I for one definitely share these feelings. I’ve been using linux for over 10 years and still dual-boot on most of my machines. I think it stems from the simple truth that there are different elements to each OS that is superior. For example after spending a few hours in Windows I boot into my Gnome desktop and immediately press ‘Ctrl + Alt + Down arrow’ and a physical verbal SIGH noise comes out of my mouth every time (no joke!). Conversely when I copy files in Gnome the progress bar makes me suddenly think of Bill Gates as a young whipper-snapper and I immediately miss the speed graph. Linux file copy constantly overestimates itself too which I find infuriating.
To me linux based systems have always been systems I have wanted to love a lot more than I actually do… I always hope some sheer force of will alone can one day magically improve the seemingly countless niggles I have with it. Windows has more poliish IMO but I feel as angry using it as I would if I were to drive my neighbours Lexus
I think perhaps you are in the same boat as me… you want to leave microsoft but just cant… I use CAD in my day job too so my dream is a distant one
Maybe someday there will be an incentive for companies, like Autodesk, to port their product to Linux. But, I doubt it. The only other alternative would be for a decent open sourced cad or cad/cam application to be made. By decent, I mean that one could easily jump into and it play nice with .dwg and other industry standard files. That would be a lot of work though.
That was a new one for me. I tried it, and got an upside down desktop. Is that what it’s suppose to do?
I know a lot folks in this crowd love to hate on OS X, but I absolutely love it. It’s got the pieces I like about Linux with the professional polish like Windows. I’ve never been in the RMS camp of everything must be libre and I’ve never been much of a tinker (I’ve never posted my super configured arch battlestation desktop on reddit). Don’t get me wrong though, I wouldn’t host a website on OS X… or Windows…
I’ve shied away from OSX because I’m a little bit scared that I would love it. I think I must deserve a neck beard or at least a pat on the back by RMS because Apple repulses me… maybe too much time playing the ‘lawful good’ Paladin on Baldurs gate when I was younger? I dunno I just find Apple morally abhorrent enough to feel happy that I never give them any money.
I hear you tho Ld00d… I do a lot of webdev and it seems every single youtube tutorial on web development is made by a gleeful mac user and every time I learn me some javascript I can’t help but feel a little bit envious of their supremely polished looking unix derivative. Its 2014 and I still have to see text mode on my arch linux boot
That smells like Microsoft’s Ctrl + Alt + Down to me… I was referring to Gnome’s take on it (Linux). Much less upside down desktop and much more ‘muhaha, the wife will never see my taylor swift fan boy tweets on this fresh new desktop!’
cedeon: Yeah I agree I work with a few devs who love OSX, despite them working with .Net which (up until recently) has been a second class citizen on anything other than Windows.
Apple hardware and software is good… There’s no denying it… But Apple taken the walled garden approach to it’s ultimate extreme where it’s actually freaking difficult to install software outside of their software store… At least Windows (on x86/64 hardware) still allows you to pick whatever software you want to install!
@Ld00d I think Windows hosting is fine… As long as you host it behind a Linux firewall… I suppose hosting on OSX is possible on OSX Server although the only server hardware you can buy is either the Mac Pro or the Mac Mini, neither of which strike me as brilliant servers (though pretty decent hardware).
Sorry, but this isn’t true. They would like you to buy only from their store, but for OS X, you can install whatever you want, and it’s not difficult at all. This is in contrast with iOS which is certainly locked down (unless you jailbreak). Macs existed way before the “app store”, however, so it would be criminally stupid to lock them down to the store.
I abhor working with IIS. Also, it would be nice if they had SSH where I could just command line in vs. a full RDP desktop.
Yeah personally I don’t mind seeing text, at least not enough to be bothered to install Plymouth but it is an example of where Linux can be a lot like driving around with a crappy car that you built yourself with no hood (bonnet) and a supercharger sticking out of the engine block fixed with duct tape. My systemd has a few FAILED items come up on boot for example where I have some old failed mounts that I cant be bothered to go fix… little things but I think they do get into your psyche and poke at you. For me, Linux is an effort. You have to beat on it, read a lot of wikis until your eyes bleed and then bask in that feeling that you have made frankenstein’s monster come alive single handedly and it’s name is Lenovo
There is something to be said about the walled garden approach… Its more like ‘This is the car we made DON’T adjust the seat, DON’T move the mirror, everything is perfect!’… We might not agree with it but we all have those sheepish tendencies which can learn to love what we are given. I get a similar thing with Gnome- I HATE the defaults and once spent days customizing it but a little part of me always says ‘Yanno perhaps these Gnome guys know better than me!’ It grinds on me constantly to the point I’m constantly being pulled back towards defaults.
I would disagree… I think it is more difficult than it needs to be, but that is just my opinion. The only reason Apple has a setting which allows non app store software to be installed is because of the fact that Macs existed before the app store. I would argue that if they didn’t have the legacy they would not allow software to be installed from anywhere other than the app store.
Of course not everything about a “walled garden” approach is wrong, and the idea of only installing “verified” apps is a good one. Of course as we’ve seen with both iOS and more prominently Android exploits the verification process needs to be hard as nails otherwise people will still find their way round it!
As for working with IIS there’s something to be said for the GUI based configuration rather than having to trawl through text files, although I’m a developer not an ops guy so I just want a server to test code then tear it down… In all fairness it’s pretty simple to do that in both IIS and Apache/Nginx…
I remember feeling very similar years ago!
It was an interesting time, my first computer came with Windows Vista, and that was probably the reason I am here now.
Nowadays it is the opposite, when I use windows it slows down on me even if its fast and reliable on that machine usually. As if it feels the Linux magic
So just keep going! Eventually you will stick with one. If not, keep dabbling
Well so far I’ve managed to stick with Xubuntu… I like the fact that it’s Ubuntu and Debian which means that it’s fairly widely supported but it’s also XFCE, which means it’s freaking fast.
I think XFCE is actually the first DE I’ve found that gets out of my way (IMHO). It’s fast, takes up very little resources and it’s got all the customizability I need to make it work how I want without over-whelming me with options.
Of course the other thing that’s helped me stick with Linux is that Microsoft has open sourced/is open sourcing .Net, which means that I can actually use the .Net framework on Linux (Mono’s damn good, but they can now pull sources from MS directly).
While I agree that you will definitely get a good overview of ‘what Linux can do’ I think that’s a really crappy way to bring people on board.
An apt metaphor would be that a friend asked about getting into car racing, and instead of pointing them at the local autocross club, you suggested they build a stock car.
@mo_roodi: try out a KDE-based distro, or maybe a GTK2-generation desktop, like XFCE or Mate. You’ll find a familiar bottom task bar, anchored on the left with an app menu, and on the right with a system tray. I think that alone, over GNOME3 or Unity, will give you just enough of a boost to that familiar feel.
As I mentioned for the time being I’m sticking with XFC (although it took me a little while to get things “just right”). There are also some quite interesting changes coming in Gnome3 so I’m tempted to give that another look (the joy of linux is that it’s just an apt-get away!).
It also helps that thanks to Xamarin and Microsoft I can actually use .net on my laptop and Raspberry Pi…
So far so good anyway so let’s just see how it goes!
