Core-Dump said:
the question is when to use what OS.
Windows or Mac or Linux
ya registered with joker.com?? :-o
have you ever dealt with them (and if so how are they)?
I haven't, but have had some horrible experiences dealing w/ DNS hosts; so will only deal with 'reputable' companies.
I once had to spend at least 20 hours over the course of 2 weeks on the phone with one, just to get rights shifted from the programmer to the actual owner (no I wasn't the programmer, just a tech at the time)…
I've actually had all of my domains with them since 1998. I know there are cheaper ones than $12/year, but with the pain of moving and the fact that Joker has actually been very reliable and provided a great deal of functionality over the years has kept me from leaving them.
darkfrog said:
Here is my list of things Linux would have to fix before I would be able to contentedly leave Windows behind:
- Wine support for the applications I want, or a viable Linux variation (although, for games this is the biggest problem)
- More performant desktop. This socket communication crap for the desktop seemed like a good idea at the time, but come on...
- More stable desktop....don't crash, pause, or start displaying garbage on the screen
- Better font appearance. Though this has gotten better recently, when I run Eclipse on Linux versus Windows there is a noticeable difference in font appearance. I've gone through all the tweak guides about how to get better fonts working on Linux, but still it doesn't stack up to being as good as Windows
vear said:
Linux makes for very stable servers, granted. We still have servers that i installed 5 years ago, and those are still working without maintenance. But it took several days to set up, and to remove all the unnecessary stuff which could cause problems. The new colleague maintaining our servers prefers windows, he may have more work in long term, but it takes only one day to set it up initially.
darkfrog said:
Here is my list of things Linux would have to fix before I would be able to contentedly leave Windows behind:
- Wine support for the applications I want, or a viable Linux variation (although, for games this is the biggest problem)
- More performant desktop. This socket communication crap for the desktop seemed like a good idea at the time, but come on...
- More stable desktop....don't crash, pause, or start displaying garbage on the screen
- Better font appearance. Though this has gotten better recently, when I run Eclipse on Linux versus Windows there is a noticeable difference in font appearance. I've gone through all the tweak guides about how to get better fonts working on Linux, but still it doesn't stack up to being as good as Windows
I will again state though that Linux is my preferred OS for a non-desktop machine. CentOS rules all!
devent said:
1.: Wine, well, that's unfurtune if you need applications that only run on windows.
devent said:
2.: I'm using linux for over a year now and the desktop never ever crashed. In opposition to windows, where the IE very often crash and brings the whole windows desktop to fall.
devent said:
3.: I find the fonts in linux way better than on windows. There are sharper, more readable. Every time I need to switch to windows I could cry so bad are the fonts.
darkfrog said:
devent said:
1.: Wine, well, that's unfurtune if you need applications that only run on windows.
I know, it really stinks that one of the major reasons not to use a Windows alternative is because it's not Windows. :P
darkfrog said:devent said:
2.: I'm using linux for over a year now and the desktop never ever crashed. In opposition to windows, where the IE very often crash and brings the whole windows desktop to fall.
That outlines one of your major problems right there....don't use IE. :-o As far as crashing goes I've run Fedora and Ubuntu and both KDE and Gnome have had issues. Granted I'm rough on my machines because I'm constantly running web servers, database servers, Eclipse, lots of Firefox tabs, and Photoshop, so perhaps my experience isn't the norm, but Windows stands up relatively well. I can't remember the last time Windows actually crashed on me....granted I am in a normal routine of rebooting weekly just to make sure the cancer doesn't set into my memory, but still. :)
darkfrog said:devent said:
3.: I find the fonts in linux way better than on windows. There are sharper, more readable. Every time I need to switch to windows I could cry so bad are the fonts.
Though I definitely feel that it has gotten better, looking at Eclipse in Windows side-by-side with Eclipse on Fedora or Ubuntu the differences are major. Given a lot of customization it can look a lot better, but it sucks you have to do any customization and that you still can't get it to look quite as good. I know that sounds really picky of me, but I spend hours per day in Eclipse, so it has to be as clean and usable as possible.
Sometimes these "political" choices are forced on you, not because you like them. Sometimes the force is "political" in the true meaning of the word. The government of the country i live in is again planning to do a huge purchase of MS licenses. Ok, the project may fail because of the economic situation, but i doubt they will invest into Linux instead, they will just cancel the purchase until better times.
Bright students of technical schools will learn Linux, and will be comfortable with it, no question. They use it to learn hacking if for no other "fun" reason. After finishing the school, they can be good admins, which is needed for Linux to be successful, but there will be only few of them.
On the other hand, students of a business school are not interested in technical superiority of the OS, they use what they HAVE TO use. After finishing the school, they will use on the work whatever is available. Since they learned windows, they will prefer it over Linux. The decision makers in the company will then have a hard time. What is better, paying less for licenses, but getting good Linux admins, and getting the workers to learn it, or just paying those licenses?
Interoperability with MS office apps is still an issues. No other office app can read/write the MS Office formats perfectly. It has become accepted to exchange documentation in PDF format, but if your client sends you an MS office document, you simply cant afford not to be able to read/print it exactly as it was meant.
There are some applications a business uses, and which only work on windows, even server apps. You cant convince a client to use Linux, if he needs to run other apps which are windows-only, and you cant convince them either, if he lacks Linux admins to maintain it. Getting a separate server to run the app is a waste of hardware. Either you make the app cross-platform for the case it will be used on something else, and at least have another point to talk about when you try sell it, or just simplify your own situation, and make it windows only. That is the way lots of developers are thinking.
When the client has the choice to adapt Linux, he has two choices: hire someone with good Linux knowledge, or pay for the license. The choice is obvious.
The decision made by ignorant and lazy (not necessarily corrupt, but thats an option too) politicians to buy MS products for governmental institutions (like schools), has long-term effect on how Linux is perceived, how many learn it, and that affects how broad its use is.
Most people don't choose an operating system, they take what is bundled with their hardware.
Which is one reason why the point about Linux being free isn't really an issue for the computer using masses.
But here people are looking for some help in a decision, so they are activley thinking about what OS to take, so, freedom again is an issue 
