Windows 7 SP1 due in less than a year

[tmorris1]

Originally Posted By: Familyguy
Originally Posted By: Ed_T
If Linux were actually easily useable by the great unwashed masses, it would have eclipsed Windows a long time ago.


I don't know where you've been, but you don't get more "technically unwashed" than my 9 year old autistic son and my "art major" wife.

Download Ubuntu 9.10 and install it. It simply works right out of the box and didn't require any tweaking for our relatively mundane home PC and home laptop. It found all the devices by itself (WIFI,scanner,printers,bluetooth mouse,3D video card, shared drives on other computers, etc). Things have come a VERY long way since you've needed to edit config files and tweak things. Give it a try.

Best,

That is correct for your hardware platform. Another platform may not work so well. If everything is setup and works with your hardware it is fine, but try downloading software and installing some new hardware and things change. I have had to wrestle with Linux to get my screen resolution to work properly. I had to edit conf files with a text editor. Same thing with Samba. This is not something that the average user would be able to figure out and something that an experienced user doesn't want to have to figure out.

 

[NJC]

Originally Posted By: Ed_T
Linux is just too fragmented to get their sh!te together, and these divisions, those territorially-defended fiefdoms that keep Linux nicely separated into a bunch of camps that will never join up to fight the war, will keep Linux in the losers' column for eternity as far as the average desktop is concerned.

Agreed 100%. And at least Mark Shuttleworth is attempting collaboration (or so it seems).

 

[Familyguy]

Originally Posted By: NJC
Originally Posted By: Ed_T
Linux is just too fragmented to get their sh!te together, and these divisions, those territorially-defended fiefdoms that keep Linux nicely separated into a bunch of camps that will never join up to fight the war, will keep Linux in the losers' column for eternity as far as the average desktop is concerned.

Agreed 100%. And at least Mark Shuttleworth is attempting collaboration (or so it seems).


Now that Redhat has more or less abandoned the desktop, Shuttleworth/Ubuntu is the nexus for Linux on the desktop. On the server end, Redhat (and it's freeware alter-ego, CentOS) rules the roost.

 

[Ed_T]

Originally Posted By: Familyguy
Originally Posted By: Ed_T
If Linux were actually easily useable by the great unwashed masses, it would have eclipsed Windows a long time ago.


I don't know where you've been, but you don't get more "technically unwashed" than my 9 year old autistic son and my "art major" wife.

Download Ubuntu 9.10 and install it. It simply works right out of the box and didn't require any tweaking for our relatively mundane home PC and home laptop. It found all the devices by itself (WIFI,scanner,printers,bluetooth mouse,3D video card, shared drives on other computers, etc). Things have come a VERY long way since you've needed to edit config files and tweak things. Give it a try.

Best,


I've had 9.04 running. The latest Mandriva, etc., ad nauseum. There are issues with drivers and printers that Winblows just ignores. Many hardware vendors will just not support Linux. I know I'm not replacing my multi-function printer just to get one that runs under Linux too. Why should I bother when the software and hardware just plain work under Windows (and to a lesser degree, Mac)?

Plus the fact that the majority of the useable desktop software in the world is written for Windows...have you tried to install TurboTax or Quicken to Linux directly? And please don't come at me with 'gnucash' or whatever they call it now, most of the 'free' stuff just isn't in the same league.

While it has made great strides overall, it still is not sufficiently supported by hardware and software vendors, or simple enough to install and use for the average Joe, who doesn't know a partition from pastry.

Don't get me wrong, I like Linux, I like to tinker with it and see what's new with it. In a personal environment, it's great for desktop surfing, email, etc. But most desktop users go beyond such simple needs to running software that actually performs useful functions and can print.

 

[Familyguy]

Originally Posted By: Ed_T

I've had 9.04 running. The latest Mandriva, etc., ad nauseum. There are issues with drivers and printers that Winblows just ignores. Many hardware vendors will just not support Linux. I know I'm not replacing my multi-function printer just to get one that runs under Linux too. Why should I bother when the software and hardware just plain work under Windows (and to a lesser degree, Mac)?


Easy there fella...you seem to have an axe to grind about something. Perhaps your particular hardware bit isn't supported, but all of my stuff simply works and the hardware compatibility list for Linux is getting longer and longer by the day.

Quote:

Plus the fact that the majority of the useable desktop software in the world is written for Windows...have you tried to install TurboTax or Quicken to Linux directly? And please don't come at me with 'gnucash' or whatever they call it now, most of the 'free' stuff just isn't in the same league.


Quicken runs under wine just fine. Turbotax does too, but it seems that the Turbotax people have gone out of their way to break Linux compatibility. If you try to use their online product, it checks the browser user agent string and specifically excludes Linux.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/TurboTaxOnline

Also, I use OpenOffice for everything that I used to use MS Office for now...including when I'm running Windows. I have yet to find an incompatible document and I save documents in MS formats all the time and send them to other people and they can't tell I didn't use MS Office to generate them.

So I can't help you in cases where vendors specifically go out of their way to prevent Linux support. Sorry.

Quote:

While it has made great strides overall, it still is not sufficiently supported by hardware and software vendors, or simple enough to install and use for the average Joe, who doesn't know a partition from pastry.

Don't get me wrong, I like Linux, I like to tinker with it and see what's new with it. In a personal environment, it's great for desktop surfing, email, etc. But most desktop users go beyond such simple needs to running software that actually performs useful functions and can print.



I simply don't agree with you. A wide variety of devices are supported and I'm printing just fine with my Epson Stylus Photo 1800R, My HP LaserJet 2100, and my Konica Minolta Magicolor (pretty obscure, eh) color laser printer. My "off the shelf" Canon LIDE60 scanner just plain works too. I've done consulting for a few companies with a few hundred to a few thousand seats that have punted Windows across the organization (servers and desktops) with minimal retraining. The cost savings in licensing, 3rd party software needed just to avoid getting desktops hijacked, and the ability keep using "outdated" 3-5 year old computers has paid off in spades.

I hate to sound like an evangelist because I'm comfortable using Linux, Windows, and OSX...but Linux is quite up to the task of being used by Joe Sixpack these days.

Best regards,

 

[heavyhitter]

It is probbaly just a marketing ploy.

I work with computers, and servers for a living. Most businesses will wait until the first Service Pack is out before they switch to it as a production platform. This is a very common practice in the industry.

There are other options out on the market place besides Windows, I think that is is comical that a vast majority of Microsoft bashers are using Microsoft.