I do some volunteer database work for a group so I have one box with Win95 and Office 97. Fire that up for the Access but use Linux for everything else. Use Access because that is the one program that is common to everybody that needs to use the database.

Re: Linux is great, but can you live without Windows?
 

i'm lucky to enough to say i have enough pc's to run both.. i run w98 for my work (from home), Linux as mail/webserver, w2000 on my test-pc.. and i have a Mac Powerbook to travel :}}

I can almost live without Windows. I have my main PC setup as d/b Win98SE and (currenlty... still) Mandy 8.2. The other PC that I have (sort of) working runs Mandy 8.2, Slack 8.1 and (hopefully soon) SuSE 8.0. I'm trying to install Slackware onto a 3rd... but not having much fun with it! The only thing that I use Windows for these days is to play games. I know I could play games most of the same games under Linux with WineX, but I really can't be arsed with that at the moment.

i never use windows. ever. I only ever used to for word....

I'm a Linux user since 1992 (slackware, kernel 0.99) but until recently there was a lot of things I wasn't unable to do with Linux (all related to audio & video) so I was using Windows in happiness... until I began a software project in C++. At that moment I discovered the way I can make mistakes without having to press the reset button and wait long loadings. Adding little stories about "spyware" on Wxp to the hangups and the fact I can REALLY do all that I was doing in Wdz was enough to do the TOTAL move. Maybe GAMING is not a strong point of Linux but I prefer to watch movies and meet people. And sometimes I need to boot Wdz to do scanning because Linux cannot drive my toy (bad choice) but surely I'll fix this soon with Wine or Bochs.

I use Windows in such as minimal way...that I've started to forget where everything is...specially with WinXp...I'm just like "what the hell is this, and where in hell am I"
WinXp is hell...only with a colourfull appearence...

The only thing that I haven't done in Linux that I used to do in windows is scanning. My scanner is really old, and I think I will just have to get a new one. Tried getting it to work with sane but it's too much effort for something I use perhaps one time a month.

Although my box is dual boot with win right now, I haven't booted into windows in a few months, and when I get a new computer (in a few days woo hoo!!) I'm not going to bother with windows at all.

I'm noticing a trend here, that the gamers are the ones that depend on windows the most, so the question is, is gaming better on windows, or is it just that there aren't enough games available for Linux? Perhaps the gamers should start pressuring game developers to port to Linux. Me, I use PS/2 for gaming and leave the computer for serious :) work.

I have linux, but I still do use windows for gaming.

bulliver, the answer is both. Most games are for Windows...and the games that do run under Linux usually have better graphics in Windows, because MOST video adapters are made thinking of Windows only!, well what a surprise if something doesn't work to it's full capable ability...the shitty and medriocre drivers that companies like nVidia put out aren't worth crap...my 14 year old sister can program a better driver than what they put out...so it's not Linux's fault...it's the damn companies that make the hardware that don't make fully capable drivers for Linux because they are afraid of GNU/GPL...and afraid of getting their code "stolen"...which on the contrary people would make better...and thus would actually outperfom the Windows drivers!
but oh well...it's all politics, ;)

yup, i only rely upon windows for gaming at this point. i have an xbox and a ps2, but gaming is much better for most games on a computer.

i've decided there are 3 factors that will cause me to get rid of windows.

1. getting all of my games to work in linux (and not using a buggy emulator)
2. geting sound drivers i don't have to pay 35 fucking bucks for.
3. more hardware support


btw........why do linux users constantly complain about microsoft? you sound like a bunch of whining kids!! jesus, get a frickin helmet.

send me your sister's driver. seriously, if it performs better, then i'd love to have it.............

there are a lot of people that write video drivers for windows, not just nvidia, individuals......... if you're not happy with the drivers, and you claim it's easy to write, why don't you write one?

My family and I like my paycheck, and since I work at a Windoze-based shop that also does a lot of mainframe work, I get to "do" Windoze 8 hours per day.

At home, it's a different story. I use Linux. My kids use Windoze, 'cause they're young and haven't learned to appreciate the finer things in life -- yet :D ! My wife doesn't care. Windows/shmindows as long as she can do what she wants when she wants on her PC that's what matters and can keep her Handspring synched (I also synch it on my Linux box -- you know, just in case Windows does its BSOD thing).

because the people that actually write the drivers are the people that know what the hardware is like, they know the circuitry, they know everything about the chip. IF you don't know crap about the chips, then how the hell are you going to write anything for it if you don't know how to make the code so that the hardware understand it??
I don't know the hardware to make a driver, because I haven't taken a part one nor have I studied its parts nor did I build it. The analogy of my sister writting a better driver, is to illustrate what dumbasses are the people that actually KNOW the hardware and still write SHIT drivers!!!
And that's the way it is, even if you don't like knowing the truth.

how exactly do you know they are shit drivers? you said yourself you don't know the circuitry, the video chipsets and how they work, ets... which also means, you don't know how drivers work. so, explain to me how YOU know they are shit drivers?

the point is this. if you don't like it, do it yourself instead of complaining about it. if you can't do it, then shutup and let the experts do it. :tisk:

lol, the simplest of the answers. Try rendering 3D and 4D images in Linux like you do in Windows or a Mac....GOOD LUCK.
Windows nor Mac's do it better because they are better systems...they do it better because the hardware's Drivers were design to work for Windows and Macs.
Why is it that you need to go through so much problem to make all the 3d accelerators work in Linux?, because the very much capable programers that program all the perfectly working Windows and mac drivers do not do the same goob job as they should for Linux. Why?, because the politics of the companies do not let them. They are fully capable, I am not knocking down their capabilities at all, yet the Drivers are still crap.
You don't need to be an expert engineer to know that the car isn't working when it wont start up in the morning...specially if you took it in for repairs the day earlier...that just means that the engineers that "fixed" the car did a SHITTY job doing their job.
Same thing with Video drivers...if I have to edit so many things, and I need to modify the drivers so that high 3d rendering games work in Linux, that can only mean ONE thing...the Drivers are shitty, cuz they don't work outta the box...unlike in Windows and in Macs.

Bro, there's no way around it man. Most video drivers for Linux just let you use Xwindow....if you want to do a slightest thing more..you gotta get dirty and modify something.
If this was not the case...then it would most certainly mean that the drivers are good anc capable of doing what they OUGHT to do.

Otherwise...they are just crap for the most part...I can only use 60% of my card...and the other 40% dump it down the drain because of these incomplete drivers.

I don't need to do crap about the drivers, this is why I give out my hard earned money and buy the hardware that comes with shipped "drivers" or that you can download drivers from their websites...That is why they get paid, to make the software fully utilize the hardwares capabilities...but no....for the most part we get crap.
It's the truth...at least for Linux.