Things to miss when you are on windows

[vexorian]

Yep I began a thread. These things I miss when I am on windows:

- Multiple desktops! Oh god, multitasking is so much easier when you got multiple desktops, I even tried finding a program that would let me do that, I found a powertoy that added a desktop selector but it was VERY slow and it kept every program's taskbar button...

- Organization! I miss emblems, or at least the ability to change a folder's color... Fortunately there is an addon called iColorFolder which allows you to change the color of a folder's icon, VERY useful, although I still miss emblems a little.

- Compiz and derivatives, all right maybe vista's aero does something like this but on windows XP things begin to look too pale after you use too much compiz-fusion, not to mention I doubt aero brings any of the USEFUL compiz features...

- Customizability, there is no way to change the icon theme, at least there is no way to change the icon theme without hacking the heck of the dll files, and even if you get to do that, you will have to wait ages for it to update all icons, and then we have the window border and widgets theme, in total we got 4 themes in windows XP, Four themes! Of course, there are ways to add themes but again, hack dlls or use shareware...

- Synaptic : Hey whoever loves the fact that to find a freeware windows program you must use google, do a lot of researches to make sure the new program is no malware, or that it doesn't come with malware, and once you install it and find out it is a darn shareware you want to install it, but it doesn't really uninstall it...

- The terminal : Yeah, cmd.exe is pretty well hidden and it has 10% of the usefulness of the terminal, not to mention batch files are nothing compared to shell scripts, it is VERY bad when you are doing development, really.

- Synaptic, seriously. Speaking of development, let's say you want to make a program that uses SDL, SDL_ttf and SDL_image, in Linux you just use synaptic to install the development packages and then you can rejust use an autoconf package for them file, go try that in windows...


- Ctrol+A : Anyone else noticed? in gtk: ctrol+A selects all the text but does not change the position of the cursor, yet windows would move the cursor to the end of the document. When you are doing some editing that requires you to paste from a syntax highlight editor into something that holds the code this is really something you'll miss. The alternative I found was using gVim on windows since you can make a macro that does that.

[Chilli Bob]

Multiple desktops definitely. And that button in the bottom left hand corner that clears the desktop, I don't know what it's called. I miss that most of all.

OH, and being able to instantly force kill a crashed app. rather than it taking a couple of minutes, if at all.

[LaRoza]

- Multiple desktops! Oh god, multitasking is so much easier when you got multiple desktops, I even tried finding a program that would let me do that, I found a powertoy that added a desktop selector but it was VERY slow and it kept every program's taskbar button...

- Synaptic : Hey whoever loves the fact that to find a freeware windows program you must use google, do a lot of researches to make sure the new program is no malware, or that it doesn't come with malware, and once you install it and find out it is a darn shareware you want to install it, but it doesn't really uninstall it...

Especially Multiple desktops.



- The terminal : Yeah, cmd.exe is pretty well hidden and it has 10% of the usefulness of the terminal, not to mention batch files are nothing compared to shell scripts, it is VERY bad when you are doing development, really.

Batch is weak, but I have a batch file that I use to make my own terminal.(It makes a lot of Lynux commands work, like "ls" instead of "dir", and sets my %PATH% so I can easily use Python, Perl, or TCL. ActivePython is very good.

[LaRoza]

Multiple desktops definitely. And that button in the bottom left hand corner that clears the desktop, I don't know what it's called. I miss that most of all.

OH, and being able to instantly force kill a crashed app. rather than it taking a couple of minutes, if at all.

You can add a "Show desktop" to the bar.

[matthinckley]

highlight and middle-click to paste

[vexorian]

yeah that's pretty odd, in windows 98 that button was available by default, somehow they removed it in XP, adding the button back is the first thing I do after setting everything to work correctly on XP

[juxtaposed]

Things to miss when you are on windows

Linux.

[justin whitaker]

I've been on XP the past couple of days, and then I came to my senses...I was just missing too much some of Ubuntu's features.

Mutliple Desktops: Complete agreement. You get so used to using them, and the versions that are available for XP are just not as intuitive.

Synaptic: Again, complete agreement. It makes updating and installing everything so darn easy.

Amarok: Nothing is better. Nothing. I refuse to listen.

Konqueror: Everything that Windows Explorer wants to be, only better.

Klipper: Yes, there are applications that do this on XP, but are they as integrated, simple, intuitive? No? Didn't think so!

I could go on, but you get the point. Ubuntu/Kubuntu F-T-W!

[nyvalbanat]

Multiple Desktops: see virtuaWin on sourceforge (and others) - it's fabulous
Kill programs, see open handles and much more (including killing privileged services owned by SYSTEM - something Task Manager won't let you do) - the amazing Process Explorer from sysinternals.com
Window Managers - see sourceforge.net for a couple of good alternatives

It's all downhill from there:
- no symbolic links (junction points have a long way to go)
- no consistent scripting mechanism (wsh is ok if people could use it instead of batch)
- no sudo (Vista came up with something similar - but you have to open a separate command prompt as administrator)
- promoting bad practices when it comes to file system and other permissions - even though it has decent capabilities
- most importantly, promoting vendor lock-in, which leads to high prices and low quality

[PatrickMay16]

Highlight and middleclick to paste.

[tcpip4lyfe]

Middle Click doesnt open a new tab in firefox. In fact, on one computer I use, it closes a window. Very annoying.

[juxtaposed]

Middle Click doesnt open a new tab in firefox. In fact, on one computer I use, it closes a window. Very annoying.

I just middleclicked in iceweasel (firefox on debian) and it said "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded", so it seems it opens a new tab on a link.

[lamalex]

user friendliness. Using windows is a day ruiner for me, it's not as intuitive or as powerful as Ubuntu. The thing in it I miss most when I have to use it, is a useful shell.

[Bungo Pony]

The biggest thing is the friendliness of the wheel mouse. I love how in Ubuntu you just point at the window and scroll, no matter which window is selected. The wheel mouse works like crap in windows - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

When moving windows in ubuntu, the whole thing moves. When moving windows in windows, you move an empty box and then it fills in. Very irritating.

DeVeDe - probably the most useful video conversion software I've ever used. Searching for codecs is a pain in the butt in Windows.

Kopete - 'nuff said :)

Those little yellow post-it things. I use TONS of those.

There's probably more that I'm forgetting

[macogw]

Multiple desktops definitely. And that button in the bottom left hand corner that clears the desktop, I don't know what it's called. I miss that most of all.

OH, and being able to instantly force kill a crashed app. rather than it taking a couple of minutes, if at all.

Windows has that button. At least XP does. You can also press <Super>+M (or Windows+M, if you prefer to call it that) to make everything minimize.

[macogw]

When moving windows in ubuntu, the whole thing moves. When moving windows in windows, you move an empty box and then it fills in. Very irritating.


Inaccurate. That's a setting on XP. If you set it for "best performance" it'll do that because it involves less screen-re-drawing. The default settings ("best appearance") redraw the whole window as you move it, so it does stay filled in while you move.

[SlayerMan]

One thing I regularly miss:
Pressing ALT and clicking anywhere in a window to move it.

[hidey]

Wobbly windows! It feels completely unnatural now when the windows in XP don't wobble.

[matthinckley]

Windows has that button. At least XP does. You can also press <Super>+M (or Windows+M, if you prefer to call it that) to make everything minimize.
Windows + D shows the desktop, and restores it if you press it again as well.

[Incense]

Multiple desktops, and apt-get. I had to set up a PDF image printer in XP the other day and it was hell. sudo apt-get install cups-pdf sounded so nice....

[purplearcanist]

Easy program compilation! One command to compile a c program (quickly, too), and one command to run it. I wonder why people shell out $100 for Microsoft Visual C++ when they can use a compiler that is quicker, and easier to use for free.

[Bungo Pony]

Inaccurate. That's a setting on XP.

Well I'll be damned, you're right! I never knew that existed. That makes Windows a little more tolerable :)

As for the "minimize all" button, I knew that existed in both. I never use it though.

[smoker]

Things to miss when you are on windows

that 'stress free feeling of serenity':-)