Microsoft Free, One Year Later 539
madgreek writes "Last year I wrote of my switch from XP to Ubuntu at work. Now a year later, I am back to reflect on one year of being extremely productive at work using (almost) nothing but open source software in a Microsoft world."
Linux Visio Clone. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Technologically inclined person successfully us (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Oh sweet, MS Free! (Score:3, Informative)
Updating to the latest kernel in hardy-proposed fixed that for me.
Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years (Score:5, Informative)
A two minute search on Google yields CDBurnerXP [cdburnerxp.se] as a freeware CD burning tool and Daemon tools [daemon-tools.cc] as an image mounting tool for Windows.
It might not be free as in speech, but it sure is free as in beer.
Re:Oh sweet, MS Free! (Score:3, Informative)
It's not capitalism at all. It's binary blobs in the kernel. The two are orthogonal -- plenty of very profit-driven companies have discovered that it is useful to have Linux support, and it is far less work to do so when you release source and let the community maintain it. Oh, and the drivers end up better, too.
Oh, and this is just hilarious:
Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years (Score:4, Informative)
http://weblogs.asp.net/pleloup/archive/2004/01/15/58918.aspx [asp.net]
Re:Linux Visio Clone. (Score:5, Informative)
I use Koffice quite often, and Kivio is one of my favorite apps in there.
Re:Oh sweet, MS Free! (Score:4, Informative)
Of course he probably has a couple of pets on the thing now seeing that it took him quite a while to even get it into a state where it would accept updates and we all have external IPs.
For reference, on the latest Ubuntu I have my 3D acceleration ( on both screens ) and wireless on the laptop out of the box. My main gripe is the flash plugin for firefox crashing every now and then, but I'm guessing that is really adobe's fault.
Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years (Score:5, Informative)
- Windows Reskits have cdburn.exe and dvdburn.exe - very capable tools for recording media
- D-Tools is free and is an excellent tool
I have multiple machines running Linux and Windows (this particular laptop I am posting a reply from is a Linux only Thinkpad) and Linux is not really more desktop capable. I am playing the devil's advocate here: good for you if you managed to figure out that Linux works better for you.
It doesn't work better for everyone. I need Photoshop (Sorry, I am not too bright to use GIMP), I need a couple of my RTS games that I play casually and I need my Windows Rhapsody client. I use wine for Photoshop, Caesar3 and I use Vmware + Windows 2000 for Rhapsody. I also need Windows to watch streaming Netflix and I'll be creating an XP image in the near future just for Netflix (Netflix supports only WinXP and higher).
So now do you get an idea? Linux isn't desktop ready because a majority of the rest of the world isn't ready for Linux. This is a 100% Linux laptop and still I need to rely on wine and Vmware to use the applications I really want/need.
My first Linux distribution was Redhat 5.2 and it's been quite a journey - Ubuntu 8.04 for me is the closest I've seen to a perfect Linux desktop but as much as I love it and use workarounds to keep using it fulltime, the distribution isn't there yet. Linux *isn't* there yet. I want it to be and I'll rejoice the day I have to stop using my workarounds.
I love using my Linux laptop over my windows machines at home (one's a high end gaming machine, the other's a pretty decent Windows Media Center box) and I love using my Linux machines at work (5 boxes running Linux and one Windows notebook) but I do keep windows around for Windows does tasks that Linux cannot do for me yet.
I usually bash Microsoft and Windows freely but I also do acknowledge Linux's shortcomings. If you believe otherwise, well, there is this certain cliche about ignorance and bliss...
visio alternatives (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Linux Visio Clone. (Score:3, Informative)
No, there are FOSS alternatives that approach Visio functionality, so there's obviously demand.
This is another example of Microsoft's ubiquitous format lockin.
There are projects to reverse-engineer [freshmeat.net] the VSD/VSS file formats, but it's complicated, and there are a number of closed sub-formats being used as well.
I went the opposite direction (Score:0, Informative)
Nothing on Linux today approaches anything near the user experience and breadth of applications that Windows or Mac OS X provide.
Don't delude yourselves. OpenOffice is just as good as Office! Gimp is just as good as Photoshop! Yeah? Is your tricked-out Honda Civic as good as that BMW down the street too? Of course it is. People and corporations are just too stupid to know it.
This is the year of desktop Linux! Yeah, well this is the year just as much as 2002 was and as much as 2015 will be. But the Linux community is working hard on improving the experience! And don't you think Windows and Mac OS will move forward as well?
The Linux desktop experience today in 2008 has the appeal, driver support, and aesthetics of Windows 98. Oh wait, Win98 did have driver support.
Take Linux for what it is: a tool on which to get your work done, just as Windows and Mac OS are other types of tools with which to get your work done.
As Promised (Score:0, Informative)
identifier "Generic Monitor"
vendorname "Generic"
modelname "Flat Panel 1680x1050"
HorizSync 31.5-90
VertRefresh 60
Option "DPMS"
modeline "1680x1050@60" 147.14 1680 1784 1968 2256 1050 1051 1054 1087 -hsync +vsync
gamma 1.0
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
identifier "monitor1"
vendorname "Generic"
modelname "Flat Panel 1280x1024"
HorizSync 31.5-90
VertRefresh 60
Option "DPMS"
modeline "1280x1024@60" 108.0 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
gamma 1.0
EndSection
Section "Device"
identifier "NVIDIA Corporation NV40? [Unknown nVidia Card]"
boardname "nv"
busid "PCI:1:5:0"
driver "nvidia"
Option "LogoPath" "/usr/local/lib/nvidia/Cloudy.png"
screen 0
EndSection
Section "Device"
identifier "device1"
boardname "nv"
busid "PCI:1:5:0"
driver "nvidia"
Option "LogoPath" "/usr/local/lib/nvidia/Cloudy.png"
screen 1
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "NVIDIA Corporation NV40? [Unknown nVidia Card]"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
Option "LogoPath" "/usr/local/lib/nvidia/Cloudy.png"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
depth 24
modes "1680x1050@60"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "Screen"
#
Identifier "screen1"
Device "device1"
Monitor "monitor1"
Option "LogoPath" "/usr/local/lib/nvidia/Cloudy.png"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
depth 24
modes "1280x1024@60"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "ServerFlags"
option "Xinerama" "true"
EndSection
Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years (Score:2, Informative)
Porting that in a live business environment would be a nightmare (though there would be the benefit of not having to "upgrade" to the new version of windows every time it comes up - enough work there...)
Re:You're not the first. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years (Score:5, Informative)
It is also possible to authenticate against an open ldap server (actually osx uses open ldap) and setup kerberos. The LDAP schema (i suck with ldap) has two fields that are used to push down policies. Apple uses an XML format to describe all the policies which can be used even without OS X server.
The reason I feel that OS X is not ready for big environments is that it's inflexible. You can only hack around so many "features". For instance, we had a hack that's worked for 10.4 to bind to a Novell eDir server on campus without using Novell's schema changes for Mac support. We do not control the Novell servers. However, this appears to be broken in Leopard (10.5).
For the most part, we've had good luck migrating from a windows and mac environment to Mac only. I work for the computer science department at a university. I did not make the decision to migrate as I would have chosen BSD or maybe Linux based on our needs.
Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years (Score:2, Informative)
If there is, it would be rather pointless since the whole basis of yum/apt etc. is the large trusted respositories that they rely on, and these do not exist for windows software. I suppose there's no reason though why a 'trusted' company (Mozilla foundation?) shouldn't set up Windows repositories of some sort containing all the important FOSS stuff.
Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years (Score:4, Informative)
"Linux can and does work well in a corporate environment."
Agreed (or at least it does where I work), however it's still along way from breaking the MS 'lock' on the corporate desktop and there doesn't seem to be any 'killer app' to drive the corporates toward a Linux desktop (unless your counting Vista). .
Re:Linux Visio Clone. (Score:5, Informative)
Visio, 'ey? (Score:4, Informative)
I think if that was the only thing keeping me on MS's suckware, I would find a way around it.
The main reason businesses run Windows is the same exact reason most home owners run Windows, because it is the default OS. They never give it much consideration to begin with, it's just what comes in the box.
The fact that this monopoly has been allowed to continue all these years is outrageous, really. If 90% of people owned Fords, it would mean that either Fords are way better or that they have unfair competitive advantage.
The Microsoft monopoly in the OS market is the single greatest problem in technology today and the negative effects of the monopoly cascades in every direction.
Visio became popular, not based so much on its merits, which I'm sure it's a fine piece of software, but more because MS leverages the Windows monopoly to push software of every sort. People then used Visio and the closed, proprietary formats of Visio and now because they have so much work stored in these formats it is a deterrent to considering an alternative OS. The problem comes full circle.
So there's my anti-Microsoft rant for the day
Nearly 6 years (Score:2, Informative)
Now, I use GNU/Linux exclusively. Everything I do at university I do on Linux (and every single maths lecturer at Edinburgh University, or Heriot Watt University - also in Edinburgh - uses Linux). When I did my master's degree in Quantitative Genetics I never used or needed Windows. In my PhD I'm looking at the role of badgers and tuberculosis in cattle, and I use Linux, mostly doing simulations in C. The one time I needed a program that was Windows only (for calculating inbreeding coefficients), it worked perfectly in Wine. Even down to the same error message
So that covers being Microsoft free at work and university. How about home and non-work stuff?
I can use the web no problem, flash works (there's the odd time it fails, but I hardly notice), email, IRC, etc. are fine. I can play all my DVDs, CDs, music, anime collection, episodes of House I downloaded with Bittorrent. Admittedly the games front isn't very exciting, but I can still play a few reasonably fun games, I got Half-Life 2 working (granted buggily), and my Wii covers the rest. I'm not sure what else I need it for, but when I do need to do something I can usually find a Linux solution.
My flatmate used his Linux laptop to generate a 3d-movie from scratch to use as the menu for a horror film he took part it. All the editing for the movie was done in Linux. He's also pretty good with the Gimp, but I've never used it for anything particularly interesting so I can't comment.
Result: after 5 years, my knowledge of the command line is still fairly minimal, other than for re-encoding the odd movie into a VCD for a friend, and editing some config files. Things still go wrong, but I've never had a problem I couldn't fix, provided it was fixable (forums are brilliant), and my flatmates helped me at first when I got stuck. My completely non-techy fiancée uses my computer, and finds GNOME's interface easy to use. I am officially Microsoft free, and I don't look back. Also I build my own computer from components, so no Microsoft tax.
So yes, I think it's perfectly possible. It needs some patience though, and help from friends. Pre-installed Linux is definitely a good thing. However, if you gave a completely non-techy person a computer without Windows installed, and asked them to set it up themselves from scratch, they might find it difficult too.
8 years, linux only - no problem (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years (Score:3, Informative)
Games? (Score:3, Informative)
I was entirely unproductive in achieving any entertainment with games. WINE was a lot of work to get things playing and even then they didn't quite play correctly. Steam was a pain in the arse, so was WoW. I didn't even bother trying once Age of Conan came along.
On other applications, things were generally fine, I've kept Ubuntu running on basically a glorified Gmail + browsing box. I've also got a Mythbuntu PVR running. I still use BSD and Linux in server situations.
But for desktop, for me at least, if it's inconvenient for games, regardless over whether Microsoft is an evil empire or not.. it's just a no go as a Desktop OS. Games are what separate it, otherwise it's just a browser box and I can do that without a desktop at all.
Maybe other folks get more mileage out of Gimp vs Photoshop, though I doubt that too unfortunately, My take on Linux after all these years is still that the desktop experience unfortunately lacks.
Wishful thinking isn't cutting it. I wish it would.. er, okay now that's just going in circles.
Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years (Score:2, Informative)
Already exists, this was already posted (Score:4, Informative)
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=572739&cid=23649597 [slashdot.org]
The problem is that nobody knows about it, and it doesn't come with Windows, and since it isn't iTunes or BonziBuddySpywareGetVideoPlayer2000, few will even be interested in it.
Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years (Score:3, Informative)
Years ago, when we said "operating system", we meant what today is called a "kernel". Of course, the OS came with enough utilities to organize and execute programs. And there were often extras thrown in.
Then software in general, and OS's in particular, became products that competed. This meant having lots of features became important to the vendors. "OS" came to mean as much, if not more, the stuff that goes around the kernel. When people ask "Is Linux ready for the desktop?" they aren't talking about the kernel, which has been excellent for many years. What they're really asking is, "Does any Linux distro add enough of the right features to make it usable for mass desktop usage?"
As you say, that's been true for years. In fact, you get more out of the box -- far more -- than you do in any proprietary system.
But, we've come full circle. We used to be focused on the hardware, because it was fabulously expensive. But now hardware is incredibly cheap, which recreates the problem: because it is cheap, there is lots of it, in great diversity. That means managing it is a big problem again.
Linux contributors do a positively amazing job at supporting the vast diversity of hardware out there that users might have, especially when you consider that the hardware vendors do this for Microsoft. But amazing is not the same as consistent enough for some newbie to grab a linux install CD and reliably experience open source bliss. Taking a kernel upgrade from your distro often means having something break, which might mean messing with BIOS tables, or building your own custom kernel, or doing without. The first two aren't that hard to do technically, but most users without support will do without and be unhappy.
As it stands, there is no reason an enterprise couldn't go Linux on the desktop, so long as it regulated the hardware in use so it has good Linux support, or that they efficiently deal with any problems that come up. Likewise, consumers who buy Linux preinstalled from somebody like Dell ought to be pretty happy with it. But the dominant user model, where somebody downloads the installers and puts it on their own machine, is not a good one for most users.
Until vendors of hardware make Linux a priority, there are only three ways that Linux works on a desktop: (1) A sophisticated Linux user doing self-support; (2) An IT department with a small number of standardized hardware configurations; (3) Linux preinstalls supported by the manufacturer.
Re:Linux Visio Clone. (Score:2, Informative)
It all depends on what you use visio for anyway. Most generic diagramming can be done with something like yEd http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_about.html [yworks.com] - it's not open source but it's free and very nice. And it's java so you can also use it on your XP box
For UML sequence diagrams, look at SD-edit http://sdedit.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]. Also java, open source and very quick to use. Trust me, you'll never want to use visio again for sequence diagrams.
For generic UML modelling and reverse engineering, maybe you could take a look at BOUML http://bouml.free.fr/ [bouml.free.fr]
And there's allways Gliffy http://www.gliffy.com/ [gliffy.com] which is completely server-side. Be careful though, the free version stores your documents for all the world to see. If you don't mind your drawings being stored on somebody else's server, the $5 a month for the paid version (that also does private documents and unlimited number of drawings) seems reasonable.
Openoffice Draw also isn't too bad as a final alternative perhaps.
As for dia, it seems to have a lot of potential but for now text placement for instance is very un-intuitive (try adding some text to an arrow, you have to connect it manually and the positioning of the text is very awkward). These guys really need to step it up, right now it compares to a really old version of Visio and even then it isn't half as easy to use..
Re:Linux Visio Clone. (Score:3, Informative)
Dia can import .vsd files.
Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years (Score:4, Informative)
So... why are you still on Firefox 3b5?
Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years (Score:3, Informative)
All of that functionality except the virus testing is available on freshmeat.net, which points you to home pages - which hopefully have links to official download sites.
Of course, download.com sounds a lot nicer than freshmeat.net. But whatever.
Re:Linux not great in the enterprise (Score:3, Informative)
- Lock-down user desktops with varying levels of security restrictions depending on their login Organisational Unit (i.e Accounts, Developers, etc)
Please note that the entire "/usr" tree is automountable. In particular, this gives you automatic lockdown on desktop by user, machine, OS level, and a number of other characteristics (x86 vs Power architecture, for example).
- Auto-mount specific network shares
Unix (linux) accomplishes this by means of the "automounter". Automounter is fed by NIS or LDAP.
- Centrally configure a patch management system (WSUS equivalent) for each workstations' software updates.
Of course this is common, as is OS loading. I don't know "WSUS", but centralised upgrades are as easy as configuring your own repository in Redhat, SuSE or Fedora. I am sure other distributions have equivalent features.
- Deploy & install automatically software packages depending on OU.
That would be "kickstart", and network booting.
- Set automatically firewall policies
Why? I really don't understand this. Do you mean packet filtering rules on the local machine? Again, automount of
- Brand each machine with company screensaver, etc, etc.
Again, once