I need convincing to go back to Linux, will you help?

[Deja Q]

Vista (64-bit) has grown on me.

Office 2007 is sublime.

Photoshop CS3 rocks.

So does PhotoImpact.

As does UltraFractal.

And Flight Simulator X.

In the past, WINE, Crossover office, vmware, et al, were less than effective, particularly for the graphics apps.

I've thought about trying Linux again, but it seems a hassle. :(

[BlueJazz]

1. I have Vista, Windows 98, Windows 4.0, Windows XP and Linux on...

..my setup.
It's a one Terabyte drive so there's plenty of room.

It's rather nice to cruise back and forth between Operating Systems....Give my life a purpose... :)

[RoyGBiv]

2. What are your motives?

Seriously.

Linux isn't for everyone. Neither is Windows or OSX or whatever. If you're happy with what you have and can afford all that software, I don't understand the motivation to change.

Linux isn't a cult. Its users aren't here to recruit you. I'll suggest it for people wondering about it and will assist them all I can, but there are others I will actually encourage to stay away from it.

I moved primarily to Linux for two main reasons:

Most of the software I used was open source already, so the transition in apps promised to be painless. As it turned out, in some cases, the transition was actually beneficial as I found apps that don't run under Windows that did the job far better than some of the commercial software I did have and certainly better than some of the crippled shareware I was using. This was especially the case with video rendering. I can't afford the professional software (and not being a professional video editor could not justify the cost even if I could afford it), and the Windows crippleware was horrendous.

Second, I got increasingly tired of the number of hurdles I had to jump through to have my box perform the way I wanted. That's not to suggest I don't jump through hurdles with Linux, but they are *legal* hurdles. I will still use XP from time to time for various purposes, but I will *never* use Vista on my own machines. I don't criticize anyone who wants to do so as long as they allow me the same courtesy not to want to.

I've been a hacker (in the traditional sense) since I was 14 and first had to use a little assembly language code to force my machine at the time to do what I wanted it to do. I like the command line. I like being able to construct a system the way I want it constructed. I don't need Windows for that, and in many ways, I am prevented from doing that by Microsoft and software companies that write for its operating systems.

But your mileage apparently varies and that's fine.

As a side note, as BlueJazz implied, what's the point of either/or? I do still use Windows sometimes. Windows and Linux (and FreeBSD more recently) have coexisted on my machines for years now, which leaves me in the position of not having to puzzle over it.

[Deja Q]

7. I think I will stick with Windows

Linux has its good points, but for the range of things I do, it's the best choice.

[RoyGBiv]

8. Types of things ...

I'm gonna pick a nit and suggest it is the "types" of things you do, not the range, that makes Windows a better choice because specific applications perform better under Windows than their equivalents under Linux or in virtualization.

I have a vast range of things I do. I have a few things I do that apps under Windows do not do as well. Most work equally well.

[salvorhardin]

3. What RoyGBiv said

I used both Linux and Windows daily. Linux on the server side and Windows on my desktop. Windows sucks. Linux sucks too, just in different ways. On the other hand, when it comes to my desktop I don't want to code, I don't want to tweak, I just want something that works and Windows does that. So if Windows does what you want it to, then bully for you. Don't switch. Despite what you might read on Slashdot, you're not a better person for using Linux, nor are you necessarily more knowledgeable.

[hunter]

4. I don't have to purchase any software with linux.

I can amuse myself for hours with a toy digital camera and The Gimp. Even more fun, when I've got a few extra dollars -- I take out my old Olympus XA2 or any old disposable camera I've left about (sometime for years...) and I shoot film. When I get around to having the film developed at the local drugstore it's like a surprise party. The clerk there looks sort of deviantart but I don't dare ask her because she already knows too much about me.

I'm more trash-cam than lomography.

My computer has a sticker on it that says: Designed for Microsoft Windows 2000 Profesional, Windows 98. It runs Debian fine.

I am easily amused and cheap too.

[Deja Q]

6. I'm a semi-professional and like having the best possible tools for the job,

especially if it might help me in a future career.

That's why I mentioned why I would need emulators; back before I went back to Windows I tried gimp. There's a reason why it's called "gimp"... :D

Also, as much as I dislike digital cameras for not having upgradable sensors (replacements are expensive and IO just donate the old ones), film wastes lots more in terms of resources required for making negs and prints. (I'm now fully digital)

[RoyGBiv]

9. Nothing wrong with GIMP ...

They call it GIMP 'cause it stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, but of course you knew that. :)

Some of Photoshop's products have more features, and I suppose most think that Photoshop's interface is easier to use. (Since I used GIMP before I even saw Photoshop in action, I disagree. It's a matter of what you're accustomed to, and I dislike Photoshop's interface with a passion. Floating windows are much more efficient. Embrace it now, or I shall taunt you again!)

Ahem.

Anyway, that's not to say that GIMP couldn't do most of the things Photoshop does via scripts. Ya just have to write the scripts or find someone who already has. I've got so many scripts on my GIMP installation that I've forgotten what they all do, which, incidentally, is close to what the average person would say about Photoshop's features.

Anyway, you're equating "best" with "most popular" I think. "Best" is a relative term. Best for what? People mistakenly get the idea OpenSource equivalents of things like Photoshop suck, in part because professional graphics editors don't want to or can't take the time it would take to set up GIMP to do all the complex stuff they sometimes do, and they bash GIMP for making them do that, or sometimes just for making them learn a new way of doing it. But what's "best" for the person who doesn't typically have an image with 37 layers to it with complex algorithms working on every layer? Photoshop is overkill for most people, so there's Inkscape, GIMP, etc. for them.

Variety is what is best, imo.

[MyNameGoesHere]

11. GIMP for Windows also don't forget. n/t

[RoyGBiv]

13. Yes, of course ...

That wasn't a Linux rant.

Was an opensource rant. :)

Actually, I just like GIMP, regardless of the platform. I've got Photoshop at work, but I use GIMP.

[MyNameGoesHere]

18. Me too just wanted everyone to realize that open source

will run on a variety of platforms. cheers.

[JPettus]

17. And GIMP is changing

I read an article a few months ago in one of my Linux mags that indicated the GIMP development team is "re-booting" by making massive changes in the code, since they can't get where they want to go from where they are without it.

It should be interesting.

[hunter]

10. Gimp is open source and easily added to.

Scripts and plugins are fun to write (for me anyways :P )

I find the Photoshop SDK baroque, and even though it's free these days, you still have to register with Adobe to use it legally.

http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/photoshop/devcenter.html

If I was writing some complex image processing widget, say as a graduate school project, I wouldn't want it to be the slave of a proprietary application.

Here's an example of that kind of work (not mine):

http://cimg.sourceforge.net/greycstoration

Hmmmm.... I see they've got a call for volunteers... but then my wife would throw me out of the house. Okay so maybe I could write Photoshop plugins and sell them, that might be acceptable to her... But how likely is that? Not at all.

Film? I don't use film cameras the same way I use digital cameras. With digital I am pomiscuous in my picture taking. With film I always take the picture in my head before I release the shutter. Because I'm pessimistic, overly critical, and cranky, I didn't used to take many pictures. Digital cameras have cured me of those inhibitions, and have allowed me to use film for simple pleasures. There's a history to film that appeals to me.

Today I bought a film camera for a dollar in a junk store, I'll put a roll of film in it, and maybe in a few months I'll see what develops. No hurry.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

16. Remember this:

There is an essay out on the net, by a guy who is a renowned PS expert. He says that for the vast majority of people who are just doing web graphics, Gimp or Krita(very nice, indeed) is more than enough for whatever they need to do. The only time he recommends PS is if you are making color graphics for commercial printing, because the print color capabilities are vastly superior.

[Clovis Sangrail]

5. I find that I'm less productive on Windows

but I do a lot of scripting and Windows is just anemic in that respect.
I sometimes get a bit frustrated at this or that not working 'properly' or easily, but I think overall I'm happier in linux.

:shrug:

[MyNameGoesHere]

12. Never used powershell i am assuming. n/t

[hunter]

19. Cmdlets???

The "Monad Manifesto???"

:wtf:

Awesome! :-) Thank you so much for making this available. Whilst PowerShell is clearly the best of its kind on the Windows platform, I've really enjoyed the degree of frank openness in discussing why it turned out the way it did (both from yourself and Bruce). As a humble developer myself its so incredibly valuable to get a glimpse of what your original goals where and how (and why) they changed along the route.

I'm guessing also that such openness helps a great deal in winning over folks from the *nix community. In a 100% good way, Microsoft is not the company I remember when I first started programming professionally 12 years ago (back then Microsoft was opaque and unfathomable). The MSDN blogs, Channel 9 and the sharing of internal documentation like this is fantastic. Kudos all round.

OMG. The Microsoft Cult has seen Elvis! (And I thought the apple and penguin cults were bad...) Hurry! Fetch me my ruby slippers!

[Lowell]

14. It all depends on what you are trying

to accomplish. I use a Windows XP 64 machine for Dreamweaver, PhotoShop, Illustrator and video editing. It works well with 8 GB of ram and get the job done for me.

On the other hand I also run a server at home. After wrestling for a few weeks with Windows 2003 RD2 Server I gave up. I installed Ubuntu AMD 64 Server on the machine and it flies. The server has 2 TB of storage and 16 GB of ram. Ubuntu handles it great. I'm able to run Apache, MySQL, PHP, Ruby on Rails, with no problems and they are all free and opensource.

But my wife's machine is running LFS 6.3(Linux From Scratch). All she does is surf and write email. She's been using it for years now and only discovered she was not on windows the other day.

Use what you are comfortable with and screw all the militant advocacy groups and types. Computers are just tools. Don't use a hammer if all you need is a screwdriver.

[RoyGBiv]

15. That's funny ...

LFS and only realized she was not on Windows the other day. :-)

I recently built a new computer for my mom and her niece. While building it, I installed two hard drives, one with Windows XP, the other SuSE 10.3. Mom had used Linux before at my house, and since I had the extra hard drive, I wanted at least to give her the option. However, I had intended to change the bootloader so that Windows loaded by default.

I forgot to do that.

They've had it for about a month now, and mom called me a couple days ago asking me if I could help them get some software her niece purchased to install. Through trial and error I finally realized she was running Linux ... well, there's your problem right there.

Anyway ... they'd gone a month using SuSE without realizing it for pretty much everything they do with a computer.