[Liverpool] OtherOS-on-Linux or Linux-on-OtherOS? was "Multi-Boot Query"

[Daniel Hulme]

On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 12:33:58PM +0000, Hakim Cassimally wrote:
> If we're interested in a good controversy,
To be honest, I'm not, but I found the points you raised interesting:

>   - power management that works (all the time, and with decent battery
> life/running temperature)
My Windows Vista box at work falls over on about one in ten hibernation
attempts.

>   - wireless networking that works (all the time)
My friend's XP laptop can never connect to my wireless network, even
though everything else can. When I've helped Windows-using friends to
set up their networks, I've often found it incredibly difficult, and
some things just don't work for no apparent reason.

>   - sound that works (all the time.  Yes, for all apps.  Yes, even flash.
> And skype.  At the same time!)
I still can't get games in Windows XP to work with my surround-sound
receiver. And those stupid little things the sound drivers install and
insist I keep running because they won't let me set the volume the
standard way really irritate me.

>   - extrernal monitor detection, screen rotation, without having to manually
> fap with xrandr.
I've never used screen rotation so I don't know about that, but my 
Windows Vista machine at work won't let me start applications on
particular monitors, and keeps messing up window positions when I
reboot (or when it reboots itself to install updates, which is quite
often).

If your situation is such that a Windows environment is easier for you
to maintain, then of course you should do what you describe. In fact, I
have a cosmologist friend who runs pretty much the same way, because he
is not really up to running a real Linux install for everyday use but
needs it because the sophisticated data analysis and programming tools
he needs simply do not exist on Windows.

But for me, the limitations of MS Windows, as well as the excessive
price tag, are enough to make it useless for the desktop. If you ever
find yourself irritated when Windows restarts itself for updates while
you weren't looking, or you buy a new wireless wotsit and can't make it
work, or add a second sound card and find the user-friendly tools aren't
so user-friendly any more; if that ever happens, don't forget there is
an alternative out there.

-- 
"He is strongly identified with rebels,  you see,  and very popular with
rabbles.   They will follow him  and he will fight  to the last drop  of
their blood."                    Chris Boucher,  Blake's 7  D13  ‘Blake’
http://surreal.istic.org/            Forcing the lines through the snow.
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