Win 8 offers no benefits to the home user. In testing it is a statistical tie as far as speed and the only real advantage is a faster boot on an SSD. I have used it and I do not like it but there again I do not like GUIs in general. I have a windows tablet (new) and I will not put 8 on it. Win 7 is fine.
Yeah. Linux is linux no matter the distro. The kernel is what counts. My sites are hosted on linux servers.
anyone that owns a tivo.. that is a computer using the Linux OS... many use Linux and do not even know it... .
Man take it further! Linux is Unix based as in the Apple software and by that assertion so is android.
Correct. My web server only has 10 web sites. I chose windows and Plesk for simplicity's sake. I only have to deal with my own sites, databases and mail. But Linux will still never get anywhere with so many versions. The group needs to bite the bullet and settle on a single one. Then things might happen.
This belief is born of, I believe, a fundamental misunderstanding of what "linux" is and what the various distributions of "linux" are. Linux is a kernel. Windows has a kernel too. It is NT. It wasn't always, but since around windows 2000 they switched over to their NT kernel. For instance, Windows 8 is NT 6.2 I believe. Sparing you the boredom of explaining the differences between microkernels, monolithic kernels, exo, nano, or hybrid kernels... suffice it to say, that this is the core instruction set which operates between the hardware abstraction layer and the software running on your machine. The kernel is the kernel is the kernel in linux. All that changes is the version... like windows... only we do it more often. *edit- Well... to begin with... another core difference is that the linux kernel is recompiled all the time. The kernel grows to apply instructions based on certain packages... you can compile your own kernel, however you need it, including or excluding modules(drivers)... Most users don't go around compiling their own kernels... but most people do not have the same kernel as they installed either... they have the same VERSION, the same BASE kernel... but it is augmented to preserve modules through upgrades etc... Now the operating systems built around the kernel are also called linux. Each distribution is still running the same linux at its core... the primary differences are the package management system (the way software/drivers are installed) and the desktop environments. I can sit down at any terminal, on any linux flavor, and do what I want to do... I am a linux developer. I have to write code that is portable or runs directly on ANY flavor. Let's look at the most popular distribution of linux to explain desktop environments (DEs) a bit. Ubuntu. Currently Ubuntu comes with their new Unity desktop (I am not a fan). It looks like a tablet interface to me. It is using compiz natively and has all sorts of issues I do not like. Video driver/xorg developers are in an odd little place of flux that happens every once in a while. We improve the core X window handling ability, and suddenly nVidia and AMD/ATI drivers need to change, and those titans are hard to wake up. Anyway... so I load up unity... I hate it. Now... I use terminal cause it is just faster and closer to universal (there are differences between shells I will not get into, they are not major) so hating this I type... sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop. What this command does is run as root (sudo) using apt (a utility for the debian packaging management system) installs the KDE environment. I log out and log into KDE... and now I have a very different INTERFACE... the backend is still all the same. This looks more familiar. We have a little K button (which microsoft actually credits their start button coming from) which opens our applications... we have a taskbar... we have windows that open in a linear fashion after following the linear menu. Most windows people end up liking this desktop best. But lets say I am on a really old laptop... and I just don't find this zippy enough an interface, and want something a little more basic. Windows 8 wont even run on this laptop... and kde works fine... but I want it zippy. I type sudo apt-get install xfce-desktop This is what I see on logging out and in. Now... I haven't done much. Typed a couple of commands... but now I have 3 different desktop environments, which work completely differently with the user, based on the users preference... I can use whichever I like. The backend... the plumbing... the programs... they are ALL THE SAME. The packages are all pulled from the same repo. All packages work the same. Then there is mint, xbmc, backtrack5 etc etc... and these are all different implementations under the Ubuntu flag, only. The diversity of "linux" things, is not its weakness. It is it's strength. I can port linux to a phone, to a tablet, to a raspberry pi, to a pc, to a mac, to... WHATEVER I WANT... and I can interact with it HOWEVER I LIKE. It is so difficult to explain this over the internet to a windows person... who is just waiting to be told how things are structured... and that you can "customize" it by adding a "theme". In linux, you can interact with the hardware via hundreds of derivatives... it is about what YOU like... and it is as simple as installing the environment package from the repository... or even writing your own... if you are that kind of tinkerer. You don't HAVE to use the command line to do these installs btw... I just do because I am a linux nerd, and do almost everything in terminal. You can open, in *buntu, your software center... and download ANYTHING you want from the repositories for free. Everything is free... and it does not get viruses... the only question I have is... why do I have to explain this? Why haven't you tried actually exploring the power of linux? It's state of liberty, and cost, are both free. We have pretty user environments now... you are just so jailed by this concept of "Microsoft... tell me what to do" you are unwilling to free yourselves. I find it all very frustrating. So we will continue to convert you with daily use devices until you have your last stand with Windows. http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/ We will take your poor huddled masses, and imbalance uptime, so that they have it... and you don't. It will take time.
Ubuntu 10.04 was the best. I agree Unity3D kinda blows. But at least they made it optional at the start up. You can turn it off and go back to the 10.04 interface.
For the most part... gnome classic isn't the same interface. Gnome3 is... I am not fond of it. There IS however (yet another) flavor of Ubuntu 12.10 with the gnome 2 interface. Ubuntu Gnome Remix. I am fond. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGNOME/ReleaseNotes/12.10
Sorry you went through so much effort on my account. Perhaps it is fair to tell you that I am a Linux user and, for the most part I like Linux. But the problem is all those distros. I can't go and get a piece of software for my distro unless it is implemented for my distro. A Suse or Red Hat user can't install an Ubuntu application without some extra knowledge and effort that most people don't have or employ. Authors of Linux software have to develop several versions of the software. I'll stop saying this because you don't want to hear it. But the problem with Linux is all those versions. Great for hobbyists. Not the thing for a business. If the Linux community can settle on a single distro, then it can grow. Fred
Oh no... I might have to download the source... Oh no... I have to read the file from source labeled README Oh no I have to get the required libraries for my distro... that the README tells me I need. Oh no I have to type ./configure Oh no I have to type make Oh holy (*)(*)(*)(*) I have to type make install ffs.
Saving money IS business. Saving productivity lost due to malicious software IS business. The fact that it is infinitely configurable is not a bug, no matter how hard you try to make it so. Out of the BOX it would save industries all over the country BILLIONS in licensing... BILLIONS in hardening... It is a no brainer really. There is a reason every LARGE business is running on some *nix derivative. I get it I get it... free is good enough for fortune 100 companies... you should (*)(*)(*)(*)ing pay for an OS because you are too stupid to have choices. I do not mean to offend you by disagreeing... but you are NOT too stupid to have choices.
You misunderstand me. I'm not against Linux. I use it myself. I was just explaining why it hasn't given Microsoft any meaningful competition. Every large business is running unix? I don't know where you got that. I spent most of the last 20 years selling computers to large and medium businesses. I haven't seen Unix running anywhere except on Apple computers since they dumped the DEC mini computers back in the 1990's. I've seen a few Linux machines in the IT departments but not implemented company wide.
You misunderstand me. I'm not against Linux. I use it myself. I was just explaining why it hasn't given Microsoft any meaningful competition. Every large business is running unix? I don't know where you got that. I spent most of the last 20 years selling computers to large and medium businesses. I haven't seen Unix running anywhere except on Apple computers since they dumped the DEC mini computers back in the 1990's. I've seen a few Linux machines in the IT departments but not implemented company wide.
I hope you are doing something you are better at now. 36.10% of the server market is running Microsoft... the rest are all *nixy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Servers 95% of Fortune 1000 companies use IBM's Information Management System.
Maybe too late to help you - as you've prolly bought by now. But my son (who should know) says 7 is the best OS ever and 8 sux.
Eh, black Friday wasn't what I thought it would be so I actually haven't bought mine yet. I am waiting till after Christmas and I'm going to go ahead with windows 7.. Thank you everyone, I appreciate all of your input.
Though it's obvious you're being sarcastic it's absolutely true that those things are way too difficult to expect the average computer user to be able to do.
Downloading a package and reading the step by step instructions for what is not already in your repository isn't something the average computer user needs to do. You simply have the freedom to. You can complile your own source code. You can compile your own kernel. We need to raise the bar on "average" if we hope to compete in the world. Break a trend. Type 3 commands. Will give you a sense of empowerment. (that is not directed at TTOB)
Exactly! I don't like linux because of the lack of supported software but I love the purity of the OS. Linux GUI is like Win 3 and older, Geoworks or Dosshell. Go CLI all day if you like. Hell I even put linux (Yellow Dog) on my PS3 to see of I could get more PPD! Sadly Linux is only good for the office as newer hardware and software support is limited. Still I am about to put 4 systems with linux in a private school.
People do more complicated things than that to access porn. Windows has the luxury of all of the manufacturers killing themselves to engineer closed source drivers for windows. Sometimes they throw us scraps... outside of Intel, most people do not give us drivers... we have to reverse engineer and write our own. Some of them are better... most of them are not. The open source GPU drivers specifically (again excluding Intel), have gotten pretty decent, but you can't do anything fun without the proprietary closed source drivers... Why are they closed btw? They don't sell drivers. Their competitors cannot use it... it is specific to patented hardware.They do things very differently. Why not open it up, and let the community at large even make improvements? Nah that's silly. MS wouldn't like that. You don't bite the hand that feeds you.
