Sad Day...

[HDave]

Sorry to report to all here, that I am leaving Ubuntu Desktop to go back to Windows 7.

It's been a long journey since 6.04, and I am better for it, but I need to move on. To make a very long story short, I have too many Windows-only applications I need to run (MS Office, Adobe Lightroom, join.me, etc.) , and the VM thing is getting old. I've been banging hard on vendors for 5 years to port to Linux, with little success. However, I can deal with that. I also have to say that Mark Shuttleworth hasn't been doing himself any favors lately, with his denigrating remarks about the tea party and various divergent open source projects. But I could live with that too. The real problem for me this past year is growing multitude of (often long-standing) bugs not getting addressed. I'm losing productivity and I can't have that. I have something like 75+ bugs reported, many with high heat that just sit there. IMO Canonical's focus on mobile has detracted from the desktop experience that I came to relish over the buggy and insecure Windows XP.

So yes, now I am paying for Windows again, but for me, it was never about money. I gave/give to numerous open source projects including Ubuntu...the money isn't important. Its my time that is important. And I have to say that Windows 7 is a really good operating system...and so far every tiny, little detail is very polished and Just Works...no muss, no fuss. Added cygwin and all my favorite open-source apps and now I feel like I'm at home. For fun, I tried Windows 8 and couldn't take more than an hour of that nonsense....awful!

I'll still recommend my company run Ubuntu servers...that's been a very positive experience all around. But for me and my friends and family's desktop computers, I'm waving the white flag.

Good luck to the Ubuntu Desktop and all the great folks here. Thanks for the ride. God bless.

[varunendra]

So yes, now I am paying for Windows again, but for me, it was never about money.

Never should it be, that's a lame excuse for not being able to come up with an efficient OS/program/code.

And I have to say that Windows 7 is a really good operating system...and so far every tiny, little detail is very polished and Just Works...no muss, no fuss.

I agree 100%, no If/But's. Not that I'd ever like Ubuntu or any Linux distro to be "Like that", but Win7 is really good at what it tries to offer and focus on.

I feel sad that Linux is still lagging so far behind in certain areas, but I believe it's mostly us - the freedom lovers who can and have to make it better. The developers who have brought Linux to where it stands now are mostly (if not entirely) the very same people like us, believing and loving the same idea. Priorities may differ a bit, but we are all trying to achieve the same thing - freedom and perfection.

I trust the developers who probably know the 'Trends & Future' much better than me are doing whatever they are doing for the best! And I'm glad that Canonical or Ubuntu or Any particular distro doesn't mean "Linux".

[andrew.46]

For fun, I tried Windows 8 and couldn't take more than an hour of that nonsense....awful!

The answer for at least some of the Windows 8 problems has always been Classic Shell:

http://www.classicshell.net/

And remember to come back to Linux one day

[buzzingrobot]

No reason to be sad if you need to use Windows apps.

I've always thought pinging vendors to port to Linux is pretty pointless. (Sort of like asking a successful pizza joint to start selling vegan veggieburgers.) They're in it for the money, so if they thought they could get a bigger return on their dollar by porting to Linux, they would. Small indy developers who have spent years acquiring Windows skills aren't going to relish making what amounts to a gamble on a career transition.

Power management and heating issues in Linux are often tied to the proprietary device issue, especially video hardware. Linux devs don't know what's in Nvidia and AMD drivers or GPU's, so they are at a disadvantage when trying to write code to control their energy use.

Submitting a bug generates no guarantee it will be addressed, or any obligation to do that.

[tgalati4]

When Microsoft drops support for Windows7 (in 10 years or so), Linux will still be here. And your bugs will still be exactly as you left them.

[HDave]

When Microsoft drops support for Windows7 (in 10 years or so), Linux will still be here. And your bugs will still be exactly as you left them.

LOL -- Don't think I haven't had that same thought!!!

By then hopefully MS Office, Adobe Lightroom and CS, and my other "Desktop" apps will all be running in a browser....

[buzzingrobot]

By then hopefully MS Office, Adobe Lightroom and CS, and my other "Desktop" apps will all be running in a browser....

Microsoft and Adobe will be happy to charge you monthly rent.

[sammiev]

The most important thing is to work with what works for you.

[mastablasta]

i will put all of the flags to half-mast to mourn the loss...

[BadMichael]

>>Windows 7 is a really good operating system...and so far every tiny, little detail is very polished and Just Works...no muss, no fuss. <<

Is this the same Windows 7 that hosed my computer during a Windows Update last year?