Linux is such a horrible OS (for casual users)

[pedrog]

Actually, you have to go to the program website you want to download, download the program, double click, click yes you want to install, click the agreement, click next a few times, click finish, something like that.

That can take a few minutes.

Or:

apt-get install rhythmbox

And 10 seconds later it's playing music, like I said, it takes a while to learn but after you get used to it, it's much more convenient.

You forgot to mention the extra parts of the install on the windows platform. You know, the part where afterwards you need to uninstall all the spyware you've just installed as well. Then best to do a quick 3 hour virus scan.
Oh yeah, and just so your OS can insult you that little bit more, don't forget the obligatory Windows reboot. (Windows loves a reboot.)

3 hours later you can relax and enjoy your new program.

The funniest thing is people actual pay for the privilege of this. LOL

Haha, good point!

Windows is fine if you take the proper security precautions. Good luck with playing games on osx/linux that aren't snake/tetris.

there is wesnoth!

I don't even know what that is.

Also Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/browse/linux/

[Puppet]

Granted,

Code:

apt-get update

is awesome, but that's about the only thing easier for the casual user.

New linux users always make the mistake thinking command line is both necessary and too complicated.  

Its neither.

Command line is rarely required, but  allows anyone to copy paste commands from a website, email or whatever in to a terminal, regardless of what GUI you use, regardless of what language your OS is in, regardless (to some extend) of distribution or version. It even works when the GUI doesnt.

Now you can do just about anything through the GUI too (obviously including apt-get update), but explaining how to do it would take dozens of lines, possibly require screenshots, would be different for every different GUI and distribution, wouldnt apply to french or chinese installations etc. Try explaining over the phone or email to a computer neophyte how to remove AMD video driver. Perhaps then you will see who incredibly useful a command like

Code:

sudo apt-get remove fglrx

really is.

In linux, like in windows, you use the GUI if you are trying to discover things intuitively. If you want to remove AMD drivers through gui, just use the "additional driver" app or ubuntu software center, its intuitevely enough for anyone with basic computer skills to discover that. But you use the command line to be much faster if you know what you are doing, or if you are just implementing commands someone else wrote.

Both approaches make sense and have their uses, both approaches are available in linux. But in windows, you dont have that choice, most things require a GUI.

[lophie]

Windows is fine if you take the proper security precautions. Good luck with playing games on osx/linux that aren't snake/tetris.

Today like most days after playing my Dose of TeamFortress2 I went to play DoTA2, While I was waiting for the game to begin I was surfing the web while listening to youtube. Then a sweet little notification from Unity notifications notified me that the game is ready so I re maximised the game (Windows people know how this supposed to be a headache  , Then enjoyed a gaming experience using my nvidia card surpassing the one on windows for the same hardware.

Man I am sorry but the gaming lashing on Linux is an ancient cry. Linux outgrew it. Keep up and get out of Windows caves.

[bitcoin44me]

Nice to see that the old Linux/Windows trolls are still here

/popcorn

[jarhed]

What's the Linux equivalent to Windows Sandboxie?

.......AV all seem to have a sandbox method lately.

[Puppet]

What's the Linux equivalent to Windows Sandboxie?

.......AV all seem to have a sandbox method lately.

Depends want you want to achieve.
selinux / apparmor  or just plain old chroot

[Dabs]

Today like most days after playing my Dose of TeamFortress2 I went to play DoTA2.

Are they Linux native? Or emulated? DoTA2 is the sequel to DoTA 1? The Warcraft 3 map or mod? I haven't played 2, so I don't know. I do know the Doom and Quake games have native Linux versions or ports a long time ago.

I use Deep Freeze on Windows. There was supposed to be a Linux version, but I don't see it anymore.

[naphto]

DoTA2 is the sequel to DoTA 1? The Warcraft 3 map or mod? I haven't played 2, so I don't know.

DotA is a warcraft 3 custom game which was developped by several guys, and by IceFrog for a couple of years. You need to have Warcraft 3 + extension installed to play it.
Valve hired IceFrog to develop a new game. They called it DotA 2, and it requires Steam. It has nothing to do with Blizzard (DotA has nothing to do with blizzard aswell, just requiring the game). Blizzard planned to make a Dota like, but dunno when:
http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/6893280231

[Dabs]

Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena video game, and the stand-alone sequel to the Defense of the Ancients (DotA) mod. Developed by Valve Corporation, the game was released on July 9, 2013 for Microsoft Windows, utilizing a free-to-play business model. OS X and Linux versions of Dota 2 were released on July 18, 2013. Dota 2 is exclusively available through Valve's content delivery platform, Steam.

Nice! I'll check it out or something.

I actually want to set up an internet cafe shop or something, that offered Linux (primarily because of licensing issues). Although WinXP/Win7 in such a scenario is relatively cheap (MS offers a rental rights agreement valued at about 34 USD per machine.)

[xypos]

You can install cracked version of Windows. Nobody will know/check it.

[Dabs]

You can install cracked version of Windows. Nobody will know/check it.

At home, maybe not. In a commercial space with 20 or 40 computers? Unlicensed Windows? Where you ask people to pay you to play or surf the net? You're asking to go bankrupt. It depends on your location maybe. Where I am, piracy is attracting attention from the local authorities. MS has a presence here and they'll take all your hardware with them.

[r3wt]

I think you missed the point.

If you're windowz person and ever consider linux, I think ubuntu or mint

linux mint is a fucking dumpster fire. that dev team never has their shit together, its breaking every 3 fucking days. their forums are full of fuckwads who don't know shit and are misleading other users who don't know shit.

ubuntu is ok if you are cool with the commercial company who made it spying on your every move. they collect usage activities, aka they have a backdoor into your system just like Microsoft does, its a a commercial agreement the NSA makes commercial OS developers sign.

how about this list:

if you love Windows 8 -> Fedora Core 22

if you love Windows 2000-> Puppy Linux or DamnSmallLinux

if you love Windows Vista-> Lubuntu

if you love DOS -> FreeBSD

ps: Someonelse was lying about Linux being faster than Windows. this is simply false, reason being that Linux cleans the full stack and cleans up after its self, where as Windows is more like a sloppy child, dropping temp data all over the place, half ass clearing memcache, dropping saved files in the first available sectors it will fit, etc. So yes, Linux is better for your computer, but it cannot ever be faster than Windows on identical hardware without becoming a sloppy child itself.

Signed,
         a lover of all OS's

[Puppet]

If you like apple, give Elementary OS a try.
http://elementaryos.org/

[Dabs]

@r3wt, I love Windows XP ... hehehe. no, seriously. Does that fall under Puppy / DSL ? I've installed XP hundreds of times in dozens of computers over the past 12 years, I've gotten used to some tweaks and customizations I put on it, and it runs great with only 4 gig of RAM; that's all the 32 bit version can use anyways. (I put 8 gig on another computer and had it use 4 as a RAM drive, that one seems to run faster.)

[dragonkid]

There was never sufficient reason to install Linux except now I mine btc and the universe is telling me I have to know Linux.

I do admit, antihooking Windows process was starting to get annoying. Nothing moves on my system without my knowledge.

If you don't use software that has no linux alternative or you're not a gamer, I'd say the transition can be quick.

Check http://alternativeto.net/ for alternatives for the stuff you use.

I tried gaming in Wine, that didn't go so well. I think that was definitive motion that kept me on Windows. I even tried gaming in VMware install in ubuntu and got error msg about incompatible vid driver or what not.

The only game I play lately is daytrading.  , Growing up sucks.

Come on for any serious gamer you should be using PS3 or XBox360. Actually Linux isn't hard for the casual user, Android is a fork of Linux. And everyone is using it. ios is using BSD so it is also in the Unix family.

[Puppet]

@r3wt, I love Windows XP ... hehehe. no, seriously. Does that fall under Puppy / DSL ? I've installed XP hundreds of times in dozens of computers over the past 12 years, I've gotten used to some tweaks and customizations I put on it, and it runs great with only 4 gig of RAM; that's all the 32 bit version can use anyways. (I put 8 gig on another computer and had it use 4 as a RAM drive, that one seems to run faster.)

puppy linux is really only useful if you have far less capable hardware than that. Ive run it on computers with 256Mb of RAM.
If you have 4GB, you can run any full fledged linux distro you want with any desktop environment you like; no need to go to puppy/DSL or even Lubuntu.

I run elementary OS on a laptop with 2GB, and it flies.

[Mike Christ]

I tried Linux several times.  I always had to resort to Windows because there's no quality alternative to Photoshop (GIMP is just the worst PoS software I've ever used, the buttons actually got stuck all the time.  And there was painting software named Krita which I actually liked, but there were certain things that bugged the shit out of me.)  There's very basic support for my graphics tablet, WINE is completely unreliable, most games work only on Windows (although I mostly play TF2 now and it works great on Linux), there's no good alternative to Word and Excel (the ones I tried looked ugly; yes, appearance is important to me), not to mention the hours upon hours it took to install this thing on my PC which apparently hates Linux, trying to build the Bitcoin-QT and getting errors, trying to install any software that isn't on the repo is a huge pain, nor is there any standard to do so.  But I can look past all of that, and I did, until I couldn't work without PS or Word, and I don't even know if there's music software on Linux, but I'm pretty sure I didn't see any.

All in all, I'd say, for the casual user who just wants to browse the web and look at porn, Linux is actually a good choice, and the lighter distros are especially fast on older PCs.  But if you actually want to use your computer for something besides the internet and programming, Linux is just not there.  Yet.  If there's ever quality software that accommodates the creative crowd without requiring them to jump through hoops to get anything to work, then I'll try to pick it up again.

Come on for any serious gamer you should be using PC or an even better PC.

[pedrog]

Nice to see that the old Linux/Windows trolls are still here

/popcorn

Wait for the macfags to arrive...

ps: Someonelse was lying about Linux being faster than Windows. this is simply false, reason being that Linux cleans the full stack and cleans up after its self, where as Windows is more like a sloppy child, dropping temp data all over the place, half ass clearing memcache, dropping saved files in the first available sectors it will fit, etc. So yes, Linux is better for your computer, but it cannot ever be faster than Windows on identical hardware without becoming a sloppy child itself.

Signed,
         a lover of all OS's

It can be faster because one can customize a lot of things, like WM, if someone wants to run the latest gnome version all pimped up with transparent applets and 3D stuff, that's resource sucking stuff.

I run debian testing on a machine that would have trouble running WinXP, and it is quite fast for its modest specs...

[r3wt]

@r3wt, I love Windows XP ... hehehe. no, seriously. Does that fall under Puppy / DSL ? I've installed XP hundreds of times in dozens of computers over the past 12 years, I've gotten used to some tweaks and customizations I put on it, and it runs great with only 4 gig of RAM; that's all the 32 bit version can use anyways. (I put 8 gig on another computer and had it use 4 as a RAM drive, that one seems to run faster.)

I used to love it to, but now i don't think i could ever go back. i'm currently using-- brace yourself--Windows 8. i only had to uninstall 386 bloatware programs, close 50 ports, disable 30 worthless services, install shadowbox defender,ccleaner, classicshell, mbam pro, mbar, notepad++ and icechat, plus some other things. now that i've done all that, it aint so bad. classic shell complete hides the "metro menu". still would prefer Windows Vista to all Windows OS's to date besides Win 2000, which is still the best OS msoft ever made in my opinion.

[jarhed]

What's the Linux equivalent to Windows Sandboxie?

.......AV all seem to have a sandbox method lately.

Depends want you want to achieve.
selinux / apparmor  or just plain old chroot

I'm checking out apparmor which already comes with ubuntu. Seems selinux lacks proper policy implementation.

Come on for any serious gamer you should be using PS3 or XBox360. Actually Linux isn't hard for the casual user, Android is a fork of Linux. And everyone is using it. ios is using BSD so it is also in the Unix family.

My favorite game at the time was an online first person Mod that wasn't available on any other hardware. It's now ported to console, last I heard sucks coz everything is different, even the engine.