[Nottingham] Better than Windows? was: Response on awareness day

[Simon]

On 11/3/05, Tim Emanuel <tim.emanuel at gmail.com> wrote:

> Suppose someone wants to add a wireless network card to their PC: in an
> ideal world it they would like to simply install it into the PC, and have it
> work*. In this world, they have to install drivers, which if they have a
> Windows PC will be included on a CD in the box. People don't want to have to
> go searching for drivers, they will take what they see as the easiest route
> which currently means Windows, as a rule.

And so they should. Maybe this is where Linux is severly lacking. Easy
to install software and drivers are commonplace in Microsoft Windows
and Mac OS X. Synaptic, apt-get, urpmi, yast etc - as 'simple' as they
seem are still too difficult and confusion to the adverage computer
user.

Autopackage is one step in the right direction. Linspire is doing very
well also. I think a recent article in Linux Format was spot on when
it came to the question 'Is Linux ready for the desktop'.

I run XP and OSX as my main operating systems. Recently I removed
Linux from my system (even though I am not currently using Linux, I am
still interested and keep up-to-date with developments). Why did I
remove Linux? A few reasons:

1) I play games. Frozen Bubble can only do so much. I play games
online with my friends and I attend LAN parties when I can. Most of
the games these days will not run on Linux (no native client). I
refuse to use Cedega.

2) No matter what distribution I use, Gnome and KDE seem slow to use.
Bad screen redraws, delays clicking buttons etc. This seems to be a
problem for many people and it irratates me. Sadly the other desktop
choices won't do for me.

3) Image editing. I use Paint Shop Pro a lot. It doesn't work using
Wine, Crossover doesn't support it and Gimp does not give me the GUI
or features I like.

These may seem like petty reasons for a lot of people but for me it's
a big reason why I still run Windows on my PC. I would love to run
Linux full time but I would lose a lot of functionality. Maybe I can
learn something new at the awareness day too. The recent distribution
I tried is Ubuntu and it's still as slow and unpolished as it was
since Warty. Sadly. (Any reccomendations for a decent Linux?) My lack
of CDwriter stops me burning any ISOs.

Sorry for ranting and going on like an old woman.

Simon