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Anybody here using any linux distro?
- Thread starter AndreRio
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B00nie
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On linux I miss all the windows software that won't run on it. Games and some enterprise stuff I have to work with.
If I could get my games and my work software to run on linux I would not spend a minute again on windows.
If I could get my games and my work software to run on linux I would not spend a minute again on windows.
I've spent five hours yesterday trying to get qtcreator and cmake to run. Pulled my hair out and got nowhere in the end. First SimplyMEPIS failed to install them because of some unresolvable dependencies. Then I managed to install them on Mint 16 only to find out that a newer (and only available in repositories) qt has problems with cmake and wishes to configure some kits of which neither I nor Google new anything about. Then I somehow managed to install an older version manually, but multiple other errors started appearing because my cmake installation was missing some files that my friend's Linux had for some reason. Gave up in the end.
I hate Linux with a passion.
I hate Linux with a passion.
Dreamerbydesign
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download chrome... favorites are saved in the cloud and uploaded to any device you use..
I've been using Linux since Mandrake 5.1 (bought retail CDs) in 1998
Switched to Gentoo in 2003 and have been using it as the bare metal install since then.
For Games, I haven't had a problem with any Steam-based games, but I tend to only play AAA-type titles.
For any windows apps, VMWare or VirtualBox works wonderfully.
As it is source-based, Gentoo isn't easy to learn, but if you want to learn how linux works and how to fix errors this is a good way to do it. (Sorceror is Gentoo-based, but I've never tried it)
It would be helpful if you indicated what you're looking to do with your system. Folding, Security, OS Familiarization...
Switched to Gentoo in 2003 and have been using it as the bare metal install since then.
For Games, I haven't had a problem with any Steam-based games, but I tend to only play AAA-type titles.
For any windows apps, VMWare or VirtualBox works wonderfully.
As it is source-based, Gentoo isn't easy to learn, but if you want to learn how linux works and how to fix errors this is a good way to do it. (Sorceror is Gentoo-based, but I've never tried it)
It would be helpful if you indicated what you're looking to do with your system. Folding, Security, OS Familiarization...
Off of the top of my head: visual studio, office, powershell, SQL Server management studio and all of the tools that are associated, Notepad++, Araxis merge, Adobe CS, etc.
There's a fairly long list of things, and the longer I sit there and think about it, the more stuff that bubbles up.
This is why I ended up using Gentoo any time I use Linux. If you know what you're doing, Gentoo isn't difficult and of course you know from the start which packages you have because you put most of them there. I'm sick of loading up junk distros like Ubuntu only to find that it didn't come with binutils (seriously, though, why wouldn't you ship binutils? GCC/G++ is useless without a toolchain), or that they've switched over to some unofficial Nvidia driver called Nouveau that's terrible and worthless, and just more work for you to remove so that you can install proper Nvidia drivers via the proper method. I'm not interested in having whatever crap Canonical is pushing shoved down my throat, for instance. With Gentoo, I get to choose everything, so I know the default isn't going to be something stupid.
i wish Linux was as easy to use as windows is. like trying to install a simple thing like my video card driver. and even before that, how i am supposed to know which driver my distro uses.
i wish my mobo manufacturer supported Linux. most of the hardware (keyboard, mouse, monitor, printer, etc.) they mostly don't support Linux, i like having the most up to date drivers.
What you're looking for, then, is something which is commercially supported. You're probably better off with Windows.
If you want something simple go with either a debian or redhat based distro. Give fedora a spin
https://fedoraproject.org/
ezno_matrix
Limp Gawd
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It is not meant for cry babies or people who just "give up".
ezno_matrix
Limp Gawd
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Why would you needs these in a Linux environment? And you honestly miss powershell? Really?
ezno_matrix
Limp Gawd
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It gets easier the more you use it. My seven year old have been using Linux ever since he started using a PC. He absolutely hates using the Windows PCs at school.
All Linux driver issues are solely the fault of the device manufacture. The Linux maintainers have nothing to do we half ass drivers created by manufactures. With that said, most distros have built in tools that will install selected software from a specified repository. Video card drivers have gotten significantly better and should be very easy to install. What specific issue you are having?
I used Ubuntu exclusively all through college on my laptop and moved to mint once they switched from the standard gnome layout. With package manager, it's hard to really not find what you need to get by. You rarely have to use the console, but it is way more powerful and to the point if you know how to. (apt-get install is quicker than digging through the package manager). If you are the type that jailbreaks/roots for the fun of it, and crashes or beta software just make it more interesting...linux is for you. If you just want to sit down and it work for task "x." I wouldn't recommend it, but it is more than capable.
I still use linux for my htpc, but the xmbc interface basically evens the playing field so idk if that counts.
In all fairness, I do run only windows on my desktop as I use it for gaming, and to dual boot for internet surfing is silly and a waste of real estate.
I still use linux for my htpc, but the xmbc interface basically evens the playing field so idk if that counts.
In all fairness, I do run only windows on my desktop as I use it for gaming, and to dual boot for internet surfing is silly and a waste of real estate.
I am sorry that giving up five hours of my free Saturday isn't l337 enough for you. I guess I should have persisted and spent my whole weekend just to make one program run.
ezno_matrix
Limp Gawd
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Or take 5 minutes of your time and ask for help. If a noob spends his day trying to do something he cannot grasp, it is no one's fault but his own.
It had to be done in those five hours. There was no time to wait for some forum reply and troubleshoot it that way. And I did find a couple of discussions regarding the first problem, but none of them provided a solution. That gave me no hope that my posting the same question would provide one in that amount of time. I made good progress on my own, but just as I solved one issue, another one would crop out.
Had audio issues with Ubuntu and the audio service pegged out one of the cores. Tried Linux Mint and everything worked great out of the box. Used universal installer to create a bootable USB stick with persistent storage that allowed video driver installation, software installation like Chrome, Unigine benchmark, etc. and kept settings between reboots.
http://www.linuxmint.com/
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/
http://www.linuxmint.com/
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/
jbltecnicspro
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I'm using Linux Mint 14 on my old Core 2 Duo laptop. I miss nothing. It's great! 
For the same reason I'd need them on a Windows environment, obviously. There's no software in the Linux environment that serves the same purpose or any alternatives that do exist aren't to my liking.
Why yes, of course. It's a shell/scripting language that sits on top of the .NET framework. Any competent person would miss that.
Installed by default would be a much more intelligent option.
No it isn't. The only legal limitation is that they can't ship Nvidia's proprietary drivers. There's nothing stopping them from shipping it on VESA drivers like any other distro. If they want to make things work more accessibly for the bag-o-rocks type users who can't figure out how to install display drivers, their efforts would be better spent making their 'proprietary driver manager' work more reliably rather than developing a cruddy open-source driver. The nouveau drivers add a couple extra steps that must be completed before you can switch over to real display drivers, and since the nouveau drivers are too slow to compete with the real drivers anyways, it's just something that does more harm than good.
serpretetsky
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I feel like pretty much everything is web based these days and that the OS is actually less and less important. Mac OSX? sure. Android? Why not? Windows? Does it have a browser? Then im fine with it.
I've been dual booting windows7 x64 and debian. I've been finding myself spending most of my time in debian (mostly because thats the default boot option) with no regrets. The only thing i really need from my OS is the ability to play any video i throw at it, have a useable browser, and have a c++ compiler.
I have an intel laptop (with intel video card, wireless, and ethernet) so I didn't really need to install any drivers. I had to enable the wireless by googling some instructions, wasn't very tough.
Impressively, debian has played every video i've thrown at it at default settings (i never installed any video player or any codecs or anything like that). GNU C++ compiler is pretty popular, and you can download iceweasel or chromium for debian. I've been using the built-in software manager for pretty much most things. Barely touch the command line except when im programming/compiling.
I might get called picky for this but Linux is not an OS, it is a kernel. OSX is based on a different kernel called Mach which is a BSD. I'm not sure what you are asking by saying 'the same type'
I haven't used windows in years and other than a few old games, there is nothing that I miss or can't accomplish now. And unless there are huge changes at MS I can't imagine ever entering that restrictive world again in my personal life.
It's also worth noting, on this point, that Mach was a microkernel operating system, while Linux is monolithic. The merits of these two kernel design styles were debated (somewhat famously) by Andrew Tanenbaum and Linus Torvalds. But the long and short of it is that they're rather polar opposite ideas. The monolithic kernel seeks to live entirely in kernel mode, while the microkernel is built to minimalize kernel inhabitance and instead provide most of the kernel functionality in user mode. OS X isn't a proper microkernel OS, but some of that design style remains, so it's what's considered a 'hybrid' kernel (as is Windows). So while Linux is said to be unix-like and OS X is a card-carrying member of the Unix club, they aren't as similar as people would have you believe.
Why do you feel like installing a compiler toolchain by default is an intelligent option for a desktop OS? There is a limited amount of space for them to fit it on the DVD, why would they ship with something like that packaged at the expense of things more suitable for ordinary users?
Do Windows and OS X ship with compiler toolchains pre-installed?
It's so hard to go to "Additional Drivers" system setting and click the big flashing "install nvidia driver" option then let it reboot?
You want them to run the desktop on a VESA driver that does 1024x768...?
bman212121
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Drivers are always going to be a sore spot on Linux simply because of marketshare. Some times you'll get drivers, other times you may not. I wouldn't put too much faith into saying that newer drivers = better either. If it works and works well, there is simply no need to update the drivers. You can definitely have it go the opposite way with updates.
Unless you have specific needs for your hardware I honestly don't even install any drivers for keyboard, mouse, monitor. For the printers you can usually get generic drivers that will work just fine. The ones that are a bit tricker are network, sata, graphics, and sound. Your best bet is to simply research before you buy and get things that are either supported now or will likely be supported soon. For example you can bet that an Intel network card will be supported, but say a tp-link using an obscure chip may not.
This has been my similar experience as well. Ubuntu is supposed to be user friendly and I'm sure for some people it accomplishes that goal. With the time that I've had so far with Mint I definitely have to say they really have brought ease of use to a higher level.
@AndreRio: I've used Gentoo and many other distros for a number of years. I've spent the time trying to switch AMD graphic drivers over so that I could get Play on Linux working correctly and getting the software I want to use working. Mint by far was the easiest to make these changes. I didn't have to go online to figure out where or follow a how to guide to try to make it work. After spending a bit of time poking through the package managers and some of the pre installed software everything I needed to play games via steam was already there. It really is one of the easiest and most intuitive distros I've tried.
Because it's small, and unless you're only using your computer as a giant web browser you're inevitably going to need it.
No, but they also don't ship with a compiler, so there isn't a need for a toolchain, and you also don't need a compiler with a toolchain in order to install typical software (display drivers, for example) like you do on Linux.
No, but it is difficult for unskilled users to fix their X11 config when the 'additional drivers' menu breaks it and their system fails to load X11 and boots to a command line.
Yes, because then it only takes a second to kill the GUI and build in proper Nvidia drivers, rather than having to remove the Nouveau kernel module which gets in the way of the Nvidia one first.
/dev/null
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Linux has games on Steam. I game under Linux just fine.
drescherjm
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Back when I had time (before I got married) I used gentoo linux as my primary game OS for almost a decade.
There's no need for "bag-o-rocks type users" to install binutils manually unless they're going to be compiling something themselves, which "bag-o-rocks type users" don't do -- just like on Windows and OS X. Otherwise it'll be set as a package dependency and installed automatically when installing a compiler, just like on Windows and OS X. So sorry, but I'm calling bee ess on your complaints here.
The correct solution there is to fix bugs in the driver installation program, not force users to install the driver manually. You're really arguing that it's easier for somebody to drop to a console terminal, close down their DE session, close down X, install all the requisite build software and kernel headers, and install from the command line and reboot... than to just press a "Install NVIDIA driver" button in the Additional Drivers window? I've been running Ubuntu for almost four years and I only installed the nvidia driver manually on one occasion because I wanted to try out an older version. Otherwise I've had no need and no desire.
Besides, the VESA driver should technically be blacklisted too since it's not compatible with the nvidia driver. I find that it mostly works with both loaded, but there are occasional issues, and nvidia's official stance is that the two should not be loaded together.
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Not very many. Of my Steam account (I have somewhere around 200 games), only a small fraction of my games are playable on Linux, and most of those are just humble bundle games.
Exactly...correct the problem, not try to make your own open source drivers that the system can ship with by default.
If the additional drivers menu worked reliably, then no, it wouldn't be. But when the additional drivers menu breaks, then yes, the Nvidia install procedure is better.
Not even Nvidia's README makes any recommendation to remove VESA. However, the Nouveau module must be removed for the Nvidia install to proceed. These are not the same situation.
Ion Silverbolt
Limp Gawd
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I don't get the driver complaints. The open source drivers work with just about every type of video card out there, and if you need a proprietary driver, some of the easier distros make it easy to do. In Manjaro, you can add the non-free drivers right during bootup of the live environment, and in Mint, the software center prompts you if you would like to install non-free drivers.
Wireless is also much easier. Even broadcom devices have improved support.
Wireless is also much easier. Even broadcom devices have improved support.
Canonical doesn't spend any resources on the nouveau driver. Getting their Additional Drivers program running bug-free is completely independent of that community-driven project.
Blacklisting nouveau involves opening one text file and adding a simple line... is that really so burdensome in contrast to the rest of the work that must be done to manually install the nvidia driver?
I guess I'll stick with Ubuntu and Jockey and leave CentOS and manual driver installs to those who know better.
I used to be the biggest Linux advocate in the world. I use it pretty much full time at work and at home. My kids use it and have since I let them on the computer. I generally run the latest Ubuntu LTS, or Arch depending on my mood. Gaming really isn't a problem because Wine is really, really good now. I don't use Office or should I say I use Libre Office or google docs if I need an office suite. Kids use google docs at school so it works fine for my family. Drivers. Well I stick to NVidia cards for a reason. Point and click in Ubuntu/Mint for the Nvidia blob and call it a day. I actually don't miss anything from windows anymore as it's been years since I used it as a daily driver and have moved on to other software for all my needs. Since I know I am going to be using Linux I select hardware when I build that is known to play well with it. So things like hardware conflicts just don't happen for me.
There is plenty I miss from Linux when I do use a windows machine though. A terminal that doesn't suck, a tiling window manager or at least a pseudo version. A non retarded update system (i.e. I can update my OS and every piece of software with an apt-get/pacman in Linux, yet on windows I am forced to run around and update everything individually then god knows how many restarts... wtf). The lack of maintenance my Linux install needs compared to what is de facto in Windows (antivirus, anti malware, defragmenting etc). As a long time Linux user I don't know how people put up with it but that's me. Plenty of Linux things rive windows users crazy to. To each his own.
I used to preach Linux left and right and have just gotten tot he point I don't care anymore. Linux's big problem now and forever will be hardware and games. Hardware sucks. Windows actually has less hardware support from a bare install than any modern Linux, yet has much better vendor support so comes out ahead. Users don't care who makes the damn driver as long as it works, and Linux has a long list of crap that doesn't work. Anyone can go to best buy pick up any hardware and know it'll work on windows. As a Linux user I wish I had that ability but in the long run I am happy. I put up with a ton less day to day stuff to run Linux and pay for that in a different way.
There is plenty I miss from Linux when I do use a windows machine though. A terminal that doesn't suck, a tiling window manager or at least a pseudo version. A non retarded update system (i.e. I can update my OS and every piece of software with an apt-get/pacman in Linux, yet on windows I am forced to run around and update everything individually then god knows how many restarts... wtf). The lack of maintenance my Linux install needs compared to what is de facto in Windows (antivirus, anti malware, defragmenting etc). As a long time Linux user I don't know how people put up with it but that's me. Plenty of Linux things rive windows users crazy to. To each his own.
I used to preach Linux left and right and have just gotten tot he point I don't care anymore. Linux's big problem now and forever will be hardware and games. Hardware sucks. Windows actually has less hardware support from a bare install than any modern Linux, yet has much better vendor support so comes out ahead. Users don't care who makes the damn driver as long as it works, and Linux has a long list of crap that doesn't work. Anyone can go to best buy pick up any hardware and know it'll work on windows. As a Linux user I wish I had that ability but in the long run I am happy. I put up with a ton less day to day stuff to run Linux and pay for that in a different way.
Drudenhaus
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Aside from Windows-only games (e.g. I have to reboot into Windows for MWO, BF4, and ARMA III)...
I thought I would be SOL when it came to replacing AnyDVD, but I found MakeMKV and it's arguably better for what I ultimately want (does all the demuxing and remuxing for me!).
I don't really have many driver problems. AMD/ATI's binary driver package has had hiccups, but then again so has the Windows driver. I haven't had any other driver issues between printers, wireless cards, SATA controllers, etc. For the record, I use Gentoo as my daily driver at both home and work.
- eac (Exact Audio Copy). To the best of my knowledge, there isn't an equivalent-level ripper for Linux.
- Visio. I haven't found a good, easy to use alternative.
- Good spelling and grammar checking (pretty much exclusive to Word). I do a-ok without them and I don't write many papers in my computer science program, but it would be nice to have something better than aspell.
- Newsbin and uTorrent. I do have a dedicated Windows server on my VM box just these. I've read Newsbin runs fine under wine and uTorrent has since released at linux version, but I'm lazy and have no desire to fix what isn't broken.
I thought I would be SOL when it came to replacing AnyDVD, but I found MakeMKV and it's arguably better for what I ultimately want (does all the demuxing and remuxing for me!).
I don't really have many driver problems. AMD/ATI's binary driver package has had hiccups, but then again so has the Windows driver. I haven't had any other driver issues between printers, wireless cards, SATA controllers, etc. For the record, I use Gentoo as my daily driver at both home and work.
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