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Linux is a very good operating system for network and desktops which is used to some sort of networking. The main problem of Linux in terms of a personal computer user is the loading time is more than that of vista.

=====================
peter
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Ive started using Ubuntu in 2006 (It WAS the best linux Dist. ) but, Linux Mint is "better version" of ubuntu (because it’s based on ubuntu) and fixed many bugs, improved the security..etc and I have any problems with Ubuntu or Linux Mint (Mint, the best Linux desktop dist.) and Have all of the programs I need (Messenger, OpenOffice, firefox, filezilla, VLC and many programs) and even if they’re not available, I can use WINE (wine runs windows programs on linux) !

Linux = Safe, free and swimming in open-source world

NOTE: I didn’t like the default "look" of mint, so I customized it with Gnome Art ones! screenshot (after customized) http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/9629/vistasucksap1.png

thanks, nice article

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well i moved from XP to Linux for much the same reasons as outlined above, i sue the Mint Distro and have no intentions of changing back over

A silly little app to play music blue screened.

......................................

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I used vista and at first it seemed cool but after about a month I wanted to smash my computer screen. Im now back with xp, but after reading alot of forums about os issues, im thinking of trying out linux.

Wow I’ve read the comment made by Random(). Cool stuff!!! I
wasn’t even born in ’82 when you started to do programming. I changed recently to Fedora, and I like it. I like to program on it. Anyway I am a beginner and so there is a lot of way for me till getting used to it. What annoyed me with the latest version of ’’Windows’’ is that I have to change my PC in order to run Vista (I have a 2.6 GHz Celeron, 1GB RAM). This sucks because all i do an my PC is surfing on the internet, reading the mail and running some small applications. So my opinion
is this: Get rid of Vista while you can, reinstall your Xp back and put also a distro of Linux on your HDD. Anyway please
Random() if you have some spare time contact me at coss_cat@yahoo.com, maybe we have something in common to talk about, or on the mess you can use the same ID as the mail. Thank you. Have a nice day all of you!!!

I’ve used a lot of os’s and really, It is based on prefrence.The majority isn’t going to learn make file etc.

I’m sorry but you can curse the world until you are blue in the face but people don’t want to learn to compile their programs.

Now, I don’t have a problem with it and you may not but a lot of them do.They won’t switch and more than likely only use vista if it came with their new desktop/notebook.

Mac is very expensive, Not many will bother.Also, There is a def. lack of games.

Right now i’m using vista made with vlite.I’m doing fine and nothing is holding me back..

Stats are worthless to me.I’ll do what i have to do..

Wow these comments are longish.

I’ve been programming since 1982 when I wanted to code games - in z80 on a trash 80 model 1. I’ve tried lots of tools, but not everything.

I can say for a fact coding on windows is shit. 95/98 make for a terrible environment to develope code - the close program dialog box issue sucks bad. I switched to NT 4.0 in 98 after 98’s lackluster performance. At least when the program crashed the OS didnt...but I couldnt run winamp! go figure. A silly little app to play music blue screened MS’s "stable OS".

I went Linux only in 2000 with morphix 0.4. Morphix was great - it installs in 300Mb or so and has just one of the stuff you need. I dislike the larger distros with 10 of everything you dont need and multi gigabyte installs. Its like a bad episode of reboot.

Coding on Linux is killer. Mostly I’ve thought everything on Linux is killer. I’ve done stuff that used to not be possible in win. Right now I have a shell script (!) that randomizes desktop images & background, displays server uptime and a fancy clock. Total install size (excluding x windows and the basic os) is probably less than 1M! When was the last time you saw a 1M app for windows that could do all that.

I write games in C++ and quake C, database for my business. Really everything on Linux has been great. I encourage people to switch all the time. My wife even uses Linux from time to time.

Linux only for my main system lasted over 6 years.
What brought me back to win xp under dual boot? - 2 things...
1. Halflife 2...no matter what I cannot get this to run under wine - and I have a *Legal* installation!
2. Stupid ass nvidia drivers. I upgraded morphix for a webcam app - it needed new USB support. the new nvidia kernal wouldnt install. Why cant they just open source the damn thing?!

I started using Ubuntu 7.04 then upgraded to 7.10. I went from windows 2000 which i was pretty happy with. Never really content with windows xp. Really annoyed with idea of vista. Seemed like MS taking advantage of people so I decided to try Linux once more and I am more than happy. Second reason to move away from MS is security. I am getting more concerned about identity theft etc and want the implied security of linux. MS software is just too big a target.

all the people on here who have said Linux is shit are morons. windows sold out at XP. Vista has sold its soul. 2000 was alright. no comment on 9x systems..

..now this was funny..

"This chart is incorrect the linux word don’t have more objective for Linux is bery bad is DOS whit GNOME and KDE is very similar in 1993 uses MS-DOS operanting System whit Windows 3.0 for GUI Program
Linux is the DOS and GNOME and KDE is the GUI Program and the Gui Program can execute automate.
In Windows Vista don’t dos is a GUI Operating System don’t a GUI Program such as Windows 3.1 and GNOME or KDE for Linux DOS

Windows Vista is major whit SP1 "THE BEST OPERATING SYSTEM"

who ever wrote this is a dickhead also.you need to let go of windows!!!!!,

Vista may have really good security but what you have to realize it only has good security for a "Windows" system!, Linux & Mac dont need to worry about crappy windows viruses!!!.

i have used DOS & Windows all my life, but now im a linux user and i love it. once you get used to the CMDline its sweet.

so comon windows users "SPLASH OUT!!" try mac even linux or unix!

One has to understand that Linux is != Windows! Here’s a link to describe that. Read it before reading any further on this comment:
http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

I have some experience with various OS’s. I’ve played once or twice on a mac but I don’t consider it enough experience. Here’s a list of some OS’s I’ve tried.

Windows:
Windows 3.0
Windows 3.1
Windows 95
Windows 98 and 98/SE
Windows 2000
Windows 2003 Server ed.
Windows XP Home & Professional with SP2
Windows Vista Business ed. and Ultimate ed.

Linux
Red Hat 7.2 (ages ago)
Austrumi (unsure about the version)
DSL 3.3
Ubuntu 6.06, 6.10 and 7.04 (Kubuntu 6.06 as well)
Fluxbuntu 6.06 (ubuntu with a fluxbox wm)
Debian Sarge 3.1 and Etch 4.0 as well as Lenny/Sid (Netinstaller versions)
Suse 9.1, 9.3 Professional, 10 and 10.1
PCLinux 0.93 and 2007
CentOS 4
Zenwalk 2.8 (A slackware based distro)
Slax (unsure about the version)
Knoppix 4, 5 and 6
Puppy Linux 2.12
Sidux 2007-02 (KDE-Lite version)
SimplyMepis 6.0
LFS 6.3 SVN
Arch Linux 2007 ’’Don’t Panic’’ (Only with VirtualBox as of yet)

Others *NIX based
PC-BSD 1.3/FreeBSD 6.1
PC-BSD 1.4/FreeBSD 6.2 (Only on VirtualBox as of yet)

Yet to try in the near future:
Plan 9 4th release (For those who don’t know, this is the next version of UNIX created by Ken Thompson and Co.)
Inferno (embedded version) (Fork of Plan 9)
OpenSolaris

I tried Nexenta too, which is a fork of OpenSolaris but it wouldn’t boot so that I could actually get to installing it. I will give these a shot again and look deeper into those problems. After having installed so many distributions I can clearly testify that Linux (the friendly ones) are WAY easier to install than any version of MS Windows, I’m specifically pointing at distributions such as Ubuntu, Suse, PCLinuxOS etc. For others such as Slackware, Debian and LFS...well they are intended for more technical users and shouldn’t be tried out by new users in the first place before getting some experience with Linux or some sort of UNIX.

Basically, it asks you for your installation partition (just like Windows) some even allow you to choose which packages to install to your base/default system (Suse) and they all ask you to create a default user (Just like Windows). So clearly those that claim Linux is way more difficult to install than Windows are either 1) Just plain stupid hardcore Windows users who can’t accept the truth and never will or 2) People who don’t know what they’re talking about or who base their opinions of Linux on a version released 3 years ago.

For anyone who hasn’t tried Linux out in the last year. Do so now and you’ll notice it’s way easier than it used to be...and for eye candy...Compiz Fusion beats even the Mac and Vista...

My 2 cents.

Vista Home edition premium... It was imposed on me when I got my New HP laptop...
I have a few Windows motto, for Mr. Gates to consider...
-clears throat- tell me what u guys think.

Windows... We love to suck.
No?
How about...
Windows... Let us make your life hell.
Windows... Our developpers are on crack
Windows... For the sadomasochistic who’d like to upgrade to frantic schizophrennia (sp2)
Windows... You think you’re pissed now? Try Vista!
But i think the best would be...

Windows... Your refrigerator’s next!

here’s the deal, No Operating system comes even close to Windows Vista. I agree Linux was better then XP just in security category but dats all changed now. Vista now have a mind blowing Security system as well as a really Good Parental Control System. Also its graphical user Interface is much better then Linux, Mac and XP.

Ahhh this is wrong!!! please please stay with windows, im tired of all you brain dead morrons poping up in the linux forums.

Linux is one of the most exiting things that append to me in the last year.

I was so happy with it that we banned Microsoft from our house and after a year of intensive use en hobby programming I am quite an expert.

At work 3 month ago they started to use Linux for virtualization of servers with VMware and now I am the only expert in my company with Linux knowledge and this is speeding up rapidly a lot career.

I don’t know if that is common I think that an IT manager without Linux knowledge will be out of the market in the next 3/5 years.

So I think that in the professional world Linux is no more an hobby is a must to learn.

Hello,
I’ve been fixing people’s broken windows computers for years and recently spent some weeks going through all the Linux distros to see if there was anything I could offer a windows user instead. (I’m totally against Intellectual ’Property’ because you never own what you have - it’s still theirs to boss you about and milk you under threat.)

The only one I found had decent looking fonts, professional, pleasing appearance and useability was DreamLinux (see distrowatch.com). My non-tech wife now uses it for everything. I still need XP for games and audio/video. It’s simple to install and run but if you are looking for friends to talk to and hold your hand, you may be better going to Ubuntu.

I greet the linux is the way to go. I am convert all my system to linux this year in 2007. I buy a new laptop from www.computer-show.com old dell 3800 500mhz and linux run better than windows. With crossover you can still run some on the apps. to get the job done. I would buy linux over windows anytime I can.

with windows vista right around the corner, i’ve been experimenting
with windows 2000/xp (2 separate computers) dual booting with
ubuntu 6.06.

while both have their strengths/weaknesses i am definitely going
to keep ubuntu and there is no way i’m going to go with vista.

maybe that’s why windows xp is now supported for 7 more years.

ubuntu is definitely a very usable. with 6.10 you’ll be able to
continue upgrading operating systems right from the update
manager. i forsee ubuntu getting better & better.

if you don’t need the latest/greatest.... ubuntu is just slightly
behind microsoft, but catching up quickly. you get MUCH
more with free open source. i understand that with vista,
once you have activated 2 computers, if you ever get a 3’rd
new one, you can’t you will need to buy the operating system
all over again... with 30 billion in the bank it’s my choice to have
that 1 operating system on whatever computer i want

definitely.... i’m keeping linux with goals to migrate, all that’s
needed is a hardware modem. definitely ubuntu within
1 year, all the fixes will be in to ubuntu to be equivelent to
windows xp and most of them are already in :)

I cant believe that i tried out the vista rc’s and still bought it. Somewhere in me i hoped it would be ... better. The disgust runs deep when running as administrator and denied (permission) to do something as simple as use regsvr to register a dll. had to disable user account control to do that and reboot. then of coarse there was the huge info window and red shield popping up warning me of the impending doom of such an action.

Damn thing blue screened 6 times in three days on a machine that made very high marks on its scoring system. applications were unpredictable, opening in the back ground but only found in the task manager sometimes.

The new protection shemes make it impossible to run my backed up dvds without their user account control enabled. which is so annoying i want to scream.

Its pretty. but not 700mb ram pretty sitting still. i will say this though. the apps that launched were lightening fast. thats not good enough though.

I am desperate to find a Media center solution on Linux. Must run wide screen resolutions and have remote ability, and although i have played with several distros in the past i found my self running away because of things like display and audio support. not really a problem from what i see today. and it looks like i will have to ditch my yahoo chat on Linux unless i run wine ( doesn’t to a bang up job). since my first Linux attempt at mandrake 8, i have never printed a single character. i just felt over whelmed when lexmark dished me out a hundred page pdf on how to compile my own drivers.

I have found in most cases that if i ask questions in the Linux community that i am sneered at and belittled for being a windows whipping boy. While Linux is becoming easier to use and with much better hardware support that windows ever had (out of the box), it is still a huge transition.

With current events in Linux’s progress, (and yes eye candy too) i am willing to bite the bullet and make the switch. i can not afford to be controlled by Microsoft and big media any more. its worse every day and that is not an overstatement. its actually humiliating to be told how to operate your own machine and be told how you can use media and the web. i am not talking about piracy here.

will some kind soul point me to a professional media center solution for Linux. Ive been look at mythtv and snap stream. some advice from somebody running the software would be nice. mailto:fvcrowley@gmail.com

Thanks,

Power to the people!!

PClinuxOS is much easier to use than XP.Oh and you never get infected.
If you want to play games about 30 % play with wine.
About 50-60% play with cedega transgamer.

I actually took one look at a vista beta and pretty much converted to Ubuntu 6.10 that week. It has been a long, arduous process to convert my entire businesses working practices over to Linux (I run a graphic design business, and linux does NOT have the same kind of application support for graphic design as other OS’es do - not linux’s fault, but greedy corps like Adobe, and that’s one reason I am desperate to move, sick of being under these idiots thumbs).

It does take a while to stick, but persevere. Especially for power users, when something goes wrong and you don’t understand how to fix it, it can be quite frustrating when you KNOW what to do on windows because you’re used to it. But one thing I had to learn was not to blame linux and go crawling back to windows - it was just that I was in a new environment, linux works differently. Now I realise most of my problems were actually due to lack of understanding, and quirks unfortunately exist on all operating systems. Linux does have a fair distance to go before it is for everyone, but overall, it’s extremely powerful and rock solid, even compared to OSX (if not as user friendly), and once you become familiar you find yourself noticing how sluggish and sloppy windows is, and head back to linux instead!

I got my first pc in `97 and it was win `95. I quickly decided if I were to keep using a computer, I needed to learn to repair them. I got a three foot high stack of pc magazines our IT dept. threw into the garbage. I then read for a month and upgraded to `98, then got enough courage to do a clean install, not knowledge. Then I did `98b and was happy for a while. Xp was like a dream come true. By this time I was doing pc repair as a second income and eventually it was my only income. I started around `99 reading about linux but never had the juice to really give it a good try. I did a lot of skulking newsgroups and forums and kept hearing the praises of Linux and X and eventually did try an older version of Mandrake but felt the learning curve was too great and went back to M$. I recently tried Ubuntu \"Edgy Eft\" and had a few problems getting it all set up, gparted caused a few probs. But I stuck it out. I have since gotten alot of live cd`s from distrowatch and tried about everything. I still haven`t decided exactly which flavor will be my main squeeze but from my perspective if I want to play games I go to my x-box. If I need to use a pc, I currently boot ubuntu. And I will never ever again personally support bloatware central again. I would like to thank Linus Torvalds, every developer as and individual and as a group, every Beta-Tester, and all Linux users in the Free world. From the bottom of my heart, I salute you. P.S. Alabama has Linux users too!!!

Linux is a very usable Operating System for the Average PC User. ( With each newer version of Linux that comes out, it is getting better and better and most come with 3D desktops and a lot of the new features that will be in Vista)
You must have the desire to want to learn it. It will seem different at first but you will get use to it. Will it really save you money, most likely not as you will spend a fortune on Linux magazines trying different versions and could most likely brought a copy of Windows XP for the money.
What it will give you is a virus free stable computer that once you master it is easy to maintain day to day and a community of computer users that will help you along the way to set up you computer with help for the many linux forums there are on the net.
If you don’t want any of this stay with windows. It’s usable.

I am a Windows XP user and Linux User.
While both aren’t perfect, users except that sometimes windows needs configuring to get hardware working and will spend hours or days getting it going. Where as with Linux if it doesn’t work straight away it a shit useless operating system for dickheads and has no future.
My advice is give Linux a chance and in time you will see it isn’t half bad at all and it’s free or cheap if you buy a magazine with it included.
Lastly spend some time with Puppy Linux and its 23 second bootup time and its wonderful user forum and enjoy computing again.

windows sucks.................linux is the future

Пошли вы все нафиг :)
Врете все :)

Wait, if I completely switch over to linux, what computer will I use to access the Internet when it doesn’t work and I need to print the 50-page solution?

"MMORPG’s would lose the depth without a keyboard and all other drawbacks from the PC."

My Playstation 2 allows the use of a USB keyboard and mouse... consoles are becoming more and more like computers it seems, but I think computer do have some advantages still.

29% of what users going to linux over vista? Yeah right........29% of users that voted here are maybe .0001% in the real world. Lets put up a bs Heading and get coverage. pft 29% hahahahahaha yeah right...in what fairy tale world?

"My vote went for staying on XP, because I need Windows for some stuff I do" this is the lammest more common excuse to leave windows... aka. don’t want to learn... you can do whatever you used to do in linux, just in a different way.

windows xp sucks ... fuck windows... i hate them!
i love linux kubuntu 10 but i will format my pc with windows xp... cause i have some problems with linux

I have have used linux for a little over two years now. I built my first commputer at that time. I went to Linux because of Windows licenseing and wanted to try out linux .I still use windows at work and can say that Linux is a much better operating system. It has been a complete replacement for windows at home.

I have several PC’s in my house and currently all of the non-servers are XP. I am actually doing all of the above when Vista comes out. I PC game on my laptop and will probably run Vista on there. My wife I am switching to a MAC as she is heavily into the video/photo editing etc... and my kids are moving to Edubuntu. My servers are already FC5 so hey, something for everyone. I do have to say I amthinking of dual booting my machine becasue I really dislike the licensing for Vista not to mention the built in DRM crap. If the major PC game companies made Linux versions I would drop Windows so fast it wouldn’t be funny.

When I started read about Vista requirements and licence, I quickly started trying/learning linux just in case to be necessary change when Vista arrives, today more than 1 year after ther first steps into linux, I don’t care about Vista or the windoze world.
as in Brazil a GOOD 3D card is extremely expensive, do not need to worry about games. :P

In regard to A Gamer, There is no way in HELL that PC gaming is coming to it’s end. True, many of us have and use consoles, but the PC wil always allow us to have more advanced features and ad ons and such than consoles do. Imagine replacing your classic strategy game with a console, it would become way to simplistic, MMORPG’s would lose the depth without a keyboard and all other drawbacks from the PC. I a waiting for a version of Linux to come along that I can confidently game on, and then Windows is OUT!

Vista’s aggressive EULA and WGA was the final straw. I’ve used linux lightly for about 10 years. I’m now full-fucking-bore into SuSE and i’m NOT looking back!

Additionally I’m willing to learn Linux inside and get rid of MS at home and at work.I’m really tired to tolerate their bastardized "innovations" mainly intended to take your rights away.Wtf I have to report someone how much times I reinstall OS and should have their approval?In Linux, I can do it and do not care about is as much as I wish.I’m do not want to get WGA spyware as "high priority update".That’s trojan horse!No matter how MS calls it.And protected processes and drivers signing is a rootkit intended not to protect you but to take your rights away.So, you can not touch system.And hence, can not touch DRM sh!t built in.Sorry, but I do not need system which trusts MS more than administrator and obeys to MS rather than administrator.Yeah, now even administrator is forbidden to have full control on it’s own system in Vista.Great?Not for me!

I’ve tried Vista beta 2 and it was disapointing for me, because It was too slow. I am considering stongly to switch to Linux. I am bored of viruses and security flaws in Window XP.

@LinuxIsShit

Unless you’re a programmer of course. There are many, many, more programming related tools on GNU/Linux than that are available for Windows,

Here’s an interesting thought, is Ubuntu the new Firefox?

By that I mean, the distro that will challenge and slowly whittle away the monopoly.

It’s an open secret that most of the tech heavy blogs, etc. have a higher then usual share of non IE users. Most of whom are rather "fan boyish" in their devotion to their new found "freedom." However the thing that really interests me is if most of the technically savvy are not using IE, where does the "ordinary" user go for help? The number of times I’ve seen entries in blog comments, and in forums where somebody is bleating that they have a problem, and most of the users are saying they cant help as they don’t use use brand X. If you install Brand Y I can help and in any case you wont have that problem any longer.

What happens when most users with Vista installed get it because it came with the PC, and the average geek they rely on for free tech support says "Sorry, I don’t run Vista" Where is the average user to turn? I’m sure there will always be people who’ll provide a fix for a price, that’s not my point. But I’m willing to bet that most "average " PC users, (a wild generalisation I know) will be willing to trade free tech support for something they can use, against a shiny new toy they’ve either broken or cant use or understand.

Let’s face it, the average PC user is not a gamer, they surf, chat, do email, write letters, manage photo’s etc. It’s not exactly rocket science.

I just think it’s interesting that this trend is already underway, what does everyone else think?

@LinuxIsShit : Do you mean gaming when you
write "real work"?
Or you’re unaware that actually there are
-commercial Cad applications
-commercial 3D applications (Maya, softimage XSI)
-commercial office applications (Staroffice)

with which you can do exactly the same you
do in windows? Yes, they’re commercial,
but still they don’t need a licensed S.O. neither
licensed utilities or licensed drivers (as for
wacom tablets open drivers).

Just installed Ubuntu 3 days ago. Havn’t booted Windows since. People : Linux doesn’t suck, it’s not hard, and it’s better alright.

I am a WinXP user, and have been following the news regarding Vista & Ubuntu closely for the last few months. I dont have a personal computer right now, but planning to buy one in future. Whenever I buy, I will definitely not go for Vista. It will either be Ubuntu or Mac.

I’ve got a Mac and a desktop running Ubuntu and I love both of them (especially the Mac) however, I’m not getting rid of XP anytime soon as I need it for gaming. Why should I upgrade to Vista? The only reason for me would be if developmers started coding games for Vista. Until then, OSX for work and XP for play.

@LinuxIsShit

Reality check, I as a UNIX admin, get paid substantially more then my PC team colleagues. UNIX is where the money is and always has been for as long as I’ve been using computers, (some 20 years and counting)

@Tom

Touche! Sir, Touche!

Nice post, and I agree that quite a lot users will definitely try Linux, if not move to Linux, cause of all the delays with Vista and especially the hardware requirements to fully enjoy that OS. Only one thing that I am interested in with MS is the DirectX10 that according to them will make gaming close to what I always wanted to play.

Excellent post ... linked it on my blog. :)

This blog is full of idiots.

"It’s funny most people that could switch from Windows to Linux rarely use a computer anyway. They visit Slashdot, maybe load up an office app, IM, and thats it. If you want to do any REAL work on a computer than you’ll use a Windows OS. You suckers can keep being poor, but Windows is where the money is."

That’s funny that’s what most Windows users do too. As for real work I do all of my work from my linux boxes. From connecting to PPTP, Cisco and Sonicwall VPNs to remotely manage and troubleshoot networks. To everyday office tasks, connecting to the MS Exchange server w/ Evolution and network security auditing. The only difference is I do it all securely without the threat of viruses infecting client networks and vice versa. Linux is a far more feature rich and stable work environment than Windows can ever be.

It’s funny most people that could switch from Windows to Linux rarely use a computer anyway. They visit Slashdot, maybe load up an office app, IM, and thats it. If you want to do any REAL work on a computer than you’ll use a Windows OS. You suckers can keep being poor, but Windows is where the money is.

I’ve already got a dual boot with Fedora core 5 - Vista and its built in spyware can spy on idiots that buy into it instead of me.

I switched from XP to Ubuntu about 3 months ago and I couldn’t be happier. It started out because I wanted to see how far Linux had come since my last trial period (RH 5.0). Well, Ubuntu (Dapper Drake) loaded up fine, it had all the standard office productivity software pre-installed (with exception of Adobe Acrobat which was an easy install) and all my hardware worked right way.

Since then I’ve switched a coworker, my wife and my mom over to Ubuntu. None of us have had any problems and they are all elated to see the huge benefits they’ve now seen. With strong application offerings in FireFox 2.0, OpenOffice 2.0, Gaim 2.0 and Evolution they were very happy. In addition having the Synaptic Package Manager there for all their other needs it’s easy for people to make the switch decision.
And for those that want eye candy, I just loaded up the XGL/Beryl desktop manager on my edgy eft distro and I’m really impressed at the visuals that are taking relatively little resources. MS Vista has some serious competition now between OS X and Linux.

PS: Someone earlier mentioned Vista as a RAM hog. From what I understand Windows has changed how they manage RAM and it is now deliberate that the RAM footprint is maximized. It makes sense, RAM is fast and most machines have 1 gig more more. Vista pre-emptively fills up your RAM with the data it believes you’ll use next which theoretically speeds up your OS experience.

Cheers.

Microsoft Volume75,955,283 High28.990 Low28.700 52-Week High28.99(11/01/06) 52-Week Low21.46(06/13/06) 1-Yr Return12.518%

Hey Huggie - get with the times. All desktop Macs ship with a three button scroll wheel mouse. OS X has supported multi button mice since it’s inception.
If you want to slam the Mac, at least use a valid argument.

MS is about the stock market... nasdaq needs them, and the Dow Jones Industrial. Look how much of MS daily trades , is one of the most trade stock as well Intel. Why?

Fedora Core is good and free

Remember, remember the 8th of November...
The OS upgrade season and plot
I know of no reason
Why this Windows version should ever be bought

(I’m not the author - someone’s post on Slashdot)

Linux is cheap, doesn’t crash, doesn’t get viruses. The learning curve required is an excellent investment. I’ve been using it exclusively for almost eight years.

That’ll teach me to proof read :)

"and games are something like 15% slower on average."

As a Linux user for years. Every day I dream that everyone would just make the new standard something other then Microsoft. In my unprofessional opinion, I would guess that major companies will stick to Microsoft products due to their standardization, uniformity and interoperability with a wide range of services. Slowly but surely with distros like Ubuntu, (and others) things like program installation, directory services and office products are earning the trust of more and more companies. I manage a data centre for a major Canadian software company and we are deploying more and more servers with Linux with php and mysql solutions. Cheers all.

beazy, I use Gentoo and Debian. So what’s your point?

The real fact is, most businesses aren’t even touching Vista until at least a year or so later. In other cases, they’ll only consider it when Vista hits SP1.

Heck, some are still using Win2k, while others have just migrated to XP.

No one is gonna be losing clients when they prefer stability and maturity over "we should upgrade for the sake of upgrading".

In the business world, no one upgrades unless they really have to. Why fix something when its not broken?

everyone here using ubuntu isn’t really tasting any real linux anyway. they install it and thats as far as the knowledge of it goes. its a usable desktop os nothing more nothing less. use it in a business environment? PLEASE...all the people saying no vista for their clients will then lose their clients. it will come, and it will be tough at first, but it won’t go away. and ignoring vista is going to be the downfall of a lot of you.

What is the sample size?

Already made the switch, will never look back at any of Microsoft products. Running SuSE 10.1 for my Desktop and couple of BSD servers, serves me well, also a big OpenOffice advocate, donating whenever I can.

I will stick with XP and continue to migrate to Ubuntu. MS have really made the whole windows experience tedious with draconian anti-piracy, bloated SW, and annoyances like critical updates shutting down my machine even when configured not to.
It was all going downhill after 3.11, but XP really accelerated the trend, and I shudder at Vista. I already avoid MS Office and use openOffice instead, and will continue to purchase (or donate $) SW from companies that make good products that treat me like a valued customer, not a potential pirate.

Now having said that, Linux, even Ubuntu, isn’t that easy to use, but the OS and SW community seems to be more respectful of me as a user. For that I will give up some usability today, with the hope that it will continue to improve tomorrow.

Actually my step-father asked for Linux, he’s worried about DRM :) Though only because he read the blurb I get from the FSF from time to time. My mother freaked me out once by dropping into the BIOS (unaided) and switching the boot disk to boot into Win3.1 from 95. I stood there in shock, then asked her how she knew to do that, then she said, "well I am your mother" and then showed me a small book where she actually taken notes when I had explained this after I’d installed the new drive along with Win95.

When I next go home for any length of time I will be installing Ubuntu, (probably breezy) as it will make their laptop faster and they’re already using Firefox and Thunderbird, so they wont actually notice much.

I hate to say this but "user education" is really important with your parents, not only from the "free tech support" time sink aspect, but also from the "feeling good about themselves" standpoint. For instance my mother chides my step-father about opening attachments and clicking on unknown links in email.

At the end of the day, for the same reason Firefox makes me sleep better at night, knowing that I wont have to deal with the fallout of an IE exploit, ditto Thunderbird/Outlook.Ubuntu will mean not having to worry so much about them being up to date on patches, I can add a cronjob and know that the laptop will be patched automatically, I have iptables for a strong firewall, and little to worry about from viruses, worms & malware.

Had I had one to hand I would have given them a Mac, but software was hard to find back then, so MS it was, but not for much longer.

I will probably stay on XP as long as it makes sense. I already use Linux for all of my servers, but it’s not quite there for me with desktop environments. Back in college, I used Slackware with blackbox as the desktop environment and loved it, but it became too time consuming to keep the system patched. Ubuntu (Edgy) has come the closest as far as ease of install and usage, but not close enough. I will say this... once I leave XP, I will never go back to another proprietary OS, this includes Windows or OSX.

As a working class guy with kids, the idea of paying for new hardware to be able to run a new os just doesn’t fit into the budget. We have (4) computers now-(2) EMachines with AMD 64’s for the kids to play games on and (2) old Celeron class pc’s that the wife and I use. I loaded a debian version on my old celeron and now I am going thru the pains of learning something new and different...bin, tar, aptget...I still don’t know where or how to get the Java jre download installed, but I can already see how much flexibilty there is in Linux and maybe by this time next year I will be ready to put Linux on the whole network. As just a regular user I have been able to do everything on linux as windows, but I really don’t push the limits too far...and if I was going to anything else it might be turn one of these old units into a server of some type and I would probably use linux for that too. Plus with the low entry barrier..ie avg hardware and almost free software it brings so many more ideas to the table for whatever problems you might be trying to solve with software. So for me, I’ve already started choosing based on economics by being able to buy discounted hardware and free software compared to having to upgrade everything we have with money that could be spent on....something else...like a vacation for just my wife and I...who am I kidding my wife probably has already spent the money...I just don’t know it yet

High prices add a sense of value to products. People feel there must have been a reason they paid a premium, so they defend their decision. They advocate their decision to others. This is what Apple has going for it. Mac laptops are expensive. In some cases, a mac will cost as much as two equivalent non-macs. But there’s "value" in the mac. Most mac users will not be convinced otherwise.

Adobe and other companies managed something similar by gradually increasing prices over the years. Microsoft probably wants in on some of that action, but the problem with Windows is it has become a comodity. Comodities are cheap. They’re taken for granted. They are valueless. How do you add value to something that has so little? You either very difficult or impossible. Add to that bloat, MS programs taking over settings, trial periods before activation, and WGA, among other problems. People might start feeling that the products actually have negative value. No wonder they feel like MS is ripping them off.

People who will not try Linux because they think it is too hard, haven’t really tried. They’re probably just running Live CDs or running it in a buggy emulator. They might be regurgitating what they’ve heard from others who know no better. Watch new Mac or Windows users who are forced to switch from one to the other (eg, because of work or financial reasons). They cannot switch back because their hardware will not run the other. No matter how little they know about computers, they figure out how to make it work because they need it to. If anyone applies that amount of dedication to Linux (that means, no or extremely limited dual booting), it’s at least as easy as any other operating system.

Some of us have already switched. I now dual boot win2k and kubuntu on my work laptop and home desktop. Still have to use windows on occasion to do work with windows only apps and IE only webapps. I am happy about Vista - feels like extra money in my pocket! (and I just upgraded my systems (3) to 6.10 for FREE.

I have 3 different OS’s running in my house. Linux, Mac OS X and Windows XP. I probably won’t upgrade to Vista, can’t migrate completely to Linux and then theres the old Mac chugging along nicely. If we’d just all admit that we need to have at least one of each OS running on 3 different computers then we can all get along. My Mac has been running non stop now for 6 months without so much as a hiccup, can’t really say that about my Windows machine.

Just finished setting up my pc last night. Dual boot WinXP/Ubuntu. Windows for gaming, Ubuntu for everything else.

The move is more over the Draconian EULA and DRM concerns then the underwhelming changes to the OS in general.

the thing that gets me about Vista is that dam license, and built in genuine advantage/piracy control. I have a premonition that it’s going to be harder to crack vista and then get updates for it. so linux it is!

Hmm... an actual poll about something I’ve been thinking about!!

I’ve been using XP Pro and Windows OS for a while. My Linux understanding skills are low, but I do know unix commands and stuff like that.

So I’ve been planning on installing a linux distro to test it out and get a feel of the file system and how things ’work’ in general... like installing programs... dependencies... etc.

I want to avoid Vista because it seems so silly now. I tried the recent RC of it and I couldn’t find the DOS prompt. I had read that it wouldn’t be there... but I was hoping it would be there!!

I don’t like a complete GUI. I want some prompts and typing and stuff.

Vista seems good for the people who just aren’t computer savvy and don’t have the time to learn it.

All this aside... 2gb?!!!! ram... wtf... what a system whore. When I installed the RC I have Vista 20gb partition and after installation there was like 11gb left.......... too big a foot print.

If it turns out that Vista can slice bread and do the toast... damn...

So I’m not so excited about Vista. I’ll continue to use XP Pro until I get comfortable with linux, then I’ll hop on over.

Though I’ve been thinking of buying a cheap laptop or desktop and redeem the ’free’ Vista upgrade. I am thinking of doing this so that I can learn Vista and be able to help my not so computer savvy friends... for free or for profit.

I don’t want to close myself to one side entirely.

You’ve just got to love Mac/Linux/Windows flame wars.

It hasn’t been that long since Apple last sold a one button mouse as standard equipment on one of their PCs. Also, I find it humorous to see people argue that Macs are cheaper, while in the same breath arguing that anyone having problems with a one button mouse can purchase a normal mouse seperately. Alas, a quick check of Apple.com shows that their Mighty Mouse is included with every Mac, aside from the Mini which comes with no keyboard or mouse anyway. The statements from the Mac Faithful are entertaining nonetheless. Such holier-than-thou attitudes keep me away from ever going near a Mac. So much for switching.

As for Linux, my experience is that it has come a long way for desktop use, but it has taken a long time to get there. Wine is chasing a moving target, and Microsoft is all about keeping that target moving. WoW runs fine under Wine, but so far my efforts to play GTA3, VC, and SA have been met with error messages. About it being impossible to break a Linux box without using SUDO or running as Root. . forget about Grandma, who has as much trouble installing an application under Windows as she would under Linux. Lets look at a real user, like Joe Techie. If you think you can successfully set up a Linux Distro to do anything useful >without< touching SUDO (like say, installing Wine, or libraries necessary to play back something other than Ogg), send me a post card from Never-Never Land.

That being said, I have long defended Microsoft’s Os as superior to Linux (for sure) and comparable to MacOS. Unfortunately for me I do not like the idea that my $400 purchase of Vista Ultimate will be useless after I move it from my first machine to my second. I’d have to purchase Vista again to move it to another machine. I would imagine that the real reason you have such a large number of people looking at switching to Linux is not because Vista is buggy (certainly no more than your average Linux distro) or because it’s eyecandy is uninspired/useless (I like Aero). Rather, legitimate enthusiast users who are tired of dealing with WGA are looking for a way out. Put off by arrogant, fanatical, and vocal Mac users (who make the rest of the Mac community look bad) Linux is the first choice for Windows users looking for a way out of the Vista EULA.

Linux will only gain significance on the Desktop of Microsoft shoots themselves in the foot. With a .357 pistol. Several times. Surprisingly enough, it seems like they may have done just that. . at least for the computing enthusiast community (Linux/Mac/PC) in general.

> while a strong 29.8% expressed an interest in converting to Linux.

There is a big difference between expressing interest and actually converting to Linux. I’m pretty convinced, that there are going to be some increasing numbers of Linux users, but I don’t think, that even in the tech savvy group, there are going to be 30% who are switching to Linux.

I use win2k still. I’d switch to linux before switching to vista just because from what I hear, vista is very annoying to use. An OS shouldn’t be more about drm than about doing what I want.

MS has been moving more and more towards drm at the cost of blocking their customers from doing even legal operations.

Unfortunately, most people who say they won’t use vista probably will end up having to use it, including me.

I’m sorry the mac fanboys just don’t get it. WIth the quality you get in Ubuntu, you simply cannot beat the price.

Missing option:

Going back to Win 2000. Less crap to deal with.

Rob is a moron...I challenge and everday windows user to actually *break* a linux box. The worst they could do is mess up their home directory. They wouldn’t be able to change shit anywhere else unless they knew the root password, or used sudo. If you mean you couldn’t install software or got an error, its probably because your doing something your not supposed to and the system is telling you so.
Windows caters to the moron, it lets you do anything you want anywhere on the system, which...if your a moron...you can really trash your configuration. So unless your you’re really that damned fucking stupid and do something like "sudo rm -r *" from the root directory, your not going to break anything. Get your facts straight and go play your little games....whilst I bust out Quake4 on my ubuntu box, while compiling C code in the background and serving up a couple of ajax apps on the side...

People keep going on about the Mac and their mouse. Get over it -- simply take your USB mouse that you know and love and plug it into your Mac. Heck, plug in two or three -- at the same time -- they will all work. Really.

I don’t see the desktop consumer route as the way that Linux is going to be triumphant in the desktop wars, and if it’s trying to survive then it’s trying to come in second place, that’s an ugly fight to a bitter ending.

Linux is going to have to take the reargaurd approach, a full frontal attack against microsoft is not going to work. While the dissatisfaction with microsoft and it’s vista program is going to have a lot of people screaming defection, linux is not in a position in terms of development to cull the caste of people that would secure the desktop success of Linux, it’s just moving too slowly to be blunt, it is on the trailing edge, not the developing edge in terms of features.

Linux is going to have to do the dirty work of developing markets, play off of successes it has had in areas like Munich, and enter in to further such contracts with Asian powerhouses. While at the same time capitalize the gains that it is making in cellphone operating systems, and expand that functionality, until the cell phone and the city infrastructure are the functioning unit and the unified operating system.

As a custom computer shop I’m bound to give the customer what they want. However, we also tend to stay behind the trend. Long after the large OEMs (Dell, Gateway, HP, etc.) switch to the "latest and the greatest" (and I use the word greatest loosely) we are still recommending (and usually selling) the older Windows OS. Why? Because it’s stable and most of the bugs are worked out.

As an ISP/Hosting firm we are also bound to use whatever the customer needs. However, when choice is given we use Linux for our servers. Point in fact, we have a 7 to 1 ratio of Linux to Windows servers and more users are vacating the Windows hosting platform. For ever 10 new hosting clients we get 9 of them opt for Linux which wasn’t the case 4 years ago. We also have 2 customers leaving the windows environment for every 1 that opts for that direction. Slowly but surely our Windows server farm is shrinking.

Now as far as desktops, Linux still has a way to go before it’s really ready. While the desktop specific distributions are pretty solid and fairly well made and can easily be installed in most cases, the problem is software more than anything. Many users want specific software that isn’t available. While there are alternatives, they aren’t up to "enterprise" level of abilities. One earlier comment about Photoshop being an excellent example. My designers have to stay on windows or emulate windows to be able to use their design tools. Which brings me to another problem.

Emulation on Linux and the development of is a bad idea. It doesn’t encourage developers to use more open standards. Gaming for example. As developers continue to use the painfully inadequate DirectX over OpenGL cross platform games are difficult if not impossible to port to other platforms. Yes, that includes Mac as well. If developers would follow the lead of companies like Id software and develop in OpenGL in the first place there’s very little that has to be done to make their software available for Mac, Linux, AND Windows all at the same time. A perfect example of this is Quickbooks, I’ve seen many companies who I’ve done pilot programs of Linux on the desktop have to find another solution because they tie their product directly to Internet Explorer. Not to mention Symantec and McAfee. These products have also been known to have problems as soon as Microsoft releases a security patch for IE because of changes in the code. Sometimes those changes have even stopped those products from functioning completely. Who said integration was a good thing?

So, long story short (too late), We will continue to do what we always do and recommend XP over vista even on new systems. When we can no longer get XP, I will have no choice but to go with Vista. However, that won’t stop us from mentioning Linux and we have always offered it as a dual boot option. I believe in the proper tool for the job, and quite frankly, Vista is the proper tool for Microsoft’s leverage against it’s user, but not necessarily for the user’s productivity and enjoyment of their computer.

Macs only have a one button mouse?

*looks at my Logitech mx510*

Really? That only has one button?

*Takes another look*

I’m counting eight, plus the scroll wheel. Who says you have to use Apple’s own mice? Oh, wait, those are four button mice. Rats. Where are you guys getting this one-button-mouse shit? They haven’t sold computers with one button mice for years.

People these days...

I’ve considered a move from XP to Ubuntu. The only things I would still need Windows for would be Visual Studio.NET and also for gaming. I’m getting really tired of the WGA functionality that continues to be added.

I just priced a Macbook vs a Dell Laptop that has the EXACT Same specs and features the mac was $300 cheaper.

Macs are too expensive. Those who say otherwise are flat out wrong. I priced out a mac notebook, and and hp notebook with comparable capabilities, and the mac notebook was about $1000 dollars more than the HP. As far as linux unfortunatley it doesn’t have the apps I need. I use Photoshop a lot, and I can’t get that for Linux, and don’t try to tell me that Gimp is just as good as Photoshop. Gimp is a piece of junk. It doesn’t hold a candle to Photoshop. The interface is backwards and it is slow. Windows PC is the right choice for me.

Hmm, can’t see why anyone would want a Mac. They don’t play well with much of the hardware that’s out there and it’s god awful slow compared to Windows.

Add my vote to Linux. Actually I really already have. But on 2 systems that I dualboot with XP, I won’t be upgrading the windows partition to Vista. It offers no benefits and lots of drawbacks. Linux > Windows

I made the move to Linux cold turkey in March. Part of it was boredom with XP for various reasons. Another part of it was I already knew that I wouldn’t be moving to Vista and figured I might as well get comfortable with a different operating system since it was obvious Microsoft would do its best to push and bully people into using Vista so staying with XP for very long wouldn’t be an option. Now I cannot say that I’ve ever been as happy with my operating system. It just purrs along. :)

> What does anyone want a mac for?

1. It’s pretty. No matter how much you dislike the OS or prefer another, you cannot deny it’s visual appeal.

2. You can run industry standard apps on a mac. Adobe/Macromedia, MS Office, as well as a host of Mac-only alternatives puts the mac high on the list of Vista alternatives for me.

3. It’s got BSD guts so I can geek out if I want to. Download the source. Compile. Live in bliss.

4. Support. Linux is free, but support isn’t. If I’m going to pay for support, I might as well get something nice.

5. You get what you pay for. I’m working on a much older 17" PowerBook right now and it just keeps on ticking. Sure you pay a little more for the product, but, it lasts.

My two (or five) cents.

"Mac is a nice platform but they have over priced laptops."
Not anymore. Same hardware pool, same price pool. Macs are actually either cheaper or just a little bit more expensive than a lot of their PC counterparts.

"Why would anyone choose to use a Mac? To start, they only have ONE mouse button. I won’t even go further than that, cause yuck."
although your comment was made in the height of ignorance, i’ll dignify it with a response.
http://apple.com/mightymouse

People wanting a Mac over a PC running Linux? I think not. I already own a great PC, I’m not buying a whole new computer, just replacing the OS.

I too have tried Vista RC1, and I have to say I am not impressed. I am a dual-booter anyway (XP/FC6) but if XP support did die then I would ditch Windows altogether,

To the person who said people would obviously get a Mac over Linux: I find that hard to believe, the ridiculous overpricing of Macs turns most people off. Why pay all that money for a doorstop?

I want to switch to Linux or OSX, but the problem is that I am a PC Gamer, and the way things are right now, all of the games that I want to play are coming out on the PC through Windows. So unfortantently I am stuck with the OS. But beleive me. If gaming was better on a different OS, I’d make the switch in a heart beat. I am so sick and tired of having to call up microsoft every single time I want to validate my copy of Windows XP whenever I decide to reformat my HD and reinstall it (And when it comes to Windows XP, it’s practically mandatory to do that once every 6 - 8 months, to keep things optimal). Apparently for Windows XP, you are allowed to validate windows through the internet a total of 2 times, and then you are FORCED to call them up and go through the phone automation process... to only fail that, which THEN brings you to a live representative that can validate windows for you. ARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!

Another reason this savy user is gearing up for Linux is the price point of Vista. I am being priced out of updating to the new Windows version. Money always matters, and I’m not even close to budgeting for a $400 OS or even a $300 OS. That’s the bottom line.

If you add the "Stay on XP" with "Switch to Linux" numbers, you get almost 70%. This can’t look good for MS in the short run. In the long run, however, people will switch to Vista the same way they did with XP; by buying new PCs from Dell, HP, etc.

I think the article says it all with an exception of what XP users who stay with XP will do after Microsoft stops supporting XP - then what? Which direction will they go then? As you stated, there are already viable, solid alternatives (PCLinuxOS and Ubuntu are just the tip of the iceberg with that regard) which an "average Joe" computer user should be able to get along with just fine. By "average Joe, I’m talking people who just want to get online to surf, email, chat and do some light/medium office-related activities.

Oh, one more thing, "It was an all too slow affair for my liking with a RAM footprint King Kong would have been proud of." That’s the quote of the week!

Sweet, nice article.