Windows User Experiments With Linux for 10 Days 1259
An anonymous reader writes "Clarence Ladson over at Flexbeta decided to kick Windows to the curb for 10 days in an experiment to find out just how hard it would be to 'quit cold turkey' and move entirely to Linux. It's amazing how many day-to-day operations require the inadvertent use of Windows in our daily lives."
already /.ed (Score:2, Informative)
Wow... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Necessary Evil (Score:4, Informative)
Coral link (Score:5, Informative)
coralized link [nyud.net]
Future submitters: PLEASE PLEASE use coralized links! It's easy -- just add
Re:Necessary Evil (Score:2, Informative)
Never trust pornos in
Re:Myth TV? (Score:3, Informative)
I had no luck with it, and went to ubuntu, but that should do it.
Re:I kicked Windows to the Curb, too! (Score:2, Informative)
the Darwin kernel is based on Mach [wikipedia.org].
Re:Coral link (Score:5, Informative)
Cui bono? (Score:2, Informative)
One thing that could make a great differnce to a person's daily life, though, is posting an article about their attempts to use Linux. Forget about how much you really know, or don't know. A thumbs up to Linux has propaganda sites crawling all over you. A thumbs down and ten thousand geeks will be queuing up to excoriate you. Perhaps Hollywood and a pay rise beckons.
I mean, is this guy for real? If you want to use Linux, then use it properly and fully. Amazing, really, that one guy anxiously dipping a toe in the water and then hastily running back to the apron strings should merit a slashdot write-up. On second thoughts perhaps he's going for an award for outstanding bravery.
Each tool for the right job (Score:3, Informative)
So I bit the bullet and spent several days installing and setting up Gentoo. Every step of the way was a learning experience. My reason for switching to linux is because I was bored with windows and I wanted to force myself to learn something new. So now it's approaching the end of another summer. I'm sitting in front of two computers running Gentoo.
However, both have windows XP on them. I have crossover office on each computer and the apps that are supported run fine. I'm a student and usually I can get by with openoffice, but sometimes I need office. I just got an ipod photo and I've been trying to get it to work seamlessly between windows and gentoo. It's been a struggle with iTunes, gtkpod and ipodslave for KDE, but I'm working on it.
I tried the OSX86 last weekend and I was impressed. I tried windows vista beta and I was very unimpressed. There is never going to be a magic bullet OS. Each will have it's uses. I've learned that it is mostly dependent on the applications for it. If the vendors made perfect linux versions of every program I needed, it would be a lot better. It takes time to figure out which OSS programs are just as good as the windows counterparts and which ones are shit. 10 days with any operating system isn't going to mean much.
And I have not had a chance yet to read the article bc it's down at the moment.
Cached verson of article (Score:2, Informative)
clicky. [66.102.7.104]
Re:already /.ed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Better Google Link (Score:2, Informative)
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:1CvlEjwElaUJ:
Re:My Wife, my mother and Linux... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Coral link (Score:5, Informative)
The google cache of the full article (printable version) is available here [google.com]
Re:Myth TV? (Score:2, Informative)
Re: Necessary Evil (Score:3, Informative)
(Even if mplayer for some reason can't decode the stream, you can at least save it with mplayer and watch it with $MOVIE_PLAYER_DU_JOUR.)
Re:I kicked Windows to the Curb, too! (Score:5, Informative)
Are you nuts, or something?
I may be a Linux user, but I've had to put together my share of presentations. I've used Powerpoint, I've used OpenOffice. But then one time, while I was borrowing a friend's Powerbook G4 for a few weeks, I put one together in Keynote. It is, at the very least, the best presentation software ever written, and what's more, it's a pleasure to use. Aligning elements is easy with smartly-coded guides, the output for the presentations are wonderful with elegant themes and fonts, and the transitions are elegant with accelerated 3D transitions and such. But more than anything else, the damn program just "got out of my way." I didn't spend hours tweaking this or that text element a few pixels to the left or right. The damn presentation just came out beautifully even though I had never used the application before.
Powerpoint more featureful? Give me a break.
Different WMV versions (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Necessary Evil (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I kicked Windows to the Curb, too! (Score:5, Informative)
Choose your poison
Re:Necessary Evil (Score:3, Informative)
I gave up for lack of vendor support, keeping my laptop working 100% in Linux was a slight pain, not getting all the neat little things on my laptop that IBM only puts out of Windows was a much bigger one.
Then I needed to switch to Quickbooks 2005 to please my accountant, and that was just impossible (yeah, Caldera can get 2004 running, but not 2005)... so now, I'm done, I gave up... Windows on my laptops & desktops, linux on my servers... and I couldn't be happier.
Re:I kicked Windows to the Curb, too! (Score:3, Informative)
And somehow this makes Word better!?
Re:My Wife, my mother and Linux... (Score:2, Informative)
Although I'm not sure how well it would work on a PII, amaroK (media player for Linux) is great for using an iPod with. Also it's interface is top-notch. It got me to switch from XMMS. It has tons of "little" features that make it outstanding (album cover lookup via amazon, good searching for building a media catalog, scripts for things like alarms, catalog search feature, etc). I highly suggest anyone using Linux (KDE) to check this thing out. (Note: I do not work for these guys)
For details check out their site:
amarok.kde.org [kde.org]
Re:Necessary Evil (Score:4, Informative)
However, I don't believe other players run the scripts in wmv files. But I could be wrong.
Re:Necessary Evil (Score:5, Informative)
I personally WANT to run Linux on the desktop, not because of cost (we pitch computers every 3 years, never actually "buy" either) or for political reasons (although I am not fond of MS's tactics). Its about the freedom to use the software, and how much easier some tasks are in Linux vs. Windows. I can hack around with Perl and automate backups, updates, and ssh into each station, which is much harder in windows. Yes, there are ways in Windows, but I already know the *nix ways, which are more universal.
To me, I can get more done with Linux on the desktop, I just can't run the software I need in a production environment. So the most productive way for us is Windows desktops/Linux servers.
Re:10 days? (Score:3, Informative)
Man, you're taking me back. I haven't had a decent game of BSoD since 1999. I just can't get it to run properly in Win2k, and I hear XP is even worse at it.
Actually, the game is still there. It's just called "Spontaneously Reset" now, so you don't get to see the blue screen.
"Guess Which Driver Is Causing A Problem Today."
Haven't they ported that one to Linux now? I'm sure I've seen a lot of comments bitching about how unstable NVidia's Linux drivers are. Or possibly ATI's. Or maybe even both. I kind of lost track after the first hundred.
I couldn't tell you, Coward. I use a Mac, so everything "just works."
Re:COM (Score:2, Informative)
Uhhhh - DLL's are shared libraries...
COM is implemented using DLL's and is nothing more (at its core) then a binary contract for 3 functions in a vtable: QueryInterface, AddRef and Release. Its an implementation, not a technology!
Now, if you want to talk about ActiveX (IDispatch's and such), which are STILL implementation, then wine* all you want, but get the f@#$k off of here with your silly blather.
*(Pun intended
Re:Necessary Evil (Score:3, Informative)
Re:My Wife, my mother and Linux... (Score:4, Informative)
That being said, I have 3 iPods, a third gen, a fourth gen, and a fourth.five gen color, all 20GB. Only the third gen syncs with gtkPod without much error, and it's running an extinct version of the iPod firmware.
I tried interfacing with the newest one, and it completely destroyed the filesystem on the iPod. Don't ask me how, but my attempts to plug it into a Mac and a PC both failed, so I had to flip it over to iPod-harddrive mode, and format the bastard. Luckily I didn't lose anything, but it could have been catastrophic.
iTunes is really the best way to use an iPod. If you've got a problem with that, don't buy one. If you don't have a problem with that, like myself, and many I know, buy one, and be happy. And now that iTunes works with Linux [codeweavers.com], there's no reason not to use it.
Re:Necessary Evil (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Featureful does not mean works better (Score:3, Informative)
[MIRROR] MirrorDot Cache (Score:2, Informative)
I went blind looking at the MirrorDot background to get that link, there better be like... 5,000 karma in this for me.
Re:What if I don't want to have control of my comp (Score:3, Informative)
I've been using computers since 1981 (ZX-Spectrum), and I've seen stuff come and go. I have used PCs since DOS, Macs since 1985, Amigas, Atari-STs, CP/M machines and many, many others.
I can run pretty much any computer and OS on the market and do what's required to keep everything up-to-date and working smoothly. It's not hard, but I just can't be bothered.
I want a computer that has the apps I need, works well and doesn't require me to spend my days keeping it running.
For me, a Mac is exactly that. I don't want to have total control over my computer. I'm happy to let the OS do things for me, and I'm happy to have Apple arrange things to suit how I work.
Is it perfect? No.
Is it better than spending my time managing the computer? Absolutely.
Re:Necessary Evil (Score:2, Informative)
Ok, I'll bite...
[...] for some reason they still haven't managed to come up with anything more exciting than Tux Racer.
From the top of my head:
... and there are plenty more.
It's plain BS stating that the indie games are easier to make on Windows... Why? Have you tried? (I haven't!) I hope you can see why your argument seems stupid, if I say "Open ... Source ...". And WTF do you mean by indie games? Games produced by an independent company? Or just not-so-commercial games?
Even better link... (Score:5, Informative)
This link has entire story cache'd, and looks more like original site. Enjoy.
And the other big myth: (Score:5, Informative)
Oh, yeah? Tell me, Windows loyalists, did you ever get Outlook Express to understand the concept of multiple email accounts and different stationary/spam filters for each? Figure out how to stop Windows from dumping icons all over the screen? Get rid of the MS Network and Network Neighborhood because you never use it? Get Windows to recognise your new graphics card without a struggle? Stop Real Player from firing up at startup and immediately demanding your whole machine's resources? Completely remove software you uninstall, without having to go in and manually delete folders? Confess to you where it hides ALL the cookies and let you clean them ALL out? Not show the taskbar?
Yes, I'm sure everybody's done some of what's on this list... but you weren't born knowing how? Right? You had to...guess what?...READ some DOCUMENTATION to learn how to make it do what you want! After all, if Windows is just SO-O-O-O silly easy, why were manuals written about it "for Dummies" flying off the bookstore shelves from 1985 to 1995 or so? Why would people need things simplified to the "Dummies" level if it were as simple as could be, already?
Linux comes with it's own "for Dummies" docs, free. Man pages, info pages, html docbooks, et cettera ad infinitum. Just have a gander through /usr/share/doc and you learn everything in Linux just like the "for Dummies" books in Windows!
Re:Microsoft in schools (Score:3, Informative)
Remember that giving software to schools was a punishment for being guilty under anti-trust laws.
Not much of a punishment if you ask me.
Re:10 days is not enough (Score:4, Informative)
In the future, try adding the new kernel as an additional boot option, rather than replacing the old one. Trivially simple to do with LILO and I would presume the same with Grub, though I've never used Grub myself. you should have System.map-$VERSION, config-$VERSION and kernel-$VERSION in your /boot directory, open up your LILO config file (usually in /etc/lilo.conf), copy and paste the block of text that you're using for your current kernel, and replace the version numbers, label it something that you'll recognize. Save the file and run lilo as root, it'll update the MBR and you'll see a new option the next time you boot. If the new kernel doesn't boot, you can just pick the old kernel and try again.
Re:Necessary Evil (Score:3, Informative)
The author owns the copyright to the information in the book. All that means is that unless you get the author's permission, you are not allowed to duplicate the information in the book in most cases. No more, no less. That still doesn't give the author magical ownership over your book.
The key difference between Microsoft's EULA and the GPL is that the EULA is a "contract" that attempts to restrict your rights and expand Microsoft's rights beyond what is specified by standard copyright law. The 5-connection limit is one example: it has *nothing* to do with creating new copies of Windows, and therefore nothing to do with copyright. It is Microsoft coming in after the fact and placing additional restrictions on what you can and can't do with the copy that you paid for. There is nothing in copyright law that gives them this power; you must give them that power by allegedly entering into a contractual agreement when you install the software.
The GPL comes with no such contract. It explicitly states that it is not a contract. It does not attempt to remove any rights that you would otherwise have under standard copyright law to use your copy of the software.
The situation is nowhere near identical.
Yes, no and in-between (Score:3, Informative)
I know of nothing that Outlook can do that you can't do with Evolution and I'm sure there are plug-ins and extensions for the Mozilla suite that'll do the same. (Which is good, because I personally find Thunderbird to be a nicer e-mail client.)
MS Project is one I don't know about, on the Open Source front, but I think the odds are high of a clone being out there. It's just too widely used for nobody to have tackled this one, yet.
Now, if you're using application servers that need specialized clients, or something that absolutely has to use an undocumented Microsoft protocol, then yes you're going to have to use Windows. Well, unless the program works under Wine, then you can use Linux, and Wine is certainly progressing. Slowly, but it is progressing.
On the other hand, there's really very little that hasn't been documented (or reverse-engineered), so most programs people would use under Windows also exist in some form under Linux. It can just be harder to find them, sometimes.
Network administration is one area where Windows may be necessary, for example. (Huh?) It is possible to read from an Active Directory system under Linux - there are DDNS servers that'll work with LDAP - but writing still seems to pose problems. I'd be wary of mixing Windows Active Directory systems with Linux, unless you know what you're doing and are willing to put in the extra effort in getting the two to work together.
Web servers that use ASP and server-side VB are also going to be problems - there are filters that'll convert ASP to platform-independent server script, but I've not seen much progress in this area for a while.
And anything written using code specific to SQL Server or Access will also have problems. But that can be worked around and you shouldn't be using version-specific hacks anyway as Microsoft isn't tied to making things backwards-compatiable. You've no guarantee any of your software'll still work after any patch or update when you break standards, simply because a given release will let you.
(Remember the havoc wrecked when MS tightened up security with some of their XP fixes? Broke a LOT of bad code, because people were careless with their assumptions on how MS would do things in future.)
WebDAV? Done in Linux. Shared peripherals? Done with Samba, so it's in Linux. OLE? There are Linux implementations, but that's probably an area you'd want to stick to Windows, if that's the way you HAVE to do it. OLE isn't a good protocol to be using.
NTLM? Done in Linux. NTFS? Mostly done in Linux, but I'm not sure if the write functions are regarded as completely "safe" for Joe User yet. Again, if you're using NTFS, you're probably going to want to use Windows.
OpenGL is supported, a lot of hardware acceleration is supported, Wine can do DirectX but I won't vouch it'll do everything and I won't guarantee there will always be libraries for X or the Kernel Framebuffer that'll cover all of the functions Windows will.
Also on the graphics front, TrueType and Adobe fonts work but not all hinting on OpenType is complete yet, so if you're doing some heavy-duty DTP that absolutely needs OpenType, Windows may have an advantage.
All in all, there ARE things, then, where I'd recommend using Windows - usually because Windows has some specific function Linux doesn't, or where it supports it in a friendlier way. I cannot think of a single general-purpose application which falls into that category, though, they're generally pretty specific to power users or managerial users.
There is absolutely NOTHING Windows can do that Linux can never do - Linux is near-enough complete as far as Turing's computability goes. (Near-enough as in Turing
Re:Can someone please post a full mirror?! (Score:2, Informative)
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:1CvlEjwElaUJ:w
Re:Microsoft in schools (Score:3, Informative)
A syrup bag-in-a-box is around $35 IIRC, this is five gallons mixed approx 1 part syrup to 5 parts carbonated water. That means a $35 bib will get you about 30 GALLONS of fountain soda. Now you pay about $1 to $1.50 for a 32oz soda. That's $120 to $180 per bib. If you got 4 refills then thier at break even. Given how few people drink 1.25 gallons of soda at a resturant you can see why free refills free.
And that $35 bib probably cost less than $20 for pepsi/coke/other to make and ship.
Mycroft
Re:so many links, so many blank pages... (Score:3, Informative)
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:rqaS83p3KOIJ
Re:Necessary Evil (Score:4, Informative)
And don't dare mod this as funny! It's true!
Re:Microsoft in schools (Score:2, Informative)
When you equate this with Microsoft, you can see how they not only want market share, but brand association and consistency. Market share is one thing, but if you have a brand association with schools (ie, when you think of computers in schools, you think of Microsoft), you have a powerful persistent mindset that breeds familiarity. Familiarity breeds resistance to change. Microsoft also wants conistency. They don't know if some Gimp programmer writes good code. They also don't want to risk photoshop eating the entire scratch drive and crashing their product. If they move to protect their environment, it's likely they're trying to protect their brand through creating and controlling the software that goes on it. The Coke analogy to this would be something like "Cherry Coke". If someone else wanted to throw their own cherry syrup in there, it might make it too sweet or make coke taste bad in some other way, so Coke gives the customer a premixed cherry coke as an alternative. I can't speak to a non-syrup agreement with McDonald's but if you're already getting cherry coke from the manufacturer, why would you bother making your own? (Yes, I know other places DO have cherry syrup, but some people also run Gimp and photoshop.) In the end, IMO, the Coke and Pepsi argument works perfectly to illustrate exclusivity contracts and how a company can use them as a powerful business marketing tool.
Sure, Microsoft come off as a$$es because of it, but in the end when your kids learn to type papers in Microsoft Word, it all pays off for them.
Re:Necessary Evil (Score:3, Informative)
This is more the person you are replying to but you might find it reasuring that we can still do it the easy way if needed.
Step one, Open a command prompt. Click start run and type command in the run box them press enter.
Step two type ftp and press enter. You are now in a ftp shell within windows. o will open a site. use either www. names or ip adresses to conect. typeing
step three????? download whatever you have access to.
Step four profit!
Actualy it is this easy. When spyware screws up you browser and you need to get a removal tool, you can downlad them this way. Also in a pintch, hyperterminal offers you some simple browsing technics but most ISPs will havfe a shell of some sort you can log into when making a dial up conection. Some newer ones might not but my orignial service provider from back in '93-'94 still has it. Inside this little shell, there are ftp utilities that make life somewhat easier for newbies who could follow directions enough to make a dialup conection.
Re:Necessary Evil (Score:4, Informative)
Having an economic monopoly does not mean having 100% of the market, it does mean having such a large majority share of the market that you can basicly dictate your conditions to the market.
Regardless of it being 75,80 or 90% marketshare, MS has an economic monopoly in several software related markets, regardless of the existance of Linux or other systems.
I suggest you go learn a bit about what an economic monopoly is, and while at it, take a peek at what the various laws have to say and maybe remind yourself of the fact that MS has been convicted of using its monopoly in illegal ways. MS being a monopoly with illegal business practises is not just the opinion of quite a few slashdot readers, it is something which is defined by law and confirmed by courts.
Oh and I suggest rereading a few of the slashdot stories about this thing of Apple tryng to stop people from running OS X on generic x86 hardware, this time actually try to read things, you may notice a lot of people complaining about it.
Re:Necessary Evil (Score:3, Informative)
However, MS started deceptive and illegal business practices from early on by even having the "install" program say that non-MS based DOS would cause the computer to crash. Later, MS avoided competition by not allowing vendors to install other competitor software, and either would not sell Windows to them or would charge much higher prices to vendors who also sold computers with non-MS software on them. MS would not allow companies to install competitor's software on PC's that had Windows installed. When you have managed to build a company to the size that they have a very high market share, and then still do not allow competition, your company becomes a monolopy.
Right now, MS is still watched very closely by the government to make sure that it does not return to those really "bad" proctices.
Unfortunately, under the Republican administration, MS has been able to continue many practices that were considered monopolistic.
Re:I kicked Windows in December (Score:3, Informative)
The steps for enabling Remote desktop are listed here [microsoft.com]. While you won't be able to connect when another user is on the machine, there is at least one third-party patch that allows otherwise. You still need to grab a copy of the client if you do not have it already.
After following these steps, it's no more difficult than getting regular Windows networking to work. (Which it doesn't - WinME doesn't fully understand WinXP's Network security system, by asking for a password for $IPC without giving the option to try a different username. This, however, is another story.)
Never do that. Those OEM CDs are known to wipe the entire system to factory configuration.
As one alternative, find a friend who's willing to copy the Windows XP CD (without the CD-key) - this saves a lot more trouble and time, as well as gives the ability to reinstall without wiping.
If you consider this a breach of the license (Microsoft does, but basic morality and/or default copyright law may be different), you can also simply compress the initial installation to a CD immediatly after acquiring the system - either using burning software or a backup program. (Latter is preferred with this route.) In this case, it's your choice whether to wax the operating system on a reinstallation.
That's the problem with Linux - figuring out how to do stuff generally takes time.
While the GUI section has been gradually improving, there's still some major documentation issues (e.g. documentation for some packages fail to describe what should be essential information.) There's also the case of certain "core" applications being incapable of interpreting non-native CR-LFs, which has been known to cause compilation to fail in some applications if they were initially pulled from CVS through WinCVS.
While I do know where to find the documentation (man pages, apropos, the info command, and the HOWTOs), this is barely cutting it as these are four independant help sections that I have to check for general information about the system. Microsoft has the advantage here, as there is only one place you need to check to learn operating system basics (or API, etc.) and can maintain it because they have a dedicated team focused on writing documentation.
If it weren't for that, I would have switched completely over (aside from platform specific things, such as becoming a Minesweeper Consultant and Solitaire Expert). There's more than enough coders going around - what's really needed is writers that get documentation out to minimize time wasted figuring out stuff by glaring at potentially messy source code.