Ubuntu - I haz it

[Marnoot]

Apart from Games, what does Linux fail at?

Linux doesn't necessarily "fail" at anything (other than gaming, but that's mostly due to the fact that no one makes games for linux (see above "too many flavors/versions for mainstream popularity" remark)), it's quite good at a lot of stuff. It's different than Windows, it's different from its special cousin MacOS. It does some things better, some things worse; some aspects of the user experience are better, others are worse.

If any of my posts have come across as "Linux is teh sux0r!", then I worded them poorly. Linux is great for lots of people, but so is Windows, and so is MacOS. I have my own preferences and stick with those.

You'll note though that when fistful asked his questions in this thread, no one responded with simply: "http://www.microsoft.com/windows/".

Edited to add:

One example of something I feel Linux does worse (again, mostly a result of the "too many versions" thing). If Joe Blow writes a program for linux that I'd like to try, but that is not something easily downloaded say through Ubuntu's little application updater/downloader, it is much, much more complicated than windows or mac.

Either it's straight source code or it's in a distribution package or binary that doesn't easily play well with my particular flavor of Linux; either way, I've either got to learn how to compile a program to binary in linux (a hill too steep for most users), or in the latter case spend time on forums figuring out how to get distribution package X to work on Linux flavor Y.

In Windows, I just download it and run/install it. This isn't a fault of the Linux OS itself, it's more due to the fact there is no "Linux." There's Ubuntu Linux, Gentoo Linux, SuSE Linux, etc.

[S. Williamson]

The 3D design bit.  Not that it's incapable, but the software I use (though not impossible to adapt) is, to date, still incompatible.  Games are what I use it for most of the time, too, so that nitpick's got a little more weight behind it.

It's just that with XP, if something doesn't work, I can click a couple of times and it'll be fine.

With Linux, I have to search the internet finding out if anyone's had that problem (they haven't).  I have to register on a forum I'll use once, post my question, and wait a month for someone to reply, usually a nonsensical spam reply involving plankton.  After bumping the thread a couple more weeks, someone will post a reply with a bunch of code or a link to another forum that I can't follow until (get this) I register with the second forum, too.  Since it's not the exact same problem, I'll post a reply saying "what if instead of X, it's XY?" at which point I get a smattering of more code that is looks nothing like what was suggested earlier.

And that's if the Internet connection isn't the problem I'm trying to fix.

Forgot to add another one: 6) Music.  If my entire music library (thousands of songs) is in .mp3 or .wma or something like that, it's more than a little annoying to convert it all to Ogg V.

Long story short: After 18 years, Linux is still little more than a tinkerer's-only platform.

[mtnbkr]

Long story short: After 18 years, Linux is still little more than a tinkerer's-only platform.

On the server?  No, not at all.  We have several production boxes running Linux.  My personal server is running linux.  It's hardly a system for tinkering.

On the desktop?  Maybe.  I ran it as my only desktop (no dual boot for me) for a couple years long before friendly distros like Ubuntu came out.  Sure, there was plenty of tinkering to set it up, but once I got it configured like I wanted, I used it just like any other desktop. 

I mainly use Linux on the server side these days.  Windows does just fine on the desktop and I somehow manage to avoid all the problems that people swear happen to all Windows systems. 

Chris

[Regolith]

I mainly use Linux on the server side these days.  Windows does just fine on the desktop and I somehow manage to avoid all the problems that people swear happen to all Windows systems. 

Chris

That's pretty much the best way to do it, in my opinion.  Use unix/linux for your server and windows and/or mac for your desktop.  Let each do what they do best. 

[roo_ster]

Why in the world would you convert your mp3 or other music file formats to ogg?

I have no problem playing media on linux boxes using one of a number of very versatile players, mplayer & vlc being the most common.   Heck, I don't think I have ever played an ogg file on a linux box.


1) Internet
2) Games
3) 3D design
4) Word processing
5) 2D design

#2 is about the only one linux lacks suitable coverage.

As for a tinkerer's toy, that is rubbish.  All the heavy engineering number crunching at my company is done on linux boxes and has been trending that way for years.

Here is a little data I collected for an MBA project.  The transition time for my business unit was 2000-2002.  I then projected to 2004.  My 2004 projection turned out to be pessimistic for penguin-lovers, as the reality by then was "buh-bye" to all but one proprietary *ix box and no more growth in Windows OS boxes.

[Perd Hapley]

Now, now, let's think on the things which unite the two operating systems.  For example, they both look better if you set them to a green color scheme. 

Somehow, I influenced my XP on this computer to give me single-click-ism on the mouse.  I don't remember how I managed to do that.  It was easy enough with the Win 2000 machine, but the option seemed to be missing in XP.  Wish I could figure out how to do that with Ubuntu. 

[zahc]

Open up a window like your home folder, go to Edit --> Preferences --> Behavior --> then fill in "single click".

I didn't know you could enable this single-click behavior in windows. By the way, single-click-to-do-most-things is the default behavior in KDE.

[Perd Hapley]

Thanks, got it.  It did take me about five minutes of mucking about with the home folder in gedit, before I finally opened it from Places, then I was on the right track.   

[Iain]

Have you got all this sorted fisty?

I'm the first to admit that it can be a nightmare. I had to use a knoppix livecd to get usb2.0 speeds to transfer media to an external hard drive. I have no idea how long usb 2.0 support on this computer has been broken. Apparently the next kernel update will fix it.

[Perd Hapley]

It ain't sorted yet.  Right now, Ubuntu works better for web browsing.  For some reason, Firefox is unusually slow on this machine, when I run it in XP. 

I just paid hard cash for Word 2007, and I actually like it quite a bit, so I'm using XP for that sort of thing.  I ditched the ribbon, and spent about an hour finding the dozen or so buttons I actually need, and put them in the tool bar at the top.  Liking ditching the Save button, and installing a Save As button, instead.  Once I found the option for text boundaries, it was all good.  I find it very helpful to know where the margins are. 

So, yeah, it looks and works a little more like Open Office now.