

Bye Bye Linux (Ubuntu), Hi Again Windows - amrith
http://hypecycles.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/bye-bye-linux/

======
DanielStraight
Good stuff, but there is something a lot of people don't consider (and the
author didn't here either). Most "benchmarks" people use to judge Linux are
based on experience with Windows, yet almost no one ever judges Windows based
on Linux. Linux makes much more of an effort to meet Windows benchmarks than
vice versa.

Linux is (mostly) secure by design. How does Windows stack up?

Linux has a powerful command line interface which can do almost anything that
can physically be done on a Linux system.

Linux comes equipped with programming support (I think a C compiler should be
considered a standard part of ANY system).

Linux (generally) has resizable dialog boxes. The Windows environment
variables dialog box is downright evil.

Linux allows for a great deal more system and desktop customization.

If you get used to running Linux, you can pretty much dual-boot or straight up
change your OS on a whim (especially given the available of Gnome and KDE).
Also, you have something to change to. If you decide you get sick of Windows,
it's a much bigger deal to change OS. Windows to Linux is nothing like Ubuntu
to Arch.

Installing and running a development/test web server on a Linux machine is
almost trivial.

I would say in general where Linux excels, it excels far more than Windows
does where Windows excels. Windows may be a little better in some areas, but
where Linux is better, it's so many lightyears ahead that Windows isn't even
in view anymore (think virus protection for example).

~~~
Nosferax
The command line really is hard to make up for, without a lot of hassle, that
is. When I'm running windows it's the thing I miss the most.

Other than that, it sucks that Firefox is not nearly as polished under Linux
as it is under Windows. Same goes for adobe's flash player.

~~~
SamAtt
Have you tried Powershell? I haven't found much I can't do with it (though I
admittedly have limited Linux experience)

~~~
Daishiman
Powershell's single, deal-breaking problem is that there is no integration
with the rich Unix CLI environment, which means that it can hardly be used as
the superglue that bash and zsh can be used for. Which means that it's
basically a shell language on steroids, for which I'd much rather recommend
and interactive Ruby or Python shell. Powershell's problem is that it exists
in an ecosystem that does not acknowledge the CLI, and it will not be useful
until that situation is reversed. Since, to this day, mos windows apps don't
have backends for CLI interaction, I doubt thethings will change for several
years.

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ggchappell
This is a nice article. He makes some good points. I'm generally leaning
Linux-ward these days, but I really appreciate what he says about laptops.

A few notes:

\- On the initial installation, CD + 20 minutes for Linux, CD + 2 hrs for
Windows, sounds about right to me. But another point to make is that on
Ubuntu, another 20 minutes, maybe an hour at most, gets me a fully loaded
system, while on Windows I'm swapping CDs for days. Of course, I don't have to
do that Cisco VPN stuff he complains about.

\- An issue that he doesn't touch on at all is the general "scriptability" of
the system. I've found that under Linux, it is usually much easier to write a
little script to automate some task, than it is under Windows. Of course, this
matters not at all to some people.

\- Laptops, external displays, etc.: Definitely. If I were running the Ubuntu
project, I'd put everything else on essential-maintenance-only status, and
_get_ _it_ _working_ _right_ _on_ _a_ _laptop_ as soon as possible.

------
dryicerx
Unfortunately one of your problems is reliance on Microsoft Products and
specific hardware even when you were switched to Linux, such as Office/Outlook
and products such as the Dell Docking Station and Multi Function Printers who
doesn't support any *nix, and Cisco VPN (look in to vpnc). That's like
comparing using Windows and trying to get KOffice and Cygwin working on
Windows and benchmarking so.

You pick a platform, and start using the tools associated natively with it.

Linux isn't a good suite for everyone, and definitely not in this case.

~~~
branden
Yeah, the VPN paragraph had me laughing. Surely one of those 14 blogs
should've mentioned "sudo apt-get install network-manager-vpnc". VPN is a
breeze on Ubuntu.

~~~
amrith
Yes, I saw that but it doesn’t work too well if you can’t use Network Manager
to begin with.

See bug 55434 that I reported in december about this.

<https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/55434>

I had to switch to WiCD which did allow me to do WiFi at work.

Now, it may be possible that I could use network-manager-vpnc with WiCD but I
couldn’t find a way to do that.

~~~
branden
Ok, that's legitimate. But it sounds like your complaint is really with
network manager, not Ubuntu's VPN support. And hey, at least you have a place
to report bugs :)

~~~
amrith
There, my friend, you have a point!

Yes, my grouse is with Network Manager but that is really a distinction
without a difference. I have a problem with Ubuntu by extension.

------
Tichy
Actually the external screen stuff worked quite well since one or two releases
ago. At least for me. They added nice controls for it.

Printer - oh well, just have to buy the right one, I guess.

Docking station: very exotic use case.

~~~
tvon
> Docking station: very exotic use case.

It's only exotic to Linux users.

~~~
Tichy
With modern notebooks I have never seen the benefit. What does the docking
station add?

~~~
bmelton
Really?

The way my desk area is set up is I guess a vastly different use case from
yours. My laptop is primarily mobile -- I take it to work, work from coffee
shops, the couch, etc., but when I want to do something that I need need more
of a desktop setting for (I can't do image editing on the couch, or without a
mouse, or without a large screen usually) I just plug the laptop into the
docking station.

The docking station is connected to an external hard drive for backups,
speakers for sound, external monitor, keyboard, mouse, power cable, Line 6 Pod
XT guitar pedal and mixing board.

It allows me the flexibility of having a convenient desktop setup while still
maintaining the portability I bought a laptop for. I'm surprised more people
don't use it, as it seems like the edge case here instead of the norm.

~~~
Tichy
Most of those problems went away with the arrival of USB hubs. Granted, I
still plug more cables than you do (monitor, sometimes audio). But I think for
audio a USB solution could be found, too, then I would be down to three cables
(monitor, usb hub, power). Sure, docking station is a bit faster, but it is
also much uglier (most of the time). I guess it depends on how often you move
around with your notebook.

I always work with an external monitor at home, but I use my notebook's
keyboard. Atm I also only bother to plug in audio when I need it - I admit
audio is a sore point, but when I have time, I'll try to find some wireless
solution.

~~~
bmelton
I suppose that's true, but then I'd still have to plug in a USB cable even. I
guess I just really like the idea of not having to plug in ANYTHING.

If I'm away from the docking station, I mumble curse words when I have to plug
in so much as an ethernet cable.

------
old-gregg
He is complaining about docking a Dell. Can anyone here confirm that latest
Ubuntu works with latest Dell Latitudes and their docking stations?

I just placed an order on one of them and I'm getting nervous. Google searches
didn't reveal any potential problems.

My specs:

Latitude E6400,

NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M,

Intel® WiFi Link 5300 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card,

E-Port, dock for charging, digital video, and USB / eSATA port support

------
ajross
Complaints are:

1\. Hard to set up printing to complicated printers.

2\. Laptop docking station doesn't work.

Yeah, hardware compatibility is indeed a perenial problem with linux distros.
The reason is that it's not something the OS vendor can solve. The truth is
that Microsoft doesn't make this stuff work, HP and Dell do. They're the ones
who get the support calls when stuff fails, so they're the ones with an
incentive to make the integration work right. The linux world has no
equivalent player (in the consumer space -- there certainly is on servers,
where vendors care deeply about linux support).

3\. Distros don't update Firefox when new releases come out.

I think this is fair. There are arguments to be made either way, but it's true
that a windows user has a much easier time upgrading to new versions of
popular software at release time than linux folks do, where you generally need
to wait 0-6 months for the new Ubuntu. I think some kind of answer for the
user who wants to download someting new Right Now would be a good thing.

4\. External monitor support sucks in X.org.

Absolutely true, but it's improving rapidly.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
3 I don't get. Ubuntu has both Firefox 3.0 and 3.5 available to choose in a
simple list of software. His problem seems to be that he doesn't like the
Firefox codename which is hardly the end of the world.

~~~
amrith
Not really. When I wrote this post, 3.5 was not an available UPGRADE for 3.0.
You end up with both 3.0 and 3.5 on your system, and still do.

I have no issue with the name.

The issue with many Linux bigots is that they think the rest of the world is
somehow stupid and not as smart as they are, as evidenced by some of the other
comments on this trail. They seem to believe that the things that the rest of
the world wants (which they see as unimportant) are in fact worthless (like
the comment about docking stations).

------
windsurfer
Just a note for the upcoming October release of Ubuntu: I've been trying the
alphas, and in version 2 all my external display woes have gone away. It's as
easy as setting up external displays in windows.

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mcantor
I'm a little depressed that external monitor support is still so poor. The
last time I tried it was 2 years ago back in college, and it took me weeks of
Googling, reconfiguring and reinstalling to get it to just barely work. Seems
like it has barely moved since then... what a shame for something so obvious
and vital to many laptop users! Reminds me of the xkcd comic.
(<http://xkcd.com/619>)

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wglb
Could do without the attitude, but would be interested to see the author of
the blog try a mac for a bit and compare.

~~~
windsurfer
Yeah good luck with the docking station and installing on his computer.

~~~
irinotecan
MacBooks have docking stations?

~~~
windsurfer
I guess that's a show-stopping problem for this guy, eh?

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doki_pen
With the default xorg.conf, usually you just plug in your second monitor and
type 'startx -- :1' for your presentations... it is annoything that if I'm
working on the train (one screen) and I get to work, I have to start a new X
session. I think xrandr solves this issue but it's not ready for me yet.

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zokier
Its a sad thing that while most of linux kernel code is drivers, its hardware
support is still flaky in many places :(

