Why Linux has not totaly replaced Windows (for me...)

leupi · 11-10-2005, 08:02 PM

As a relatively new Linux user I thought that I would relate some of the reasons that I still rely on Windows for a good portion of my computing. I'm sure that once I gain more experience I will be able to find alterier ways of dealing with these issues, but for now

My fiancee lives in Egypt and I live in the US so video chatting is important to us. I played around (briefly) with Gnomemeeting but had trouble figuring it out. I need to invest more time on that, but for now audio with Skype and video with Yahoo fills the need.

I can't get mp3 files to play in Rhythmbox. RealPlayer works but only plays one song at a time and I use my computer as my stereo so that kinda sucks. I'm still working on getting mp3 codecs but am having some problems.

I cant get sound out of my TV tuner card and I also use my computer as my TV. Working on that one too...

My Palm won't sync with Evolution. My old Palm III did but the Palm Tungsten E2 won't.

I own a small business and got hooked on QuickBooks. GNUCash is not an equivilant replacement (for me) and I can't seem to get Quasar working.

I REALLY like Dreamweaver. I tried a few of the linux web design apps but they really could not compete (for me).

I know that most (all) of these issues will be resolved once I put enough time and effort into them; but with a demanding job and 3 kids time is a premium lol

I do like Linux better than Windows and it is a real pain to have to reboot constantly but untill I get these issues resolved I'm kinda stuck. And this is not in any way a rant against Linux, but boy, it is a lot of work sometimes lol

Just my two cents...

Todd

primo · 11-10-2005, 09:15 PM

Where are the 2 cents?

leupi · 11-10-2005, 09:26 PM

see above...

egag · 11-10-2005, 09:49 PM

--------------
I cant get sound out of my TV tuner card and I also use my computer as my TV. Working on that one too...
--------------

you can plug a cable from your tv-card-audio-out to line -in of the MB or soundcard.
( that's what i have )
of course, you'll need a cable

egag.

purelithium · 11-10-2005, 09:58 PM

As for the mp3 thing, Why don't you use amaroK, it's an excellent player, my only gripe is that if you have an album with 2 discs, and you don't specify in the album name that it is disc 1 and disc 2, amaroK will ignore that and group all the tracks together according to number, 1 and 1, 2 and 2, 3 and 3, etc.

But I suggest to try it, also i hear good things about Mplayer.

primo · 11-10-2005, 10:42 PM

As an operating system, Linux (and most non-amateur Unix variants) beat Windows in every way. The software we have available is the result of the (good) will of programmers that have made them available. What you still don't see in GUIs is possible through the command line, but as you've said, it's necessary to take the time to see through the available options. The open sources archives of the web (sourceforge, etc) have grown to be huge. It's a turn-down if you expect it to be perfect because the propaganda was well done.

oneandoneis2 · 11-11-2005, 03:44 AM

Skype runs under Linux just fine. Doesn't do video, tho - only voice

MrSpandex · 11-11-2005, 03:10 PM

I wish Linux had NEAR the ease of configuration of windows, but where would be the fun in that?

Linux is for people who like to solve problems, or that need really good uptimes...

oneandoneis2 · 11-11-2005, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Linux is for people who like to solve problems

Or as it's phrased elsewhere:

. . . (Linux detractors) want it to work out-of-the-box. And that's perfectly okay, but from the typical Linux user's perspective, this is like somebody who wants a Lego car that comes pre-assembled and glued together so it can't come apart.

MrSpandex · 11-11-2005, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by oneandoneis2
Or as it's phrased elsewhere:

. . . (Linux detractors) want it to work out-of-the-box. And that's perfectly okay, but from the typical Linux user's perspective, this is like somebody who wants a Lego car that comes pre-assembled and glued together so it can't come apart.

Yea, lol, I just finished reading that article. I think thats why I quit linux the first two times.

leupi · 11-11-2005, 05:44 PM

I do have the cable going from the tuner card to the soundcard but still no sound. I was given this info and I need to put a bit of time into this:

Quote:

I think this card is using the bttv driver. You can check for this in the output of 'lsmod'. This needs to be loaded with the correct options for this particular model. There is documentation for using the driver in the kernel source code (file Documentation/video4linux/bttv) and also at the home site for the driver (www.bytesex.org).

I will check out amaroK. That's one that I havent tried yet.

And yes, I find that Skype usually runs better under Linux then Windows, maybe because there is less crap running behind the scene with Linux (spyware, etc.) But I sure miss the cam.

I guess that the upside to all this is that once I do get everything working then the system will certainly be tailor made for me. I just hate having to reboot into Windows everythime I want to listen to an old Kink's album. Gotta get the mp3 thing working...

pongmaster · 11-11-2005, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by leupi
Gotta get the mp3 thing working...

Noticed in your profile you list Fedora Core as one of your distro's. You have to download a plugin for Fedora to play mp3's (due to legal blah etc).
Find more info here: http://www.fedorafaq.org/#mp3
I also recommend AmaroK - I don't bother with other audio players anymore as amaroK is just spiffy.

leupi · 11-11-2005, 08:55 PM

I just installed Amarok and it does seem pretty decent. Only problem is that I have found that most of my music is in the m4a format and not the mp3 format. I so far have not found a way to get amarok to play the m4a files. I have found a lot of info on it though so maybe something will work out

purelithium · 11-11-2005, 11:40 PM

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/170553

that should help you convert the files to MP3, although i'm sure there's got to be a way to convert them without losing the id tags.

Maybe this one will work, looks simpler than the above one.

http://www.togaware.com/linux/survivor/m4a_mp3.shtml

p.s. Google is your friend for that kind of stuff.

leupi · 11-12-2005, 09:17 AM

Yes, I have been Googling till my fingers bleed lol

Thanks for the info but I am going to try and find a way to get Amarok to play the m4a files. Through my Googling I have found that there is a way I have just had no luck with it. The reason that I want to stick with the m4a format is that it is quite a bit smaller. I converted a m4a to mp3 and the file size went from about 4 megs to about 6; while that is nothing to worry about on an 80 gig hard drive my iPod is only 4 gig and is about maxxed out.

BTW, all of the suggestions have been great...

Todd