Another reason to hate Vista

[Mystic]

If somebody would develop a Linux O/S that truly could do everything I needed and for less cost than Windows or Apple I would have a computer built or buy such a computer in a microsecond. Who would not want a computer that requires less resources, and costs less?

Build a computer that has good security, that has compatibility with flatbed and dedicated film scanners and photo printers, that can run software as good as Microsoft Office (actually OpenOffice is pretty much already there) and Photoshop (maybe Gimpshop can get there) and they will come. Who really cares about the O/S anyway? An O/S needs to be able to get out of a person's way and allow a person to do whatever they need to do on the computer. Just build me a Linux computer that can do everything I need with no hassles and no false promises.

Why somebody like maybe the Europeans can't develop an O/S better than Windows is beyond my understanding. You would think they would want to develop their own stuff. In the end I could not care less about the Cult of Microsoft, the Cult of Apple, the Cult of Linux, or any other Cult of anything. I just want a computer that allows me to do what I want to do. Build it and they will come. Anybody out there in Linux land listening? Nope.

 

[OVERKILL]

Sabayon and Ubuntu are really attempts to provide just that. BUT, since there are so many "levels" to Linux, and each piece of software, though "community" based, is still only supported and developed primarily through dedicated developers and channels, simply making the source code open for anybody who wants to see it, (run on sentence ACTION!) it remains somewhat "scattered" in terms of development.

Windows has a large developer base; and these people are MAKING MONEY off of it. Hard to argue with money....

Hardware manufacturers are also much more inclined to write drivers for their hardware for Windows because that is the largest consumer base. Much in the way of kernel modules available for Linux are based on reverse-engineering of Windows drivers or hacking or firmware code to develop a workable framework that is then developed and matured.

Companies like ATI and NVidia who have actually taken the time to develop their own Linux modules (be they closed or open source) have seriously helped the community. Realtek has graciously provided some decent modules for their audio chipsets.

Companies like HP and Canon (just as examples) really don't see a lot of benefit to themselves as companies to develop support for their imaging devices for Linux, since the userbase is so tiny. These are the types of products that really take a LONG time to develop support for, because it's not high up the list for the developers in terms of native kernel support; their focus is on the MAJOR stuff, like network cards, IDE/SATA/SCSI controllers, WIFI stuff....etc. So it's easy to see how support for these types of devices continues to be pushed back and remain limited....

Linux still has a long way to go. But as distro's like Ubuntu gain popularity and the user base expands, manufacturers can see the justification of developing linux "drivers" for their products. It's a slow process, especially when you are dealing with something that is so focused on the word "free".... In a capitalist society, that word doesn't garner a whole lot of positive attention from the corporate world.....

 

[Mystic]

Yes, all good points. But I still don't see why the Europeans, or the Japanese, or the Chinese or Russians can't or won't develop their own O/S. You would think they would be tired of depending on American computer technology. Some European software is very, very good. The Russian Kaspersky antivirus is one of the best. Why put up with Microsoft and Apple?

Even though it would mean competition to the USA I almost wish the Europeans would develop a new O/S that could provide some real competition to American software. I really do believe that there is a major need for a little competition to bring about some much needed improvement.

 

[OVERKILL]

But on that same note, look at Apple. Hard to compete with a company that owns what, 95% of the market? They have been trying for almost two decades!!!

 

[Virtuoso]

I <3 Vista

 

[SrDriver]

I run both VISTA and the Gnome version of Ubuntu Linux (both 64 bit versions) on a Q9300 quad processor system with 8 gigs of Ram.

I use Linux much of the time and find that there is good support for Ubuntu compared to many other Linux Distributions.

I too have run VISTA on other desktops - laptops with various processors and configurations.

If you are running the 32 bit version of VISTA, Windows XP, etc., it can only see around 3 Gigs of RAM no matter how much you actually have on the computer.

Actually VISTA seems to run well with 3 Gigs of RAM in my opinion.

I like VISTA and once you become familiar with it, it actually is not a bad O/S in this scribes opinion.

I have no issues with my hardware other than I had to download 64 bit drivers from both Canon and Epson for my scanner and printer.

Did not have any issues in Linux setting them up.

Many of the issues we here about VISTA were the same that came up back when Windows 98 and XP came out.