4 Nerd-Its - +

Back to Windows

Comment a comment by Peter Bell (gnifyus), published on 15 December 2008
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other nerds have left 10 comments below

I grew up on PC’s, (not counting the ol’ Sinclair computer). They are what my college used in addition to the mainframe Digital VAX11, so I just used them. Now, PC’s with Windows are the only platform that supports any number of CAD/CAM softwares we use at work, so there really is no choice there. I have my home computer dual boot between WinXp and Ubuntu Linux and I have an old laptop with a fully installed Ubuntu 8.0 distribution in an attempt to force myself to use it. (Just because I guess) I always wind up coming back to Windows. Linux in its many flavors can make a fine system, but just trying to install software and have driver compatibility without using NDisWrapper or something is frustrating and not for the casual user. Trying to understand where everything has to go and why, takes more than the average computer user’s knowledge even though as time goes on mainstream Linux is slowly getting easier in these areas.
I have to say I have absolutely no Apple knowledge whatsoever unless you count the few times I fooled around in the Apple store at the mall.
As far as stability goes, I run memory and graphics intensive programs (Solidworks / Surfcam) all day long and rarely have to reboot or have a crash. My home PC runs for weeks and weeks on XP without having to be reset, and usually that’s due to a software installation or other update. For whatever reason I don’t seem to be having enough problems to even come close to wanting to switch to another operating system (or processor). For the record, I’ve had just as many lock-ups and crashes in Linux as I’ve ever had in Windows, though neither has been very frequent.
(I still have a complete Commodore 64 in my basement that I rescued from a dumpster if smcbride wants to go back to a computer that boots up in 1 second.)

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3 Nerd-Its - +
RE: Back to Windows by LinuxCanuck :: NR0

You can’t fault anyone for a decision that they have reasoned out as being best for them. If Linux users do embrace choice, then we have to respect it even when that choice is to look elsewhere. To not use Linux is as valid a choice as it is to use it.

However, your experience with Linux does not mirror my own. I do not have crashes or lock ups and wonder what you were using that caused this. A stable release of any of the major distros should be just that. If you are using an experimental release or were trying the bleeding edge, then that could explain it. I use Ubuntu 8.10 on more than one computer with no problems. I have 12 or more distros installed, some of them experimental and have few problems, certainly nothing that would be like yours.

In Windows, I don’t have as many crashes as in the past, but it is not as productive with all of the updating and re-booting. I can’t work for a good ten minutes when I boot into Windows and a have to click on this or that to enable or disallow an update before I can even start. If it asks me to re-boot and I say no, it nags me every 9 minutes until I give in.

It is all what the user thinks is better. I know what works for me and you know what works for you. Good luck!

Posted 16 December 2008, Hide, Parent, Reply
1 Nerd-It - +
RE: Back to Windows by Anonymous :: NR0

i switched to ubuntu from windows for two reasons:

1. i LOVE opensource
2. microsoft is evil

so it really, really broke my heart to have to switch back to windows eight months later. what forced my hand? device support. after trying to access and write data to 4 different cell phones, two mp3 players and a camera i just gave up on ubuntu – if i ever did manage (after hours or days of reading and tweaking) to gain access to the device, it was always far more limited than was workable, and a couple of the phones I was NEVER able to gain access to and the mp3 players could only be accessed as external drives and both would only play some of the albums regardless of switching id3 tag versions about a hundred times – album by album.

dual operating systems make little sense to me (and the concept pisses me off) so i just switched back to windows xp.

ubuntu is a superior operating system imo, but i’m just not willing to live without full, simple device support – whether it be the fault of the device manufacturers or ubuntu developers makes little difference to me, the end user, who finds it impossible to sync pretty much anything with ubuntu.

Posted 23 December 2008, Hide, Parent, Reply

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