My first day without windows.....

[djsroknrol]

Yesterday, I decided, this is it...the day I don't load to MS first. I ran into the usual 80 - 110MB upgrade....I checked my mail afterwards, read my newsgroups, and chatted with my friends across the country on IRC. I worked on a batch of photos of my brother-in-law's wedding in Las Vegas last weekend with the help of a card reader and Gimp (Camera is not cooperating with the serial port), I added a little more to my next N-gauge layout plan on Xtrak and worked on a spreadsheet for work.

All this without MS....at first, I didn't even realize it, but after I shut down, It hit me...no windows!!...it was sureal to say the least. After all those years of MS bondage, I was doing things without Bill's help!!

How cool was that? I must admit, I'll miss my flight simulator and sims2, but in the long run, I think I can live without it...If I could only get away from windows at work...which by the way felt sort of strange the next day.

A few more days and I'll have to change my signature again...:D

[johnc4510]

google this: SearchAndRescue for a flight simulator game.

[Sef]

Welcome to the WwW (World without Windows.)

[Christmas]

How cool was that? I must admit, I'll miss my flight simulator and sims2, but in the long run, I think I can live without it...If I could only get away from windows at work...which by the way felt sort of strange the next day.
I had the same experience as you. It's hard to make the change. All the support that hardware manufacturers are making is made for windows, from video cards to tv-tunners and, let me say it, to mobile phones. I had a problem accessing my pictures on a mobile phone in linux. The software that came with this Samsung z500 is for windows and there was no way to install it. It's a big change and its hard to understand as an ex-ms user: there are only two players, windows and linux, I won't include apple here, they're just another story. So, here I was, me and linux, or me and windows. So I chose. I struggled between linux and windows, and the reasons were on both sides. For windows, all this stuff was made so easily, i mean the games, the programs, all that was so easy. I mean, I have a phone. I have a CD. I have a PC. I have Windows installed on it, so i take the CD, I install the programs needed to access the contents of my phone and that's it. In Linux I tried to get help and god I got nothing. So my pictures on my phone will actually get into my pc, but how? I'm going to install the software on a windows pc and then access it. So, at this point, there would be windows, even if I don't have it on my pc, i only have kubuntu. And I have this thought "man, this is struggling, go back to windows" so I think "why I wouldn't go back?" but every time I put this question to me there are all those "it's closed source, you could be violated!!" answers. Then I think back to Linux. And I think "there's only open source and MS out there: chooose" and then I think well I can do everything with open source, I can actually look for the code and understand it, on the other hand I can't do that with MS. So I mention I study on a computer college so this is what im going to actually earn a living. So I'm thinking and I'm thinking and I am thinking again: there are only 2 players, what should I choose??? This "open-source" and "free-software" thing can't actually get into my mind, but omg, neither ms and their ****** windows can. So I keep reading and reading and reading, from this forum to the hackers culture and I get nowhere. I only get the feeling that the majority uses windows not because its easier or whatever, just because the money, that's where they come from, not from free software. If I, as a programmer, think that way, why wouldnt the majority think that waY?

So I was talking with this programmer who actually earns a living from software, so I asked him "I've just installed linux, the ubuntu distro, what do you think about that?" and he said "well linux is for ppl who will remain at bottom, in a small company" and then I said "well I was a Windows user, I think Xp its a good OS" and he said "Xp is a good an d stable os". He left me the impression that he was talking this way just because he earns his living because he develops for windows, not for linux. So again, I came just to this fixed idea I have: there are only two, windows and linux. windows closed-source, linux open source, free, so I think this free software thing won't have a future, I mean, I'm using linux, I'm using ubuntu right now, I have no windows and I won't get back to it, but where will this free software idea going to lead? How can a programmer, a person who studied programming, how is he going to earn a living developing free software? Yep I'm using and trust me, I will use linux as far as I can get, but I think there's no shiny future for this free software conception. :(

[Eversmann]

I'll miss my flight simulator and sims2

Cedega is the answer, from transgaming.com

You could speak with your boss, after learning more about ubuntu, and wine (for those program that are only for mswin). For example, i recently did a wifi connection on a hotel only using opensource software (and ubuntu for the radius,apache,mysql,ssh,ftp server) just using old pIII 866 computers. My receipt for doing that was way more cheaper than all the other guys's proposals, and everything is running really good.

I'm really, really happy with ubuntu, and i don't use anything else on my laptop since 5.04 ;-)

[BoyOfDestiny]

Flightgear is in the repos (universe.) :)

FlightGear is an open-source, multi-platform flight simulator.

http://www.flightgear.org/

EDIT: Also congratulations. It did feel a little weird for me too. Had gone through so many iterations of MSDOS, then windows... all the way to XP (skipped ME and 2K)

[Jeff Johnston]

how is he going to earn a living developing free software
As a developer myself my experience is that most developers write programs for companies to develop very custom software. Packaged software always comes up short to run the companies core business. Packaged software is great for apps like writing documents, spreadsheets, project management tools, and other very specific software needs. However, because one company is very different than another company the software needs are very different as well. Whenever management tries to bring in packaged software it ends up failing and makes my job very secure. Or they instantantly need to "integrate" with the packaged deal because it falls short, which is all the same to me.

Open source is amazing for what I do, and I would not be able to do my job without it!

There will always be jobs for talented developers. But, lets say that open source does take my job...that means I will have to flip burgers by day, but can thankfully go home and program at night on my shiny Ubuntu machine :)!

[dasunst3r]

Glad you made that transition! I keep Windows around just in case, but I am on Linux 99% of the time!

[vayu]

Yep I'm using and trust me, I will use linux as far as I can get, but I think there's no shiny future for this free software conception. :(

I believe there are more issues in rising from nothing to where FOSS is now than to maintain what is here. Personally I believe FOSS will continue to grow dynamically.

(What I'm wishing and praying for is more of the FOSS ways of being to be incorporated to the rest of society. I've had enough of money driven ways of being. It's so counter to life itself.)

[Shay Stephens]

After all those years of MS bondage, I was doing things without Bill's help!!

More importantly, you are doing this without having to get his permission (e.g activation) to use your own computer.

[mostwanted]

Flightgear is in the repos (universe.) :)

FlightGear is an open-source, multi-platform flight simulator.

http://www.flightgear.org/

EDIT: Also congratulations. It did feel a little weird for me too. Had gone through so many iterations of MSDOS, then windows... all the way to XP (skipped ME and 2K)

Whoa, never knew about this game. Is it in the Dapper repos or will I have to install manually? (I'm not on Ubuntu currently)

[BoyOfDestiny]

Whoa, never knew about this game. Is it in the Dapper repos or will I have to install manually? (I'm not on Ubuntu currently)

Yep Dapper has it, in universe.

[djsroknrol]

OK.....second day.....:)

I tried Search and Rescue this morning (not bad...kinda kwel), and want to try out Flight Gear later...I'm not having the withdrawls that I thought I'd have...

I hope the "doom and gloom" predictors are wrong about OSS...it would be a shame to all the people who can't afford Bill's "milking of their wallets" not to have this freedom of choice.

BTW, I also thought about making a non internet 'puter strictly for gaming, but I guess that would defeat the purpose of being MS free, huh?

[djsroknrol]

Here's a snapshot of both flight sims... Things like this make leaving MS easier. Now if EA games could port the Sims2 to Linux I'd be in Nervana...On second thought, the win gamer box idea is out. I'm having too much fun this way...