu and enjoy the live :D

PS: Thanks Ubunu developer & supporter!

treris

January 17th, 2006, 06:35 AM

As a lot of people here I'm a dual booter too, and basically just for one thing GAMES. Even though I don't get to play a lot of games (too much to do) I still like to be able to just head into windoze and play some games, such as battefield en quake (I know Quake4 also comes for linux, but I've been having a lot of sound problems with that)
I do however have my network disabled under windows to make sure it's safe :) :) :)
I don't think I'll ever go back to using windoze as my primary OS!
Instead I'm already converting friends and family to take a look at it (using live CD's) and start using it (to save me from coming by from time to time to clean up and update their windoze machines):grin:

extraspecialbitter

January 17th, 2006, 10:42 PM

I've been Hoary since May 2005, but I'm still booting XP at least part of the time. While I find that Gimp and Bluefish meet my needs on the graphics editing front, I've grown used to the look and feel of iTunes for Windoze and have yet to figure out how to get my Creative Zen Touch to work with my Hedgehog. There's also the matter of synching my Blackberry to something other than Outhouse, although I'm thinking of switching to another smart phone.

I've since been able to Synch my old Handspring Visor to my desktop using JPilot, and I found it at least equal to the Palm Desktop application on Windows.

Rhythmbox is great as an MP3 player, but gnomad2 seems hit or miss when it comes to transferring files to my Creative Zen Touch. Some files make it without incident, and others seem to copy but when give me a Playback error when I attempt to play them.

I'm content with the OpenOffice Suite as an alternative to Micro$oft Office, and I've been using Foxfire instead of IE for over a year.

I'm not far from tossing Windoze for good, but I'm an audiofile at heart, and I need more a consistent interface before making the switch...

thespazzz

January 17th, 2006, 11:17 PM

I've been tinkering with Linux off and on for a few years. My first experiance was some POS Boot From Windows type deal that didn't do squat. Then I switched to Ark Linux which was supposed to be a "for newbies DESKTOP os" but It was always breaking and the support for it wasn't stellar.

Then I tried Fedora, Which I loaded on a computer as a personal webserver (and it's still running). Tried Fedora as a Desktop system, and found it to be good, but not easy and the user base was kinda.....standoffish.

Then I found Ubuntu and aside from the apparently common resolution issue I have been loving it from day one.

Still there are several things keeping me shackled to windows.

Flight Simulator 2004. - Won't run under Wine
Orbiter - Realistic Space Simulator and also won't run under Wine
Web Design - Been using Dreamweaver though this is quickly becoming less and less of an issue.

My Wife's computer is XP because its what she knows and it was hard enough to get her to know that. My roommates computer is also XP because he is a Flash Programmer

Sparkalo

January 18th, 2006, 12:12 AM

Ok, I'm bad. I have two machines that I use. One is Ubuntu straight up (my monster which I like to call "Frankenstein"...it's a laptop built from spare parts...yeah, I know...crazy!) and the other is my desktop dual boot FC4 and WindowsXP.

I guess the only thing that keeps me on XP is probably just because it's a nice security blanket. I know that if all else fails, I have a restore CD that can fix my boot sector : P.

I'm considering joining the penguin 100% come this summer when I overhaul my desktop though ^_^

dage

January 18th, 2006, 12:18 AM

i've dual boot ubuntu and XP, I use XP only for copying DVD or P2P but Windows XP sucks with zonealarm, norton antivirus, it takes 5 mins to boot :( and Ubuntu takes 1 min :). I love Linux because of its security and open source but it's too complicated to configure :(

grnorton

January 18th, 2006, 07:59 AM

The unpredicatable set up of the Browser (Firefox) to play all and any file that I throw at it in terms of Plug-ins! Have clean nstalled Ubuntu a few times and for example

Totem
sometiems plays vidoe OK but no sound
next install nothing but a black screen!

Windows media files problemati

NoNo_231

January 18th, 2006, 08:28 AM

I have on my Desktop 100% Ubuntu and on my Laptop 100% Windows. I do not intend to make my laptop 100%, only dual boot, because I wanna show to people free software applications, that run on windows too, and to show them a path for linux. However many times I run a LiveCD, it is really much easier on Ubuntu Linux to make a network connection or many other things.

Serious problems I faced were:
the driver for my printer - when partially fixed I turned on 100% Linux on Desktop
the internet connction (I got a usb DSL modem before getting in touch with Linux), and I am in the procedure of buing a modem router with ethrnet

And that are all my problems. I find Ubuntu Linux, much more faster and much more reliable than windows. The ubuntu distro is also really easy (believe or not Without being a professional on computers I can do mauch more things than I did with Windows, and I have a rally stable system - There are only two months that I first heard the word Linux) (I don't know about the others - sorry) and easy very easy and fast installable. When I messed up once I did a reinstallation and finished.

I tried the kubuntu and Suse with a LiveCD and I have the impression that the KDE needs too much memory, I don't know if anybody else agree, but I never saw that somewhere.

Finally there is very good documentaton all over the internet. I had a problem lastly not recognising my usb flash memory. Looking around I found the solution. Ok it took me three days, but under windows I would never have found a solution unless I asked a technician not being sure if he knew the answer. (It was a really weird problem recognising printers, modems, but not the stick.)

Fallen Guru

January 18th, 2006, 11:35 AM

Well, what's keeping me:

- bad integration of desktop applications:
- Two different clipboards.
- Lots of ways to have CJK input support but none works in all apps.
- some apps need this sound server, some that, some none ...
- probably same for printing. (Can you print in KWord without KDE's
printing system?)
- can't just select "open with" in Nautilus and expect it to work

- support for Windows games

The fact that OpenOffice and Firefox work better in Windows and MacOS than in Linux is sad but true.
IMHO that's because these systems have standardized systems for interaction between apps (clipboard ...), between apps and user (input) and between apps and hardware (sound, printing ... subsystem)

There needs to be a common interface for this kind of stuff that every middleware daemon and app support. If this interface is implemented by a Gnome, KDE, whatever component or what extensions it might support should not matter for basic functionality.

ferebee

January 18th, 2006, 11:36 AM

I'm actually tri-booting Win XP pro, Ubuntu and SimplyMepis but that wasn't on the poll :p

What's keeping me from giving up XP entirely is mostly family.
My Mom sometimes has to use my computer to access the USB flash drive
her workplace gave her. Her Windows 98 computer can't manage those, but
XP can. I know Linux can too, but she's not interested in learning a new operating system. Also, my nephew sometimes spends time here, and there are a few games on the windows side he can't give up. (Though he does like Tuxpaint quite a lot!)

I couldn't get my iRiver Mp3 player working with SimplyMepis, but I did in Ubuntu, so that's one less obstacle.

I'm not keen on gaming, but I like things like mahjongg, solitaire and tetris, no shortage of those in Linux world so that's good! The only Windows game I can't do without is Babble, which is a very addictive word game, so on occasion I go back to play that, or get a song from iTunes but I'm really not booting into XP very much anymore.

I find Mepis and Ubuntu work a lot faster than XP on my old PIII, and they
kind of satisfy my need for tweaking ;) I'm really enjoying using both of them.

With both having helpful forums to go to with problems, I'm going to stick around in Linuxland, but I guess XP has got to stay on my hard drive for the time being.

Sandlst

January 20th, 2006, 11:39 PM

There is only one reason why I still duel-boot XP+ubuntu: Ventrilo-it used to be vent+wow, but Ive finally gotten wow working great :).....the problem is my guild uses only vent. and is unwilling to change to teamspeak, or any other voip for that matter........Ive been playing around trying to get it working though, so hopefully I will be 100% ubuntu in the near future.

near future=now.......goodbye windoze:D

RoninGurl

January 23rd, 2006, 08:45 PM

None of the above...

Overwhelming lack of refinement that I expect from a Desktop OS. I use Linux everyday through SSH for web server related tasks and it excels greatly at these tasks and gives us incredible uptime and system resource management. But it isn't really anything more than a hobby OS to me on the home front.

No Linux distribution even supported my WLAN card well out of the box until Ubuntu 5.10 and I've tried lots of them like Mandrake (Mandriva is a stupid name. Mandrake is better :p), SuSE, Redhat 7, 8 (ah, the psyche release -- this one was incredible and fixed many of the gripes I had at the time), 9 and all of the Fedora cores. And many more as well. I’ve even gone through and installed Gentoo, changing console prompts back and forth reading the HTML manual in one with Links and in the other typing away at the commands but before Ubuntu I don’t really think there was a distribution that really clicked with me as having potential for the desktop market. Linspire and Lycoris never really clicked with me either. Just a lot of lurking around and playing around as a hobby in general.

No I'm not being a troll so don't even think of calling me one or shunning me back underneath the bridge with sharp pitchforks and broomsticks. I'm not complaining. I'm just giving an honest answer. I'll continue to use Ubuntu and Linux in general as a hobby for quite some time but for me Windows XP and MacOS X are the refinement I seek on a home desktop PC at the moment.

ilbahr

January 23rd, 2006, 09:36 PM

what is keeping me from quitting windows? mmmm ...
I am afraid right now i am thinking what is keeping me from returning to window?

Simply stated and before hand i did my homework so when i say something does not work on my box it means it does not work.

I lost my printer < the model is not supported>
I lost scanning
I lost my modem. So i lost my fax

Simple tasks turn out to be major projects on linux consuming time and effort. (My latest project was to set my notebook to make presentations for a class. This is just plug and play in window.)

Editing and i mean actual editing of pdf files not just filling some forums is a huge problem. There are tools available but only support primitive editing not like adobe professional.

So what keeping me from returning back. Am running now execlusivley linux for 2 years and was dual booting for another 4. So frankly i forgot how things are done under window.

Linux has developed a lot and matured but it is still a geeky os where you need to manually read and make a lot of tweeks. Not all people can afford such time to manage and maintain their OS.

No wonder IBM "Window - rival " and others still recommend Windows with all its problems for desktop systems.

Before I close up. I am a linux fan and am totally supportive for all efforts to bring it to the desktop areana. I simply hate window and its monopolly and admire and enjoy the linux freedom. But faced by the reality of day to day work, linux is not as productive as window on desktops not yet.

Now that i think of it the question asked in this thread is not fair. Linux is still in development, though it has matured a lot thanks for the effort of many volunteer developers. It is strong as a server but still in development for Desktop. Many drivers are still property drivers which prevent linux from fully utilizing them. So the competition is still not fair.

Let us ask this question 2 years from now. I am sure that we will have a clear winner by then.

cotcot

January 23rd, 2006, 09:55 PM

I bought a computer (in a discount warehouse) where I had no choice to buy it without XP. So I have it , then why not install it. It is by the way the last computer I buy with windows. So that will make us change in the future anyway.

My wife is not (yet) switched to linux.

Games

Hugin panorama maker. I could install it with support of this forum on Hoary. In Breezy it was not possible. In Dapper I do not find it. I installed Fedora on another computer especially to check if it works in Fedora : easy install and it works. Now I use hugin on XP (easy install). I also know it works in Suse. So please make it possible in Ubuntu : THANKS IN ADVANCE.

Connection with PDA.

Scanner (Canon 4200F) is not recognised under Sane.

I am still on the learning curve. I have to experiment with VM ware for instance.

bugmenot

January 24th, 2006, 12:13 AM

What i miss when working under Ubuntu and Not WindowsXP prof.

1>user switching ....flawless under winxp PITA under ubuntu

2>Lots of Swapping takes place unnecesarily(especially when
KDE app is loaded) & Slows the system to an unusable state

3>Small apps i have come to except to load in a jiffy
a>Text Editor
b>gthumbnail image viewer(please let the default doubleclick
open the directory of the image not the image
c>calculator takes a lotta time to load
these apps should load(perception) in a jiffy

4>Please use one sound system, alsa not snd and wat not

5>Ability to kill any damn app with total impunity.............
without resorting to commandline...
......in a jiffy( a..la..ctrl+shift+esc in winxp)

6>Ability to type/modify the address in file open/save dialogues
(i changed it in the file manager, but when other applications
call it again i see those hideous click buttons, do us all a
favour offer both clickable buttons and
modifiable(typable) path)

7>Make file Manager load in a jiffy

8>stop trying to thumbnail a video being downloaded
thats retarded nautilus does this
stop trying to refresh the folder while files are being
downloaded thats just as retarded

9>please emulate the way i can arrange things on the winxp
desktop auto arange all icons etc

10>Uniform shortcuts(arranged in various themes winxp,
osx, kde )and customizable will add to the user
experience

Wish lists
1>dont forget your debian roots, become a transparent layer
on top of it so users view ubuntu as a desktop built on a
well documented framework of linux(debian), and so that
companies that dare to release a product tested on debian
works flawlessly on ubuntu......
Debian is part of your core competency.
... its a process not an end result

2>dot ubuntu is a great idea, though i do not have funds to
start it , it will be great

3>macromedia dreamweaver(now adobe's) is the only sane
website development environment, i tried nVu and wat not
and cried at the state of things, if gnome can take a hint
from apple osx why cant you take a hint from dreamweaver,
photoshop & excel(well wat can i say there is no way to leave
behind excel)

4>i luv the 2 task bar, one on top with the menus and one at
the bottomwith my applications, and wish KDE would use
the same instead of looking useless like windows taskbar
with a start button

5>i think gdesklets are a great idea(konfubulator anyone),
make it load fast make it smaller in size

darth_vector

January 24th, 2006, 12:20 AM

i made the full time switch to linux about 6 months ago. first at uni, then at work and finally at home. i have a windows partition that only my parents use, but as soon as i build them a new computer it is gone.

the only time i use windows now is when i have to tinker with a windows server (yuk!) at work.

darth_vector

January 24th, 2006, 12:21 AM

i suppose the answer to the question is: nothing is keeping me from quiting windows :)

Daminator

January 25th, 2006, 07:02 AM

I need to use apps like 3D Studio Max, Maya and Photoshop regularly. Can these be run (and run well!) under Linux/Ubuntu? If they could, I'd move over completely!

public_void

January 25th, 2006, 07:55 AM

Visual Studio and games mainly. MonoDevelop as an IDE can't match VS, but its good for Linux only stuff, but IMO its getting better, but slowly.

ivrobi

January 25th, 2006, 08:46 AM

Well... there are some educational progz in hungarian language, used by my wife. I did not tried them with Wine yet, but will try sooner or later. ;) Also my scanner works sloooow under linux with the recommended driver from the SANE-project website.

RAOF

January 25th, 2006, 09:28 AM

1>user switching ....flawless under winxp PITA under ubuntu

2>Lots of Swapping takes place unnecesarily(especially when
KDE app is loaded) & Slows the system to an unusable state
...
5>Ability to kill any damn app with total impunity.............
without resorting to commandline...
......in a jiffy( a..la..ctrl+shift+esc in winxp)

6>Ability to type/modify the address in file open/save dialogues
(i changed it in the file manager, but when other applications
call it again i see those hideous click buttons, do us all a
favour offer both clickable buttons and
modifiable(typable) path)
...

1) Your wish is granted: Try Dapper. User switching has improved in the latest Gnome.

2) Really? I've never found this (except when some process goes out of control &
eats all ram), but I have 1Gb of ram, so the swap is practially unused. Maybe it does need to swap?

5) Gnome-system-monitor is almost exactly like ctrl-alt-del in WinXP. Plus, you can add it as a system monitor (CPU,ram, network, etc) into your gnome-panels.

6) Ctrl-L works for me for manual path entry in save/load dialog boxes. If it doesn't work for you, it's been changed in the latest Gnome, so Dapper has it.

Hope this makes your Ubuntu a more pleasant experience :)

AirIntake

January 25th, 2006, 10:25 AM

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=120448

That is one reason, the other is lack of software for my Sony DVD Handycam, Pinnacle USB video box, and my PDA's (though maybe Wine will work with some of it).

FPK

January 25th, 2006, 11:25 AM

rykel

January 26th, 2006, 02:07 AM

I need to use apps like 3D Studio Max, Maya and Photoshop regularly. Can these be run (and run well!) under Linux/Ubuntu? If they could, I'd move over completely!

not sure about 3d studio max, but maya for linux is available and GIMP is a great replacement for photoshop... if u seriously must use the original photoshop, then use it with crossover.

Jengu

January 26th, 2006, 03:13 AM

Binary compatibility: simply Win32 applications run even on over 10 year old windows installations, compiling a hello world on a current linux and with bad luck it even doesn't run on 1-2 year old linux distro.

And no: I don't like to recompile everything to get it work on my machines.

Same applies to the kernel: the times when I liked to recompile the kernel to install a new driver or even compile and install a new kernel to get a new driver for a certain are for me gone, I've better things to do.

Amen. See www.autopackage.org for some very easy to install packages that work well with Ubuntu. Linux has been a server OS for a long time, but now there are lots of distros putting emphasis on the desktop. Hopefully a trend leading towards developers acknowledging the need for binary compatibility.

Luke771

January 26th, 2006, 08:42 AM

I'm still hooked to Microsucks Flightsim2004 and could'n get a downloaded X-Plane DVD image to work in Ubuntu, but when I do, I wont have any reason to keep using any Microsucks programs.

fezzik

January 26th, 2006, 10:58 AM

ON my laptop which is my primary computer I am 100% Ubuntu but I keep a small Windows partition on my Desktop for games and language learning and other software that I can't find linux compatible alternatives to. Just a few programs and stuff I can't find so I keep a little windows available for when I want to use some of those programs.

Aramil

January 30th, 2006, 12:14 PM

I m 100% Ubuntu.No reason to have Winodws.Ubuntu gives me speed efficiancy,open source and the best community I have ever met!Long live Ubuntu!

Toontwnca

January 30th, 2006, 03:18 PM

Nothing really.
I was having problems with ubuntu; so I blew it off my hd.
Since I had to re-install windows anyway; I divided my
60 gig hd into 2 fat32 partitions and put xp pro on one
of them. Left it like that for a time.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to give ubuntu another
go and re-installed it from a newly burned disc. No help.
Still the same lockup/freeze issues I had.

Switched to vesa drivers which seemed to help but very
hard on my eyes. Couldn't help think there was a better
way. After a bit more searching I blew off powernowd;
installed the 686 kernel and removed the 386 kernel and
went back to the ati drivers.

Now all seem ok. (knock on wood). No lockups/freezes so far.

I'll need xp for tax season in about 3 weeks; but after that I
won't have much use for it. Have not used it now for awhile. I
may keep it around; but that's about it.

m.musashi

January 30th, 2006, 04:11 PM

I'm dual booting both my laptop and my desktop (actually, at the moment I can't get my new desktop to install Ubuntu but I'm working on it).

I'd like to ditch Windows altogether, but being a newbie I'm not that comfortable with Linux yet and when I break it I can always fall back on Windows if necessary. Plus I paid for Windows so I want my moneys worth. However, I won't spend another dime on Windows and DRM is crap.

I've also managed to get my school district to start looking at Linux. We will have a Linux lab soon and as far as I'm concerned that is the chink in the armor I need to move us more and more towards Linux. However, our business department won't pick up Linux as part of their instruction until they get word that some significant percentage of the "real" world is using it. Right now, Windows skills are what businesses seem to require (at least when they hire HS grads).

RavenOfOdin

January 30th, 2006, 06:13 PM

I answered "Ubuntu with Dual Boot Windows" but that's just because my Mom and Dad use XP often and still need it on the comp.

I, personally, have switched.

annsachd

February 4th, 2006, 05:21 PM

It's funny but I've never had to use Windows, ever. My school had Macs, my work always involves Macs. I always hear the problems that Windows users have and I just laugh.

I've been learning Linux for awhile now, OS X has BSD in it so the two crossover nicely. It's fun pulling up a terminal on a Mac and doing things. It always freaks out Mac users. They've never seen the terminal, at least the majority haven't.

Ubuntu is very nice in its current form. Much better than any distro that I've used in the past. I thought it was some kind of dumbed down version of Linux but clearly that isn't the case at all. Just people spreading FUD.

If Linux ran Avid systems I'd be using Linux at work as well. I doubt that will happen. I'm now running Ubuntu on an old P4 box I built a couple of years ago.

The only thing I miss from my Mac (not Windows) is iTunes. I'm pretty hooked on that at work. It just works right.

Thanks for all the help here and enjoy whatever system you're using. No need to have OS wars. It's like ditch diggers arguing about which shovel they prefer more. Just put your head down and keep digging.

thespazzz

February 4th, 2006, 11:43 PM

Pal,
you mean then that in order to run Linux in graphical mode I need the ultimate box ? :confused:
Everyone considering to switch will be pleased.
Thanks for the hint.

I think he ment that the PC you got has some kinda fault that makes it run.. well odd.

I have several computers running Ubuntu the slowest one being an 800 MHZ Celeron II , onboard video, and 128 of ram and it dosen't experiance any of the hangups you speak off. Its not blazing fast but its faster than you'd expect considering the specs

]Nbx*cmD[

February 5th, 2006, 09:09 AM

for me it is speed which keeps me from kicking winXP. Ubuntu is simpy slower; slow boot, slow desktop handling.
WinXP has natuarally a advantage here, since its GUI runs in kernel-mode. But Im still confident, that Exa will speed up cairo a lot.

Another point are games - but this is not that critical, since there are ports of the games Im intrested in. (UT2004, SS2, Darwinia)

I did exactly the inverse thing, i 100% switched to linux for getting more speed ;)
Maybe what you mean is that Gnome is slow, why don't you try other window managers, I assure you there's no windooze which can run faster than iceWM, WindowMaker or, if you like speedy graphical effects, enlightenment.
Also, the boot problem you talk about... easy to fix turning the computer on once a week :mrgreen: try to imagine that on a windooze... ram and cpu waste, hanging, slow down etc. ;)

Yes, sorry, I HATE WINDOOZE! :twisted:

william_nbg

February 5th, 2006, 01:01 PM

I am also a Linux only user(one year now). If Ubuntu, or xp runs quicker on my box - not sure, it seems the same to me(with a fresh install). What I do notice, is Ubuntu will hold its speed much longer than xp. I had to do a fresh install every 3 months to keep xp quick and stable.

Regarding the second point, window managers: I've tried most of them, but never Icewm. Though, I can't imagine a faster one than Blackbox. It has to be the fastest.

wacole

February 9th, 2006, 01:46 PM

I can't get Samba to work reliably; I have a Wintel/Linux environment. This is the user's problem, not Samba. I just need to hire someone to fix my Samba and admit that my brain isn't going to get the Windows/Samba dance.

I've been using Quicken and TurboTax for 15 years and, though I admire the Linux financial programs - they just aren't there yet. I've not gotten around - actually have been chicken about tackling - an emulator like Wine to run Windows programs under Linux. All I see is a big time hogging hole as I make the transition; but that may be an unfair assumption, though I've been burned often enough to have "learned" to be careful with this sort of project.

I use Linux and its products - but not exclusively - to earn my living as a user of the products, not as a developer. There are some days when I need to do stuff quickly that I know how to do in Windows that I just can't figure out in Linux or don't have the time to figure out in Linux. I can do some command line stuff, but I'm just not willing to spend too much more time learning command line; I want the GUI stuff to "just work" ... and sometimes it just doesn't. (See Nicholas Petreley's rant on this in the current issue of Linux Journal.)

najames

February 9th, 2006, 02:33 PM

The first company that makes TurboTax like software for Linux will get my business. Until then, its Turbotax on Winblows.

I have not had time to set up Citrix on Linux, so I can connect up to work, until then Winblows.

I finally installed the freebie VMWare server last night on a Ubuntu AMD64 version, woot! Used the GSX directions instead of the same directions for the VMware Server beta with half the information missing. I go to install the Management console, which I am not sure I actually need, get to the and an error pops up that says it only installs on 32bit, poop!! Might have to go back to 32bit Linux stuff, hopefully not to a WinXP 64 or Win2003 server host. I have both, unused. I don't give up easily. I want to see Ubuntu/automatix for a desktop, Win2000/XP64, OSx, Maybe Solaris virtual machines all running at once eventually. Now if Xen would just have a Windows VM machine....

By the way, Ubuntu with Automatix installed = one kick butt machine. The dual boot with WinSomething will have to suffice until VM stuff is fully functional. Also we need an Automatix for AMD64 versions of Ubuntu with the same stuff as the 32bit version.