Linux is great, but can you live without Windows?

Linux is a wonderful platform, but I wonder how many people use only linux for all of their computing needs. Does anybody use linux and linux only for programming, browsing, GAMING, text editing, movie editing?

I think that gaming in Linux is defenetly not as mature as in Windows. I mean I had my Linux for a week and I didn't get a single game running smootly. I am they guy who keeps posting messeges complaining that games run at 2 FPS. To me it seems that installing nVidia drivers in Linux is not as trivial as in Windows. I downloaded 2 rpms from nVidia.com, installed it and it crashed my X Window. And on top of that I can't make my soundcard work either.

However, in just 2 days I've been able to do things with linux that I've never been able to do with Windows (with ease that is) for years, like setting up an ftp and other services.

I would like to see nVidia and game developers supporting linux a little bit more. But so far linux operating system is only on roughly 5% of all desktops.

Thanx

Yes,I do.
lynch

Programming - like I would know how to program;but it is done with linux
Browsing - I can do that
Gaming - not too bad for an onboard chip;faster then M$ anyway
Sound - we have sound
text editing - me no secretary! try openoffice or abiword or koffice
movie editing - transcode and mencoder and for a gui avidemux and kmencoder .For dvdripping our resident experts script (Acid) or k3b.

Windows - for family since they refuse to learn english and I am too lazy to setup a user in brasilian.Like I care how often this thing crashes when they use it (appr. every 20 min)

I would use ONLY Linux... IF.... i wouldn't be a Win & Unix sysadmin

I have a linux box at home.... everything's just fine. I (as well as everyone else in the house) can browse the net, do a little word processing here and there, spreadsheets sometimes, a couple of games, loads of oggs (and mp3s)... work on some graphics and some web pages, nearly everything.... nearly.

I love it and I'm okay with it but there are a couple of things on my wish list...

I'm no programmer... I'm more like a secretary or some average joe in a publications office and at work, my win2k box and the other mac boxes handle the daily load in Photoshop, Illustrator, Pagemaker, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Flash (hmmmm, Adobe and Macromedia). Products involving desktop publishing and web page (for a weekly paper and the corresponding web site).

Quanta/Bluefish, and the Gimp do well, but it just doesn't cover all the bases.. desktop publishing (Pagemaker), and web graphics/etcetera (Firewoks/Flash). Another thing is where are the BIG games? This maybe trivial to some but I'm salivating for Warcraft III. Back in my M$ days gaming was all I knew, the only thing going for me is that I don't have time to play them anymore. Lastly, without the crossover plugin, no way to view the latest quicktime trailers... as of this time NO WAY. Would've loved watch the latest Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers trailer to my family, now they clamor for an M$ conversion.

Again, let me state that I'm your average joe so if anyone is willing to point me out to Linux alternatives I shall be eternally grateful. Meanwhile, I accept the fact that it will take the time for these to be answered. It will come, a la "Field of Dreams", but for now I wait.

Linux all the way, and who cares about games, I remember back in windows days I used to warez up gamez all the time, and what? I got tired of them on a second day, well my preferences are going for RTCW and it runs much smoother and faster with NVIDIA drivers on slackware8.1 with Athlon than it ran on WinME, and linuxes ncluding RH, and Mandy, I won't try it on my gentoo console anyway (P-200 with crappy PCI video card with 1Mb, and 64Mb of RAM won't handle even minesweeper), I more tend to re-think what I need it to do, firewall would be fine, but then what is it good for if you can't play with it on the network with 3 or more machines.
Now movies, Mplayer for static content - mpg's, avi's, DVD's, etc., and crossover plugin for dynamic content from the web - Quick Time trailers, Windows Media streaming video, etc. Oh, and I almost forgot, once I got addicted to Shockwave.com and their online games, now I can play those too with crossover plugin !!!
Now my main reasons to total domination of the world, I work in IT environment, I need to do some programming in Perl, Java, C++ and C. Linux is a great development platform !!! What else gives me freedom of choice between different programming languages, compilers, linkers, etc other than *NIX? Windows? [sorry]Windows my arse[sorry], C is a parent of *NIX, enough said.

I live in my parent's basement with no windows. So you could say I can live without it.

"Windows - for family since they refuse to learn english" Oh please. Pretty much all modern Linux distros support ton of languages.

Take Redhat 8 for example. The install's 1st Q is what language you want for the installer. After reboot and at login screen, 2 clicks and you'll see everything written, including but not limitied to program toolbars, menus, etc. in your language. Blows Windows out of the water.

For me, Windows is for strictly programming. I surf the Web and do word processing on Linux. Not only is it faster with Mozilla on Linux, but also very stable. Strangely enough, Mozilla is more stable than IE on Windows.

For gaming, let me get something straight: you're telling me I have to shell out 50 bones, waste an hour reading a thick manual and installing the "game" and maybe getting software conflicts? No thank you very much. I'm playing video games instead. No games can start up in 5 seconds without installing. I thought games were supposed to be FUN!!!

I can live without Linux if I really wanted to. Though I still have a windows box or dual boot so I can use my scanner. Unfortunately its still not supported, but if it really had to I could just get a new scanner.
Oh but I still love photoshop for my graphics, can't wing myself off of it but again, if I really had to I could live without it.

So yeah, I could easily live without Windows, since I don't really game.

"Windows - for family since they refuse to learn english" Oh please. Pretty much all modern Linux distros support ton of languages.

You ever tried to setup users with different languages for every little program you got on your box?
Have fun - I need some time to drink beer in my live,too.

I use Linux for programming, browsing web, play mp3's and learning about the computer itself. I don't play games so I don't worry about that. I use windows98 for kazaa right now and that's about it. I could use gtk-gnutella and probably eventually will but the most people are on kazaa .

But in the end I use linux cause it has everything I need for programming in C and im tired of just point and click brainlessness AND im tired of Bill Gates monopolizing the industry.

my entire network used to be completely and 100% linux. then i got a job as a software engineer and had to design web applications that would run in internet explorer. so now i dual between winxp and slack8. but if i had my choice, i'd be 100% linux again.

windows is only good for people who don't like computers. *as he sits in winXP*

heh.

one of the mistakes people make is making all of their systems 100% the same. This leads to massive system wide compromises when one bug comes out, and doesn't force you to think outside of one operating system, in otherwords you stop thinking outside of the box.

While I don't currently have a Microsoft WIndows install at my house, I admin Microsoft Windows 98, 2K, XP, and Embeded XP. At home I try to use as many different operating systems as possible, from Linux to OpenBSD to HP-UX.

I think running Microsoft Windows free would be much easier with a MacOSX install, that way you get quicktime, IE, adobe photoshop, and a few other programs that while they are replacable by Linux apps, well, maybe not IE but the rest are useful to have access to.

as for games...bah. waste of your time. Either deal with it or go back to windows and start watching tv for 6 hours a day like every other american.

i've been win free for 2 to 3 years. web development - image editor/man. -

my wife started using linux a few months ago - she's an editor/writer - uses staroffice to open .doc files sent to her. makes the edits sends them right back - no problems.

as for browsing - in linux it's so much nicer. tabbed browsing rocks - once you get the hang of linux and then have to use a windows box it's freaky. you realize just how much windows sucks.

I have 2 Linux boxes. One is at home, and the other one is here with me in my apartment. The one here is the one I use the most, since I also use it for school. This is why I have dual boot for Win98. And, I only use Windows for 2 things. 1-Playing Starcraft, 2-Scanning(which I rarely do, unless I want to make a fake ID for someone)

All the other time I'm in Linux...and as a matter of fact right now I'm in Windows, because my friend wanted to play starcraft over battle.net. But when I finish writting this post, I'll immediately switch, , so I'm virtually using Linux only.

I don't use Windows at all.