The Linux Poll

[fatsheep]

I'm planning an introductory article to Ubuntu Linux for Windows users so I'd like to know what people think about Linux. What keeps them from using it, which distrobutions they've tried, what technical problems they've run into, why they never tried it, etc... Anything you can tell me about your experience with Linux would be quite useful . Here's a little questionaire, feel free to add in anything you think I need to know. Thanks for your time.

1. ) What operating system do you currently use? Why?
2. ) What other operating systems have you used? What did you like about them? What didn't you like?
3 ) Have you ever used a Linux distribution? If not, why? What would make switching to Linux (or another operating system) worth while?

The following questions assumed you have used a distrobution of Linux:

4 ) What distribution(s) have you used?
5 ) Did you install it yourself? If so, how difficult (or easy) was the installation process?
6 ) What did you like about them?
7 ) What didn't you like about them? Any technical problems? Lack of programs? Lack of documentation? ...

Assuming you do not currently use Linux and have tried Linux before...

8 ) What keeps you from using Linux as your primary operating system?

Again feel free to add anything. Any information is much appreciated.

[mac89]

Well, Ill just begin then:

1) Windows XP Home Edition SP2
2) Windows XP Professional (Pretty much the same as Home, only a few other nice additions) , Windows 2003 Server (Only really interesting if youre planning a network/website) , Linux Ubuntu (I dont like Linux to much, the interface isnt that great and you have to type a lot of commands to get things done) and MS-DOS (its old........)
3) Yes

4) Version 6.10
5) Yeah, it isnt hard only if youre attempting a multiboot things can go wrong
6) There really is nothing that interests me about it
7) Sometimes I get Grub errors and noticed that others had to reinstall because of them

8) Its dull and only usefull if you want full controll

[fatsheep]

Well, Ill just begin then:

1) Windows XP Home Edition SP2
2) Windows XP Professional (Pretty much the same as Home, only a few other nice additions) , Windows 2003 Server (Only really interesting if youre planning a network/website) , Linux Ubuntu (I dont like Linux to much, the interface isnt that great and you have to type a lot of commands to get things done) and MS-DOS (its old........)
3) Yes

4) Version 6.10
5) Yeah, it isnt hard only if youre attempting a multiboot things can go wrong
6) There really is nothing that interests me about it
7) Sometimes I get Grub errors and noticed that others had to reinstall because of them

8) Its dull and only usefull if you want full controll

Thanks for the responce. It sounds like your main problem with it was that programs were tedious to install. It also sounds like Ubuntu lacked programs that you liked to use on Windows. Care to fill in some specifics?

-sheep

[mac89]

It just doesnt add anything to what I could do with windows XP, programs like Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, 3ds max.

Also the interface is something they need to work on, Beryll is nice and all but it never really looks as slick as Windows XP or Vista

[fatsheep]

5) I installed it myself but partitioning my harddrive correctly was so difficult that I would have probably have payed someone to do it.

What partitioning software did you use? Partitioning can be confusing I know - I've been there. However, with the right tools it shouldn't be too hard. I'd recommend GPARTED to you as a reliable partition editor (in my experience anyway). Just burn yourself a LiveCD, boot up with it, and it should be relatively straightforward from there.

It just doesnt add anything to what I could do with windows XP, programs like Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, 3ds max.

Also the interface is something they need to work on, Beryll is nice and all but it never really looks as slick as Windows XP or Vista

Alright I get what you mean now - no added capabilities = no reason to switch software. However, to be fair, the combined cost of Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, 3dsmax, and Windows is a small fortune while Ubuntu and other open source software come completely free.

[Elrond]

A worthy poll indeed

1) XP Pro (because I had problems with fedora)
2) Older versions of windows, SUSE linux personal 9.1, Fedora 4
3) Yes

4) Mentioned in q2
5) I installed it myself but partitioning my harddrive correctly was so difficult that I would have probably have payed someone to do it.
6) Fedora 4 looks very nice, simple to use and uses less hardware than XP.
7) Lack of hardware compatibility

8) My DVD rewriter and wireless router + adapter wont work on Linux - if they did work then I would install linux (probably fedora 5) and I would use it for most things (gaming being the exception).

[Libertine]

1. ) Ubuntu. Its a fast stable OS that allows me to do what I need to do.
2. ) I have used Win XP SP2, Ubuntu 5.10, SUSE, Mandrake, RedHat and Mac OSX and Damn Small Linux
3 ) See above

The following questions assumed you have used a distrobution of Linux:

4 ) See above ^^
5 ) Yeah, it wasn't too hard - I had noobish distro's and adivce from my uncle
6 ) They all offered differant things and I found myself drifitng between them when needed
7 ) Lack of documentation isn't a proble - the Ubuntu website has everything you'll ever need to know.

[Shaun]

1. ) What operating system do you currently use? Why?

I use Windows XP Service pack 2. Why? Because I got a cracked copy of Professional for free.

2. ) What other operating systems have you used? What did you like about them? What didn't you like?

Windows 95, 98 and 2000. I didnt like that they crashed often, but liked the simple interface and ease of use.

3 ) Have you ever used a Linux distribution? If not, why? What would make switching to Linux (or another operating system) worth while?

No, because its Linux is currently not supported by enough applications. Vista and DX10 looks like its going to kill Linux.

8 ) What keeps you from using Linux as your primary operating system?

Lack of support for games and applications.

[Freddie]

1. ) What operating system do you currently use? Why?

I use Windows XP Professional SP2. It’ easy to use, the wizards make setting up networks very easy, it’s designed in a logical fashion. I’ve also found that XP crashes a lot less then its predecessors especially when playing games, if something does go wrong more often then not I can exit back to desktop rather then reboot the whole machine.

2. ) What other operating systems have you used? What did you like about them? What didn't you like?

I’ve used Workbench (Amiga), DOS, Win95 , 98, 98SE, ME and 2000. The only two on there that I liked were 98SE and 2000. Windows 98SE was like 95 but I found the user interface a lot more flexible such as being able drag and drop shortcuts onto the task bar. I liked 2000 because stability wise it was rock solid and never let me down. The worst one is Millennium addition, this was a god forsaken OS that should never have been allowed to leave the R&D lab. If you know OS’s you will know why I hate ME, don’t make go into it was so bad as it would require a new thread to state all the reasons why it was rubbish.

3 ) Have you ever used a Linux distribution? If not, why? What would make switching to Linux (or another operating system) worth while?

I have used Linux, I believe it was a version of Redhat Linux. I didn’t want to replace my version of XP so I created a dual boot system, when I installed Linux on the other partition some how Linux managed to override the dual boot screen (kicks in after the BIOS has loaded and when your OS is about to load) and booted straight in to Linux. I wanted to use it just to see what it was like and see what all the hype was about. I didn’t keep it for long and I don’t consider the time I spent with it worthwhile.

The following questions assumed you have used a distrobution of Linux:
4 ) What distribution(s) have you used?

Redhat

5 ) Did you install it yourself? If so, how difficult (or easy) was the installation process?

The one good think about Linux was how quick and how easy I found it to install. I must have installed Linux in half the time it takes to install XP.

6 ) What did you like about them?

See above.

7 ) What didn't you like about them? Any technical problems? Lack of programs? Lack of documentation? ...

I guess I’m very ridged to the way I navigate around XP, for example I found trying to install the NVIDIA drivers I downloaded a pain in the backside, sas everytime i double clicked on the .exe I couldn’t get the .exe to run. The lack of compatible software for it also meant it was always destined to be removed from my HD.

Assuming you do not currently use Linux and have tried Linux before...

N/A

8 ) What keeps you from using Linux as your primary operating system?
[/QUOTE]

See question 7. Also the version I used was a cut down free version I believe so it might not have been Redhat. I have to say the price of commercial Linux is not as cheap as I though it would be. Next time I might try Lindows as I believe it is geared to getting widows users into Linux. I’m also happy with XP, it does a good job.

[shadowarmy75]

1. ) Windows XP Home Edition, well I use it because it's compatable with a lot of stuff, and well I"m used to it.
2. ) I've used, DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, and I've used various Mac OSs. Compared with XP, all the other Windows seemed to lack as much stability as XP and when a program froze, there was no real way to fix it other than restart. I liked Mac, it was clean, and when you plugged something in, it just showed up on your desktop.
3 ) No. Just the time required to set it up vs. the benefits weren't that great. If it was compatible with all my Windows stuff and looked good, I would most definitely give it a try. But as of now, there are not that many benefits to it and many drawbacks.

[wipeout140]

1. ) Windows XP SP2
2. ) Windows 95,98,98SE,ME,XP,
3 ) Ubuntu

The following questions assumed you have used a distrobution of Linux:

4 ) Ubuntu
5 ) Installed myself quite good better then first though
6 ) slim look, beryl, and other great programs never used before
7 ) lack of games and some programs

Assuming you do not currently use Linux and have tried Linux before...

8 ) Program and hardware support

[fatsheep]

1. ) Windows XP SP2
2. ) Windows 95,98,98SE,ME,XP,
3 ) Ubuntu

The following questions assumed you have used a distrobution of Linux:

4 ) Ubuntu
5 ) Installed myself quite good better then first though
6 ) slim look, beryl, and other great programs never used before
7 ) lack of games and some programs

Assuming you do not currently use Linux and have tried Linux before...

8 ) Program and hardware support

Could you specify which programs Ubuntu lacks? I'm not contradicting you, I'm just trying to get specifics... By the way, if you want some good Linux games try Wolfenstein Enemy Territory, Nexuiz, and Tremulous.

[wipeout140]

Could you specify which programs Ubuntu lacks? I'm not contradicting you, I'm just trying to get specifics... By the way, if you want some good Linux games try Wolfenstein Enemy Territory, Nexuiz, and Tremulous.

Mainly its games but i been using Office 07 and like to much to move back to Open Office and did not have long enough to fully test if am going full linux i might try Ubuntu Ultimate Edition 1.2 DVD - Home Page but then not sure if could update from that to 7.04 this April. i come back to Linux when 7.04 comes out

Also Unreal 04 was coded for Linux and Unreal 03

One more thing - many people having problems with wireless cards and linux

EDIT (25/2/07) - After installing Ubuntu Ultimate Edition 1.2 DVD and duel booting i am thinking of moving to Linux for good on my laptop as do no gaming really. Only Internet surfing, Some work and listen to some music or watch DVD's if on the move

"The futures bright the future is Linux"

[Lee1026]

1. ) What operating system do you currently use? Why?

Windows XP. The path of least resistance......

2. ) What other operating systems have you used? What did you like about them? What didn't you like?

Fedora:
Liked: None. It was that bad.
Hated: The package system. The speed. (C'mon, windows 2000 on a pentium 2 is faster then fedora on a new computer!) Needed to use the command line to change the bloody screen resolution.

Ubuntu:
Liked: The packaging system and the installer.
Hated: Installing anything that is not found though apt-get. The speed (Windows 2K on a pentium 3 is slightly faster....) Needed to use the command line for almost everything but not the changing the screen resolution. Does not have enough program running properly.

Vista (The RC, not the retail):
Liked: The ability to shrink partitions.
Hated: The speed. Price

4 ) What distribution(s) have you used?

Fedora, Ubuntu.

5 ) Did you install it yourself? If so, how difficult (or easy) was the installation process?

Nothing that bad, really.

6 ) What did you like about them?

DDD! (DDD does not work all that well on windows simply because the command line is much weaker on windows)

7 ) What didn't you like about them? Any technical problems? Lack of programs? Lack of documentation? ...

Lack of stability. The kernel never crashes, true, but X windows do tend to crash a lot more often then windows does. The speed on any linux computer is simply horrible - having to wait 3 seconds to load up a text editor is NOT acceptable considering the speed of modern hardware.
Lack of programs: obviously. I had to hunt down drivers for a large number of my hardware, and it is a very unpleasant experience. The lack of a good music playback program does not help. There is also a lack of good IDEs.
There is also a lack of a good office program. (If you think that open office is acceptable, try opening up a 300 page document and see how long it takes)

8 ) What keeps you from using Linux as your primary operating system?

Well, first of all, they need a package system that works a bit more like the setup.exe from windows. Apt-get works great and all, until you want to install something that is not in apt-get, then you are in dependency hell.
Second of all, there needs to be more static linking, to get rid of dependency hell.
Thirdly, I should be able to do things outside of the command line. Try enabling a screen resolution like 1440x900 without editing a config file or the command line. Hell, try changing permissions on a file belonging to root outside of the command line - you can't do it!
Fourth: Make it faster.

[fatsheep]

Windows XP. The path of least resistance......
Thirdly, I should be able to do things outside of the command line. Try enabling a screen resolution like 1440x900 without editing a config file or the command line. Hell, try changing permissions on a file belonging to root outside of the command line - you can't do it!
Fourth: Make it faster.

I did a bug report on this a while back. Unfortunately being able to change permissions on a file that belongs to root graphically is a lower priority (someone please tell me why??). You can use some nifty little nautilus scripts that I messed with for a while but they don't always work. Or you could just open up nautilus in super user mode (gksu nautilus) but be careful not to screw anything up.

I agree with what most of you have said. Linux needs to develop more in order to reach the average non-technical PC user. I think (and hope) we'll start to see more user-friendly Linux distrobutions aimed at the average computer user (like Ubuntu) in the future. Gentoo is great and all but it's for the people who want to go through the trouble of compiling and configuring their entire system themself (which happens to be a small fraction of computer users).

From my experience with Ubuntu the most annoying things are:

• Reliance on the command line for manipulating files belonging to root and other trivial tasks.
• You can't ALT + TAB out of fullscreen applications
• Lack of commercial games. This isn't really the fault of the Ubuntu developers but it's still annoying. Give it some time and more games will come to Linux...
• Boot up speed could definately be better.
• A more standard way to install flash, java, and other proprietary software - especially on 64 bit systems. I use a 3rd party 32 bit firefox package maintained by Kilz of the Ubuntu forums with flash 9, java, and mplayer. It works great but we should see some officially maintained packages like this.
• Installing the graphics drivers can be a pain. I'm currently using the envy script to install and upgrade my Nvidia drivers.

Now to be fair the upsides are:

• It's free!
• Very stable
• Don't have to worry about viruses, spyware, or hackers. I don't use a firewall, anti-virus, or any security applications at all and my computer is fully stealthed to port scans and I've never had any problems with viruses or spyware.
• Lots of good free software supported and included by default - Firefox, Gaim, Gimp.
• It's quite easy to download and install software with synaptic. There are nearly 20,000 packages on synaptic...

[Lee1026]

Are you sure it is all that stable? Sure, the kernel itself never crashes, but the difference is entirely academic when X-server or KDE decides to crash on me.

[PyrrhusIV]

That link to Ubuntu Ultimate got me interested. I'm gonna give it a try (I use 6.06 now), except, well, I forgot the most obvious thing. Ultimate is a 1.7GB file, in ISO form.

I suppose I'll have to unpack it, then transfer it to a DVD? I've forgotten once again how to use ISO files.

[wipeout140]

That link to Ubuntu Ultimate got me interested. I'm gonna give it a try (I use 6.06 now), except, well, I forgot the most obvious thing. Ultimate is a 1.7GB file, in ISO form.

I suppose I'll have to unpack it, then transfer it to a DVD? I've forgotten once again how to use ISO files.

Once finished just burn the iso to a DVD using img burn, nero what ever you then put dvd in your dvd and restart to try and install

[fatsheep]

Are you sure it is all that stable? Sure, the kernel itself never crashes, but the difference is entirely academic when X-server or KDE decides to crash on me.

Well Xserver has been pretty good in my experience. The exception to this is that there's no way to kill a misbehaving full screen application without hitting ctrl+alt+f1 and using the command line to kill the offending application. This is not only tedious but most people don't know how to do it. But overall I have found Ubuntu and other Linux distros to be more stable then Windows overall. Also remember, if Linux freezes you can restart the Xserver with ctrl+alt+backspace most of the time.

[Lee1026]

Well, Xserver have sent down 4* times on me so far in 3 years. This may not sound bad, but windows only went down once in the same time period, and I am in windows a lot more then I am in X.

*Not counting uncountable times I had to use a command line only interface to reset x-org because some config file went bad. When you need to hop though a million options to change the resolution to something other then a 4:3 one, it is easy to screw up. (Ubuntu 6.06 and above fixed this)