Making The Move To Linux

[drhowarddrfine]

Windows is just as usable as Linux, and there is just as much software available for it. All you gotta do is install Xampp, or something like EasyPHP and you will be able to do everything you mentioned there on Windows without any additional expenditure at all.

LOL! You Windows guys just crack me up.

And no, one doesn't have to be a light user to get the same usage out of Windows as Linux, in fact I am a power user and I find that using Linux actually limits me rather than enriches me, because although FOSS is great, in some circumstances there is just no free alternitive that can match (Photoshop is a great example).

Why is it that, whenever a Windows user wants to show how great Windows is, bring Photoshop up. Is that the all you can do? You guys crack me up.

How about this? Right now, securely log into another Windows computer with your computer and run Microsoft Word from that computer but not using Word installed on yours. Now, do that 10 times with 10 different Windows computers if you have access to them. Securely, mind you!

What? You can't? Why not? I don't have 10 Linux boxes but I do have 5 FreeBSD boxes. Only one runs OpenOffice but I can run OO from any one of those machines. Securely, too.

Power User Seriously? Sitting there scratching your head and entering terminal commands doesn't make you a power user, it makes you a glutton for punishment. Windows is totally power user friendly

Did you try the above example? How about this. Go into the registry from your computer, modify it, then reboot that Windows computer using the new settings. I'll wait.

Creative Person (writer, artist, outside the box thinker) Again, seriously? What the hell does Linux offer a writer or artist that Windows doesn't.

Almost all Hollywood movies use Unix since I was there with SGI and Pixar working on Jurassic Park. Unix is still widely used in all high end development and Apple on the lower end. Do you see all those Macs (based on BSD) in all those TV shows? Not only do writers use a Mac but the editors do, too.

Oh, and Photoshop? I can run Photoshop on Linux but, for the web, The Gimp does everything anyone needs.

Administrator Ok, that one is easy to shoot down. Probably about 80% of the world's corporate and small business networks run Windows, and there is a reason for that

And the internet was created on and runs on Unix.

Developer/Programmer Again, you can develop almost anything in Windows that you can develop in Linux

Write a shell script, less than 20 lines, that accesses a web page every minute and prints that page on a secondary (not primary) printer.

Or fetch a web page, using a shell script, filter it for a certain word or words, email it to one person and print it on a remote printer in another city in less than 10 lines.

Someone not afraid of challenges What the hell? Using your OS shouldn't be a challenge

Believe me. Windows is a challenge. If there isn't a point/click thing, you can't change anything and there's no man page to help you. With 'nix, everything has a man page.

Someone who believes in reliability Windows is reliable for me, and for most other people. For anyone who can configure a computer properly, Windows is perfectly reliable, I have probably seen 6 bluescreens in the last year and a bit of use and some of them where related to me pushing the envelope with overclocking

On 'nix, I have two computers I use as servers. One has been running for four years and the other for 3 1/2. Never crashed. I have 5 other BSD and one Linux system. None of them have ever crashed. So you are saying Windows is at least 6x less stable than 'nix.

Blah, blah, blah. It's obvious from what you are saying you have never seen a Linux computer much less used one. What you talk about is what you read on a forum somewhere or a magazine. If you want to know how Linux works, find a nickel and get a real computer. Otherwise, don't comment on things you know nothing about.

is only used for gaming - which we all know MS is still superior in.

Microsoft is big into gaming? Which titles? Let's see. Halo? And Flight Sim? And.......hm.

[DavidM]

Microsoft is big into gaming? Which titles? Let's see. Halo? And Flight Sim? And.......hm.

I believe he means the Window Platform for gaming not games developed by Microsoft.

Don't take this the wrong way, but your hatred for all things Microsoft is really scary and creepy. I don't know what Microsoft did to you personally, but between this thread and the IE8 contest one, you seem to take everything they do as a personal attack. Microsoft is a company, just like many other trying to make a profit and keep the doors open, while making the best software they can. Granted they have fallen short on more than one occasion, but I doubt there is a company that has not fallen short of expectations at one time or another.

Back on topic, Linux is great I used Slackware the most, but since I started dual booting 7 instead of Vista I spend more and more time in 7. You can do anything in one OS or the other, some things will be easier, others harder. If you are happy with Linux, BSD, OSX, Windows, or whatever, keep using it, but computing shouldn't be about the OS, it should be about getting a job done. No matter what that job is, my jobs for my computer? Games, Internet, Mail, Website maintenance, and a little Online Banking. Windows does gaming the best, and rest just as good as Slackware for me, so I use Windows the most, I can't remember the last time I booted into Slack.

Anyway, remember it's you computer and your time, pick the one that does what you want it to do and use it! Good Luck.

EDIT: P.S. - I'm not a windows guy I'm a computer user who happens to use Windows.

[sw1tch..]

Ahh, gotta love when a 'help me switch to Linux' thread turns into a Linux vs. MS flame war....

I made the switch over two years ago, and could not be happier. I still have a Windows XP partition on my HD, but that is only used for gaming - which we all know MS is still superior in. Other than that, I have loved using Linux since day 1. But to each their own, Linux isn't for everyone. Anyway, to the OP - good luck bro, start with the dual boot and see how it goes. Post any troubles in this forum, there are plenty of people here willing to help.

Cheers for the comments. And Amon Amarth Rock :yes:

[drhowarddrfine]

Don't take this the wrong way, but your hatred for all things Microsoft is really scary and creepy. I don't know what Microsoft did to you personally, but between this thread and the IE8 contest one, you seem to take everything they do as a personal attack.

I have experience with Microsoft and their products.

Microsoft is a company, just like many other trying to make a profit and keep the doors open, while making the best software they can. Granted they have fallen short on more than one occasion, but I doubt there is a company that has not fallen short of expectations at one time or another.

Microsoft has committed crimes against others on two continents and settled rather than go to court. Paid $2 billion in fines for those activities and expecting more. Under US Federal oversite for another year or so. Microsoft is not a company just like others.

Games

Lol!

[NightmarE D]

I believe he means the Window Platform for gaming not games developed by Microsoft.

Don't take this the wrong way, but your hatred for all things Microsoft is really scary and creepy. I don't know what Microsoft did to you personally, but between this thread and the IE8 contest one, you seem to take everything they do as a personal attack. Microsoft is a company, just like many other trying to make a profit and keep the doors open, while making the best software they can. Granted they have fallen short on more than one occasion, but I doubt there is a company that has not fallen short of expectations at one time or another.

+1

Go view his other thread where he had a Windows network issue that he couldn't fix for going on 30 days now :rolleyes: 30 days and couldn't find one single thing to fix it? That thread was nothing more than him baiting in Windows users to bash.

Little message for him: Stop assuming that all Windows users on here use Windows only. I happen to use both Windows and Linux myself.

[drhowarddrfine]

Go view his other thread where he had a Windows network issue that he couldn't fix for going on 30 days now :rolleyes: 30 days and couldn't find one single thing to fix it? That thread was nothing more than him baiting in Windows users to bash.

Are you my personal stalker now? Is every thread I rerspond to going to get something from you?

Now, since, like the other thread, you have nothing to add and nothing to offer, please go away.

[cork1958]

Thanks for the response. I suppose that's why I am keen to make the move. When I say boring maybe I mean easy. I can do pretty much anything within Windows very easily with minimal need for configuration changes etc. I am sure a contributing factor to this has been my ever growing skill level.

I suppose the thing that excites my so far about linux is the feeling of having to put some effort in to get a result.

Hardly the reason to make any move towards Linux, but, hey, I did the same thing.

Excitement wears off soon though!

Good luck!!

You'll be back to using using that easy, boring old Windows in no time!!

[reactionary007]

Just when 7 is about to come out?

[DavidM]

I have experience with Microsoft and their products.Microsoft has committed crimes against others on two continents and settled rather than go to court. Paid $2 billion in fines for those activities and expecting more. Under US Federal oversite for another year or so. Microsoft is not a company just like others.

Lol!

I'm not going to argue Microsoft has broken a few laws or settled out of court, however if you use that standard you'll need to stop using Intel (fined 1.5 billion) and they have been know to use some rather nasty business practices.

Why are you laughing that I like to play games on my PC? It's the number one thing I do on my computer, and with my limited free time, if I can surf, check email and do a few other thing from the same seat, please explain to me how I can do that with Linux. I doubt that Prototype or GTA4 will run under Linux and since those are the two games I'm playing the most right now - Windows is the ONLY option.

TO the OP: Sorry for moving this thread ever further off topic, I won't post in it anymore.

[Lechio]

I doubt that Prototype or GTA4 will run under Linux and since those are the two games I'm playing the most right now - Windows is the ONLY option.

[JHH]

That's not GTA4.

[i_was_here]

Power User Seriously? Sitting there scratching your head and entering terminal commands doesn't make you a power user, it makes you a glutton for punishment. Windows is totally power user friendly

Does tweaking fall under "power user" because theres a lot I can easily change* in Linux and not so in Windows.

*things like the window manager, panel, file manager. Also you can remove any feature/program you want.

Someone who enjoys learning There's probably more free educational software for Linux than Windows, but apart from that both OSes require some learning for manipulation and use

I think he/she meant that people who like to learn a new OS should try Linux.

Someone who doesn't live in fear of viruses Nobody lives in fear of viruses unless they are stupid enough to not protect themselves properly

How many people would try running Windows without an antivirus?

I have done so successfully but Im far from average joe.

[Lechio]

That's not GTA4.

Must admit I haven't played the game, but this guy says it is:

http://sudosys.be/?q=GTA_san_andreas_on_ubuntu_8_04_wine

Here's the videocast:

Edited June 25, 2009 by Lechio

[brentaal]

GTA San Andreas belongs to the GTA 3 series, not GTA 4.

[Lechio]

GTA San Andreas belongs to the GTA 3 series, not GTA 4.

Ah that clears it, thanks.

[Growled Member]

I have experience with Microsoft and their products.Microsoft has committed crimes against others on two continents and settled rather than go to court. Paid $2 billion in fines for those activities and expecting more. Under US Federal oversite for another year or so. Microsoft is not a company just like others.

Yeah, right. I guess Intel and Apple has never done anything wrong. Lol. All companies are "evil" to the extent that they will place making money over every other priority. I am not defending Microsoft. What they did was wrong and they have been punished for that. If they are caught doing wrong again, they will get punished again. But they are exactly like every other big company out there.

[Behemoth]

Microsoft is big into gaming? Which titles? Let's see. Halo? And Flight Sim? And.......hm.

I believe he means the Window Platform for gaming not games developed by Microsoft.

That's exactly what I meant....

Cheers for the comments. And Amon Amarth Rock yes.gif

No problem, good luck! Oh, and definitely!

[DragonMaster Jay]

Hello.

Try virtual box if you are interested in Virtual Machine. I think it is easy to use.

[Andre S. Veteran]

One that I would give to Linux too is for programmer. As one that develop with Microsoft Visual Studio at work and on Linux at home, I prefer the second one. On windows, you have that big, fat and heavy IDE with some plugins to integration things like version control system, doxygen, languages, api/framework that make it even bigger and slower while on Linux thosethings are separated in light and fast applications (svn, git, gdb, command line tools, etc). Most of my time on windows is waiting for Visual Studio to respond to my query, waiting for auto competion to popup (only to close it), wait for the debugger to start, wait while I compile, wait to open file, wait, wait, wait. But with separate tools, I can do those things in parallel or making script (like build script, nighly build script, aliases, separated account configured (with bashrc) with the right linking/include path and so on). Not having to wait on an heavy weight centralised IDE is a relief. Even if you like IDE, you can use them, KDevelop 4.x will be mostly equal to Visual Studio in term of features (pros and cons), Eclipse is there (even worst than VS, so must be better for people who like VS), Qt Creator, Anjuta, Code::Blocks and many other are also great.

I beg to differ. There's nothing to stop you from using lightweight editors on Windows. For instance, there is Notepad++. If you prefer Netbeans or Code::Blocks or Eclipse, they're all available on Windows too. For C++, Visual Studio tends to become a slug on large projects, due to indexing. However, nothing beats the C++ debugger of Visual Studio. Everything else I've used was vastly inferior. It simply knows everything about every single type and lets you intuitively see all the information you need, even deep down stl containers and boost monster types and what have you. This is a great gain in productivity.

Keep in mind that all IDEs have a hard time with C++ as it is very difficult to parse and take ages to compile, so code completion and go to definition and such features tend not to work reliably and take lots of CPU in any IDE. Try C# or VB in Visual Studio, then the IDE is smooth as silk. Instant compilation, nice built-in refactorings, the UI is always responsive, intellisense rocks, etc.

Btw, you can invoke auto-completion with Ctrl-space in most IDEs including Visual Studio, no need to wait. ;)

You don't need to integrate everything in Visual Studio. You can use a separate build system if you wish. You can use a separate version control system if you wish, I use Tortoise SVN and there's no better SVN client, even on Linux.

Finally... there's nothing like XNA on Linux. ;) So my opinion is that developers, developers, developers, developers... are well served on Windows.

[Elv13]

I know, but the coding philosophy of windows is closer to that big IDE and Linux have always been focused on many small blocks to form a plus-value. Even if on both you can use big IDE or small tools, it doesn't change my point.

On Linux, the command line bound all these little tools together to create some kind of unity in diversity, on windows, even if you put shortcut of each of them on yout desktop, you will just have 10 little floating windows and 5 CMD prompt instead of just one prompt and 1 or 2 windows on linux.

And by the way, when I said "wait for completion" I was talking about the lag it create when VS decide to display it. I don't need completion and I often hate debugger (but agree that VSdb with stl tree tooltip is the best out there). I always try to figure out bug by logic (if it is my code) before lanching a debugger.

[Andre S. Veteran]

I know, but the coding philosophy of windows is closer to that big IDE and Linux have always been focused on many small blocks to form a plus-value. Even if on both you can use big IDE or small tools, it doesn't change my point.

I get your point, but IMO, that difference of "philosophy" is just a reflexion of the fact that no IDE on Linux really compares with Visual Studio.

[Elv13]

Eclispe does, Kdevelop2 does (better completion, code visualisation without external tools (i.e Ms Visio), valgrind integration for visual memory leak detection but worst debugger/projet management/stability (even if MS VS (2005) is not what I call stable)) and NetBearns does. Those 3 are equals to MS VS. But KDevelop2 seem to be in eternal unfreezes beta. They really want to make the greatest IDE, that's a good thing. If they can stabilize that beast it may reach that goal sooner than later (semantic completion is cool)

[Lechio]

I've tried a few IDE's in MS Windows and Linux, what I can say is that KDevelop is not even in the same league as MS Visual Studio.

Give it a go Dr_Asik, then report back. :)

[Andre S. Veteran]

I've tried a few IDE's in MS Windows and Linux, what I can say is that KDevelop is not even in the same league as MS Visual Studio.

Give it a go Dr_Asik, then report back. :)

Last year I tried KDevelop and after 2 minutes I was like "What is this piece of ****" and then I installed Code::Blocks instead. I can't say I gave it a fair evaluation but it looked so amateurish that my initial feeling was to stay away from it, and that's what I did.

As for the CDT plugin for Eclipse, the indexing is even worse than in Visual Studio, it's literaly unusable. I always disable the indexer when I have to work in C or C++ with Eclipse, or else my environment freezes every minute.

[Elv13]

I said KDevelop4 (sorry for calling it 2 in the last post, but it feel so new), it is a complete rewrite started in 2005, I never liked KDevelop(1.xxx-3.xxx). I will post screenshot once I get it working, the trunk is broken due to core remanagement today (can't compile).

Edited June 27, 2009 by Elv13