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- purpmint008, on 10/10/2007, -8/+74Good list. Now can we get a list of 10 things Microsoft gets that Linux distros don't?
/linux user - aaronm67, on 10/10/2007, -20/+811) The ability to run any app required in an office, without any loopholes/emulators
2) Because you have probably used Windows for years, there isn't going to be any learning curve
3) Installing drivers is typically a "click and install" rather then a "install driver, recompile kernel, try again"
4) Almost all popular software is written for Windows
5) You can buy a device without researching first whether it works well with Linux
6) Games
7) (Copied from his list sort of) : Closed formats and protocol support : No jumping through loopholes to play MP3s, play DVDs, or open .docs
8) Virtually everything can be done without a terminal -- on Linux, if you're installing something or configuring something, there's a good chance you'll have to search online to figure out just where that config file is
9) Third party driver support - you would be hard pressed to find a sound card/wifi card/keyboard/video card/monitor/usb device/etc that doesn't work with Windows.
10) Microsoft Office -- I already touched on this a little bit with #1, but this one deserves its own. Neither Office 2003 or 2007 is completely supported through Wine, and it can be a pain in the ass to install them. And, as much as OO.o is improving, nothing compares to MS Office when it comes to features. It is nice to be able to create a .doc or .xls without wondering whether the formatting will be completely screwed up by OO.o, making me look like an idiot to all those people I'm sending the file to.
I understand most of this is 3rd party support, but that is a huge part of what makes Windows so great : it is popular enough that any third party would be stupid not to support Windows.
/linux user - BrandonMills, on 10/10/2007, -8/+61I haven't read the list, but I *know* updating has to be on there. Updating every program in Windows can be a freaking nightmare.
EDIT - Yep! #2. - thtroyer, on 10/10/2007, -20/+67Meh. Semi-distro/app specific. Apt is on Debain/Ubuntu/etc.
Props for not putting 'UBUNTU!!!1 LOLZ!' in the title. - aywwts4, on 10/10/2007, -10/+42I don't know about the windows to windows learning curve, I spent (cumulative) hours with vista scratching my head going "Where the ***** did they put that option"
- swanny89, on 10/10/2007, -7/+35Application Support
Almost Universal Hardware Support - BlakeEM, on 10/10/2007, -6/+32I don't know, I put ubuntu on my stepfathers computer, he knows nothing about computers. He does fine on it learning how to do stuff. It's really no harder than windows to use. Also viruses and spyware are a non-issue.
- Herolint, on 10/10/2007, -8/+33Here's my list:
1) BASH - Why do repetitive filesystem operations in a GUI (which takes all day) when you can be done with a single command?
2) Apt - If only application installations/removals/patching could be this easy in Windows.
3) Filesystem structure - Drive letters are SO 1980s.
4) Focus and Z-Order - Windows always brings the focused window to the front. On Linux, you can have the focused window be behind other windows, which is very convenient and productive at times.
5) Mouse focus - I like having window focus follow my mouse.
6) Terminal command history - Things like the up arrow are great (and Windows finally does that) but CTRL + R to recall previous commands is a real boon for productivity.
7) Shading windows - Not a huge thing, but I like being able to double-click on a window and have it roll up out of the way but still be on the desktop.
8) Security - Vista has finally brought some security to Windows, but its implementation is lame. Linux security is implemented in a way that is elegant and doesn't annoy.
9) The ability to tweak the kernel - This isn't as big a deal as it used to be, but it is still nice to be able to fine tune your system.
10) Virtually unlimited, high quality, and free development tools. - Nidy1, on 10/10/2007, -1/+21Jeez. We're not allowed to like our games anymore?
- dacomputerfreak, on 10/10/2007, -1/+20I'll explain this a bit slow so you get it... Updating - EVERY - program, that means third party programs as well... Winblows Update will NOT, and I repeat- *NOT* update Adobe Photoshop or that screensaver you downloaded last month (examples) for you, Ubuntu's update manager *will* update most software for you completely automatic and easy.
jrbrewin, you sir are out of touch with Linux users. - skinjester, on 10/10/2007, -8/+24ouch! but so true...
- keyo, on 10/10/2007, -7/+23if(list.length == 10){theList=*****}
list either padded or cut down. Stop with these ***** "top ten lists". Any list is just filler news, at least make the list of proper length. Just because ten is a psychologically satisfying number doesn't mean you should to trim or pad your list to ten items. - lengau, on 10/10/2007, -3/+19Still applies, though. Sure, apt is a Debian thing, but Portage is pretty much the same (well, when you use binaries).
- djGentoo, on 10/10/2007, -1/+15Your mom > distro haters > you.
- Firehed, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16Unlearn what you have learned!
Seriously, though, it helps. XP had stuff thrown in any random place to make sure it was somewhere. Vista corrected a lot of that, though obviously through all of the people who'd learned XP's quirks for a major loop. - Darcy, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16I really don't know what I would do without all these lists and articles.
How else would I know that:-
Linux users love Linux, and think it's better than Windows.
Mac users love OS X, and also think it's better than windows.
Everyone else uses Windows, and don't really care what OS others use.
Thank god for digg. - Fixthemedia, on 10/10/2007, -1/+15We have these lists every single day.
- srg13, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13I'm pretty sure it's only illegal in the United States of MPAA
- mooninite, on 10/10/2007, -4/+17Don't forget that yum has totally redefined the usefullness of RPM. All modern distros are pretty easy to use and gain new features in a time frame of months where the commercial alternatives take years.
- BrainInAJar, on 10/10/2007, -4/+16and portage is just a rip-off of BSD's ports
- pooptaster, on 10/10/2007, -3/+15The thing is, one command can be the equivalent of many mouse clicks and mouse movements. It's _way_ more productive (provided you know what you're doing of course).
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -6/+18The trouble with the ongoing OS wars and flaming is that the people writing the articles have never worked in the real world. In the real world a computer is set up for a certain job and used for data input. In the home environment the majority of people use computers for education to find employment, and gaming.
There is just too much ***** regarding Linux versus Windows. OS2 was a better system than Windows. OS2 is used by the banking industry because it is secure. OS2 had a lot of functions which Windows never had. Windows was a cut down version of the OS2 gui because it was just too complex for the average user.
99.99% of Windows users are appliance operators. They would not know how to load Windows let alone debug it if there is a problem. Windows has a simple point and click gui directly embedded into the OS; that is it's biggest advantage. In Linux, layered by X, layered by a gui. Too complex for your average Windows user. At the end of the day, ask yourself one question. As your a computer geek who earns his living from computers, or are you and appliance operator?
For a geek, Linux has the best opportunities for earning a good living; for an appliance operator Windows is a no-brainer and the easiest OS to use.
Bottom line. 99.99% of people do not care what the OS does on a computer, they just want the bloody thing to work properly and do their job. So if you have any skills in setting up or debugging any OS, use that knowledge to help people get a better understanding of computers instead of getting into a ***** flame war which in the end will only reflect your own stupidity on the subject. - strangewill, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12Sounds more cliche than anything, being as he doesn't know anything about computes, I bet he rarely uses it for anything but porn surfing.
I'd be more impressed if it could deal with the slightly-savvy, those who know just enough to beat the hell out of their computers, but not enough to maintain them. - ArthurSucks, on 10/10/2007, -3/+14You've either never used gnome, or haven't used it in like 6 years.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -4/+15Oh OK, I'll just install Windows on my SPARC computer. Oh no, maybe I'll try a Power Mac. Darn, looks like Debian to the rescue!
- aaronm67, on 10/10/2007, -3/+13You've obviously never had hardware that wasn't supported by default by your distro. Some drivers are proprietary (Nvidia), or sometimes there is some other reason why distros don't include support for some hardware, and it is a pain in the ass installing them.
- Burn, on 10/10/2007, -2/+12Slackware.
- cynicist, on 10/10/2007, -2/+11Its not distro specific. Show me a distribution that doesn't use a package manager.
- rycan, on 10/10/2007, -2/+10ZOMGZ have you forgotten the bubble game written in python!! and what about all those leet java games...crap...i already ran out...
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -5/+13Course its not all we can do, but we CAN do it. Without workarounds, loopholes and emulators you can forget anything even mildly entertaining in a linux box.
- UtopiaInTheSky, on 10/10/2007, -42/+50Usability.
- Tenoq, on 10/10/2007, -2/+10It's not ALL we do, but we've gotta use that 8800GTX for something other than Compiz-Fusion. ;-)
- Tenoq, on 10/10/2007, -10/+18LOL - Universal Hardware Support - haven't tried Vista yet? ;)
Better still, tried Windows without driver discs? I'll admit you can eventually get everything running on a Windows box - but there's a ***** of stuffing around doing it. You've either gotta spend a couple of hours re-installing all your drivers after a fresh install or a LOT of hours trying to slipstream your drivers into a Windows install CD. It's pretty cool most Linux distros can pick up all the components of a modern system and run with them from the base install CD. - strangewill, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9@jrbrewin:
Did that on a server, once...
Found that Windows dumped a bunch of system files away, deleted the originals, and never restored the new ones. Had to do it by hand (and oh was it not fun trying to figure out why the server wouldn't boot).
Never again. - Firehed, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8FFS!
There = location (over there)
Their = possession (it's their computer)
They're = "they are"
I can normally ignore it, but that was a problem on almost every line of your post. - Yazilliclick, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8hmm I learnt in about 30 seconds that the search on vista finds anything pretty much so need to look around...
- swanny89, on 10/10/2007, -5/+12I guess what I meant was that the hardware is almost guaranteed to be supported in windows in some for, whether that be a separate disc or plug and play. In my experience linux can kind of be a crapshoot on whether something is supported: it either works beautifully or not at all.
- fantasticFlan, on 10/10/2007, -2/+8Hey, 5 years ago called and he doesn't think it's even worth finishing this joke.
- RexStJames, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6"1: leopards terminal is UNIX certified(no Linux distros are) and tigers on par with most linux distros"
What!?!?! You mean GNU (GNU's Not Unix)/Linux isn't Unix!?!? ZOMGWTFBBQ - devinx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6In a way, that's true because I wouldn't have a job fixing people's windows problems if not for windows. That doesn't stop me from using linux myself though.
- coredump0x01, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Bash > Windows shell by FAR.
- Firehed, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6And if you don't, you're screwed. I like having both options.
Of course, you've also confused "efficient" with "productive". Yeah, when I know what I'm looking for but don't have the slightest idea where, I'll grep it (Spotlight doesn't seem to handle php files and the like too well for content searches), and know exactly which files contained it, what line it was on, and what else was on the line. It IS very efficient, and very helpful. But I've also screwed things up pretty heavily (needing to kill the terminal, or something to that effect) by missing an end quote, which is awfully unforgiving. And it certainly isn't as quick or easy for full disk searches where I've got an idea of the title or the like. - WhiteHamster, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7I really am tired of the Linux news being like "Linux is awesome", well i didn't just wander over to the Linux section of a tech site by accident, i know Linux is awesome, give me something new or different.
- pooptaster, on 10/10/2007, -7/+13Said by someone who obviously doesn't have to do anything productive. Using a Windows command prompt is frustrating and half the stuff you need to do has no command line version, so you are FORCED to use a GUI to do your work. If you use a command line at all, you'd quickly realize how much more useful a Linux prompt is than a DOS prompt. And contrary to what I'm sure you believe, using a terminal is NOT slower than clicking around.
- trogdoor, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Note that he also implied that he needed the terminal in windows, just because someone has to use the terminal does not mean that everyone will. I have to use the terminal to grab libraries for applications that I am writing, which is much more of a pain on windows as I can't use the package manager to find what needs to be installed to get a particular header file for instance. None of that implies that the "normal lay-person" needs to use the terminal constantly.
- SuperCow1127, on 10/10/2007, -2/+8For me it does, especially on my laptop with a touchpad. I have Fluxbox keys set to do anything I can possibly think of, and only resort to the touchpad for a few web pages.
- bryhhh, on 10/10/2007, -4/+9For me, the biggest issue is fonts. Linux does everything I want, but every time I install it, I end up going back to XP because of the horrible fonts. The second biggest issue for me is running QT apps in a GTK based WM or GTK based apps in a QT based WM - the differences between the foreign toolkit and the native toolkit really spoils the look and feel of the entire desktop.
Yeah, my gripes might be cosmetic, but that's really important for me. - Firehed, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5You should avoid a career in marketing. Using psychologically satisfying things brings people in (just like how 99¢ seems a lot cheaper than $1.00 even though it's only a penny difference).
- srg13, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5"Linux still feels too much like Windows 3.1/95 in that the GUI runs over another OS rather than 'being the os'."
You've got this completely wrong - it would be stupid to include a graphical environment in the kernel (unless maybe on an embedded system). X and its various desktop environments are not separate OSes like Windows 3.1, 95, 98 etc were. They ran on DOS (which is a 16 bit environment), which loaded Windows which then switched to protected mode and ran another system with its own drivers etc. This is definitely the wrong way of doing things. - neko, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Pardon me. Got a lousy connection at work.
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