Because Shiny Things Are Fun - The New New Windows v Linux Thread

Originally Posted by sundialsvcs C'mon, what did Teletubbies ever do to you? That you would utter the name of perfectly-respectable space creatures, and Microsoft Windows ... in the selfsame sentence ... is deplorable. After all, all they ever did was to treat you to a clip of a three-year old kid washing dishes ... playing the same clip four times in a row ... in a thirty-minute episode ... However, in that respect, both Teletubbies and Microsoft Windows are the same: a good joint makes the going much easier.

Fair comment, sorry Tubbies ~:-(

>.< -- *doesn't hate teletubbies*

I thought I'd share my experience with you. Yesterday I installed Windows 7 (unfortunately I need it for work). Anyway, I'll probably sound like those newbies that come to LQ crying that linux is crap and nothing works with it. Without being biased, I can honestly say that so far my experience with Win7 has been similar.

Last time I had so many problems with getting things up and running was in 2005 when I tried to install some packages on FC4 without a working internet connection.

People moan that the wifi support on linux is crap. It might not be great, but at least my usb wifi adapter is recognised out of the box in Slackware (and most other distros). I had to browse some websites in German (which I hardly know) to download the win7 64-bit driver for it and transfer it then to the desktop.
Once I've gone online there were those constant updates and annoying reboots. Some of the updates messed up the resolution, btw.
While trying to make the system usable (ie. actually install there some programs) I got frustrated again because of the constant need to reboot.
The audio driver kept crashing the system but eventually I downloaded some other one which seems to be ok for the time being.

There were more points when I got annoyed with something not working but I guess it might have been due to the fact that I am not used to Windows 7.

Anyway, my two conclusions from the last 2 days are:

1. YMMV, but on my custom built computer, Slackware installation is much easier and quicker than the installation of Win7 (I'm talking about the period starting from inserting the DVD to having a fully functional desktop)
2. It's silly that I paid MS so much money just to get frustrated. I mean over the last 6 years there were moments where I got upset with linux as well, but at least I didn't pay for it.

Just regarding the reboots, most people don't know that you don't have to reboot after every program/driver they install, even if the installation routine asks for that. Just install all the stuff you want and then make one reboot. Worked fine every time I have done it, and that is literally thousands of times.

Originally Posted by sycamorex Some of the updates messed up the resolution, btw.

Windows still does that? I remember that happening last time I had to do a Windows install (which was with XP).

Originally Posted by TobiSGD Just regarding the reboots, most people don't know that you don't have to reboot after every program/driver they install, even if the installation routine asks for that. Just install all the stuff you want and then make one reboot. Worked fine every time I have done it, and that is literally thousands of times.

Thanks, I didn't know about it. Another thing that I found annoying is the need to close other applications when installing something. In some cases you can't ignore it (eg. the update of IE8 to 9 won't proceed unless you close all the other apps).

Originally Posted by Nylex Windows still does that? I remember that happening last time I had to do a Windows install (which was with XP).

It took a few other updates and reboots to fix it.

Imagine in this day of age, win7 stills needs to do reboots after installing drivers.

Originally Posted by Frank111 Imagine in this day of age, win7 stills needs to do reboots after installing drivers.

It doesn't need to, in most cases, but since it users most likely are not really computer literate it is recommended. By the way, if you don't know your way around you have to do that in Linux, too, to get the new driver to work, especially when it comes to graphics drivers.

By the way, if you don't know your way around you have to do that in Linux, too, to get the new driver to work, especially when it comes to graphics drivers.

When an NVIDIA (proprietary) driver update rolls around:

• Kill X (init 3 or whatever other method you use to drop to console)
• rmmod nvidia; modprobe nvidia
• Restart X

Congratulations, you've just successfully updated your GPU driver without restarting.

Originally Posted by MrCode When an NVIDIA (proprietary) driver update rolls around: Kill X (init 3 or whatever other method you use to drop to console) rmmod nvidia; modprobe nvidia Restart X Congratulations, you've just successfully updated your GPU driver without restarting.

You know your way around, so it is no problem for you, but it is a problem for a newbie, even to the point that if you install a graphics driver with Ubuntu's Additional Drivers program it also demands a restart.
By the way, it was easily possible to do something similar with the NVidia's driver in XP, but did you know that, or did you just restart (assuming that you used XP and NVidia at some time)?

Originally Posted by Sumguy Here are a few examples: Ohm here's one: One day in Windows, my Outlook Express just stopped working....I worked on it for days to no avail. The only "solution" was to reinstall Windows.

Wow, that takes me back! The same thing happened to me (on the family Windows '95 box) shortly before I bought my own PC for the first time - and that was the final straw that made me abandon any notion of sticking with what was familiar 'to avoid having to learn about the system.' The box I got was second-hand and OS-free, so I stuck Linux on it. That was in 2001, and I've been a happy Linux user ever since.

Incidentally, the first Linux I tried was Red Hat 5.2, which was already old then. As well as being nice and easy to install and use, I found the GUI had features that I still haven't seen in Windows to this day.

I restart Linux all the time because I am lazy and sudo reboot is very easy!

I only restart if there's a kernel update or NVIDIA module/nvidia-utils update…but even then, I don't technically have to restart:

$ su -c "init 3"
Password:
<drops to console>
<logs in>
$ su
Password:
# rmmod nvidia
# modprobe nvidia
# init 5
<logs into Xfce again>
<switches back to tty to log out of it>
<switches back to X>

Bam.

EDIT: WTF, I posted a shorter version of that above.

I would like to add my 2 cents, since I work with windows and Linux servers everyday, as it's my job. They both have their place in the enterprise.

That said, I enjoy working on both. They both have their fair share of pros & cons.

With 2008 and 2003, I rarely ever have to many issues that arent configuration related or that wouldn't affect any server, be it linux, windows, frebsd or Unix.

Linux is great in that you can get customize almost every part and how it behaves. windows is great because almost every application written, whether it is a game, enterprise app or utility is supported.

With drivers, I have had my fair share of headaches with both O/S's. I think the worst thing with MS is that everything needs to have a license that's, for the most part, expensive and that all the code is proprietary.

Yes, there are more Virus's and Malware out trying to take down a windows machine. But if a user dues his due diligence in protecting his/her machine, then one rarely has an issue. It does seem like windows has a new hole found and published daily, but Linux also has its fair share of holes. I think the issue with windows, is it is used by 80% of the population (who has a computer). Which makes it more of a target.

I think MS has done a nice job with each release of the server O/S. Vista was a pretty bad O/S. But XP and win 7 work just fine in my organization. I have SL and Centos servers running as well, and they are rock solid as well.

So, I think this may sum it up. If you just want things to work, without being able to customize too much, use windows. If you want things to work perfectly, with a lot of tweaking, use Linux.