Windows User Experiments With Linux for 10 Days

An anonymous reader writes "Clarence Ladson over at Flexbeta decided to kick Windows to the curb for 10 days in an experiment to find out just how hard it would be to 'quit cold turkey' and move entirely to Linux. It's amazing how many day-to-day operations require the inadvertent use of Windows in our daily lives."

Comments

Necessary Evil

[kkirk007]

As much as we all hate it, we have to keep Windows around for some necessary things.

If nothing else, then at least to play a lot of our games.

Re:Necessary Evil

[Tim C]

If you wanna play games, go get a console.

I was round a friend's house the other weekend, and she fired up Halo 2 on her XBox, and I was struck with how primitive the graphics look. Sure, an XBox is a damn sight cheaper than my PC, but I can see why.

Computers are for serious work.

You elitist snob - my computer is for whatever I choose to use it for, and I'll not have anyone tell me different.

Re:Necessary Evil

[Paralizer]

As much as we all hate it, we have to keep Windows around for some necessary things.

Just because I don't use Windows that often doesn't mean I hate it. In fact, I don't even dislike it, I really have no problem with most of Microsoft's software. I don't entirely agree with their business tactics, but I give them credit for making software that is easy to use to even casual users.

Most people I run in to that claim they hate Windows are those who are really just frustrated with the OS because they don't spend the time to learn what exactly it is that they are doing. I'm sure many of the /. readers here would agree, Windows is a great OS for those people who don't have a significant amount of time to learn about open source alternatives such as Linux. You don't really think your grandmother wants to spend weeks learning how to read her email on Linux do you? If they just want normal day-to-day tasks, like reading email or the latest news, go with Windows -- there's nothing wrong with that.

However, I think this idea of dedicating a reasonable amount of time to attempting to learn how to use Linux is a great idea (if of course you have the time and you are genuinely interested). Not to say all the people who participate will stick with it after their ten day trial, but some of them may enjoy the system and either continue to use it on their spare time, to take what they've learned to the Windows community. I'd like to see more programs like this, and less about "schools completely switching to Linux". If you force someone to switch to a more advanced environment when they may not have been comfortable with using a more user friendly one, that's really not going to give you the results you are aiming for. People will become frustrated and lose interest, probably destroying any consideration of looking into the alternative in the future.

Re:Necessary Evil

[aussie_a]

if you're dumping windows, you no longer have a need for those games.

No-one ever has a need for games (or at least, only under very specific circumstances that applies to a very tiny minority).

Linux, as it exists today, is a philosophical choice. I'm not supporting Redmond or any of the companies that butter their bread using that damnable product.

I bet you're still supporting illegal (if it were run in America) working conditions and child slave labour by having a computer (if you own a computer solely made in America, sorry for the incorrect assumption). Compared with Chinese working conditions, Microsoft is a very small evil. But most people here refuse to consider that.

I'm not saying you have to refuse to support all the evils in the business world. I'm just pointing out your inconsistency when it comes to which evil you'll support with computers.

Re:Necessary Evil

[NickFortune]

The only problem with windows, is that it is designed for the Average User.

And that it has this pesky forced upgrade cycle thing. Oh, software bloat to drive hardware upgrades. And serious secuity issues stemming from an unwise level of integration. Which is an instance of a larger problem: fundamental technical decisions being made by marketing staff rather than techies. And then there are the licencing terms which mean that you don't own your OS, and which reserve for MS the right to monkey around with your system at any future time. And there's proprietory file formats, and vendor lock in. And some of us have concerns about how spyware-friendly windows appears to be, especially in the light of the Claria/Gator aquisition.

But apart from that, you're dead right. The only problem with windows is that it's designed for the Average User. Oh, and a few of us dislike windows because it supports an illegal monopoly which has a well documented history of unethical and anti-competitive business strategies,

But apart from all that...

Re:Necessary Evil

[Mr2001]

I was round a friend's house the other weekend, and she fired up Halo 2 on her XBox, and I was struck with how primitive the graphics look. Sure, an XBox is a damn sight cheaper than my PC, but I can see why.

It's not just the graphics that are disappointing. You have to control it with a gamepad too, unless you buy a keyboard/mouse adapter, and even then it doesn't quite feel like a real PC FPS.

Re:Necessary Evil

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft's business practices are no different than any other corporation and in many respects they're less aggressive, like compared to precious Apple who locks down everything they produce from competition. So you're really not bashing Microsoft at all, you're bashing capitalism and we all know the alternatives don't work so get with the program.

You're right, Microsoft won't be on top forever but will be for a very long time because it's such a well-run and adaptive company. Microsoft is the winner right now because they're outsmarted the competition but nothing lasts forever. That's how the system works.

Re:Necessary Evil

[digidave]

Actually, configuration aside, learning Linux tends to be easier than learning Windows. Email, Internet and office are virtually identical. Users don't have to learn the hard way about email viruses. They don't have to learn the hard way that the Control Panel can be dangerous. All they need to learn is to click on the three or four icons at the bottom of the screen.

I put my mom on Linux and she has never used a computer in her life. Yes, she had a learning curve, but that was mostly with how to use the mouse. Now she's burning CDs (easier with Gnome than Windows) and emailing digital pictures (again, easier with Gnome than Windows' shoddy digital camera support).

Re:Necessary Evil

[MBGMorden]

Hurray for you, but you do realize that your viewpoint isn't the only one don't you? There are people out there who play games on their computers. As a matter of fact there are people who build their entire system around playing games. To these people, switching to Linux would make now sense.

There are plenty of people out there who don't give a damn about games, video editing, office apps, development tools, scientific programs, or databases. That doesn't somehow invalidate the needs of those who DO use those types of applications. Use whatever works best for you. Too often Linux users are trying to push the view point of how few sacrifices you'll need to make when switching to Linux. In reality, for people to truly switch from one platform to another, they need benefits, not a shorter list of things they're loosing.

Re:Necessary Evil

[tarunthegreat2]

instead, they included it into the windows install which took away any choice the majority of users would have

Umm excuse me? They offered something additonal for free and this limited consumers' choice? No. They were guilty of leveraging their monopoly in one market to exploit another, but they did not limit consumers' choice in this one instance. You were and still are absolute free to run any other browser on Windows - including Netscape. It's just that IE will be sitting there pre-installed. That's only a limitation of choice if you're down to your last 4 MB of space on your hard drive, and the un-bundling of IE would have saved that space for you to use otherwise. But you never have to click on it (unless you run into an ugly asp IE-only site - but again THAT is not MS's fault. The site should support multiple - and standards compliant - browsers).

Re:Necessary Evil

[drsquare]

Windows is a monopoly? Funny then, this Linux thing I'm using now must just be an illusion. There is more competition for Microsoft on PCs than there is for Apple on Macs, but no-one complains when Apple clamps down on people trying to run OSX on x86. Maybe that's a monopolistic tactic.

An alternative operating system to Windows is as simple as buying a Mac or installing Linux.

He Brings Up Good Points

[Aeron65432]

I know myself, I haven't been able to quit Windows cold turkey. In general I use linux, but there are many Windows-specific things, several of which he mentions.

I'll list a few big ones.

Games, of course.
Certain programs.
Family.

Re:already /.ed

[vcv]

Funny you say that.. because it is a linux server.

Re:10 days?

[Seumas]

I'm not sure what things the blurb poster was talking about, but I use OSX, Solaris and Ubuntu for my desktops at home and work EXCLUSIVELY and Debian on my production server on the west coast. The only thing Windows does for me is play my games - which I barely even do anymore anyway.

So seriously, what's so great about windows that linux or OSX can't do for you (obviously solaris isn't as geared to a few of these things, but still...)? Calendaring? Email? Managing your website? Writing letters and documents and spreadsheets? Personal wikis? Photo albums? Dinky little flash games? Instant messaging? Watching movies? Listening to music? Making music? Coding? P2P/Bit Torrent?

Exactly what is there that you can't do on a non windows box?

10 days is not enough

[andy753421]

"It's amazing how many day-to-day operations require the inadvertent use of Windows in our daily lives."

Maybe this is true at first, however after several months of using Linux I began to see the FOSS alternatives to using windows and now I haven't had windows installed for about 9 months.

It seems like switching to Linux should be more gradual. Linux has a steep learning curve. If you try to jump in all at once your more likely to get a bad impression when you can't figure out how to play a dvd, or even 'mount' the cdrom drive.

Re:10 days is not enough

[Sparr0]

I went through the exact same cycle. I guess I just started a few cycles earlier. My latest stint in Linux is up to a year, over numerous kernel recompiles, with no sign of stopping. Most of the programs I use every day now dont even have counterparts in Windows. I do not know what I would do without access to the simple shell scripting tools in Linux (how the hell do I copy every file created on any day after 12PM in windows?).

Re:10 days is not enough

[MoogMan]

This is the wrong way of thinking, IMO. Linux shouldn't have a steep learning curve (and many distributions are starting to effectively tackle this... Ubuntu, Fedora).

Why would I want to mount my CD? I expect to just put it in and it to be available. Same with my DVD. I expect to put the DVD in and click "Play DVD" or "Open [Totem] Movie Player".

Ok, I personally don't think that Linux installation is going to come anywhere close to be installable by the average computer user - it's *not going to happen*. But for the large majority of things people use it should "just work".

Take music for example. I want to play my mp3s.

Hurdle 1: I can't find them because they're on my WinXP/NTFS partition.
(Solution: An init script (or preferably, an install module) to scan for non-ext3 partitions and automatically add them to fstab.)

Hurdle 2: I find my music player. Why won't it play my mp3's? Licence? What licence? I don't have to get a licence on my xyzfoobar player in Windows.

This is just one of *many* situations that need to be resolved before users start sticking to Linux.

Having said that, the last year or two have made leaps and bounds in terms of user-friendlyness, but there's still much room for improvement.

At present, Linux for the end user lacks the polish it needs to be usable by the majority of PC users. I use (and love) it, but I seem to be able to see from the viewpoint of the average user - something many geeks cannot do.

Re:10 days is not enough

[Jussi K. Kojootti]

Hurdle 2: I find my music player. Why won't it play my mp3's? Licence? What licence? I don't have to get a licence on my xyzfoobar player in Windows.

Do some research on this -- you might be surprised. Either the distributor of xyzfoobar has bought a license and gives it to you (it's one of those free lunches) or someone is using the codec without a license...

This is just one of *many* situations that need to be resolved before users start sticking to Linux.

This is a situation resolved best by either not using mp3 or buying an mp3 codec (stand alone or bundled with Windows or a commercial Linux distribution). This is not a technical problem as you suggest, but a legal/economical one.

all depends

[bigwavejas]

Windows is business worlds industry standard, with companies using programs such as, Powerpoint, MS Project, Outlook (to name a few). It seems to even try to function as a business professional without Windows you're asking for HUGE headaches.

Linux strikes me as more the OS of choise for tech types (engineers, IT pros, etc), as its much more robust at those type of applications than Windows.

I think it all depends on the environment.

My Wife, my mother and Linux...

[MosesJones]

I put my aged PII 400MHz home computer over to Linux a few years ago (well 2002 actually) and since then my Wife has suffered not a single case of having to reboot using the plug-socket, not a single crash and not a single failed application.

Until she got her iPod... so now we are buying a new PC, just so she doesn't have to use my work machine for iTunes.

My mother had an horrific attack of the virii which has meant I had to do a complete re-install of windows, and I've lobbed SUSE onto the other partition to help the recovery next time. My mother has elected to use SUSE to access the internet, and just go into Windows when she has to use the software from work.

My wife does email, internet, work processing and accounts, pretty much the same as my mother. BOTH have faired perfectly well with Linux (SUSE), with less hassle to me than on Windows.

And here is the kicker... installing Windows on a SATA drive was a pain in the arse, my mothers machine having no floppy drive and Windows not being able to detect the SATA (even in an SP2 install) SUSE 9.3.... had no issues and went straight on.

I couldn't WORK on Linux yet... but for the majority of INTERNET users who just want EMAIL, a browser and OpenOffice.... it really doesn't matter.

Re:I kicked Windows to the Curb, too!

[MustardMan]

Disclaimer: I use OS X, and openoffice.

There is NO WAY IN HELL NeoOffice/J or OpenOffice replace the MS office suite. No matter what people claim, they still break plenty of office docs that get emailed to me, and forget about replacing powerpoint. Apple's Keynote does a pretty good job but isn't anywhere near as feature-filled as powerpoint. I try to use alternate software as much as possible, but I keep a copy of MS office installed too.

And there's still the occasional app I run on my windows box at home that just doesn't have a replacement on OS X. I love my mac, but we're a long way from a M$-free world.

Re:10 days?

[Reaperducer]

Play "Blue Screen of Death" and "Guess Which Driver Is Causing A Problem Today."

Today the Microsoft database index at work ate itself and I'm waiting seven hours for it to re-index a couple of million documents. I said to one of the guys trying to fix things, "How come every time you guys tell me something bad it begins with the word 'Microsoft?'"

Re:I kicked Windows to the Curb, too!

[Jeff DeMaagd]

I'm not touching MS Office in part because I can't pay for it and I'm not going to do this copyright infringement thing.

I think it would be hypocritical of myself (and others) if I / they complain about GPL infringement when the complainers themselves don't care that they themselves are committing acts of infringement themselves.

Re:already /.ed

[aussie_a]

Or we can just use stuff like coral cache and not destroy the person's server. Yeah, it's slower. But it's cheaper for the person whose server it was, and everyone gets the article.

Featureful does not mean works better

[putaro]

Sometimes FEWER features makes for a better program. Until you get something from some PHB who just had to use some obscure feature that you can't import.

Re:An idea for teaching Linux in schools

[patio11]

That requiers having teachers who can trouble-shoot all three architectures. I love public school teachers with a passion -- half of my family does it and I've taught myself. But do you realize what the average level of computer expertise is? I can introduce you to that lady all the tech support sites make fun of for using scissors to "reformat" a 5.25" disk into a 3.5" one. Most of my colleagues had post-it notes on their monitors for the button sequence to run MS Word ("Start (bottom left) -> Programs -> MS Office -> MS Word"). Schools are one of the worst places for a mixed operating environment (they're also one of the worst places to learn anything about computers). Stick to reading, writing, and arithmatic, learn the computers somewhere else.

The problem is

[Sycraft-fu]

How do you do it gradually? I've actually been running Linux on my desktop at work some, because I need to learn more about it. We are going to start offically supporting it and unlike Windows and Solairs, we don't really have any gurus, so we all need to learn more about it. The problem is, that I find I have to force myself to boot in to Linux. Why? Well it, at best, does things as well as Windows does and in many cases does them much worse, or just not at all.

So of course I do the natural thing, I take the path of least resistance and just leave my machine in Windows, espically whenever I get busy.

Now I'm willing to do this, I'm a tech worker, it's my job to understand how to support our systems. However how is this supposed to apply to an average user? They are going to be very unimpressed if you tell them "Ya well you can do some of what you want easily in Linux, the rest you'll just have to figure out or do without." They are likely to just go back to Windows perminantly.

I think it's fairly difficult for most people to switch if there isn't an ideological reason behind it. You just don't find any advantages as an end user. For some it might seem like it initally, those that are spyware'd all to hell will probably find Linux a relief initally since it'll be faster and work stable, but soon, very soon, other annoyances and problems will creep in and they'll be frustrated all over again.

This is really the area that Linux needs to improve in, if the objective is to penetrate the mass market and really compete with Windows. It needs to be easy for completely non-technical people to switch over. This is getting more true as MS is slowly erroding advantages Linux once had.

Time was, Windows just wouldn't stay up. It wasn't a question of if it went down, just when. Not the case anymore, a good XP system will basically never crash, and it'll handle patching while you sleep so from a user perspective, it's never down. Likewise spyware and exploits were/are major problems, but they are clamping down on that too. The included firewall stops nearly all automatic worms, and their spyware tool is really quite slick and I imagine will make a major dent when it is in a release state.

So really what Linux needs to concentrate on is an easier end-user experience. Now leaps and bounds have been made in that area. I remember the first time I tried Linux in 1996 and had to get a friend who was an expert to help me even get it installed, now for most research systems in the department I drop an FC3 CD in, install, patch, setup LDAP, run our automount script and call it good. However there's still a long way to go.

One thing, for example, is the install process. For almost all Windows software, including most OSS, the install process invloves clicking on an executable which launched a nice graphical installer. This walks you through any options, and then does all the install needed. Any libraries that need updating are updated, all settings are taken care of, etc. In Linux, things are usually at best a make script. Now when it works, it's pretty easy. Config, make, make install, what's so hard about that?

Well it's intimidating. Normal users, and even us tech peopel that can't program, get intimidated by the compiler. It's something that's way outside the experience of normal users. And then what if something goes wrong? I've had make scripts fail and generally I'm sunk, I don't understand the errors because I don't know C or compilers. Imagine how an artist feels.

So things like that really need to be improved, if Linux in teh mainstream is a goal. Most users won't give a new OS months, many won't even give it a week. It'd better do what they want for word go, or they'll dump it.

Re:10 days?

[Com2Kid]

• and "Guess Which Driver Is Causing A Problem Today."

Instead, under Linux, you get to play:

"Guess which driver is not supported today."

For instance, when I did a kernel upgrade, I lost video driver support, my vid driver was too old, OK, go get another one, hey look, my video card was NO LONGER SUPPORTED by the newest video card driver.

Gee thanks Nvidia! Because we all know that Linux is primarily about gaming and that no one would dare use an OLDER video card on a Linux box? Right? ...

Granted this particular problem is Nvidia's fault, but then there are the sound drivers. . . .

Oh and why does something as simple as getting a frame buffered console require me to recieve conflicting advice on exactly which packages to emerge, and then editing of a script file? ...

Installing Java on Linux, hey, just as much fun! Only 3 or so files to edit in order to get the paths setup right. Don't count on advice from any ONE site since every distro is different! Fuuuun....

Re:For most people...

[MBCook]

Crap.

Pure crap.

That is absoultly not true. I've done it. ANYONE can do it. My brother did it too. Linux may not be there, but OS X is. It's just as stable and secure as Linux. But it has commercial applications. It many not have Money, but you can run GNUCash, or Quicken as I do. You can run Open Office, or just use MS Office as I do (I actually think the OS X version is better than the Windows version). You want a nice IM client? You could use any open source one, or there is iChat. It already has all those nice little do-dads. Graphics apps and format compatibility? Have you ever heard of Photoshop? I've got that on my Mac and it opens just about ANYTHING. I've got a DVD player (called... DVD Player). I can run Vi, EMACS, Nano, TextEdit, BBEdit, and many others. Want to run Visio? Omnigraffle is MUCH nicer.

I'm a techie also. I like messing around in Linux. But OS X provides the Unix environment that I love so much, with the commercial applications of Windows, stability, and much more. I am always finding little things on Windows boxes that just annoy me. Little things I DON'T have to do under OS X. Little things I never thought about untill I tried something better.

There are only two applications that I haven't found replacments for (not that I looked very hard). MS Project, and SQL Plus. Both run just fine in Virtual PC.

Not using Windows IS an option. It's an EASY option. Most large computer stores have an entire section devoted to it. It's called a MACINTOSH. This isn't a two horse race. There is a third and most people don't see it because it's far out in front.

Re:An idea for teaching Linux in schools

[MikeBabcock]

Assuming the teacher dealing with computers is as educated in computers as an English teacher ought to be in English, this shouldn't be a reality.

I know it is, but that just requires that we explain our requirements to the public school boards that computer-educated teachers work with the computers for grade school students.

10 days is not enough time to learn a new system

[hattig]

Disclaimer: I'm a Mac OS X convert as of two months ago. Before that I was a FreeBSD / Linux person that used Windows for various things (Office, games, etc) but without much enjoyment.

Windows: Tries to get in your way, force you to do things its way, doesn't provide a decent option to de-dumb globally. Office is a nightmare of over-featured bloat that most users will never use. When something goes wrong, it takes ages to fix because whilst you know what is wrong, Windows tries to stop you fixing it.

Linux / FreeBSD: Works well. If you know your stuff, it is easy to fix stuff and set up. I've had issues with upgrades however, after some time it will eventually mess up. Desktop applications are a mishmash of good and bad, or poorly thought out in a single crucial aspect whilst being very powerful.

Mac OS X: Doesn't get in your way. Allows you to actually get work done. Many applications are much more specific in their task (alternatively known as not having as many features, but the features that it does have actually work as you expect them to). Dashboard sucks. I don't think it can be beaten as an end-user operating system, however I can see that it lacks certain things that corporations would like in a desktop computer.

Computers come down to personal preference and what you are used to. If you only know how to do something in Windows and you aren't of a mind to sit down and learn how it is done in Linux or Mac OS X, then you are simply going to state that you need Windows for that task. Despite the frustration that you might have with it in Windows (e.g., tables in Word).

One thing that I like about Mac OS X is that it generally eschews the dozens of small icons in a toolbar that you can't really make out that well and thus never really use. Applications like Pages, Keynote, Mail and so on have a few buttons that bring up or hide inspectors or sidebars. A good design guide means that you'll always know how to do the common tasks (save, open, print) and you don't need a small icon that is hard to hit (Fitt's Law) present.

However it will take you a while to get used to this alternative way of working. Once you are there though, you will know you are more productive and find computing much less of a drag. What is unfortunate is that this goes for migrating from Linux or FreeBSD as well as migrating from Windows.

Also there are issues such as Logitech's APPALLING lack of support for Mac OS X for their webcam range. Canon's DIRE support for their scanners (hurrah for ScanVue). Samsung's AWFUL support for their printers (can't use my 1 year old ML-2250 under Mac OS X, but you can under Windows and Linux, sheesh). Now that the Mac seems to be having a small revival, maybe some companies will spend a little time on supporting it. When you run into something like this, it can be very demoralising, and appear as a negative against the OS.

But is there anything I *must* use Windows for? I can't think of anything in my line of work that couldn't be done in Mac OS X. However I think that there are big gaps in the software range for Linux, such as good finance/accounting/tax applications. Specialist software is another area where Windows can have a stranglehold, and if you use some of that, then you'll have issues.

Re:Microsoft in schools

[inphorm]

Actually this is a perfectly normal practice within business. Do you see Coke and Pepsi together in any chain fast food store?? No. McDonalds and Burger King (Hungry Jacks here in Australia) both sell Coke, KFC sells Pepsi.

Not that I'm defending Microsofts Business practices, although I'd have to say that we could all learn something from Bill Gates, the guy is obviously successful in what he does.

- paul

Re:Microsoft in schools

[Anonymous Coward]

Apples and oranges. Coke and Pepsi sell their product to these companies, and in many instances, actually own them as part of their diversified portfolio. At one time Pepsi-cola owned KFC. Don't know if they still do or not.

Microsoft gives schools the software, takes a tax break for it, and then locks the schools down to using only their software, which benefits them financially in the long run.

And after the school has removed all Linux and gotten rid of the techs that used it, MS may NOT give them more software the next time they need it. In fact, they may force them to buy it.

This has happened. MS made a school remove GIMP, then refused grant to cover purchasing Photoshop.

Of course, I'm not saying this isn't brilliant. MS gives the school a disc which costs 27 cents and "bills" the US Gov for list price (through IRS), and creates a whole new generation of MS button monkeys.

I just think it's laughable to call it "charity."

Troll

[the_womble]

Either you are trolling, or you have tried soemthing like Red Hat 6 and nothing since. Every single problem and "hurdle" you come up with are things that have been dealt dealt with long ago.

Re:You're stupid

[tarunthegreat2]

Just because the average consumer doesn't want to go through the trouble of informing him/herself about which operating system is better doesn't mean s/he doesn't have a choice. The choice at least of August 2005 is large. You can pic Windows, Mac, Linux or Unix and many others, that I as a lazy consumer am not aware of - whose fault is that? Microsoft's? In a non-internet world, you'd be partly correct, because Microsoft's marketing dollars would yell the loudest. But we have the Net see, the "Great Equalizer". You want a good operating system. Look it up. If people are too lazy to research, they deserve the monopoly they end up with. The same applies to political candidates.

Re:I did it too...

[pe1chl]

When I started with Linux, Windows did not even exist as an operating system (there was a GUI running on top of DOS that was called Windows as well).
Before Linux, I used Unix. I was very pleased that I finally could run a decent OS on my home system. Before that, the alternative was MS-DOS.

When Windows appeared as an OS (first Windows 95, later NT) I found myself in the same situation as you are now. With Linux, I could do anything, to use Windows beyond "install it and click on some things" I needed to read a lot. And there was not even sourcecode to read, only "user manuals" that often spent more than 60% of content on basic principles like how to insert a floppy disk.

So indeed, it is not really a difference between Linux and Windows, just a difference between what you know and what is new.