![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
Navigation
Install the app
How to install the app on iOS
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
More options
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Reasons to Linux over Windows or the other way around?
- Thread starter Rudyman
- Start date
Honestly after three paragraphs it seems to me that he isn't exactly the definitive computer guru and he seems biased. His excellent examples seem to be something that would stump my mom, not an IT person. Even then computers do what you tell them to do, not even Windows does things for no apparent reason randomly. Sounds like he doesn't know how to maintain his OS. I'll keep reading though...
Edit: Just finished. Not a bad write-up and some helpful stuff for someone like me wanting to get more into Linux.
Edit: Just finished. Not a bad write-up and some helpful stuff for someone like me wanting to get more into Linux.
Not a bad read.
I will give you my experience and my opinion. Realize this is based solely on my needs. If someone can not handle any negative attention to Linux then they might want to skip. This is my experience on the other side. About 7 distros were tried to get a full range of the experience
It is not about "can" someone do it. I think anyone with a average brain can get Linux working with enough time. The question to me is Linux worth it?
There are pros and cons to both operating systems.
If I demand absolute as close to flawless gaming I can get then there is only one choice - Windows. I actually am a subscriber to cedega. It is not even close. For some games it does work wonders. Things I have found using cedega ranges from installs that go wrong one way or another to textures/graphic issues in games. My experience is cedega while a very good start and does allow you to play some very good games perfect, is not close to buying a game off the shelf and playing it as it was intended. For someone like me who uses my computer as a total gaming solution, it is just not there. YMMV
Hardware was fun. First, Fedora - Mepis and a couple other distro's would not even install. I finally narrowed it down to USB 2.0. If it was on in the bios then it would hang up with my revision of my mobo. This is just the install. If it was 1.1 then it would install. Even on 1.1 my logitech mx 500 would not work. I found many people who had to use PS2/USB converters.I had to read for about 7 hours to find a solution and even then it would bug out. I eventually gave up and used a older Microsoft optical. It worked better. Visiting lots of Linux boards for about a month showed clearly there are a lot of USB issues. My USB rumble pad joystick would not work on Linux no matter what I tried. Trust me, I spent at least 10 hours reading on that one subject. After about 5 hours I got my Audigy 2 ZS to at least play out of the entire 5.1 system. While it was picked up with no problem on the install, it needed a lot of tweaking. To be honest with a lot of tweaking it did not sound half as good as using the default creative drivers in Windows. The ALSA mixer while it does a good job for most people just was not a worthy replacement to me as using the drivers/apps from the company itself. I was able to install the install the video card drivers with relative ease. No major problems there for me at least. My monitor that is pretty new was not even in the Suse list of CRTs. If I used the default one that Suse picked then my system would not even have a visual. It would start to load with a black screen. Not a good impression. If I changed it to something close then I could get in but the res/ refresh was way off. To fix that I had to manually enter all the information. Lots of other minor issues.
Seems to be really hit and miss on hardware. At least that was my impression. While I am sure given enough will power I could figuere it all out... it did not seem worth it as a legal owner of XP.
I found the install package systems pretty easy on all systems. Using RPM based files with YAST was pretty straight forward. Installing in Ubuntu was also easy. My experience with the native open source apps was a good one over all. Unlike most though I would not say at this level they can compete with commercial apps. There are instances where the product was more then acceptable. Personally I now use Abiword on my XP machine. There is a freedom to using free software on a free OS but in certain cases I needed specific commercial software. Crossover was also purchased and worked with about 60% of my commercial application needs.
Linux is just not for me presently. That is OK though. I just put a lot of demands on my PC and use it as a all in one. I hope it does grow. Competition is a good thing. I am sure it will get better and I will give it another look. For now the trade off of having to stay on top security and keeping XP secure is worth it to me. For instance having my mouse and joystick work with my mobo in XP with zero effort may spoil me but I fear most of us are spoiled. My monitor disk installs in XP in 5 seconds and sets everything up to work perfect. Is it Linuxs fault they did not inclue a Linux driver? no but that is how it is.
Just my experience. Take it or leave it.
I will give you my experience and my opinion. Realize this is based solely on my needs. If someone can not handle any negative attention to Linux then they might want to skip. This is my experience on the other side. About 7 distros were tried to get a full range of the experience
It is not about "can" someone do it. I think anyone with a average brain can get Linux working with enough time. The question to me is Linux worth it?
There are pros and cons to both operating systems.
If I demand absolute as close to flawless gaming I can get then there is only one choice - Windows. I actually am a subscriber to cedega. It is not even close. For some games it does work wonders. Things I have found using cedega ranges from installs that go wrong one way or another to textures/graphic issues in games. My experience is cedega while a very good start and does allow you to play some very good games perfect, is not close to buying a game off the shelf and playing it as it was intended. For someone like me who uses my computer as a total gaming solution, it is just not there. YMMV
Hardware was fun. First, Fedora - Mepis and a couple other distro's would not even install. I finally narrowed it down to USB 2.0. If it was on in the bios then it would hang up with my revision of my mobo. This is just the install. If it was 1.1 then it would install. Even on 1.1 my logitech mx 500 would not work. I found many people who had to use PS2/USB converters.I had to read for about 7 hours to find a solution and even then it would bug out. I eventually gave up and used a older Microsoft optical. It worked better. Visiting lots of Linux boards for about a month showed clearly there are a lot of USB issues. My USB rumble pad joystick would not work on Linux no matter what I tried. Trust me, I spent at least 10 hours reading on that one subject. After about 5 hours I got my Audigy 2 ZS to at least play out of the entire 5.1 system. While it was picked up with no problem on the install, it needed a lot of tweaking. To be honest with a lot of tweaking it did not sound half as good as using the default creative drivers in Windows. The ALSA mixer while it does a good job for most people just was not a worthy replacement to me as using the drivers/apps from the company itself. I was able to install the install the video card drivers with relative ease. No major problems there for me at least. My monitor that is pretty new was not even in the Suse list of CRTs. If I used the default one that Suse picked then my system would not even have a visual. It would start to load with a black screen. Not a good impression. If I changed it to something close then I could get in but the res/ refresh was way off. To fix that I had to manually enter all the information. Lots of other minor issues.
Seems to be really hit and miss on hardware. At least that was my impression. While I am sure given enough will power I could figuere it all out... it did not seem worth it as a legal owner of XP.
I found the install package systems pretty easy on all systems. Using RPM based files with YAST was pretty straight forward. Installing in Ubuntu was also easy. My experience with the native open source apps was a good one over all. Unlike most though I would not say at this level they can compete with commercial apps. There are instances where the product was more then acceptable. Personally I now use Abiword on my XP machine. There is a freedom to using free software on a free OS but in certain cases I needed specific commercial software. Crossover was also purchased and worked with about 60% of my commercial application needs.
Linux is just not for me presently. That is OK though. I just put a lot of demands on my PC and use it as a all in one. I hope it does grow. Competition is a good thing. I am sure it will get better and I will give it another look. For now the trade off of having to stay on top security and keeping XP secure is worth it to me. For instance having my mouse and joystick work with my mobo in XP with zero effort may spoil me but I fear most of us are spoiled. My monitor disk installs in XP in 5 seconds and sets everything up to work perfect. Is it Linuxs fault they did not inclue a Linux driver? no but that is how it is.
Just my experience. Take it or leave it.
Recently out or boredom, about a month ago, I switch one computer here to the Ubuntu distro. Within a couple of weeks all the systems went from XP Pro's to Ubuntu. The 2K3 SBS even went. The complete network is Linux. And up to now my seven year old son has had no problems doing anything that he wants to do. No system corruption either! Dad hasn't had to fix a thing! The wife and others had no problems either. I have no idea what all the FUD was about and I'm glad that we have made the change. The only down side is that you notice more BS that comes out of Redmond. It makes me wonder why I waited so long to make the switch and I now understand why so many before me have made the switch.
FWIW I checked out the Ubuntu Live CD and then did an install and not one think was missed. I was actually amazed. The install was clean and non-eventful. Even grabbed the updates before it was installed. Thank you Ubuntu for coming to my mailbox!
FWIW I checked out the Ubuntu Live CD and then did an install and not one think was missed. I was actually amazed. The install was clean and non-eventful. Even grabbed the updates before it was installed. Thank you Ubuntu for coming to my mailbox!
You can borrow my pc anytime and maybe your 7 year old can figuere out why USB 2.0 locks some installs with this mobo
You are also welcome to come here my sound setup in Linx and Win
You are also welcome to my game collection to show me how all my experience with cedega was user error
Glad it met your needs. No fud just reality of a 3% market share that has more to do then a evil boogey man named Bill and the Empire MicroSoft
You are also welcome to come here my sound setup in Linx and Win
You are also welcome to my game collection to show me how all my experience with cedega was user error
Glad it met your needs. No fud just reality of a 3% market share that has more to do then a evil boogey man named Bill and the Empire MicroSoft
PadanFain said:You can borrow my pc anytime and maybe your 7 year old can figuere out why USB 2.0 locks some installs with this mobo
You are also welcome to come here my sound setup in Linx and Win
You are also welcome to my game collection to show me how all my experience with cedega was user error
Glad it met your needs. No fud just reality of a 3% market share that has more to do then a evil boogey man named Bill and the Empire MicroSoft
About the motherboard - It isn't normally the fault of the Linux, but from support from the manufacturer.
Also, most hardware problems with Linux are from poor support from their respective manufacturers or the user unable or unwilling to configure it properly.
About Cedega... yeah, Cedega is good for some things, but not for others... but can Linux be the blame if... once again, manufacturers won't support it?
And, of course, Microsoft's monopoly of the OS industry is the primary cause of a lot of this.
Mandane said:About the motherboard - It isn't normally the fault of the Linux, but from support from the manufacturer.
Also, most hardware problems with Linux are from poor support from their respective manufacturers or the user unable or unwilling to configure it properly.
About Cedega... yeah, Cedega is good for some things, but not for others... but can Linux be the blame if... once again, manufacturers won't support it?
And, of course, Microsoft's monopoly of the OS industry is the primary cause of a lot of this.
Microsoft has the exact same issues as you describe. It's been extremely difficult to encourage vendors to invest in driver support for 64bit platforms. There are plenty of companies that saw no need to write x64 Windows drivers because there were so few people using it.
In a free market, the customers have ultimate control. If you want support for a given scenario (be it 32bit BSD drivers for your web cam, or certain SATA drivers for x64 windows), be vocal about it. It's then up to that company to decide if they will support that scenario or not, and in the end it's the customer that will choose where to spend his\her money based on the behavior of those companies.
I don't like to get into OS arguments on the forums, and even in this post I'm not advocating one over another. Id only like to point out that Microsoft faces the same issues.