Have Your Windows Skills Deteriotaed?

[mamamia88]

I've been using ubuntu almost exclusively since october and now i am using a campus computer with xp and even the simplest thing like opeing a file from my flash drive is making me frustrated. i used to know windows like the back of my hand and now i feel like an idiot. has this happened to anyone else?

[aaaantoine]

I can't relate because out of 4 computers in the house, mine is the only one with Linux on it.

And now, I started dual booting Linux/Windows again, so...

[namegame]

I have to use Linux, Mac OS, and Windows every day at work, so the short answer for me is that my window skills are fine. :P

[lukjad]

Well, not really. I didn't have that many Windows skills to begin with. I do agree that in some aspects I forget where something is, or what it does, but for being a basic "user", I still can handle it. I also have the benefit of being in a computer course that uses Windows, so perhaps I'm not a fair example. Still, it always depends on what you need to do. I know that I feel a little silly trying to restart X with Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, or get to the command line with Ctrl+Alt+F1. ;)

[mamamia88]

it sucks because in ubuntu i have it setup exactly how i want it so i know where everything is. thats probably the reason its so hard to use windows if you use linux almost exclusively for a time you keep trying to do stuff that windows can't do

[mcduck]

I still know windows like the back of my head, and feel like an idiot when using it. I've always thought that's part of the Windows experience.. :D

[Naiki Muliaina]

I had minimal MS skills (office / windows) which seem to have left me completely over the last year.

[eragon100]

I've been using ubuntu almost exclusively since october and now i am using a campus computer with xp and even the simplest thing like opeing a file from my flash drive is making me frustrated. i used to know windows like the back of my hand and now i feel like an idiot. has this happened to anyone else?

I now I am not a champion myself, but have your typing/language skills "Deteriotaed" from using Ubuntu as well? :p

[jimmyhacker]

no dudes reallly.I deleted windows and used justlinux for 5 months and i had to re-install it because of MS office for mom and i felt like a real idiot cuz it was really too simple for me.2 years before windows was all about PC`s for me.but when i descovered linux,that was really good because i understood how pc`s work.

Windows is just Nt kernel,some applications,boot loader and Exploler.exe

But Linux is Unix+OpenGL+Over 10000 open-source apps and education.

[mamamia88]

I now I am not a champion myself, but have your typing/language skills "Deteriotaed" from using Ubuntu as well? :p

no thats probably from watching too much tv and playing too many videogames. probably has something to do with reading too many message boards as well

[SunnyRabbiera]

No, but every time I use windows I realize how disorganized and how mentally incompetent it is in design.
I really hate working with its menu, its filesystem and its layout these days.
Linux feels more natural

[Bios Element]

No, Not in the least. And I never use windows unless I have no choice. I still remember the interface for XP and Vista well enough to give step by step instructions over the phone to fix stuff...Yes, That is kinda pathetic.

[eragon100]

no thats probably from watching too much tv and playing too many videogames. probably has something to do with reading too many message boards as well

I guess it's mostly the latter, unless you like to watch anime fansubs, offcourse. The English grammar in said videos can sometimes be... a bit lower than average *cough*. :D

[So Tough]

Weird indeed, in the past i once left XP for so long when i tried using a friends XP to install an antivirus i was utterly lost, like starting from scratch

I would find myself trying to do things that were only possible on linux

[oldsoundguy]

I have not lost much, except the frustration of using such a slow OS. I have a pair of XP machines that I DO use for limited off line activities (a boat load of Adobe stuff and photography stuff .. and a media controller)

Vista, on the other hand, has NO logic as to what you can and can not do and HOW you can do it.
Plus the various types of Vista!!!! SHEEEESH!! Vista Home Basic has to be the slowest OS since Windows 3.1.
Just finished a complete re-do of one for a friend (her kid installed a game that totally disabled the computer. Could NOT get on line in any fashion!) .. two DAYS to get the system working properly and get all of the on line protection programs installed and functioning properly. NOTHING else installed but Irfanview, OOs, and Media Player Classic.

On the other hand, I just did a set-up using 8.04 and got EVERYTHING including very complicated digital sound + killer video setup and all of the OTHER programs working (had to tweak a bit .. but not much) .. Took about 10 hours total (including a couple of breaks while things were installing) for a really thorough install/test (most time spent was scrolling through Synaptic .. LOL)
But a boatload of stuff in and WORKING on it!

[chris200x9]

I never had any window confused me....how do I burn an iso without downloading something??? How do I burn a cd??? Nothing was eay nothing worked....I don't think I'm stupid I run gentoo and arch just fine, but the simplest things in windows were hard for me....I'm happy I switched :D

[Neo_The_User]

I remember all the windows stuff I used to do. Haven't touched it in about 5 years so... I am a bit rusty but I remember the command line stuff.

[alex2399]

Don't know if its getting unused to it, but I navigate a bit slower in Windows XP through all the screens it seems. But I must also admit the more I use it now the more irritated I get with it, so maybe it has also something to do with this.

There's just one thing that I have trouble unlearning from DOS, thats in the terminal. I always type "cd.."(DOS) instead of "cd .."(CLI) and everytime I use it since a while I'm completely baffled at what I did wrong this time, Checking filenames & directorys if I mistyped them only to conclude after a while I have forgotten the space.

[Rokurosv]

Not really, my Windows skills are still there I guess. I knew the basic administrator stuff like networking troubleshooting and registry editing. A few days ago I was fiddling with the registry and I remembered where certain keys where. I don't use Windows that much, but now that I don't have a laptop I think I might start visiting my other disk on the PC a little more

[lisati]

As well as Ubuntu, I have 3 different flavours of Windows installed on the machines at home. Each has its quirks.......

[GraysonPeddie]

My Windows skills will not deteriorate, even if I use Linux exclusively.

I'd rather try to keep all my Windows skills in my memory instead of unlearning it.

[Icehuck]

My Windows skills haven't deteriorated at all, but if they did my Google-Fu will never fail me.

[Depressed Man]

I use to hack around Windows alot (to get it to do what I wanted it to do). I've forgotten most of that now.

[jespdj]

No because I have to use Windows every day at work.

But I especially miss the terminal on Windows - the Windows command prompt is way less powerful than the terminal on Unix-like operating systems.

[cmat]

Vista feels completely alien to me. Previous version I'm proficient with.

[Retrograde77]

Have found this happening to me a little, when fixing a windows machine I have to stop and remember what the hell I do with it.

Have also found trying to get help with windows problems is getting hard, have a problem with Vista and Windows 7 (just playing with em, cant stand vista). After around 30 seconds of aero running fine it throws up a crash in dwm.exe and shuts off aero. Normally in linux if I have a prob, just a search on google or here (loveeee this forum) I cant find people who had the same prob and usually a workaround. With my windows prob, it could have been my chicken sandwhich I had for lunch for all I know. Could be 1 of a 1000 things.

[nath2008uk]

my skills are fine, considering I'm using XP.
I don't find it that hard to open a file.

My computer > Removable Disk > File

Ofcourse My computer for me takes about 20 seconds to open.

[dragos240]

I don't really see any "skills" associated with windows, a four year old could do it.

[xpod]

Have Your Windows Skills Deteriotaed?

The complete opposite,they`ve improved quite a bit since i myself stopped using Windows and removed it from my own computer/s.:?

[//yardo]

Quite the opposite... I've become VERY efficient with windows running in a virtualbox and understanding shares, networking and ALL sorts of fun stuff.

It's great!!!

[MysticGold04]

My Windows skills are just fine... I use Windows everyday at work and my Wife's and Daughters PCs have Vista, so I'm kinda forced in a way to keep my "education" up to date.

[KCG102282]

My Windows skills are still flawless.

[geoken]

I can remember doing tasks in the CLI on windows on a regular basis but now I can't immediately remember the appropriate commands for some of the more obscure stuff.

Other than that it's layed out pretty logically. Some guy was complaioning about how the files system was orginized which seems pretty straightforward to me. If /Windows, /Program Files and /Users is complicated to you than I have no clue how you can grasp the typical file system organization in Linux.

[adamlau]

Absolutely.

[SuperSonic4]

My windows skills haven't but to be honest it's not that hard - all you need to know is how to open and close them depending on the ambient temperature :p

[exploder]

My skill set with Windows has increased because of my years of running Linux. I look at how things work differently now.

[vishzilla]

Windows skills.. what is that?

[jolx]

My windows skills haven't but to be honest it's not that hard - all you need to know is how to open and close them depending on the ambient temperature :p

:lolflag:

[Dr Small]

I guess not. I don't use Windows anymore (although I do solve a few problems on my parent's machine and my neighbor's, occasionally). I'm way more familiar with debugging problems in Linux that hex error codes in Windows.

[t0p]

Up til the other day, I hadn't used a Windows box for quite some time. But then I had to go use a machine running XP at my local library as I wanted to print some stuff (sadly I don't own printer :( ). Aaargh!

[spupy]

I use Windows at work, but I need some moments to think about where to check some settings and change some configuration.

You could know how linux newbies feel when using linux. ;)

[Mr. Picklesworth]

My Windows skills deteriorate now that I only use it to play games, and I'm proud of it!

"Hey, you're a super smart techy! Why does my mouse keep siezing up and needing to be unplugged / reattached?"
"I don't know. Never experienced that with Linux!"

It reminds me of this: http://www.xkcd.com/272/ :)


If /Windows, /Program Files and /Users is complicated to you than I have no clue how you can grasp the typical file system organization in Linux.It's actually C:\Windows, and the whole drive letter thing is really my biggest problem with Windows' system there. Worst part about it is that artificially limits it to 26 drives at a time. (Really).
Granted, Windows nowadays abstracts that with volume labels, but they still have the meaningless drive letter thing there to totally confuse people.

Further, it doesn't end at \Windows, and \Program Files is like \opt (essentially meaningless; stuff goes in there if you want it to. Good for games). You've got \Windows\System32, AppFetch, Prefetch, Temp (how many temp directories does one OS need?), Tasks, system, Installer, localization stuff, Boot, MS.Net, Fonts, a bunch of random exes... all crammed into the same place. It's not that it's less confusing than Linux (you could easily point me to /etc/dpkg and /etc/apt), but the truth is any operating system has a heck of a lot of files all over the place. The idea is not to look in the root directory. I think Linux these days does a good job of that thanks to stuff like /usr/share/applications.

One thing Linux on the desktop could do better is making the file permissions stuff less obtrusive (more just an automatic security feature) and less problematic with removable devices. Maybe we need another dead simple open standard file file system for removable storage, since FAT32 is absolutely useless. (Moreso now that its file size limit is being routinely hit).