I've been trying yet again for the 4th time in 5 years to give Linux a go to see if it has matured enough for it to go mainstream desktop, and though I can say that it has improved tremendously over the years, it is sadly still not ready for primetime ordinary folks desktop. It is most certainly good enough for the fanboys and geeks here, but coming also from a geek but not really a fanboy, it is just not ready yet. Let me qualify:
Stability(!): Yes, I know there's a big gasp amongst some of you, but my trial installation of OpenSuse 10.2 on my Gigabyte 965P-DS3, C2D E6600, nVidia 8600GT was actually not stable. Although things run solid on XP, I kept getting hangups after just a few minutes of use. So in my book, (due probably to drivers as usual)... this is a stability issue.
Drivers: What more can I say - try getting your peripherals, cards etc. to work without being a hacker.
Control Panel: In Mac or XP, everything is easy and self-explanatory. Try navigating (if you're not a geek) through the 'control panel' in Gnome or KDE (KDE is better but still...). "Should I use YAST or should I go to 'Internet'?!" "How the hell do you connect do a PPPoE?"... these things should be idiot proof - but in Linux - they still are not. You just still have to drop down to a terminal to do many things, despite the nice glossy UI these days.
Fonts!: Sorry dudes, fonts in Linux just look horrible when compared to Windows or the Mac. And this is one of the biggest reasons that keep would keep me away from using Linux Desktop. Linux is fine for backend stuff and does a great job at it - but on the frontend, despite the nice eye-candy in current Gnome and KDE - the font engine still sucks! As I type this in Windows, everything appears smooth due to ClearType. On Linux sometimes I get non-aliased fonts and most times, the fonts just appear bad.
Names: Yes, it is a great tradition in the hacker culture to come up with cool sounding names for apps - but that's not something that will draw ordinary folks to use Linux. I mean, how would any ordinary folk guess what 'YaST2' is at the menu? Getting the ordinary folk not intimidated by all these weird names was and still is the whole point of Apple. Windows followed and though may not have the style of Apple, it sure is a helluva more usable than Linux.
OK - some may argue that I didn't set things up properly or I am not competent enough to set things up the right way - but that's the point! I shouldn't need to be more competent than being able to press a few mouse-clicks to be able to get what should be a minimum base in a modern computing environment:
* Beautiful fonts rendered as if it was printed.
* All programs appear in a menu (and not hidden deep inside some mysterious command).
* Cohesive presentation of applications (Look at YaST appearing all over the place in KDE).
* Plug and Play (no this is not the 90's but Linux implementation of this is not usable - I buy any peripheral and I still have fear on if there's a driver for it.
I guess what you pay for..., and for what its worth - for something that's free, Linux is pretty usable and a good bang for your buck. But if you ask if I'll pay US$300+ for something that's a lot more cohesive, has a lot more apps (and not free rip-offs), 'stable' and most importantly user-friendly... yes I would.
Now if only ol' Steve will finally let OS-X run on any x86 hardware...//
I tried installing openSUSE Linux 10.2 just to try out how long can I live in a Windowless world. My plan was to install openSUSE into the spare 120GB HDD. After I popped in the installation DVD, it did its thing to perform the 1st phase of copying the files to the HDD. However, upon the 1st reboot, GRUB refused to load and just hang. I though maybe its because of my other 2 HDD causing GRUB to be confused - so I physically removed the cables to the two 320GB HDD. This time, after the 1st reboot, openSuse installation tried to connect to the ADSL internet to get updates... somehow in the middle, the connection hung, but there's no one of me to get out of the installation except for a hard reset.
In all... the experience took more than 6 hours of my time (over 2 days). So what you said above is just a fanboy dream. I didn't have this problem with XP before. So now I am back to XP. Maybe another day I'll try going to Linux again.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not an M$ fanboy -- just being practical here. I doubt even if I got past the initial install, there'll still be more frustrating surprises with drivers, how to set simple things like printers etc.... as is my experience with previous Linus distros -- ubuntu, red hat (2 years ago).
Interestingly, I also tried Vista for a while, thinking it was backward compatible. No! No! No! It is not!:
1. Drag & drop from explorer to some XP apps like Irfanview, Crimson Editor etc. doesn't work. 2. Photoshop CS3 crashed. 3. Skype - video not working (1 way video only) 4. Acronis disk director 9 - BSOD the whole PC! 5. Explorer favorites - gone... don't like the new way. 6. Cygwin sshd - have to drop down to admin to install. (I don't like those constant UAC pop-ups!)
Just about the only thing that seems to work is MS Office 2007!
I expected some glitches with drivers but the above were way too serious for me to move from XP. I like the nice eye-candy of Vista, but these functionality issues are just too serious to live with. So I'll stick to XP for now...and probably a few more years to come.
Who knows by then, Linux distros might actually mature enough to give a more hassle free experience for moderate PC users. I'm considered a PC expert already, but I just can't imagine your average Joe trying to install and live through Linux currently.
For now, it looks like you'll have to stick with stealing plutonium from terrorists.
Actually this is 2006, terrorists don't stock plutonium anymore. They've ran out of that and use conventional TNT to make surgical strikes at their targets using humans as guidance systems, powered by religious cries.
You can get them in the open, however, I heard is some supermart in Kazakstan or something...
Exactly rightly said. I am in China now, and has been visiting almost every other year since '99. I've many colleagues and friends who were Chinese and now living in other countries.
Most outside commentators just don't understand how much has changed here. You cannot comprehend how is it to move forward with a population of 1.3Bn with a 3000+ years of unbroken history that is more varied than the entire Europe put together.
It definitely isn't the same as some small Eastern European state where a march down the square will change and solve everything.
People here are optimistic. 5 years ago, there's hardly any private cars. Nowadays there are traffic jams. 5 years ago, people pay for their goods with stack full of cash. These days, they swipe. 15 years ago, you walk into a shop, "Take it or leave it", these days, "Welcome, have a look at our..."
As for freedom, have you watched the stuff that's shown on TV here these days? There are plenty of current affairs, COPs type of shows. There are 'sex health' shops in every city. OK, so you can't shit on everyone like in Hyde Park. But is being able to that a measure of the quality of life?
Although saying that, it is really stupid and frustrating that I cannot look up some info in Wikipedia, although everyone knows the proxies to circumvent that!
I just went to the 2nd shop here in China, and they are already selling US$100 PIII computers with 256MB RAM, 40GB HDD thrown in. Add another US$20 for the analog CRT monitor.
I believe these are end-of-lease-life PCs from more developed countries like US, and Japan etc. They are brandname machines from Dell, Fujitsu etc.
It is as good as it gets since it is afterall a computer that works and you can run your linux decently on these. So why waste time with trying to build a US$100 PC that is probably proprietary and incompatible with the rest of the computing world?
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I've been trying yet again for the 4th time in 5 years to give Linux a go to see if it has matured enough for it to go mainstream desktop, and though I can say that it has improved tremendously over the years, it is sadly still not ready for primetime ordinary folks desktop. It is most certainly good enough for the fanboys and geeks here, but coming also from a geek but not really a fanboy, it is just not ready yet. Let me qualify:
... this is a stability issue.
... these things should be idiot proof - but in Linux - they still are not. You just still have to drop down to a terminal to do many things, despite the nice glossy UI these days.
..., and for what its worth - for something that's free, Linux is pretty usable and a good bang for your buck. But if you ask if I'll pay US$300+ for something that's a lot more cohesive, has a lot more apps (and not free rip-offs), 'stable' and most importantly user-friendly ... yes I would.
... //
Stability(!): Yes, I know there's a big gasp amongst some of you, but my trial installation of OpenSuse 10.2 on my Gigabyte 965P-DS3, C2D E6600, nVidia 8600GT was actually not stable. Although things run solid on XP, I kept getting hangups after just a few minutes of use. So in my book, (due probably to drivers as usual)
Drivers: What more can I say - try getting your peripherals, cards etc. to work without being a hacker.
Control Panel: In Mac or XP, everything is easy and self-explanatory. Try navigating (if you're not a geek) through the 'control panel' in Gnome or KDE (KDE is better but still...). "Should I use YAST or should I go to 'Internet'?!" "How the hell do you connect do a PPPoE?"
Fonts!: Sorry dudes, fonts in Linux just look horrible when compared to Windows or the Mac. And this is one of the biggest reasons that keep would keep me away from using Linux Desktop. Linux is fine for backend stuff and does a great job at it - but on the frontend, despite the nice eye-candy in current Gnome and KDE - the font engine still sucks! As I type this in Windows, everything appears smooth due to ClearType. On Linux sometimes I get non-aliased fonts and most times, the fonts just appear bad.
Names: Yes, it is a great tradition in the hacker culture to come up with cool sounding names for apps - but that's not something that will draw ordinary folks to use Linux. I mean, how would any ordinary folk guess what 'YaST2' is at the menu? Getting the ordinary folk not intimidated by all these weird names was and still is the whole point of Apple. Windows followed and though may not have the style of Apple, it sure is a helluva more usable than Linux.
OK - some may argue that I didn't set things up properly or I am not competent enough to set things up the right way - but that's the point! I shouldn't need to be more competent than being able to press a few mouse-clicks to be able to get what should be a minimum base in a modern computing environment:
* Beautiful fonts rendered as if it was printed.
* All programs appear in a menu (and not hidden deep inside some mysterious command).
* Cohesive presentation of applications (Look at YaST appearing all over the place in KDE).
* Plug and Play (no this is not the 90's but Linux implementation of this is not usable - I buy any peripheral and I still have fear on if there's a driver for it.
I guess what you pay for
Now if only ol' Steve will finally let OS-X run on any x86 hardware
Well that's really not true. I know there are lot of Linux and (gasp!) Mac fanboys out here, but here's my experience anyway:
... somehow in the middle, the connection hung, but there's no one of me to get out of the installation except for a hard reset.
... the experience took more than 6 hours of my time (over 2 days). So what you said above is just a fanboy dream. I didn't have this problem with XP before. So now I am back to XP. Maybe another day I'll try going to Linux again.
... as is my experience with previous Linus distros -- ubuntu, red hat (2 years ago).
... don't like the new way.
...and probably a few more years to come.
My HW: GigaByte GA-965P-DS3, C2D E6600, 2GB RAM, 2x320GB HDD + 1 120GB HDD (all SATA)
I tried installing openSUSE Linux 10.2 just to try out how long can I live in a Windowless world. My plan was to install openSUSE into the spare 120GB HDD. After I popped in the installation DVD, it did its thing to perform the 1st phase of copying the files to the HDD. However, upon the 1st reboot, GRUB refused to load and just hang. I though maybe its because of my other 2 HDD causing GRUB to be confused - so I physically removed the cables to the two 320GB HDD. This time, after the 1st reboot, openSuse installation tried to connect to the ADSL internet to get updates
In all
Don't get me wrong, I'm not an M$ fanboy -- just being practical here. I doubt even if I got past the initial install, there'll still be more frustrating surprises with drivers, how to set simple things like printers etc.
Interestingly, I also tried Vista for a while, thinking it was backward compatible. No! No! No! It is not!:
1. Drag & drop from explorer to some XP apps like Irfanview, Crimson Editor etc. doesn't work.
2. Photoshop CS3 crashed.
3. Skype - video not working (1 way video only)
4. Acronis disk director 9 - BSOD the whole PC!
5. Explorer favorites - gone
6. Cygwin sshd - have to drop down to admin to install. (I don't like those constant UAC pop-ups!)
Just about the only thing that seems to work is MS Office 2007!
I expected some glitches with drivers but the above were way too serious for me to move from XP. I like the nice eye-candy of Vista, but these functionality issues are just too serious to live with. So I'll stick to XP for now
Who knows by then, Linux distros might actually mature enough to give a more hassle free experience for moderate PC users. I'm considered a PC expert already, but I just can't imagine your average Joe trying to install and live through Linux currently.
That's Danish - 'ø' only exists in Danish. The equivalent in Swedish is 'ö' ... there's also no 'ë'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_alphabet
For now, it looks like you'll have to stick with stealing plutonium from terrorists.
Actually this is 2006, terrorists don't stock plutonium anymore. They've ran out of that and use conventional TNT to make surgical strikes at their targets using humans as guidance systems, powered by religious cries.
You can get them in the open, however, I heard is some supermart in Kazakstan or something...
Exactly rightly said. I am in China now, and has been visiting almost every other year since '99. I've many colleagues and friends who were Chinese and now living in other countries.
..."
Most outside commentators just don't understand how much has changed here. You cannot comprehend how is it to move forward with a population of 1.3Bn with a 3000+ years of unbroken history that is more varied than the entire Europe put together.
It definitely isn't the same as some small Eastern European state where a march down the square will change and solve everything.
People here are optimistic. 5 years ago, there's hardly any private cars. Nowadays there are traffic jams. 5 years ago, people pay for their goods with stack full of cash. These days, they swipe. 15 years ago, you walk into a shop, "Take it or leave it", these days, "Welcome, have a look at our
As for freedom, have you watched the stuff that's shown on TV here these days? There are plenty of current affairs, COPs type of shows. There are 'sex health' shops in every city. OK, so you can't shit on everyone like in Hyde Park. But is being able to that a measure of the quality of life?
Although saying that, it is really stupid and frustrating that I cannot look up some info in Wikipedia, although everyone knows the proxies to circumvent that!
I just went to the 2nd shop here in China, and they are already selling US$100 PIII computers with 256MB RAM, 40GB HDD thrown in. Add another US$20 for the analog CRT monitor.
I believe these are end-of-lease-life PCs from more developed countries like US, and Japan etc. They are brandname machines from Dell, Fujitsu etc.
It is as good as it gets since it is afterall a computer that works and you can run your linux decently on these. So why waste time with trying to build a US$100 PC that is probably proprietary and incompatible with the rest of the computing world?