A Bit Of Linux Hate
Linux evangelists, please don’t read this. It is entirely my opinion and my experience.
So, I will be talking about Linux as an end-user operating system. Well, end-developer, to be precise. And yes, I know, since I’ve used mainly Ubuntu, I should definitely switch to Debian/Slackware/your-favourite-distro. But I won’t.
Ubuntu is said to be the most end-user-oriented distribution, so I started with it. I have used 3 versions on 3 different machines (I won’t tell which, because you’ll say “oh, yeah, those had these nasty things, check [another version]” ). And all of them sucked. I had to reboot quite often, the UI got stuck when there was intensive disk I/O, there were no compatible drivers for (W)LAN cards, often it just lost the border around different windows when doing alt+tab, alt+shift+tab actually didn’t work for some time. And some more minor inconveniences that stacked up to build my quite negative opinion.
Don’t get me wrong, it is workable. I’m still using it at work (perhaps because I don’t have the time to install Windows again). But even for a developer it is tedious. I know I could google for an hour, find an answer, go to /foo/bar, remove a line from some file, and suddenly something starts working better. But that’s the problem. No end user will do that. Even I am reluctant to do it. And all these things kill productivity. And perhaps neurons.
So I’ll be using Windows 7 on my machines, which works like charm (yup), and only use Linux on servers. Yeah, it’s the best there. But for end-user machines – not yet.
P.S. As if my Ubuntu read my blogpost and decided to boycott me – blocked 6 times for 3 hours, I tried to upgrade to the latest version, which killed it completely. So I’m back to windows now.
Linux evangelists, please don’t read this. It is entirely my opinion and my experience.
So, I will be talking about Linux as an end-user operating system. Well, end-developer, to be precise. And yes, I know, since I’ve used mainly Ubuntu, I should definitely switch to Debian/Slackware/your-favourite-distro. But I won’t.
Ubuntu is said to be the most end-user-oriented distribution, so I started with it. I have used 3 versions on 3 different machines (I won’t tell which, because you’ll say “oh, yeah, those had these nasty things, check [another version]” ). And all of them sucked. I had to reboot quite often, the UI got stuck when there was intensive disk I/O, there were no compatible drivers for (W)LAN cards, often it just lost the border around different windows when doing alt+tab, alt+shift+tab actually didn’t work for some time. And some more minor inconveniences that stacked up to build my quite negative opinion.
Don’t get me wrong, it is workable. I’m still using it at work (perhaps because I don’t have the time to install Windows again). But even for a developer it is tedious. I know I could google for an hour, find an answer, go to /foo/bar, remove a line from some file, and suddenly something starts working better. But that’s the problem. No end user will do that. Even I am reluctant to do it. And all these things kill productivity. And perhaps neurons.
So I’ll be using Windows 7 on my machines, which works like charm (yup), and only use Linux on servers. Yeah, it’s the best there. But for end-user machines – not yet.
P.S. As if my Ubuntu read my blogpost and decided to boycott me – blocked 6 times for 3 hours, I tried to upgrade to the latest version, which killed it completely. So I’m back to windows now.
hey man first of all ubuntu is not the user friendliest oriendet distribution since … a long time maybe an 2 years or so… The fact is that currently the most popular based on distrowatch and in fact the most user friendly distribution is .. Mint yeah not kidding first of all the guys there dont care exactly of what is completely free they want to make it accessible so all java flash and video codecs comes installed by default anyway also this guys are really likes gnome 2 so you can read the Linux Mint 12 preview anyway I am defensibly switching to Mint in all machines. Also I like the Linux Mint Debian Edition not the ubuntu based edition first of all it is hell of a fast and it cames with all the ubuntu nice packages on top of the debian like nice installed amazing antialiasing for fonts and etc. so you should try it.
The windows 7 is fine the problem is that you dont have many tools you are fine with like cat like grep like tail you have to use so many apps cuz you simply dont have console. About servers … indeed ;D
P.S. I am not a linux fanatic I dont want everything to be free and open I dont want everything to be GPL(I dont like GPL) in fact I use Windows most of the time since I play a lot of games ( all the time ) 😀 but Linux Mint is still a nice a nicest desktop replacement if you ask me
i moved away from windows to linux 6 years ago
i loved many things, but there were a lot of issues mostly with drivers, libraries and ui.
I switched from ubuntu to fedora, from fedora to debian from debian to open suse but none was problems free. There always were some issues with sound or anything else.
after 2 years i tried mac os x
of course os x is not perfect, You can always find issues if You look hard enough. But mostly in everyday use its i think its best os for development and entertainment
I agree that mac os x is very good. It’s a bit tedious to get used to it coming from windows, but it’s good. The thing is, I don’t want a mac. Irrational reasons 🙂
Well, this is the eternal debate.
I think a little bit of pragmatism is necessary. Definitely Linux is not there yet for the end user, but it’s getting there and I personally like it since it’s free software (most of it) and free of cost (apart from weird exceptions and / or support plans).
Mac OS X is great but very expensive. I’ll stop here cause I really love it and I don’t have a bunch of reasons not to use it, but price is definitely a very important one.
Windows 7 is the one I use at work and it works perfectly fine, I like it very much. Console tools can be installed with Cygwin. It’s not a native console, agreed, but it does its job in a very neat way.
So in the end all the systems have pros and cons, you just have to find the most suitable for you and your circumstances.
As if my Ubuntu read my blogpost and decided to boycott me – blocked 6 times for 3 hours, I tried to upgrade to the latest version, which killed it completely. So I’m back to windows now.
Give a try to Debian Squeeze! 😉
I left Win @home and @work since 3 years now.
Have you tried to switch to another distro (maybe rolling release one) or even tried to replace Gnome/Unity/KDE with something lighter? No? Sorry mate but your arguments are weak.
What you are saying is exactly my argument – I don’t want to try the combination of 3 distros with 3 UIs to figure out which won’t crash. And for the record, yes, I’ve tried.
I understand your sentiment. I had tried [K]Ubuntu before (not a big fan of either Unity or Gnome) and as a long time Windows user I was frustrated with N number of things that wouldn’t work and I had no idea where to start fixing it.
If you would like to give Linux another chance – take some time and install Arch Linux – it forces you to learn quite a lot about the system, just to be able to get it running, but I find it very lean and elegant. I had a lot of problems with all these other distros like Fedora / Ubuntu that are supposed to “just work”. Arch may be very “manual”, but does not overwhelm you with a whole new system with 1000 components. Just add gradually some packages that you will need and for just a few days, you will learn the basic essentials that you need to have a running system and it will grow on you. 😉