I'm no linux expert, but to me it seems like a lot of people use linux because they think it is different and cool. Now im not saying windows is perfect, far from it, but there is much less time spent figuring things out and building the applications you want to install. I think if linux is benefiting you, then use it, but what is the point of using it just to say you do, when it is really making things more difficult. I do think it is good for servers, since it can run on slower hardware. Hope i didn't affend anyone. Just my opinion.

Quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
The way M$oft has been making its old good products obsolete, they'll soon dump w2k and force everone to upgrade to their shitty ass longhorn

I've even heard that the latest DirectX SDK won't work on Win2K, but I could be wrong.

Win2K is really good, I think it's better than XP in some ways.

Well, this is my first post to these forums and being a Linux user since '99 I guess it's only proper I start here. My distro of choice has been Gentoo for the last three years but I also keep Debian installed on a seperate partition as a backup. I finally wiped my Windows partition in '03 as I found that I just had no need for it anymore.

Why did I make the switch? Originally it was for the source. Though I chose a different career I've always had an interest in how software and hardware worked together. But after a time, and as the available software grew and improved, I found I quite enjoyed being free of having to worry about draconian EULAs. Have you ever read some of those things? Some of their conditions are so dreadful that I find myself saying out loud "No!, I won't agree to that!". And since I consider myself an honest person and don't want to use someone's software without their permission my only real choice is to only use open source.

Quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
My suggestion: computers have become more powerful, so dont be sad to bid farewell to the console, instead, replace it with a powerful and easy to use GUI

*shudder*

GUIs will never be a great replacement for a console. Sure, the console is non-intitive, but it provides so many possibilities. Show me a GUI that can do the following in a nice, general way ( for example, allow me to pick different find criteria, chose different options, perhaps sort the output, ... ):
echo "TODO Items Remaining: `find -iname '*hpp' -exec grep -i TODO '{}' ';' | wc -l`"
The functionality of backticks, pipes, and lots of other extremely useful things just can't be included in a simple, clean GUI. Also, I've yet to see a GUI with a history of any kind. Even something short such as `rm *-[^#]*log` can be quite painful in a large directory when trying to perform the equivalent task using a GUI.

Quote: Original post by corrington_j
I'm no linux expert, but to me it seems like a lot of people use linux because they think it is different and cool. Now im not saying windows is perfect, far from it, but there is much less time spent figuring things out and building the applications you want to install. I think if linux is benefiting you, then use it, but what is the point of using it just to say you do, when it is really making things more difficult. I do think it is good for servers, since it can run on slower hardware. Hope i didn't affend anyone. Just my opinion.

I know there's some users like that, but I think (hope) that they're a minority. I honestly prefer Linux to Windows, especially Gnome vs. Win32, even though I used Windows for years before I even heard of Linux. When I'm in Windows there's all sorts of little things that I miss. People say "Oh, you can install ___ on Windows, too", but then you're spending time finding, installing, and configuring things that work out of the box in Linux.

I know that same arguement is used against Linux; I'm just saying it works both ways. Both provide some things the other doesn't.

I don't spend time figureing out and building things I want to install; I use 'apt-get install gaim', which IMHO is easier than downloading an installer and going through all the dialogs.

You also have distributions like Mepis which are ridiculously easy to install and get working. The most configuration I had to do in Mepis was turn off mute and raise the volume; other than that KDE, Mozilla, Flash, Java, and sound all worked out of the box. (I still prefer Debian, though.)

I would really like a good IDE for Linux, though.

What is stopping the open source community from cloneing VC++ 6 IDE?

Quote: Original post by pTymN
What is stopping the open source community from cloneing VC++ 6 IDE?

Lack of focus, coherence, and overall sensibility. A need to prove that they're different. Or maybe just a stubborn adherence to makefiles.

echo "TODO Items Remaining: `find -iname '*hpp' -exec grep -i TODO '{}' ';' | wc -l`"
I don't see why this is so incredibly, staggeringly useful. A simple Find in Files from VS has been able to do the same job more more easily for many years. Pipes, back ticks, console commands, et al are not powerful tools. They are mediocre tools that the Linux community as a whole has been tricked into believing to be powerful.

I found long ago that Linux was unremarkable. It allows you to do all the things "normal" users do -- surfing, IM, email, etc. All the pointless boring BS that computers have done for 15 years or more, in various forms. But when it comes to programming, it offers mediocre environments locked into an old and unwieldly build system. When it comes to gaming, your options are either Cedega/Wine, which is a fairly poor excuse for games, or the handful of native ports, which are almost inevitably FPSes. Almost. The myths of improved stability and security ceased to be realities many years ago...actually, just about 5 years ago. No matter which Linux you choose, there will always be some kind of strange problem somewhere. The print system is a complete mess. Sound support is still touch and go for unusual configurations. Graphics drivers are only just becoming easy to work with, and if you have an ATI card, it's still a toss up. Getting XWindows to do something simple like automatically detect all of the available display modes is still more difficult then it ought to be, and rarely stands up to Windows' ability to know everything about your monitor and graphics card without any assistance. There is a lot of very good, free software. But a lot of it is also crap. Linux is a pathetic environment for musical composition, especially when it comes to synthesized and sequenced music, rather than live recording. Artistic packages suffice for casual users, but anyone who has worked in depth with Photoshop understands that The GIMP is simply not on the same level. Although GUIs have improved, you will still end up in the console sooner or later, not necessarily because the GUI isn't there, but because it's so badly designed that you may as well just use a shell. People say that it's easier to avoid viruses and spyware on Linux, but the truth is that if you're mucking around with Linux, you're already computer literate enough to keep your system clean. Document support...well, it's decent. You have a handful of idiots who refuse to work with word documents, but for the most part OpenOffice copes well and things are generally happy.

There's my thoughts, anyway.

Quote:
They are mediocre tools that the Linux community as a whole has been tricked into believing to be powerful.

I dare you to say that on slashdot! (I partially agree though)

Quote: Original post by try_catch_this

Quote:
They are mediocre tools that the Linux community as a whole has been tricked into believing to be powerful.

I dare you to say that on slashdot! (I partially agree though)

It got me thrown out of #debian, in any case.

I've been using linux for the last few days. (since i installed it).

Works great now. (i straitened out all the kinks).

I like it much more then windows. (Especially the gui. KDE > *)

Also, supertux is teh c00lest

From,
Nice coder