How many of you completely switched to Linux?

[rickyrockrat]

Well said, Transhumanist.

[tgalati4]

Windows 98 was pretty crappy, so I left for good. Been running Ubuntu and Mint ever since.

[Nburnes]

Windows 98 was pretty crappy, so I left for good. Been running Ubuntu and Mint ever since.

Well Win98 came out in '98 and Ubuntu was released in 2004...so what?

[jerome1232]

Well Win98 came out in '98 and Ubuntu was released in 2004...so what?

That awkward moment when you say the impossible. Unless the poster meant they switched to Linux in '98 (since Linux was released with GNU in '91) and has used Ubuntu since Ubuntu's release?

[eenofonn]

Well my moms friend who thinks he knows everything about computers decided to upgrade her laptop to Windows 8. I have been getting non stop questions on how to do things because of the fact that windows 8 doesn't have an adequate tutorial. So I explained to her how Microsoft will not likely be going back to the way old things are and in a while Windows 7 will be unsupported. So I switched her from Windows 8 to Linux. Then I decided I might aswell switch too, Haven't used it in a couple years. So has anybody else here switched from Windows 8 to linux? What are your reasons?

While I'm all for helping people use whatever they want to you shouldn't feel like you have to switch to Linux right away. Xp support is ending in 2014 so I doubt we'll see Windows 7 support end as soon as you might be thinking. With that said there are ways to make Win8 look more like Win7 (Classic Start) to name a project that I know of. So if your mom is resistant to change you could always look in that direction.

Unity isn't my cup of tea but none of the Window managers really do what I want anymore, and OSX gives me the commercial support and application availability but still provides something I can still run my favorite command line tools in.

Probably the best case scenario is download a few ISOs of different interfaces to live cd's and let her "Distro Shop" some people love Ubuntu while others still like Fedora or Mint etc. Just keep in mind that depending on her computer knowledge she may be more or less inclined to force herself into yet ANOTHER alien environment.

Good Luck!

[Version Dependency]

A few years back, my machine running WindowsXP died so I bought a new computer...that came with the new Vista. I thought GREAT! I played with Vista for two hours...then wiped the hard drive and installed Ubuntu 9.10. Windows has been dead to me ever since.

[Transhumanist]

OSX gives me the commercial support and application availability but still provides something I can still run my favorite command line tools in.

And is maintained by a woeful company with a hatred for open systems and standards. It's not a solution to the failures of Windows 8, since it is an intellectual dead end.

That's not to say I don't think it has its use cases: clearly you've decided that you're willing to fork over very large amounts of cash to that company for whatever reason. But it's not a use case I would be caught dead promoting to somebody who wants to switch away from the locked down, Apple-imitating ecosystem of Windows 8 - and I say this as somebody who has owned and maintained a few Intel Macs (unfortunately).

[eenofonn]

And is maintained by a woeful company with a hatred for open systems and standards. It's not a solution to the failures of Windows 8, since it is an intellectual dead end.

That's not to say I don't think it has its use cases: clearly you've decided that you're willing to fork over very large amounts of cash to that company for whatever reason. But it's not a use case I would be caught dead promoting to somebody who wants to switch away from the locked down, Apple-imitating ecosystem of Windows 8 - and I say this as somebody who has owned and maintained a few Intel Macs (unfortunately).

Whoa, got off on the wrong foot there.

By no means did I mean to Put any of them above each other, I use linux/solaris/osx/windows on a daily basis and consider myself to be an operating system junkie.

I'm incredibly happy with my Apple Hardware but that's my opinion, I use dells/home grown/cisco/hp/sun all the time and every one of them has their problems.

By no means am I the stereotypical Apple fanboy

... And I did recommend Distro shopping and did not imply in any way that they should move to OSX I just simply stated the reasons I like it (since it's in my sig)

[mörgæs]

Threads merged.

[clbaines]

I have not completely switched to Linux. I have a computer with Windows XP that I use to run Quicken and Netflix. All three of my other computers are Linux. Two with Ubuntu 12.04 and one with Mint 13/Maya.

If both Quicken and Netflix ever get their act together, then it would be no Windows for me.