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Open Source Windows Linux

Why Aren't People Abandoning Windows For Linux? (slashgear.com) 966

This weekend SlashGear published "Reasons to Abandon Windows For Linux," making their case to "Windows users who are curious about the state of Linux for mainstream computing." It tries to enumerate specific reasons why Linux might be the better choice, arguing among other things that:
  • Updates on Linux are fast and "rarely call for a restart" -- and are also more complete. "Updates are typically downloaded through a 'Software Updater' application that not only checks for operating system patches, but also includes updates for the programs that you've installed from the repository."
  • Windows "tries to serve a variety of markets...cramming in a scattered array of features" -- and along those lines, that Microsoft "has gradually implemented monetization schemes and methods for extracting user data." And yet you're still paying for that operating system, while Linux is less bloated and "free forever."
  • "Because less people use Linux, the platform is less targeted by malware and tends to be more secure than Windows"

The article also touches on a few other points (including battery life), and predicts that problems with Windows are "bound to get worse over time and will only present more of a case for making the switch to Linux."

Long-time Slashdot reader shanen shared the article, along with some new thoughts on why people really stay with Windows:

I think the main "excuse" is the perception of reliability, which is really laughable if you've actually read the EULA. Microsoft certainly doesn't have to help anyone at all. I would argue that Windows support is neither a bug nor a feature, but just a marketing ploy.

Their original submission suggests that maybe Linux needs to buttress the perception of its reliability with a better financial model -- possibly through a new kind of crowd funding which could also be extended to all open source software, or even to journalism).


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Why Aren't People Abandoning Windows For Linux?

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  • Not 'free' (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jmccue ( 834797 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:10PM (#58399878) Homepage

    It does not come 'free' with the PC/Laptop. Even though they will need to pay eventually (upgrades/subscriptions) people still see it as free.

    • Re:Not 'free' (Score:5, Informative)

      by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:14PM (#58399906) Journal
      60% of educational laptops come with Linux installed by default [wikipedia.org]. Not sure what the Chromebook market is overall, but yeah, you're not going to get many people installing an aftermarket OS on their laptop. What is the point?
      • Chrome OS is made to run one application: Google Chrome. If you want to run an application other than Google Chrome, you need a different operating system. And if the Chromebook you own was manufactured before Crostini, that isn't likely to happen.

        • Chrome OS is made to run one application: Google Chrome. If you want to run an application other than Google Chrome, you need a different operating system.

          That's one view. Another is that the web is the platform that matters. I'm finding that there's less and less that I can't do with web apps -- particularly when you include Chrome apps that can work just fine offline (though the amount of time that I am offline is similarly decreasing). This, of course, is the ChromeOS team's view.

          Also, don't forget that Chromebooks can now also run Android apps. That's still a little rough around the edges, but getting better, fast, and Android app developers are starti

    • by goombah99 ( 560566 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:55PM (#58400202)

      Windows makes a BFD of updating your computer or scanning for mal ware.
      Ironically the fact that updates are a big deal on Windows machines makes people aware of them. They are aware when one exists and if they haven't done it. This intrusiveness gives you the sense that as long as you stay updated Microsoft will keep your machine happy and healthy.

      Linus doesn't provide that feeling.

      You are never really aware if the "kernel" (scary) is upt to date or what that means or how to tell.

      So it's daunting.

      A linux distro with a security CLippy would give people more confidence something was out there keeping them safe and healthy

    • by perpenso ( 1613749 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @08:23PM (#58400890)
      Speaking as someone who has dual booted since around 1993 (Yggdrail plug and play Linux) ...

      Primarily, there are a lot of people that need an app or utility that is only available for Windows.

      Some will argue that there are FOSS replacements for the functionality provided by these apps but most of these FOSS replacements are not Linux specific and run under Windows too. Someone wanting to save money by using Gimp does not need Linux.

      Secondarily there is the network effect. As the dominant OS Windows just has more people you can ask questions, ask for help. Same for those dominant non-FOSS apps.

      Related to this is virtually any hardware gizmo you might want to buy will be supported by Windows. Linux, maybe not.

      In short there is a cost from switching to Linux, software availability, what others are using, compatibility, ... These costs must be offset by something that is specific to Linux, and the things that Linux advocates speak of when talking to Windows users are often not meaningful or interesting to the latter. So the typical Windows user sees no gain.

      Regarding things specific to Linux ... the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) reduces the number of such things. Various *nix tools or utilities that fit a particular task better than their Windows counterparts are now conveniently available from the Microsoft Store for free. Note that some long time Linux users are finding that WSL lets them have their *nix toolchain under Windows, that's pretty convenient for cross platform development. Kind of a repeat of what we saw with Mac OS X and the BSD console and posix API being available. Such things just make Linux less special than it used to be. In 1993 when I started using Linux it seemed a godsend, I wished I had it for undergraduate CS studies. Fortunately I had it for grad school. But today, its just less special.

      To be VERY VERY clear, the above is strictly discussing the typical user desktop. If you want to discuss embedded or server environment, of *nix based workstation use, things are quite different than the consumer desktop.
      • by Vlad_the_Inhaler ( 32958 ) on Monday April 08, 2019 @04:06AM (#58402074)

        I was recently in a situation where I needed to maintain fields in an Excel spreadsheet based on incoming PDFs.
        The Excel spreadsheet was via Dropbox, contained macros and the free online version of Excel could just about handle it. The dropbox app under Linux also permitted LibreOffice access, I just had to be careful updating when macros came into play.
        PDFs were more of a problem. Adobe no longer supports the PDF reader for Linux and several of them arrived in a form where Okular (or LibreOffice) simply could not read them. Some of them rendered badly under Okular, some others looked ok but were missing fields. In the end I had to look at the PDFs under Windows to be sure I was seeing what had been written.
        I looked up PDF readers for Linux a couple of years back, around the time Adobe dropped Linux support and there was no other reader back then which could read everything. This is of course Adobe's fault, they kept on adding bells and whistles to their PDF specs until it was a monster full of security holes. Adobe's fault but that does not help someone in that situation.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:10PM (#58399880)

    When you buy a Microsoft computer, you agree to use only Microsoft products, including the Windows App Store. Installing Linux is illegal tinkering, and if we catch you doing it, we will delete your data.

    - James Kelly, Senior Microsoft PR Executive

  • 2019... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Trimaz ( 4609805 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:10PM (#58399886)
    ...will be year of the Linux desktop. Just a few months to go but it might get there.
    • Optimist. The next realistic chance is 2020, when Windows 7 goes out of support.

      At that point, I hope some people like me who really hate Win10 will jump ship. I'm planning to for what it's worth. My new year's resolution for 2012 :-)

      • Re:2019... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Dutch Gun ( 899105 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @06:06PM (#58400230)

        If that abomination known as Windows 8 couldn't drive users to Linux, don't kid yourself that a little issues like end-of-support lifetime for a very popular version of Windows will do the trick. Remember, we've already gone through this with Windows XP. Experience tells us that most home users will just keep using Windows 7 until their PC dies, while corporations still not ready to switch will pay extra for longer support.

  • Why? (Score:5, Funny)

    by msauve ( 701917 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:11PM (#58399890)
    systemd. HTH! HAND!
    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jwhyche ( 6192 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:27PM (#58400030) Homepage

      It's got nothing to do with systemd. Most users don't know or care if the system is running systemd or init. It's only an important topic for system admins.

      The reason that people are not abandoning Windows for Linux is pretty simple. Windows is a much better, and supported, general purpose operating system for the desktop. It has more tools for doing general office work, desktop publishing, and video editing that Linux has. This is just the nature of the beast.

      But that doesn't make Linux useless for the desktop. I've noticed that Linux desktops tend to occupy more specialist niches. An this is where the Linux desktop shines. You can completely customize it for the individual task. The fact that it comes with tools to do this out of the box is a bonus.

      Severs is a different story. Outside of active directory I really can't think of many things that Windows Server outshines Linux on. Linux simple makes a far better general purpose server than Window Server does. Infact if it wasn't for AD I doubt that Windows Server would have the presents it does.

      • Re: Why? (Score:3, Informative)

        by longbot ( 789962 )
        I've used Linux and Windows server, and my experience with Windows server was far and away the best. Easier to get it to do what I want, easier to fix when it broke, major updates didn't trash the filesystem the OS was on (Thanks, Ubuntu). Also, there's not 18 million flavors, each with a bunch of weird quirks and incompatibilities. Obviously, if I was doing one specific task that demanded insane amounts of reliability, I might have considered Linux. But Windows server has been running on my home server in
        • Re: Why? (Score:5, Informative)

          by wertigon ( 1204486 ) on Monday April 08, 2019 @12:30AM (#58401628)

          Most people would disagree with you including Microsoft themselves.

          Also, seems to me you are comparing a special built Ubuntu-derivative with a non-standard file system that had no business running on a production server in the first place with a commercial grade OS.

          Third, there isn't a million viable Linux distros, but four distros that give reliable paid server support; Ubuntu, RHEL, CentOS and SuSE. Everything else is to be considered as experimental/non-supported and should be avoided unless you really know what you are doing.

      • Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by aaarrrgggh ( 9205 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @06:39PM (#58400432)

        Arguably, DFS-R is better than any of the Linux alternatives for replication of data between offices.

        Biggest reason on the desktop is the same as it was 15 years ago: people like Outlook,

        • by jwhyche ( 6192 )

          I would disagree. I've used windows DFS and found it to be cumbersome and unreliable. I set up a glusterfs between several nodes on linux and it was elegant and reliable.

          Of course these are just my experiences, doesn't mean your experiences are any less valid.

        • Re:Why? (Score:4, Funny)

          by shanen ( 462549 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @08:45PM (#58400966) Homepage Journal

          I have to make the obvious reply:

          People who "like Outlook" are sick and need help.

    • Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ilsaloving ( 1534307 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @07:42PM (#58400748)

      While the parent is funny, it does raise a good point.

      Systemd is a great example of the idiotic religious-level infighting that happens constantly between linux "enthusiasts".

      Do you know what impact Systemd has to the average user? Fat. Fuck. All.

      Do you know what DOES have impact on the average user? A bunch of nerds getting into screaming matches with each other over ultimately pointless details.

      People get their panties in a twist over the most bloody idiotic things, like colour schemes and font choices. Meanwhile people who just want something that works throw their hands up and nope over to something that will give them less perceived headaches.

      Like it or not, every single one of us represents the image of Linux, and our collective inability to see things with a little perspective is just one of many reasons how people are being actively pushed away from trying linux.

      • Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Musical_Joe ( 1565075 ) on Monday April 08, 2019 @07:20AM (#58402652)

        Do you know what impact Systemd has to the average user? Fat. Fuck. All.

        This. Absolutely 100% this.

        I thought "I wonder what this Systemd thing is that they're arguing about?". I googled and found an answer on a website called linux.com which I assume is authoritative on the subject. It said:

        It's tempting to let personalities get in the way. As fun as it is to rant and rail and emit colorful epithets, it's beside the point. For lo so many years Linux was content with SysVInit and BSD init. Then came add-on service managers like the service and chkconfig commands. Which were supposed to make service management easier, but for me were just more things to learn that didn't make the tasks any easier, but rather more cluttery.

        ...and at that point I sighed and stopped reading. That attempt at an answer sums Linux up for you. You ask a question about a term, and the answer includes at least five more terms you need to look up. If you don't understand why this is a problem, you don't understand what the "average computer user" wants and/or needs.

  • OS means nothing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by darkain ( 749283 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:12PM (#58399900) Homepage

    The OS doesn't really mean anything at all. The OS only exists to run software which solves specific problems to get jobs done. On paper Linux looks like, but in the real world, it just consistently falls short for desktop usage. It does GREAT in the server world, due to the reliability and performance, but these are less of a concern on the desktop.

    On the desktop, we need the ability to accomplish tasks by individuals that are not computer experts and dont have experts sitting around them constantly to ask questions to. Having done tech support in a small business of people who are not tech savvy, routinely being asked how to dial an international phone number, or reply to an email, or send a FAX, these are not tasks that the Linux ecosystem are suited for.

    Linux is built for tech savvy people by tech savvy people. Linux is chock full of software engineers, but lacks UX engineers in all aspects of the ecosystem.

    • by ewibble ( 1655195 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @06:10PM (#58400246)

      It is because Linux doesn't run the software users want.
      If you want to play games, run windows sure there are a reasonable amount of games for linux but all major PC games support windows.
      If you want to use photoshop run windows

      Most good Linux applications are ported to windows anyway.

      Also windows comes preinstalled on your computer, so no matter how easy it is to install Linux, and it is fairly easy, it is easier to do nothing, so if you are just running a web browser why bother? I suppose it the simplest way of getting rid of all the adware that comes preinstalled too.

    • by idji ( 984038 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @06:56PM (#58400514)
      and the number 1 thing that Linux is missing is MS Excel,and that is why businesses will never switch, because EVERY business uses Excel.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Autodesk software (Score:5, Informative)

    by Zitchas ( 713512 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:12PM (#58399902) Journal

    That's it, really. I need to be able to run AutoDesk AutoCADD, Inventor, and Revit. If someone can demonstrate those (with all their built-in components, rendering, and plug-ins) running nicely with full capabilities on any type of Linux, I will happily make the switch.

    And no, FreeCADD and Blender are not valid substitutes. Sorry.

    • I tried in the last month to get Fusion working in linux. I gave up. So I have a dual boot for the Autodesk and adobe suites.

    • It's more fundamental than that: people don't care and Windows is installed when they buy their machines.

  • Linux is fractious (Score:5, Insightful)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:15PM (#58399914) Homepage Journal

    Lots of distributions. Lots of ways of doing things. Systemd or not. rpm or dpkg or portage or one of the other dozen or so package managers. Lots of old documentation hanging around telling you to do things that don't work any more. Binary drivers or not. X11 or Wayland. GNOME or KDE or neither.

    Putting aside the argument of wasted effort, it's just confusing for the average user. Even those of us who are capable of navigating these waters may easily grow tired of the hassle.

    • by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:25PM (#58400008)

      Thank you. Came to say something similar. Every day on here someone talks about a video or audio driver which doesn't work and the hoops they had to jump through to get something to work. Somewhat.

      "Oh, it's not bad. Just go to xyz/fjg and do wth~ to unload the driver. Then go get the 2.4.1a version. If you get anything higher your video will look like Don King's hair. Then unload the driver into yur\opq\mnb and set the parameter to . . ." And on and on and on.

      And which distribution? There are what, 200 different flavors of linux? The person has to do research to figure out which one might be the easiest for them to use, but if they're essentially computer illiterate they stop when they see all the choices.

      People want something which works. For all the whining about Microsoft and Apple, their software works. Linux, not so much.

  • by Harlequin80 ( 1671040 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:17PM (#58399936)

    For the vast majority of users windows works well enough. And their PC / Laptop came with windows.

    So there is no incentive to change.

  • by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:21PM (#58399970)
    The public just buys what the major tech marketing machines are selling. Very few even know there is an option and why it matters.

    Just my 2 cents ;)
    • Yeah it's the consumer's fault that Linux is fragmented, has little to no mindshare outside tech people, demands arcane knowledge to do many simple things and has a lot of condescending tools that would rather make people asking for help feel stupid than making the effort to educate them.

  • by brian.stinar ( 1104135 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:25PM (#58400012) Homepage

    I manage a small network for my parents. My dad is a lung doctor, and my mom is a nurse [stinarsleepmedicine.com]. I cannot get their current EHR system [amazingcharts.com] to run under Linux (WINE) and wasn't able to get their previous EHR to run under Linux either. So, for them, I do not save the thousands of dollars that were required to be spent when Windows XP was deprecated, and thousands of dollars again now that Windows 7 is approaching it's end-of-life because I cannot run one critical desktop application under Linux.

    We evaluated OpenEHR. It would have required substantial modification to be able to collect, and present, patient data in the manner that would have been useful to their medical office. My software development company could have provided these modifications. As could another, more experienced, software development company that supports OpenEHR. We came to the conclusion that those modifications would be more expensive, and risky, than the commercial licensing, and constant Windows replacement costs. The commercial solution was ready, out of the box, and (not very well, but still) supported.

    Until Linux offers better desktop application replacement support, there will be many corporate environments that depend on Windows application which cannot be migrated. WINE is not easy to get everything running under.

    The software development company [noventum.us] I use relied exclusively on Linux, and open-source software for our developments. However, that does not mean it is a good solution for everyone. Saying "everyone should use Linux" is just as wrong as saying "everyone should use Windows." There are different use cases for different technologies, and attempting to shoehorn everyone into a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't (in my experience) lead to a good outcome.

  • I want to play video games and they develop for windows first and linux as an afterthought. Proton is nice but its not native support nice.

  • I might stop using Windows when MS stops offering security updates for Windows 7 (in January, unless things change). I have never heard of a single feature of Windows 10 that is attractive to me. Almost everything I see and hear about it makes me actively not want it.

    I've already had, for several years, a dedicated Linux desktop that I use almost daily. I have peccadilloes with Ubuntu and Gnome that I'm sure I could fix if it were my primary OS. I mostly hang on to Windows because of proprietary software su

  • I think the main reason is too much distribution fragmentation. E.g all the RPM Distros need to chuck themselves under a single banner, the same with dpkg based distros and the gentoo ones. At the moment Linux is like 5000+ different OSs and noone can get decent documentation on any of them. You end up having to get a bit of config from arch, a bit of config from debian, a bit from ubuntu and pray that the ductape and glue you use holds together. Also new hardware support is garbage. I'm writing this on a R
  • by TJHook3r ( 4699685 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:32PM (#58400070)
    Which people would abandon Windows? I can't think of many interesting Linux projects that didn't turn into a couple of nights spent on forums and tutorials for me! That's not something most people want to deal with!
  • If we consider Chrome OS as a Linux distribution then it seems to be happening, especially with the recent improvements: better file management, android/Linux app support. As for GNU/Linux, it hasn't any serious commercial support on desktops, it's primarily volunteer driven with so many different projects trying to do the same thing. People want something that is supported and meets their requirements.
  • by t0qer ( 230538 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:33PM (#58400086) Homepage Journal

    Cause slashdot is beating a dead horse.

    Joking aside, Linux support has gotten better from the days when posting on a forum would be met with RTFM. It's still not enough to get folks to turn away in masses to Linux. I honestly don't know what the answer is.

    It's not games. Valve went as far as to create their own flavor of Linux.
    It could be apps. I find that MsOffice is still better than everything else out there. I'm great with Gimp simply because I'm too cheap to pay for Adobe products, but adding stroke to text is still a lot more difficult than it has to be (select layer, convert layer to path, etc)
    It could be hardware compatibility. Some of the more "pure" distro's refuse to include binary drivers.
    It could also be my cousin Vinny, who is sort of defacto tech support for aunt Jenine (I really don't have an aunt or cousin named that)
    Maybe it's the ease of entry as a professional. Windows 10 basic cert is easy, Linux, not so much.
    Maybe it's something I just heard in my Security+ training, that GUI's prevent mistakes.
    Maybe it's the accountability, you know who you're dealing with, there's at least some central number to call for support, instead of a fragmentation of 10 different companies.
    Maybe it's the government, who still swears by windows for a lot of things.

    I really don't know. I know I'm typing this from Windows, in a chrome browser. I have my reasons. Having been on slash since the beginning, this question is just never answered. It's almost like Incels asking, "Why can't I get laid?"

  • It's the Apps, man (Score:5, Insightful)

    by duke_cheetah2003 ( 862933 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:34PM (#58400094) Homepage

    Linux is wonderful for sure.

    But it's basic issue with toppling Windows dominance over the desktop is Apps. Plain and simple.

    Until developers start pushing out major Apps for Linux, it's going to remain in the shadows, running all the backend stuff like it always has. Linux simply has no hope on the desktop until it gets the App support from major companies, like Windows enjoys now.

    Which leads to the second problem for Linux. Fragmentation and poor compatibility from distro to distro. There's just no standard for developers to follow, that would ensure their stuff will run as desired on any given Linux desktop. There's ton of different UIs, different display servers, different system tools, different locations for common stuff. Even the basic libraries installed on any given Linux desktop are rarely the same as they are for another one. Different versions of just about everything plagues Linux's viability for big corporation's developers.

    Even Steam can be a bit of a chore to get working properly on a Linux desktop install. You gotta make sure the right libraries are in. And even when you get it working, there's absolutely no guarantee any of your games will work. They might. They might not. Windows does not suffer from this issue. You buy a piece of software/game for Windows. It will work. Period.

    Don't get me wrong, Linux's various distros have come a long way in addressing compatibility and dependency issues for their software repositories. But, from my view, it's still too much of a disaster for big corps to make the investment in developing their big App suites for Linux.

    Once big name corps, like Adobe and Microsoft for example, start pushing out Linux versions of their flagship products, Linux will have arrived. But until then... we're stuck with Windows.

  • In theory the one benefit OSS/F software can offer us is better security. Those who are able have been willing to pay the price of a little inconvenience for that. In professional settings, against casual attackers this still holds true. In daily life? No. The attack surface is too big, the job of securing things too complicated, the likely attack is more often social engineering than technical, and state level actors can compromise the system at lower levels outside the scope of the kernel. They can

  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:41PM (#58400120)
    You can get psuedo legal copies (keys purchased overseas that are grey market) for around $10-$20 bucks. If you already had Win 7 around they gave 10 away for a few years.

    Free isn't enough. It needs applications. For end users that means Office (lots of folks still use the native version) and games. Steams' custom WINE doesn't run everything.
  • I've been using computers since the late '70's. Am an Embedded hardware and software Engineer.

    Each time I build a new PC, I install Linux and give it a try. But every time there's a show stopper.
    Mostly unable to run my Engineering programs, PCB design, etc.

    But also a vague feeling that it was written by amateurs.
    Poor documentation, configuration files scattered everywhere, childish images and colour schemes.
    Inconsistencies with the GUI.

    Whatever, I'm certainly no fan of Windows. I keep hoping that something

  • It's been 70 years since the standardization of the metric system, which is arguably superior to Imperial units in every way -- but Americans still use the latter, because it's what they were taught, and what they know, and what they are comfortable with.

    It's been 38 years since the standardization of the Dvorak keyboard layout, which is faster to type with than the Qwerty layout, and yet very few people use Dvorak, because Qwerty is what they were taught, and what they know, and what they are comfortable w

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by uncqual ( 836337 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:49PM (#58400170)

    I don't run Linux as my primary native desktops (but do run it on my laptop and in a bunch of VMs). The primary reasons are:

    - I rely on Quicken (not the online "my financial data is only one hacker away from being published" or "my data is gone because the vendor disappeared or just decided to delete it due to a 'retention policy' " version) and it's not available/supported on Linux (yes, I tried to run it on WINE but it was unusable from a performance standpoint and, anyway, then it's only one Quicken or WINE update away from breaking on an unsupported platform).

    - I also rely on HR Block tax software (again, not the online "my financial data is only one hacker away from being published" or "my data is gone because the vendor disappeared or just decided to delete it due to a 'retention policy' " version) for my tax prep every year and, again, no Linux version exists (and, for a variety of reasons, I need to look back at taxes for many years beyond the "norm" so "working today" is not good enough).

    - While BSOD used to be a modestly regular occurrence on Windows even just 15 years ago, I haven't had it happen for years on Windows (Win 8.1 Pro now), Ubuntu updates break my systems from time to time (which is one reason I run them in a VM -- just restore a checkpoint and try to isolate the problem by selective updating) - I currently have several VMs that I have to remember to uncheck the GRUB updates when doing updates or the system won't boot (yes, I'm sure I could figure out what's wrong, but it worked fine just a few months ago and I've got other things to do than dig into code that I will never update or contribute to).

    Perhaps, when forced to Win 10, I will downgrade to a single Win desktop with RDP access for the family for use of essential "Windows Only" software -- but that will depend on the state of Linux desktop then (and, my hopes are not high).

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @05:50PM (#58400174)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by GlobalEcho ( 26240 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @06:01PM (#58400216)

    For many users, Outlook and Excel are the reason. Granted, the Outlook web interface is pretty good, but it does not quite equal the native client. With Excel, the Linux alternatives are poorly known and a point of (often unjustified) concern. I'll add that the Excel interface is generally better than the open source alternatives as well, particularly with things like column fills and conditional formatting.

    Finally, let's think about graphics and sound, which are still sketchy way too often on Linux after all these years. Just a month ago, I watched a skilled Linux sysadmin spend days trying to get a 3-monitor setup to work properly. He ultimately succeeded, but what a nightmare!

  • by nehumanuscrede ( 624750 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @06:23PM (#58400332)

    How many times does it have to be explained before it finally sinks in ?
    Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more . . . . .

    It isn't because we like Microsoft. It isn't because we hate Linux.
    ( I use both depending on what I'm doing )

    We don't abandon Windows for one simple reason:

    MANY OF THE APPLICATIONS WE USE DON'T EXIST ON LINUX.

    It's the same damn problem VR has. Developers don't want to commit resources to something that so few use while, at the same time, so few will consider it because very little is developed for it.

    Some have Linux versions ( like Maya ) but, for the most part, many of the professional / commercial applications I use on a daily basis do not.
    There may be some open source alternatives but, none of them quite stack up to their established commercial brethren.

    This, and only this, is why ( like it or not ) I am f*cking stuck with Windows.

    In case you're curious and you want to go find me some free, open-source version *** that performs as well as any of the following ***, here's my list:

    The entire Adobe CC suite
    Maya & various Maya Plugins ( covered, it works in Linux too )
    Zbrush
    Rhinocerous 3D w/ Brazil
    Substance Designer / Painter
    Keyshot

    Capture One Pro

    Cubase Pro
    Sibelius
    Various Musical Instrument Libraries
    The driver that ties my synth to the DAW

    The day all the above developers create a Linux version, I'll switch.

    Until then, Windows it is.

  • by reiscw ( 2427662 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @06:28PM (#58400376)

    I have used Windows 10, macOS, Linux (lots of flavors, including Mint, Debian, Fedora, Manjaro, and various Ubuntus). Right now I am reasonable convinced that Windows is the best solution for me, although I miss Linux often. The biggest issue for me is the availability of software. Here are some immediate ones that come to mind:

    1) The software I use to prepare my taxes (the browser version is more expensive if you can believe that)
    2) Skype for business (necessary for my work at my university)
    3) Acrobat Reader (necessary for some tax paperwork that requires submission by PDF)
    4) Microsoft Office
    5) iTunes (because I have an iPhone)

    I bought a lifetime license for Crossover Linux because I wanted to support the Wine project. Wine will allow me to get by with an older version of Office (rather well, actually) and some other useful software (like the Epson wireless projection utility). The other items on my list don't work well with the latest version of Crossover. Many of the programs that I run in Linux (Thunderbird, Geany, Eclipse, wxMaxima, Octave, VLC, just to name a few) have Windows versions that work exactly the same way.

    Windows also has better search from the start menu for documents and applications, something that only KDE seems to do well, and KDE has its own problems. Don't get me wrong, I spend a lot of time removing all of the asinine parts of Windows 10 from a Powershell session when I do a clean install, but that's not much different than the scripts I use to configure Linux distributions after I install. The addition of the Windows Subsystem for Linux also provides a lot of missing functionality (although it is much slower).

    I know the VM solution will probably come up here, but I feel that if I have to use a Windows VM for certain tasks and a Linux host for others, I'm forced to configure two systems for my personal machine and that's time I don't have.

  • The Rings (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Voyager529 ( 1363959 ) <voyager529@yahoo. c o m> on Sunday April 07, 2019 @06:41PM (#58400454)

    I've thought about this recently, and it goes something like this: I think there are some rings which help categorize whether using Linux makes sense...

    Ring 1: Development Applications.
    IDEs
    Text editors
    Compilers

    Ring 2: Server Applications.
    Web Servers
    Routers/Firewalls
    Storage/Data Transfer
    Databases

    Ring 3: Lowest-Common-Denominator Desktop Applications.
    Desktop Window Environments
    Productivity/Office Suites
    Web Browsers
    Mail Clients
    IM Clients
    Audio/Video Players

    Ring 4: High Level Desktop Applications.
    Audio/Video Editing
    Architecture
    Finance Software
    Legal Software
    Medical Software
    Point of Sale Software
    etc....

    Rings 1 and 2 are things that software developers tend to know a lot about, making it very easy to code them well. In most cases, software fitting into those categories are superior to Windows-only applications. The LAMP stack is basically the default for web hosting at this point, and plenty of software-based routers run on Linux or BSD while doing that on Windows is almost comical to suggest.

    Ring 3 is pretty mature in general at this point, but it's pretty easy to need a particular function in Excel that isn't available in Calc or some such. The more complex the needs are for a particular application, the more likely the Linux equivalent is going to be a bit of a problem. Even if it can handle it, the learning curve makes it undesirable without an even bigger reason to do it.

    Ring 4 is hit-or-miss. Content creation creeps along on Linux, but it's far from mature, and lots of plugins aren't available for the platform. Plenty of line-of-business software *needs* some sort of commercial support, and it's the chicken-and-egg problem that everyone runs Windows because their vendors require it, but none of the vendors make Linux software because virtually none of their clients are running Linux on the desktop. Lots of high profile use cases simply require Windows (or possibly OSX) because there's no reason to develop for what will likely be a support nightmare, and even if one vendor tries to standardize support on Ubuntu, everyone's SoL if the next vendor standardizes on CentOS.

    On the dubiously-good side for Linux adoption, the everything-in-a-web-browser trend makes the number of software titles requiring support to decrease as time marches on, making it easier to switch. However, anybody arguing that it's easy to switch has clearly never worked in tier 1 tech support.

  • by MpVpRb ( 1423381 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @07:01PM (#58400538)

    If all you do is email, web browsing, word processing and spreadsheets, linux is fine
    For CAD, CAM, electronic design, PCB layout, image editing, video editing, music production, and other specialized stuff, you NEED windows
    Please don't tell me that there are alternatives for all of these on linux. Yeah, they exist. but they are not even in the parking lot of the ballpark of the same quality
    If you need Cubase, Altium, Solidworks, etc... there is no choice

  • by walterbyrd ( 182728 ) on Monday April 08, 2019 @12:59PM (#58404866)

    I have heard that Microsoft used the BSD stack for their networking. If so, msft must have worked overtime to make it suck. BSD has good networking IMO.

    Workgroups, homegroups, only having selective versions of Windows that can join a domain. It's a mess, and getting worse.

    Aside from that, in my experience, msft networking just does not reliably work. Copy a large number file from one box to another, and many of the files may get dropped; or it may crap out halfway through. There are ways to do this more reliably, but you should not have to use special hacks.

    I was recently asked to help somebody move her files from an XP box, to a Windows 10 home version box. She wants the XP box set up so she can go through it, and copy what she wants where she wants. Should be nothing to it, but it's actually a pain. Put both versions of windows on a workgroup, have full admin privileges. But windows will not allow some directories to be shared. I am not the only person who has noticed this. Windows forums are filed with similar complaints.

    Msft offers help pages on this sort of thing. But msft's documentation simply does not work. Msft instructs users to follow a particular procedure, but the OS will not allow it. Crap documentation for a crap OS.

    I am not looking for help on this. Just posting my opinion.

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