What is Linux missing that you would require to complete get off Windows?

[beer]

Well, of what I do on a regular basis, Linux is missing the following software:

P2P
Macromedia suite (Dreamweaver and Flash)

Photoshop would be nice...I would not like to learn the GIMP because I already know Photoshop, and have been using it for years. Kazaa may work through WINE, but I know for sure that Dreamweaver and Flash don't.

What is it missing for you?

 

[AT]

Games. Everything else (web, programming, email, word prosessing, spread sheets) I can do just as well with Linux.

P2P? A lot of Gnutella clients, DC, EDonkey.

Edited: cant properly read so didn't notice you were missing Kazaa.

 

[beer]

Kazaa

Gnutella clients never have what' I'm looking for. DC is only good for very large files IMO. Like movies.

 

[Lint21]

Just games. If I could play all my games in Linux with no problem, I'd use it full-time.

 

[BeHeMOTH]

application support, that the big thing. I use alot of stuff and play games.

 

[beer]

Well application support is the big thing for us all thats obvious

The question is, which apps?

 

[Gaunt]

Games would be nice.

Hardware support would be nice as well... and not hardware support you have to guess at. Mandrake was the last distro I tried, and it did a fairly good job of figuring itself out for regular hardware, but things like force feedback wheels aren't supported as far as I know, but that would come with the games, and from the hardware manufacturer, and isn't really the fault of linux.

Also, I've been working with computers for quite some time, and have quite an assortment of experience. I can figure linux out, and with the help of online documentation, I can figure out what I can't figure out. Unfortunately, everything is a chore. I've first got to look for a file I've got to go at with a text editor, then I've got to find a text editor I can control reasonably well (vi? ... come on) then I can guess at the contents of the file until my hardware and software work properly. Nothing is cut and dried.

Installation of applications is a pain as well. Sure, download, untar, unzip, unwhatever, then configure, make and install. I guess that works, but it's really not a pretty solution.

I was an avid user of DOS for many years, and I would much prefer the intricacies of DOS to the confusion of linux. Maybe it's just in recent years that prefer my machine to work for me, and not me for it...

 

[tart666]

how about a better (FASTER, and more responsive) X server? The one that does not require to recompile nvidia drivers? Drivers that are not specific to every MINOR kernel version? All of the soft available in rpm form. I am seriously sick of compiling soft, can you tell? I am a USER and not a developer.

Case in point: Nvidia 2960 drivers for SUSE 8.0 (SUSE 8.0 specific binary rpm, the best possible solution I thought). I downloaded rpm's, installed, looks fine. Restart X, then BAM: everything hangs. Lots of people are having this issue, judging from nvforums.

Mandate: normal users should not switch to linux until most basic issues such as this are ironed out. Nvidia seems pretty active in Linux support, but even they mess up every now and then. Until this is rectified I won't switch guaranteed. (even though I spent the $80 on Suse 8 Pro. Still a good investment I think, it should ecnourage SUSE to keep working)

my 2 ¢

T

 

[m0ti]

For P2P, there's always LimeWire.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: tart666
how about a better (FASTER, and more responsive) X server?

Thats not linux's problem, thats cfree86's problem. Or the X consortium or whoever is in charge.

The one that does not require to recompile nvidia drivers?

X does not require it. nVidia doesnt play nice, so they dont get the good stuff. Complain to nVidia to stop being dicks about it and open up the drivers under the GPL.

Drivers that are not specific to every MINOR kernel version? All of the soft available in rpm form.

rpmfind.net

I am seriously sick of compiling soft, can you tell? I am a USER and not a developer.

lusers probably shouldnt be trying out linux using slackware. Compiling software has always been easier than rpms for me.

Case in point: Nvidia 2960 drivers for SUSE 8.0 (SUSE 8.0 specific binary rpm, the best possible solution I thought). I downloaded rpm's, installed, looks fine. Restart X, then BAM: everything hangs. Lots of people are having this issue, judging from nvforums.

Complain to nVidia.

Mandate: normal users should not switch to linux until most basic issues such as this are ironed out. Nvidia seems pretty active in Linux support,

Read my previous comments. Their linux support is sub-par.

but even they mess up every now and then. Until this is rectified I won't switch guaranteed. (even though I spent the $80 on Suse 8 Pro. Still a good investment I think, it should ecnourage SUSE to keep working)

Thank god.

 

[vash]

Linux is missing:

Half-Life client that is compatible with VAC.

That's all I'd need, really. For MS Word/Excel, I can get by with OpenOffice.org and I'm sure I could use the Mozilla email client out there. I'm digging Linux and have been using it more often, but the constant reboot to play Counter-Strike or DOD is a real pain. Quake3 is nice, but I want CS.

Valve would get even a larger install base if they ported their client to Linux.

vash

 

[Whitecloak]

Originally posted by: Lint21
Just games. If I could play all my games in Linux with no problem, I'd use it full-time.

 

[Sunner]

A bunch of games.
WINE was a complete PITA last time I had a go at it, might try it again some day.

For work though, I use Linux almost exclusively(I need to keep a Windows box around for Outlook and the admin GUI for FW-1).

As for nVidia's drivers, I've never had a problem with them, and as long as they work, I dont mind them being in binary form.
They perform just as well as their Windows counterparts, which is more than can be said about most manufacturers, which to me maked them the best Linux drivers available for consumer cards.
The whole "tainted kernel, no GPL" thing isn't an issue for me as Im not very religious about the whole GPL thing, Im a technician, not a politician.

 

[dukdukgoos]

Mostly games...I think Linux would see a big jump in adoption if they concentrated on game porting/graphics performance

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Sunner
A bunch of games.
WINE was a complete PITA last time I had a go at it, might try it again some day.

For work though, I use Linux almost exclusively(I need to keep a Windows box around for Outlook and the admin GUI for FW-1).

ugh, three of the worst POSes of all time.

As for nVidia's drivers, I've never had a problem with them, and as long as they work, I dont mind them being in binary form.
They perform just as well as their Windows counterparts, which is more than can be said about most manufacturers, which to me maked them the best Linux drivers available for consumer cards.
The whole "tainted kernel, no GPL" thing isn't an issue for me as Im not very religious about the whole GPL thing, Im a technician, not a politician.

Matrox releases specs for their cards (atleast the G line). Im not a huge GPL fan, but I an a fan of open source/free software (gpl and other gplish licenses/bsd and bsdish licenses). I dislike something I cant fiddle with.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: Sunner
A bunch of games.
WINE was a complete PITA last time I had a go at it, might try it again some day.

For work though, I use Linux almost exclusively(I need to keep a Windows box around for Outlook and the admin GUI for FW-1).

ugh, three of the worst POSes of all time.

As for nVidia's drivers, I've never had a problem with them, and as long as they work, I dont mind them being in binary form.
They perform just as well as their Windows counterparts, which is more than can be said about most manufacturers, which to me maked them the best Linux drivers available for consumer cards.
The whole "tainted kernel, no GPL" thing isn't an issue for me as Im not very religious about the whole GPL thing, Im a technician, not a politician.

Matrox releases specs for their cards (atleast the G line). Im not a huge GPL fan, but I an a fan of open source/free software (gpl and other gplish licenses/bsd and bsdish licenses). I dislike something I cant fiddle with.

Well, I agree it would be nice if they released it under some sensible open source license, but I respect their decision not to, it's their software as well as their hardware, and they may do as they like, and like I said, as long as it works in the end, Im a happy camper.

And the FW-1 GUI isn't that bad, just a "tad" slow

 

[Codewiz]

X does not require it. nVidia doesnt play nice, so they dont get the good stuff. Complain to nVidia to stop being dicks about it and open up the drivers under the GPL.

That sure isn't going to happen. They do not want other video card competitors to see how they do their drivers. People for the most part have always respected the quality of nvidia drivers so that means that nvidia doesn't want anyone to know their approach to drivers.

I am not saying that is the best approach but I understand why they do that.

 

[Nothinman]

Unfortunately, everything is a chore. I've first got to look for a file I've got to go at with a text editor, then I've got to find a text editor I can control reasonably well (vi? ... come on) then I can guess at the contents of the file until my hardware and software work properly. Nothing is cut and dried.

I personally think Linux is more 'cut and dried' than Windows is, once you get used to the way things work they're a lot more straight forward and less convoluted. Sure some of the file formatting is different, but any respectable program will come with an example config file or a man page explaining the layout and such.

And for the record, vi rocks =)

Installation of applications is a pain as well. Sure, download, untar, unzip, unwhatever, then configure, make and install. I guess that works, but it's really not a pretty solution.

You mean 'apt-get install program_name'. If you're compiling from source that's your choice, 99.9% of the Linux programs out there don't require you to compile from source any more, at the very least they usually have an RPM for those type of distros.

Maybe it's just in recent years that prefer my machine to work for me, and not me for it...

Debian. Once you're over the learning curve there's practically no maintenance. I've had the same Debian install for ~3 years and I don't plan on getting rid of it any time soon.

I think Linux would see a big jump in adoption if they concentrated on game porting/graphics performance

How do you expect the Linux community to port closed source games developed by another company? The resources are there, ask iD, game developers just have to start using them.

They do not want other video card competitors to see how they do their drivers.

I've heard there's a lot of licensed code in them that they don't own so they can't legally release the source.

 

There need to dump X and get a real framebuffer GUI. Oh wait, that's why I love OS X

I love Linux as a server, but as long as the GUI is slow, clunky and ugly, I will pass on it as a workstation.

 

[beer]

Originally posted by: dwell
There need to dump X and get a real framebuffer GUI. Oh wait, that's why I love OS X

I love Linux as a server, but as long as the GUI is slow, clunky and ugly, I will pass on it as a workstation.

Since OS X is UNIX based, can you do command line commands? What extent is it like UNIX? And how much of a Linux command line is like UNIX?

 

[Nothinman]

There need to dump X and get a real framebuffer GUI. Oh wait, that's why I love OS X

OS X's GUI has been noticably slower than X on any of my Linux boxes. And with OS X you lose some of the best things about X, like the network transparency.

Since OS X is UNIX based, can you do command line commands? What extent is it like UNIX? And how much of a Linux command line is like UNIX?

Pretty much everything is there, it's basically FreeBSD userland with a Mach kernel and an Apple GUI. Command parameters may differ a little between the BSD and GNU versions, but it's close enough you can figure it out easily.

 

[dukdukgoos]

It's not that the open source guys need to supply the games, but the Linux community, including its big corporate backers, should work with the game companies to make it worth their while to do the ports. If it was relatively easy for game companies to do a Linux port (support, tools, good APIs, etc.) and there was a decent profit potential, they'd do it.

 

Since OS X is UNIX based, can you do command line commands? What extent is it like UNIX? And how much of a Linux command line is like UNIX?

The Unix core is a BSD variant. You can do most of the Unix CLI stuff on OS X as well as compile most utils.

OS X's GUI has been noticably slower than X on any of my Linux boxes. And with OS X you lose some of the best things about X, like the network transparency

I would trade off network transparency for speed. OS X Jaguar looks a lot snappier than the previous versions. It's even offloading a lot of the GUI stuff to the GPU now using OpenGL.

 

[Nothinman]

I would trade off network transparency for speed.

I don't see the lack of speed in X, so I can't say the same.

OS X Jaguar looks a lot snappier than the previous versions. It's even offloading a lot of the GUI stuff to the GPU now using OpenGL.

It does sound good, but I'll hold off reviews until I get to use it (a friend has a 1Ghz G4 tower and I'm sure he'll get Jaguar for it), and of course it's another paid upgrade.

 

[Armitage]

FWIW, what X speed problem? I honestly don't see any, and I run KDE, which is certainly not the fastest environment.

And the network transparency is great. I use it all the time. Losing that, multiple desktops, and a decent command line are incredibly frustrating whenever I have to do something on a windows box.

The only issue I've had recently was needing a decent, consumer level 3D/architectural CAD program. Had to pollute my box with a Win2K dual-boot for a few months to run TurboCAD.

And of course, at work it's Lotus Notes. But that's more of a stupid management decision then anything.