Comments on: Microsoft Vista vs. Linux desktops: An IT pro sounds off

By: FOSS for Life » Blog Archive » Enterprise Linux 2008: The year in review

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:21:02 +0000

[...] also couldn’t resist a little Windows bashing in our comparison of Microsoft Vista vs. Linux desktops, which is, of course, a favorite pastime of Linux [...]

By: Kim

Kim — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:07:25 +0000

In my country we can not afford to spend much on getting a new license for vista and scrap the old PC hardware because of Vista.So, many in my community are opting for Linux. Some are using OpenSuse,some using Ubuntu. I can see the momentum getting towards Linux.

By: Fred Marsico

Fred Marsico — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:34:30 +0000

Thank you all for your comments and support of Linux. Yes, I too use both the Add/remove and synaptic package manager. And they do work BETTER than install shield in many ways. for one, when uninstalling applications, there is no garbage (usually) to clean up afterwards.

My wife’s notebook came with Windows XP Media Center Edition. Recently she wanted to upgrade to get the new features of Media Center 2005 (hers was originally 2002) and contacted HP per my recommendation, as it seemed like a arduous process, which having been in technical support roles for over 25 years (supporting Windows and mainframe systems) I knew was not as straight forward as they (HP) tried to make it out to be.

Now we are engaged in a battle with both HP and Microsoft to get her system back to some semblance of stability. I recommended that she seriously consider running Linux, but she wasn’t sure about the functions of Media Center being capable of running under a Linux distro. Aha! I said that there IS a version of Linux that IS a Media Center Edition. Turn Your Rig into a Linux Home Theater PC (for free): LinuxMCE http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,16…
Then I showed her this video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=…
And while impressed, she as others commented on, doesn’t want to give up the games that only run under Windows.So what about running duel boot? Or WINE?

A friend who is in marketing emailed me just this morning and wanted to know if there was a replacement for Outlook. I suggested Firefox/Thunderbird. They are using Firefox now and will be trying T-Bird.
Ding-dong the witch is dead!

By: Kevin-j

Kevin-j — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:05:27 +0000

But I must admit that Ubuntu looks cool. But once you run into some sort of trouble, it’s kinda hard to solve or get help.
No matter how many issues I have with Windows, at least it can install itself with just a couple of clicks from the user. The rest of the issues can usually be sorted out later with updates and patches.

Kevin
http://www.virtela.com

By: Kevin-j

Kevin-j — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:00:26 +0000

I am a long time fan of the WIN XP. Microsoft is saying with Windows XP Service Pack 3, you’re going to get the usual performance, stability and security updates. It includes all the patches and hotfixes dating back to the SP2 era in 2004. (Can you believe it’s been that long?) Some of the updates have been available for a while via Windows Update; some others are unique to SP3. You will, however, have to be running XP SP1 in order to install SP3.

There are some new features built into SP3 that, before now, were only available in Vista. For instance, XP SP3 will include NAP support. I suspect this is to help clear any roadblocks for migrating to Server 2008. If NAP takes off, I can see this technology really helping admins with security standardization and policy enforcement, and it should reduce the number of vulnerabilities uncovered by internal security assessments. (I’m looking forward to the “NAP” jokes as well.)

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:07:42 +0000

I recently switched over to Ubuntu 8.04b. I love it! Being in beta, the updates come a little too often, but I know that will change when it goes stable. I found software called Click-N-Run www.cnr.com. It is a FREE one-click installer. Works great for when you don’t want to deal with BIN files and such. Aside from a few legacy programs my school requires, I don’t need my WinXP partition of my laptop anymore.

By: Heywood Jablowmeh

Heywood Jablowmeh — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:41:15 +0000

As a CTO, I would think that you would know about the existence of Synaptic and other package managers, if not actually have used them. The repository model of software update and installation is a far better model than that used in the M$ world. For Linux on the desktop to become ubiquitous, I believe two things are necessary:

1) Porting of existing popular small business applications like Quick Books
2) Marketing! (how many of your non-tech coworkers know about Linux?)

The technical issues of device drivers are slowly being solved. When the lack of mainstream business apps ported for business is solved, the hardware vendors will flock to build robust device drivers. The M$ model of software engineering has always been to increase hardware requirements to make up for poor coding and sloppy program management. This model has left a legacy of toxic trash and wanton waste of resources. The lean hardware requirements for a robust operating system like Linux are a welcome change.

By: Stephen L

Stephen L — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:12:54 +0000

> What about something like
> synaptic or add/remove?
> Can´t be made much easier..

Absolutely if you install the package/solfware on repository.

On Debian/Ubuntu Linux just run;
# apt-get remove package_name/software_name

On Fedora/CentOS Linux
# yum remove package_name/software_name

On Archlinux
# pacman -R package_name/software_name

OR
# pacman -Rs package_name/software_name
(To remove all of the packages dependencies which aren’t used by any other installed package/software)

On Gentoo Linux
# emerge –unmerger package_name/software_name

etc.

NOT necessary to reboot the PC each time after install/remove a package/software. NOT like Windows.

Why Windows still survive?

If my boss has no knowledge on Linux/Unix but Windows, I recommend Linux/Unix to company that means I’m going to put him/her out off job OR asking him/her to retire.

Forturnately I started migrating to Linux/Unix since about 6 years ago. Otherwise I’m still clicking around on screen with the mouse, knowing nothing. Now I run 100% Linux/Unix on server and workstation PC both in office and at home.

Ubuntu is a GUI Linux distro easy to learn and user friendly. There are some other user friendly Linux distro. Please look for desktop Linux/Unix. You’ll find tons of treasure on Internet.

However the best Linux distro is the Linux built by yourself, LFS (LinuxFromScratch). You can build your own Linux OS.

Enjoy the Open Source World. We help each others on Open Source World. There is no boundary there. We are working 24/365 round the Globe.

By: X-Nc

X-Nc — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:08:48 +0000

For application and package management there’s also yum, yumex and the pup/pirut tools.

It’s a little difficult for me to judge the Lin/Win battle because I haven’t really used Windows since about ‘94 or ‘95. The last time I used Win was in the WFW 3.11 days.

By: lefty.crupps

lefty.crupps — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:37:18 +0000

> Windows is “automated.” This means that all of Windows software
> installs without much intervention.

Are you kidding? Have you ever seen the number of popups in the lower-right corner when various apps want to be updated? Or the Windows Update or even the more-complete Microsoft Update, which only updates security-related items but doesn’t update the applications otherwise, requiring that you go to update.microsoft.com and click a few dozen things and let it think for a long while and then select updates and WOW its a lot of work. Automated??