Who here still uses Windows more then Linux\Ubuntu and WHY?

[PrimoTurbo]

Well I decided to wipe my Ubuntu partitions because I haven't been using Ubuntu for a while, due to the following reasons.


Gaming, with my aging computer there is no way I can enjoy games with decent fps under Wine or Cedega. Plus the numerous bugs and problems with running older windows games under linux. ATI support is also really bad atm.

Photoshop, I cannot stand GIMP for freelance work. Emulating Photoshop 7 with crossover works, but much slower then normal and you are stuck with an older version of photoshop. It's also impossible to use brushes due to the laggy mouse feedback under crossover on my system.

I haven't found a good solution to share torrent downloads between uTorrent on Windows and other torrent applications on Linux. I'm stuck downloading separate things and placing them on separate partitions and it's a pain all around.

Slow re-drawing speed of the linux interface (minimizing windows, resizing windows, etc), on my system everything is a bit slower then on Windows (granted I have XP configured for 0 delay on everything). I have tried everything and have started many threads regarding this problem. For the most part I know that it's my older system (P4 1.6Ghz, 768 DDR Ram, 9700 Pro) but from what I have come to understand it's also the fundamental design of X and how it communicates as a separate process with the kernel, I'm very sensitive to sluggish interfaces unfortunately.

Sound problems, the sound management on Linux needs more improvement. Sometimes sound stops working on a certain applications like BMP for example and I have to use another application, then try BMP again to get it to work. Also I have noticed very poor quality sound compared to windows when playing music at full volume from the computer, there is a bit of a interference that I have never heard before on Windows. The problem occurs if you put the volume to 100% on both the system & the application in many cases.

Video problems, the only video player that has provided good video play back is SMPlayer. Totem completely fails to show anything decent, it's all pixelated. SMPlayer is awesome, very fast video playback and video forward/back second skip, but I still notice slight color flickering in certain parts and rendering issues like out-sync or video tearing which I have never seen before playing under Windows with Media Player Classic and XP Codec Pack.

Constantly breaking my system, this is my fault for installing beta/alpha software, compiling my own kernel and such but I just love customizing things but can't stand fixing everything all the time.


So I am back on windows for a while, maybe I will give 7.10 a run when it's out. Has anyone else got back to windows and why?...

[EXCiD3]

I use windows more than Linux, as I do quite alot of gaming and I prefer using Windows for gaming as there is no where near the hastle of getting it run halfway in wine...

But it is strictly for gaming. Anything else I reboot into Ubuntu for.

[PrimoTurbo]

Yeah gaming is probably the biggest draw back and will be until companies start releasing native games for linux, which is very unlikely for most of them.

[Tux Aubrey]

I only use Windows at work (because I have to). I have now deleted the XP partitions on all but one of my family's four computers. The one with Windows still installed is used by my hardcore gamer son.

I've had none of the problems you mention (with sound, video or speed) and these days I am much more comfortable using the GIMP interface rather than the Photoshop I use at work (but I'm not a professional user). I do have a few peeves with some open source software - OO writer and database are, IMO, so far behind their equivalent MS products that I can't love them in the way I do others - like the GIMP, Inkscape, Scribus, Firefox and Exaile. But philosophical and loyalty considerations, and the fact that I genuinely believe that Ubuntu is a better desktop OS than Windows, over-ride these irritations. Ubuntu has worked incredibly well for me since Dapper.

Have you tried other Linux distros? You may find that the hardware problems you are having are peculiar to Ubuntu. Fedora and PCLinuxOS are sufficiently different (and still on the fairly free side of the fence) to warrant a try. I could not fault either on hardware detection and compatibility last time I tried them.

[beniwtv]

[LIST]
Gaming, with my aging computer there is no way I can enjoy games with decent fps under Wine or Cedega. Plus the numerous bugs and problems with running older windows games under linux. ATI support is also really bad atm.


Yes that's really a drawback. But it's not Linux's fault. I hope that some companies will release some games for Linux in the near future.



Photoshop, I cannot stand GIMP for freelance work. Emulating Photoshop 7 with crossover works, but much slower then normal and you are stuck with an older version of photoshop. It's also impossible to use brushes due to the laggy mouse feedback under crossover on my system.


Agreed. While I do not use Photoshop, the Gimp's interface could be better (Hint: Separate windows for everything).



I haven't found a good solution to share torrent downloads between uTorrent on Windows and other torrent applications on Linux. I'm stuck downloading separate things and placing them on separate partitions and it's a pain all around.


I mainly use KTorrent, although I'm using Gnome. Maybe if you put them on the Windows partition, you may be able to resume it in either Windows or Ubuntu, but I haven't tried nor I know if that's possible.



Slow re-drawing speed of the linux interface (minimizing windows, resizing windows, etc), on my system everything is a bit slower then on Windows (granted I have XP configured for 0 delay on everything). I have tried everything and have started many threads regarding this problem. For the most part I know that it's my older system (P4 1.6Ghz, 768 DDR Ram, 9700 Pro) but from what I have come to understand it's also the fundamental design of X and how it communicates as a separate process with the kernel, I'm very sensitive to sluggish interfaces unfortunately.


I don't have any of these problems. My oldest system is a AMD Duron 1300 Mhz, 640 MB RAM, and a GeForce 4. But I also know ATI is a pain in Linux, so your experience may be different...



Sound problems, the sound management on Linux needs more improvement. Sometimes sound stops working on a certain applications like BMP for example and I have to use another application, then try BMP again to get it to work. Also I have noticed very poor quality sound compared to windows when playing music at full volume from the computer, there is a bit of a interference that I have never heard before on Windows. The problem occurs if you put the volume to 100% on both the system & the application in many cases.


I also don't have this problem. This may very well be the linux driver for your sound card, and maybe you should file a bug.



Video problems, the only video player that has provided good video play back is SMPlayer. Totem completely fails to show anything decent, it's all pixelated. SMPlayer is awesome, very fast video playback and video forward/back second skip, but I still notice slight color flickering in certain parts and rendering issues like out-sync or video tearing which I have never seen before playing under Windows with Media Player Classic and XP Codec Pack.


I agree Totem is not the best player around, I mainly use Xine.

At the end, it all comes down to how well your hardware is supported. The best you can do is to come back later, and see if the situation has improved.

Good luck. :)

[cutare]

I jumped back to Windows immediately after I realised Ubuntu releases are frozen in time. I hate waiting 6 months for the next release, just to get the latest version of Firefox, or whatever basic software. For me, the time-based release cycle is flawed to the core, defective by design.

Now I'm using Windows XP and I haven't had ONE issue with it. It's just perfect for my needs. I check these forums from time to time, hoping something will change, but chances of that happening are equal to zero.

[Dragonbite]

I am primarily using Linux, but my wife is stuck in Windows for
Photoshop (took this much time to learn the interface, Gimp is just very different BUT can do 99.9% of what we need it for)
Microsoft Publisher (Haven't figured out Scribus enough for it to be as easy)
Microsoft Word (OpenOffice.org can replace this. It's just this is more familiar to her)
and when I use it, I use it for
Cisco VPN (haven't gotten it to work in Ubuntu, I believe due ot firewall issues and the alternatives, whose names I forget right now, have not worked (probably due to the same reason) so until I can get that hacked, I'm stuck)
Visual Studio Express (Monodevelop is getting there, and I am trying to use it as I go through my "Coding C#" book's examples)

[Dark Star]

I do not have windows installed though I have the CD lying never bothered to install :) I do

Coding coding and listening music sometimes :D

[bonzodog]

I jumped back to Windows immediately after I realised Ubuntu releases are frozen in time. I hate waiting 6 months for the next release, just to get the latest version of Firefox, or whatever basic software. For me, the time-based release cycle is flawed to the core, defective by design.

Now I'm using Windows XP and I haven't had ONE issue with it. It's just perfect for my needs. I check these forums from time to time, hoping something will change, but chances of that happening are equal to zero.

You don't have to use Ubuntu you know -- quite a few other distros update the software as and when it is released. Have you though about maybe trying some other distros?

[rickyjones]

I use both Ubuntu and Windows.

My laptop is a dual-boot and I'm in Windows 99% of the time. It works better than Ubuntu on my laptop. Suspend/hibernate/wireless works flawlessly in Windows. The applications that I need work without issues (Word, Powerpoint (the "powerpoint" application in Open Office does not come close to Powerpoint 2007), EasyWorship (for my church), Quickbooks, Quicken, and Itunes).

I use Ubuntu on a monitoring server at my church and for fileservers at various customers.

I use Windows on the domain controllers and workstations at customer sites.

I'm looking into using Ubuntu and Active Directory integration for new customer installs if they do not require Office or Outlook or any specialty Windows-only applications.

My next laptop will most likely be a Dell laptop with Ubuntu preinstalled so that I know that ALL my hardware will work without issue. When I close the lid it must suspend without issue. When I open it back up it must resume without issue. Wireless needs to be able to connect to any access point that I have access to...

I believe in using the right tool for the job. My next laptop will most likely run Ubuntu as the only OS and will run VMWare to virtualize Windows XP Professional. I can do Windows-only work in VMWare and call it good.

-Richard

[Depressed Man]

You don't have to use Ubuntu you know -- quite a few other distros update the software as and when it is released. Have you though about maybe trying some other distros?

Not to mention you could always just do it yourself (just like in Windows where not all programs will give you update notifications).

As for the torrenting problem. I'd imagine you have to use the same torrenting program. So maybe if you use utorrent in Windows and then use Wine in Linux with utorrent (making sure to setup ALL directories and options (such as pending .ut to the end of incomplete torrent files) it would work.

[Anthem]

Because I use it at work.

And I work a lot.

[maagimies]

Gaming, just gaming.
I'm very comfortable doing everything else in Linux :D

And yes my computer is also much too old for Wine or Cedega to be of any use. Everyone always brags how they get better performance in Wine than in Windows, well, I've never seen it.
About the only game that I have playable in Wine is Deus Ex, it reaches almost the fps I get in Windows, and it's comfortable to play.

[BDNiner]

I use my windows computer for gaming and some audio production, and a little programming. I tried ubuntu studio and that was a disaster. I update using synaptic, and when i rebooted nothing happened. I could not even get to the terminal. So that was quickly wiped clean and regular ubuntu put back on. Plus my m-audio usb sound card crashes my ubuntu box when it is plugged in. Same with my midi keyboard. So audio production will remain on my windows box for now. I am planning on getting pro tools for it at some point. I just have to justify the expense in my mind first.

[rolando2424]

I jumped back to Windows immediately after I realised Ubuntu releases are frozen in time. I hate waiting 6 months for the next release, just to get the latest version of Firefox, or whatever basic software. For me, the time-based release cycle is flawed to the core, defective by design.

Now I'm using Windows XP and I haven't had ONE issue with it. It's just perfect for my needs. I check these forums from time to time, hoping something will change, but chances of that happening are equal to zero.

Perhaps you should try Arch Linux, I believe they don't have a time-based release, they just keep updating they repositories (I could be wrong though, since I have yet to give it a try (but I have the cd here, so I can try it one day)).

And no, I don't use Windows anymore... But perhaps I should, since I play more in Linux than in Windows (My Windows was so good behaved that it didn't installed DirectX 9.0, because it said it couldn't trust the company :D).

Although I have Windows installed, I just don't use it because I can do everything on Linux (currently using Debian), and my Windows is so messed up (exe don't open, links don't open, and I have to try to open a link to a program, choose the program to open the program (yes, I laughed too), choose the Windows command line, they from there go to the folder of the program, and execute it from there (and no, I can't go to execute --> cmd, because it says it can't find the program)).

Currently the only reason I haven't wiped Windows partition is because I have some porn in there and I have to fix my dvd driver to save that porn. Other than that, no use at all.:lolflag: