What would it take for you to switch to Linux?

[VinDSL]

Just curious...

I tried Linux on the Desktop numerous times (since the 90's) but didn't care for it. It revolved around functionality.

That all changed a year or so ago...

I do use Windows, but I have to admit that Linux is my default OS.

Anyway, what would it take for YOU to switch to Linux?

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: VinDSL
Just curious...

I tried Linux on the Desktop numerous times (since the 90's) but didn't care for it. It revolved around functionality.

That all changed a year or so ago...

I do use Windows, but I have to admit that Linux is my default OS.

Anyway, what would it take for YOU to switch to Linux?

Full gaming support, sadly that won't ever happen

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: pcslookout


Full gaming support, sadly that won't ever happen

That's pretty much where I'm at. Ubuntu's my favorite O/S next to Vista, and most of the non game software I use is open source anyway. The only app I'd miss is Foobar2000, and that might work under Wine.

 

[NetGuySC]

It will need to run every program that my win 7 machine runs, and be equivalent or better in reliability, speed and ease of use.

 

[Nothinman]

You should've made this a poll with 2 options games and other. I guarantee that like 99% of the people replying will state games as their reason.

It will need to run every program that my win 7 machine runs, and be equivalent or better in reliability, speed and ease of use.

Running everything Win7 does flawlessly is an impossible, and usually stupid, requirement. What apps do you have that you can't find an alternative for?

And IMO Linux is already ahead in reliability, speed and ease of use so that's a non-issue.

 

[Modelworks]

Gaming isn't an issue for me on deciding to go 100% linux , multimedia is.
My main applications that I use everyday, Maya, XSI both have native linux versions so that is covered. Zbrush runs under wine fine.
My hardware all has drivers.
Video editing is where I run into problems. Linux has some okay video editing programs, but they lack programs for vfx on the level of Avid or Apples Shake. Hopefully Autodesk will continue with more and more linux support and I can drop windows for good.

Autodesk linux support is getting stronger, they have has some great products like Flame, Toxik, Burn, Flint, Flare all that are linux only. Unfortunately these are all very high end products. If you don't have a $100K+ budget you can't afford them, so the market for them remains small.

 

[KeypoX]

I enjoy some linux. But as others I have some problems. Games is one of them. But I dont really play games that often. Especially during the semesters. I might play twice a week for a very short time less than 1 hour. But that is one of the issues.

Another is microsoft office. Open office is not a viable solution, i have tried a few times. But the wine version of office is good enough most of the time. However, random crashes with office on wine is an annoyance and addon support (dont really need that much now) is no existent. Office is not needed as much as it has been so this is not huge issue.

Also i have come accustomed to kmplayer, which uses directdraw... I like vlc but really like kmplayer. However, this is a wash because I could prob config vlc to be pretty close to kmplayer. Real media support seems better in kmplayer.

Hmmm. kernel updates piss me off sometimes. When I had an ati card ubuntu was not usable (tearing and minor graphic issues). Bought nvidia just for linux.

And windows 7 is great, love jump list cannot live without them now, just like when vista got search. And I got windows 7 free, and office 2007 free (years ago).

Oh and windows can downclock my overclocked processor. Cool and quite or whatever its called now. This works in linux/mac only if processor is at stock speeds.

Linux of course has some advantages over windows too. But that wasnt the question. I guess the short answer to the question is jump lists, lol.

Ubuntu 9.10 alpha 6 comes out tomorrow http://www.ubuntugeek.com/ubun...-release-schedule.html

 

[coloumb]

Gaming - from basic indie games to full fledged overpriced blockbuster titles.
Complete and utterly 100% compatibility with MS Office, all of my printers, mouse/keyboard, graphics card, and Nortel Connectivity VPN client.
Same ease of use as Windows Vista/7 - linux distro's have always been technogeek oriented. That's all fun and good - but most people just want to play.

 

[IBuyUFO]

A gun to my head.

 

[nerp]

I really only have a passing interest in computers now and use my machines to get work done. Switching to linux would be a time consuming effort that would take away from my life. I don't enjoy fiddling with stuff anymore so I take no pleasure in learning a new OS. And "finding alternatives" doesn't sound fun to me at all in terms of software. I face no handicaps or limitations by using windows and as a result, see no compelling reason to switch.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: pcslookout

Originally posted by: VinDSL
Just curious...

I tried Linux on the Desktop numerous times (since the 90's) but didn't care for it. It revolved around functionality.

That all changed a year or so ago...

I do use Windows, but I have to admit that Linux is my default OS.

Anyway, what would it take for YOU to switch to Linux?

Full gaming support, sadly that won't ever happen

So true!...I like Linux a lot infact so much so that I uninstalled Win7 on one of my PCs,however gaming is an important factor for me so I still need Windows,now if Linux could run all of my Windows games and have support like Microsoft has for gaming then I would be a Linux user only.

My other PC I don't game on so I see no reason why I should have any Windows OS on that one,happy using Linux on that PC and free too(great that all my hardware is supported as well).

 

[Nothinman]

Hmmm. kernel updates piss me off sometimes. When I had an ati card ubuntu was not usable (tearing and minor graphic issues). Bought nvidia just for linux.

Yea, having to use the closed drivers sucks but you can put packages on hold if you don't want to update them, although you take responsibility for any security patches that you might miss out on.

Oh and windows can downclock my overclocked processor. Cool and quite or whatever its called now. This works in linux/mac only if processor is at stock speeds.

That would be a bug in the ACPI tables in your firmware, at least IIRC it means that your ACPI firmware has a set of static tables defining which clock speeds the CPU supports and Linux won't touch the CPU if doesn't match up with tables. Windows must just ignore those tables, which is probably a bad thing and a bug in Windows.

Complete and utterly 100% compatibility with MS Office, all of my printers, mouse/keyboard, graphics card, and Nortel Connectivity VPN client.

If MS would've went with the OpenDocument XML format already standardized you'd have that, instead they created their own and even called it Office Open XML to confuse people. And if the Nortel VPN is a standard IPSec VPN it should work fine with vpnc.

As for your hardware, it's hard to say without looking into the models but I haven't had any decent hardware not work in a long time.

 

[n0cmonkey]

I'm considering it. The only thing I really need is a new notebook/netbook.

 

[Genx87]

Games, integrate seemlesly into AD, and the ability to run Microsoft Office natively

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: coloumb
Same ease of use as Windows Vista/7 - linux distro's have always been technogeek oriented. That's all fun and good - but most people just want to play.

This is the biggest reason I can't keep non tech oriented people on Linux. Even a well configured system will cause some people issues because certain things are not easy for them to do. Changing bitrates on ripping mp3's for example requires editing a string in both KDE and Gnome. It is little things like this that turn off regular folks. Until both the Gnome and KDE devs realize that ease of use is a feature then Linux will remain a geek os for the most part.

Edit:

The devs of both KDE and Gnome are doing a lot better job but they need to get their desktops to the same level of ease of use as OSX and Win 7.

Edit2:

Another thing, both KDE and Gnome lacks some polish that both Windows and OSX have. KDE is very close but Gnome is still far behind.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: soonerproud


This is the biggest reason I can't keep non tech oriented people on Linux. Even a well configured system will cause some people issues because certain things are not easy for them to do. Changing bitrates on ripping mp3's for example requires editing a string in both KDE and Gnome. It is little things like this that turn off regular folks. Until both the Gnome and KDE devs realize that ease of use is a feature then Linux will remain a geek os for the most part.

Edit:

The devs of both KDE and Gnome are doing a lot better job but they need to get their desktops to the same level of ease of use as OSX and Win 7.

Edit2:

Another thing, both KDE and Gnome lacks some polish that both Windows and OSX have. KDE is very close but Gnome is still far behind.

I agree in general to your first point, but I think you can select bitrates via dropdown box, I'd have to look.

2nd point is personal taste. I love the way Vista looks and feels, Win7 a bit less so. I also love the Gnome desktop, especially with Compiz running. I think it compares very favorably to Windows and OSX. The layout's logical, and with advanced effects on, it makes the other 2 look a little dowdy in comparison.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: soonerproud
This is the biggest reason I can't keep non tech oriented people on Linux. Even a well configured system will cause some people issues because certain things are not easy for them to do. Changing bitrates on ripping mp3's for example requires editing a string in both KDE and Gnome. It is little things like this that turn off regular folks. Until both the Gnome and KDE devs realize that ease of use is a feature then Linux will remain a geek os for the most part.

Edit:

The devs of both KDE and Gnome are doing a lot better job but they need to get their desktops to the same level of ease of use as OSX and Win 7.

Edit2:

Another thing, both KDE and Gnome lacks some polish that both Windows and OSX have. KDE is very close but Gnome is still far behind.

Even a well configured Windows system will cause some people issues because certain things are not easy for them to do.

 

[Nothinman]

Changing bitrates on ripping mp3's for example requires editing a string in both KDE and Gnome.

Using which ripping tool? If you're just using the plugins for Nautilus/Konq I can see why it might be difficult to change the bitrate.

Another thing, both KDE and Gnome lacks some polish that both Windows and OSX have. KDE is very close but Gnome is still far behind.

Polish? Windows still has places with 16-bit icons mixed with 32-bit ones, SysWoW64 has 32-bit stuff, System32 has 64-bit stuffin it, the Documents and Settings link/junction only works for some things, their own patches don't respect temp directory variables and just put their tmp stuff in the root of the drive with the most free space and I'm sure a whole lot more. MS is like the world leader in unpolished software.

 

[Kadarin]

I'm not a huge gamer, but I do play the occasional game. More important would be viable Exchange/Office and ssl vpn support.

 

[Crusty]

Native DirectX gaming.

edit:

I should say that I primarily use Linux, except for C# @ work and gaming.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: coloumb
Same ease of use as Windows Vista/7 - linux distro's have always been technogeek oriented. That's all fun and good - but most people just want to play.

This is the biggest reason I can't keep non tech oriented people on Linux. Even a well configured system will cause some people issues because certain things are not easy for them to do. Changing bitrates on ripping mp3's for example requires editing a string in both KDE and Gnome. It is little things like this that turn off regular folks. Until both the Gnome and KDE devs realize that ease of use is a feature then Linux will remain a geek os for the most part.

Edit:

The devs of both KDE and Gnome are doing a lot better job but they need to get their desktops to the same level of ease of use as OSX and Win 7.

Edit2:

Another thing, both KDE and Gnome lacks some polish that both Windows and OSX have. KDE is very close but Gnome is still far behind.

I guess it depends what you mean by polish ,distros like Ubuntu,Kubuntu,PCLinux etc have easy learning curve IMHO, the software/update download package managers make it quite easy to install/uninstall stuff for the beginner etc.....and even Win7 has nowhere near the minimum hardware specs of a Linux Distro,throw in bloat Windows seems to have compared to Linux and its superior security IMHO ie resistance to malware etc...no contest unless you are a gamer.

When you think how far Linux Distro's have come over the years and all free ,its actually quite amazing IMHO.

Btw you got to love Live CD for Linux distro's.

 

[dfnkt]

Linux Mint with Compiz fully functional right from the get go would probably go a long way to get me to switch.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: dfnkt
Linux Mint with Compiz fully functional right from the get go would probably go a long way to get me to switch.

If you have a recent video chipset from AMD, Nvidia or Intel then just installing the proprietary driver should enable Compiz on both Mint and Ubuntu (Which is all Mint is with a few changes)and both have a tool that will do that for you so essentially that is already the case.



Edited to make more sense

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

I could never use Linux as my main OS. It is horribly buggy which makes sense due to it being a bunch of pieces put together with bubble gum and Elmer's glue. The file hierarchy is a nightmare to use and I dislike having to install almost everything with a package manager. Hey you want to update and install programs? Too bad. Sure you can use a .deb's but they don't always work and are incompatible with every other distribution. It is so frustrating that all the advancements in Linux result in another distribution instead of improving one OS. Take a look at MenuetOS and its fork that uses under 10mb RAM, KolibriOS.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: WaitingForNehalem
I could never use Linux as my main OS. It is horribly buggy which makes sense due to it being a bunch of pieces put together with bubble gum and Elmer's glue. The file hierarchy is a nightmare to use and I dislike having to install almost everything with a package manager. Hey you want to update and install programs? Too bad. Sure you can use a .deb's but they don't always work and are incompatible with every other distribution. It is so frustrating that all the advancements in Linux result in another distribution instead of improving one OS. Take a look at MenuetOS and its fork that uses under 10mb RAM, KolibriOS.

I hope this is a troll post otherwise get on your flame suit.