no only is it good, not only is it fast, not only does it look nice.
But it doesn't have that goddawful shite that Ubuntu want to pretend is an interface. Unity is bloody awful.

Thank you Linux Mint for taking the best bits of Ubuntu and making what I think is the best, nicest, fastest OS there is. (well OSX might be nicer, but you get the point)

Mint is a nice alternative to Ubuntu, but Slackware still wins Best Linux EVAR from me.

Nah, he ended up on Mac OSX. A nerd would have ended with Ubuntu.

A dork would have ended with Fedora Core and a geek would have ended with BSD.

>> ^Ryjkyj:

Now THAT, is a nerd.

I've been running Linux on my production machine for 2 years now, after trying it out for a year before that. For out-of-the-box usability, there are several distros that are very close to Windows or OSX and even surpass them in some ways. Ubuntu is a great place to start.

And let's not forget that open-source goes way beyond Linux. OpenOffice, the GIMP image editor, Inkscape vector editor, Pidgin IM, Audacity audio editor, Firefox, Thunderbird... there is a huge list of FOSS applications that can do just about anything you want.

Games, agreed, are more problematic on Linux, but as Tymbrwulf mentioned that is a function of the userbase, if it does catch on the way Firefox did, you can be sure that there will be a lot of Linux game releases. Meanwhile games and proprietary software can be run in VirtualBox.

This comment here pretty much sums up why Linux is still having difficulty even treading water as a desktop.

http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1826490&cid=33931876

Or here for your reading pleasure

1. Confusing distros Just thinking about all the different distros and configurations still gives me a headache. Ubuntu has blunted this somewhat, but even with that you have to get into the Gnome vs. KDE thing, which is damned confusing to a layperson. The worst part of this is trying to download software for Linux off of some website and running into multiple versions with odd notations regarding different distros.
2. Poor documentation Again, Ubuntu helps. But even that is spotty compared to Windows. And the "documentation" website of many distros (and Linux software apps) is little more than a bugfix list.
3. Software, Software, Software this is the biggest problem, and not so easily dismissed as some fans would pretend. My mom, for example, uses special software to interface with her high-end sewing machine. Is it available for Linux? Probably not. Can I just direct her to a clone of equal quality? Probably not.
4. Little support (if not openly hostile) There aren't a lot of places to call for Linux support. And a lot of the places you can go for support on the net are filled with Linuix fanatics who are openly hostile to Windows switchers and newbies. The level of "you don't belong here" attitude towards newbies in Linux circles makes Apple fans look civil.
5. Ways of doing things that are confusing to a Windows user with windows, I can go to a website, download an installer and install my software. with Linux I can install it via the built-in installer. but that only works if said software is in the repository. If not, getting it installed is often a lot more complex than just downloading a file and double clicking on it to install. Which brings me to:
6. Still too much reliance on the command line interface Telling someone to break out a command line and type "sudo apt-get whateverthefuck" is like telling a Windows user to reinstall DOS and learn its syntax.

Only idiots will correct people on pronunciation of brand names that the company insists on. Most of my techie contacts in computer hardware wholesale or retail call it "Ay-sus", the way it's called since it... forever. Only the idiot sales and marketing people insists that it's called "Ah-soos". Similar things occurs with "SuSE linux" and "Ubuntu linux".

Well one of those links is instructions how to reset the password with an Ubuntu CD. If that's not safe enough for you, I don't know what to tell ya.

>> ^Sagemind:

I'm starting to get leery of downloading these programs of the internet though - I have no idea if they're dropping Trojans or other bad stuff along the way!

>> ^shogunkai:

I dunno, I prefer it over Windows. Maybe it's because I love to tinker, but I haven't had any real problems with it at all (nothing I haven't caused...). It's changed a lot lately, and there is much more support for it now then there used to be. Ubuntu also has a great community.
>> ^ForgedReality:
Beautifully done, but it's a shame that Ubuntu, or any flavor of Linux for that matter, just don't work quite as well as shown here. It's a tinkerer's OS, because it requires a lot of tinkering just to get it running smoothly. And even then, there's no guarantees.
Plus there's not a lot that can be done with it since it doesn't really have the vendor support of Windows. Sure, you can watch movies, listen to music, check your email, and browse the internet, but how much real FUN can you have with it? At least when applications aren't crashing or giving nondescript error messages.
Don't get me wrong, Ubuntu Linux is one of the most powerful operating systems around. It's just not ready for mainstream.



I, too, love to tinker. As an operating system, I prefer it over anything else. I used it for years. However, until it reaches the level of Windows as far as vendor support goes (and I'm not talking about opensource stuff), then it can never really replace it for me. When I used it, I had to keep my system as dual-boot, because I would often require Windows.

As a designer, not being able to use Adobe applications such as Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash, etc. is a huge downside. Also, as a gamer, well, you're extremely limited on that front as well.

In any other arena, Linux is very, very powerful. It just lacks a lot of usability that I require. Fill those needs, and it would easily become my sole operating system.

I dunno, I prefer it over Windows. Maybe it's because I love to tinker, but I haven't had any real problems with it at all (nothing I haven't caused...). It's changed a lot lately, and there is much more support for it now then there used to be. Ubuntu also has a great community.

>> ^ForgedReality:

Beautifully done, but it's a shame that Ubuntu, or any flavor of Linux for that matter, just don't work quite as well as shown here. It's a tinkerer's OS, because it requires a lot of tinkering just to get it running smoothly. And even then, there's no guarantees.
Plus there's not a lot that can be done with it since it doesn't really have the vendor support of Windows. Sure, you can watch movies, listen to music, check your email, and browse the internet, but how much real FUN can you have with it? At least when applications aren't crashing or giving nondescript error messages.
Don't get me wrong, Ubuntu Linux is one of the most powerful operating systems around. It's just not ready for mainstream.

Beautifully done, but it's a shame that Ubuntu, or any flavor of Linux for that matter, just don't work quite as well as shown here. It's a tinkerer's OS, because it requires a lot of tinkering just to get it running smoothly. And even then, there's no guarantees.

Plus there's not a lot that can be done with it since it doesn't really have the vendor support of Windows. Sure, you can watch movies, listen to music, check your email, and browse the internet, but how much real FUN can you have with it? At least when applications aren't crashing or giving nondescript error messages.

Don't get me wrong, Ubuntu Linux is one of the most powerful operating systems around. It's just not ready for mainstream.

Running SP3. I try to keep my stuff as updated.

I tried -windowed mode. Still get the black screen with sound.

I might try WINE and Steam on my ubuntu machine, but I've got no patience for jumping through hoops when I can play Xbox Live.

@spoco2, pretty sure it was a jab based on the exchange about Ubuntu in this comment thread.

>> ^volumptuous:

Why don't you guys just write your own version of Videosift for Ubuntu? Or do you think you're just entitled?


Do you come from the school of 'you may not ever question because it's not your site'? And do you carry that over to all other areas of the world and disallow making critiques of anything that you didn't make. Geeze. I'm sure we can find cases where you've disagreed with something here or elsewhere.

I guess you've never had issue with any feature of a free open source product? And any time you did, you just had the time to go ahead and code your own fix to that did you? (Not that VS is open source, but it's something else free that by volumptuous's reckoning may never be questioned)

Why don't you guys just write your own version of Videosift for Ubuntu? Or do you think you're just entitled?

The only time I can imagine myself owning an iPad is if I attain it in a way in which I don't pay Apple for it. I'd hope by then there would be an open source alternative OS that I would be able to load onto it so that I don't have to go through all of Apple's "proprietary bullshit"

Posted from Ubuntu.