What a load of free OS ..

Off-topic Chatter
1

Well , a lot of folks like to say = What a load of BS , well I have expended on that = What a load of free OS ...

Free OS = Free Operating System ..

There are quite a few to chose from , and I have spent almost 24 hours looking and testing for one that can come close to Windows , and I have come back seriously disappointed .

Its 2013 , and not one free OS comes close to windows ..

What a free OS needs to do !

1. It needs to install ( easily ) where the user wants it . One should merely need to tell the OS where some free space is on a HDD and that's where it installs , problem is many free OS's are still incapable of doing this , and if anything are simply a PAIN in the capital A to install ( huge No No for 2013 ) , and this = a FAIL !

2. Installing 3rd party software , another problem area .. If you cant click on the software , chose install , this is once again a fail , it should be fully automated , so if the free OS is incapable of easily installing software , then its a FAIL !

3. The software cant do everything because its the wrong flavor ! Big fail , especially for Linux , with ? 100+ flavors over the years , a lot of time and energy has been wasted ..

If the Linux community had developed one core linux , that was more automated , less command line dependent ( I hate working with command lines ) , and was as seamless as windows , then Linux might be something more than a Free OS .

4. Why on earth release a free OS and there is no browser for the internet , in fact its almost impossible to install a browser ? Why else do people want a OS for ?

Well , an OS needs to install where the user wants it without drama , point and shoot simplicity , it needs to be able to install software as simply as with a mouse click , if their is more drama involved than that , then it simply can not compete .. And software compatibility , when you need to research which linux can do what , and needs to run bla bla to work with the software you want , why bother ?

I dont want to compromise , I dont want to run 5 different flavors of linux to do 50% of what I can on windows ..

I have nothing against free OS's except that they are rubbish , they dont even come close to windows ..

I guess its a little like flashlights , windows is the expensive bloated bad boy that actually does everything relatively well , while the free OS's are the cheap nasty poorly made stuff that does maybe do a few things well , but simply cant do everything , and others are even worse in that they dont do anything well at all .

One day , I hope , that their is a free OS that can compete with windows , so far I simply have not seen it .. Everything I try , there is a need for the user to compromise his or her desire for the OS's capability to do stuff . ( and I simply refuse to compromise )

So this means Im stuck with the evil empire for now ...

Maybe in 6 months I might try some more free OS's , and see if they can outperform a joke !

2

I understand the frustration. That’s kind of how I felt when I first started trying out Linux distros.

But I must say, I really like Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. I’ve been using it for almost a year now and it has been great so far. It runs better on my machine than Windows and was easier to install. The only real quirk is that you have to use the “Ubuntu Software Center” to install 3rd party software. But once I figured out how to do that, it’s been nothing but love.

My father, who is in his 70’s, learned to use Ubuntu much faster than he did Windows. I think it helped him that he never fully learned Windows, so he had less to un-learn. Ubuntu is much more intuitive to use.

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What distros did you try?

Mint has surpassed Ubuntu in popularity & ease of use for a lot of people.

I’ve never run into a normal distro without a browser.

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Both mint and ubuntu 12.04 work fairly well, I've tried out both. But personally I tend to come back to windows for day to day stuff.

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+1

Have not tried this one, but it sounds a lot like Desktop Shell for Win8.

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In my experience : every Unix distribution (Solaris from the time it stopped being SunOS (Slowlaris) on - and Linux from kernel 1.whatever) from the nineties has required fewer reboots than any version of Winders. And since around 2002 - everything has just worked. Unlike Windows.

But I might not be normal - I ran a Linux box that had an uptime of two-five years at a time till its PSUs died. That box had a cumulative uptime of more than two decades till the fourth PSU died. When I ditched the box.

IME Windows is always harder to install (let alone keep working!) than any Unix-like OS.

I’m a MacOS guy but control a lot of servers most of which run some sort of Winders server. - Just about all of which could be replaced by Linux boxes. For way less money and way more reliability.

I can point to examples of servers that needed Winders Server versions and the silly money they cost.

I’m not a code monkey - last wrote code in 1979. But even with no coding skills at all - most of the Winders Server apps I’ve come across could be replaced with little or no trouble.

But please, please don’t ask me about dental practice management apps! If Kodak sell it, don’t buy it!

7

Another vote here for Zorin.

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Maybe you should be a little more specific as to what it is you don’t seem able to do with a free os that you can with Windows.

I’ve been pretty much exclusively using Linux since 2006, first Ubuntu, and more recently Mint cinnamon based on 12.04. For my needs it knocks Windows into a cocked hat - faster to install and configure, faster in use, more secure and with little or no bloat.

I’ve had the odd occasion where I’ve had to roll up my sleeves and get dirty in the terminal, but the way I see it is that sometimes you have to put a little in to get something in return.

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Thanks for the tip on Zorin guys, I'm downloading it now. :)

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Linux mint 13 KDE, download its iso and use usb drive utility to create a bootable usb to try it out.

its a long term support version and is pretty much a windows xp like interface. Its easy to install the third party graphics drivers if you need them and it has recognised every bit of hardware on over 10 different pc and laptops its been put on. Its also very good at sorting out space for dual booting etc

11

The OS needs to do everything ! ( simple as that )

Edit video , images , Web site design maintenance , P2P , Torrents , etc

Basically everything I do with Win 7 ..

I tried =

ReactOS

NimbleX

ChromeOS

Slax

Ubuntu12.10

Kaiku

and there were a few more , but I kicked them out the door ... ( dont remember any more actual names )

+ In my original post I mentioned some of the things that Free OS's cant do ...

Im going to see if Ubuntu12.10 will install where I want it , past versions have sucked hard on the install ..

Forget which one wanted to integrate with Windows ??? ( WTF for ? )

+ some one said Ubuntu12.10 has steam integrated , perhaps one can play games at last on linux ( no luck in the past )

And this is not about Stability , viruses or trojans - Its about usability ...

And Usability is why windows rules , sure it has problems , but the usability far outweighs such issues ..

If all the linux developers would just get together , build a nice core , a automated core , something that reeked of usability , then Linux might offer some competition to windows ..

But for 80+% of the worlds population , well , they are prepared to pay for usability , simplicity , and seamless automation , and I dont blame them one bit ..

I have tried linux on and off for - is it maybe 15 years .. And in that time I have seen it develop at a snails pace , and most likely because of all the different flavors ( everyone wants their linux to be good at the functions they want )

Bit like building a custom flashlight , everyone will build it their way , to perform the way they want it ..

How unlikely is it , that 10,000 flashlight moders would get together to build one flashlight that does everything well ?

So I cant blame Linux developers , but it will always be , the other OS most people hardly know even exists , or for most is hardly worth trying . ( I know , its free and most people are not interested - there is a reason for that - Windows )

My rant , is more or less an annual one , every year , I download as many free OS's as I can , and try them out ..

If they cant do something = FAIL ! ( such is life )

12

You are aware that "Windows" does nearly nothing, right? Windows doesn't even have a Word Processor... So, lets talk Linux (Any Recent Variety)

Check. Cinelerra is a very advanced video editor. You can also choose from many others - Avidemux, Kdenlive, Kino and LiVES to name a few..

Check. The GIMP. As good (in some ways better) than PhotoShop. Free

Check. Open Office Writer/Web is a great basic one. Screem is a bit more advanced but still very user friendly.

[quote=old4570] P2P , Torrents , etc

[/quote]

Dozens of them. Maybe more. There are ones built into FireFox, qBitTorrent, Vuze, kTorrent

Seems covered..


It will install pretty much anywhere you like. Far more places than Windows will, in fact. You can install it on a secondary hard drive, a secondary partition on your primary hard drive, or have it wipe your current drive and take-over. It will even install Grub for you so that you can choose to boot Linux or Windows at start-up. Windows will not offer you these same options if you start with Linux and then try to add Windows to your system.

I'm not sure which one this was, and I don't know what it means in the context you've spelled out..

The Steam crap can be installed in pretty much any modern Linux OS. What games have to do with a computer, I have no idea..

Usability is great with modern Linux Distributions. I can have a fully functioning machine in 10 minutes. From first power switch to fully functional in 10 minutes. Pretty Awesome, really. They also (for the most part) don't get viruses or trojans.. I love clicking on things that I know would give a nasty cold to a windows machine just to see what it is :)

Could be. Could be personal preference. I find Windows to be a real headache. Update this, Reboot that, and god-forbid you get a screwed up registry or one of those all too common Viruses or Trojans. My Solaris machine.. Just works.. And if I break it, I type "zfs rollback rpool@Yesterday" and it's fixed. It's EXACTLY the way it was yesterday. or the day before. or whatever day I want! I can even go back to Last Week to check how I had something, and then come back to "Today" again in 2 minutes flat.

On the rare occasion that I NEED to run windows for something, I boot it in a virtual machine within Solaris. I get Windows and it's pumped up by that same ZFS file system. If I break windows, "zfs rollback WinSlice@Yesterday" and again - Windows is now exactly (and I mean EXACTLY) the way it was yesterday.

I can't respond to this. I find the *ix OS's to be superior in nearly every way. The command line is horrendously powerful, but every modern Linux/*ix system has windowed tools that will do 99.999% of the configuration that a 'normal' user would want to do. I don't imagine a web surfing, video editing, torrent downloading kind of user would ever need to see the bash prompt.

Neither do I. I don't blame anyone for their opinions, and I sure don't blame them if they want to pay for something they are accustomed to rather than learn to use something else.

Enjoy your Windows :)

PPtk

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installed and ran perfect

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Actually , since Xp SP2 I have enjoyed windows , + there is free office for Windows too .

Win 7 is quite superb , even though I have suffered (2) infections in 2 years ... A lot better than the 5 to 6 infections with say Win 98SE a year ...

Im just about to install Ubuntu 12.10

Yeah , Ubuntu has refused to install where I wanted it ( in the past ) , and once integrated with windows ( Had to wipe the drive and start from scratch )

Some of the earlier Linux versions had better installers ( point and shoot ) , for some strange reason the last few years they have sucked ....

I used to run - win98 - Win 2000 - XP - and a linux flavor ( Quad boot )

And latter Xp - Vista - 7 - Linux Flavor

Funny thing , Linux was always disappointing

And yes , Games are important - I love games ... If it cant play games its rubbish ...

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Obviously, I'm a *ix fan.. Which is why I use mostly *ix operating systems..

Obviously, You are a Windows fan. It's Superb.

Just curious... Why torture yourself? You love windows.. Why fix what isn't broken?

PPtk

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Evil Empire :

Windows is not broken ( not much ) but is owned by Evil , I hate evil ....

So its , damned if I do and damned if I dont ...

Since Im damned either way , I use windows ...

I hope one day to be able to ditch windows , and not support Evil ....

So the search continues for a viable option

17

You've tried Ubuntu but have you tried Kubuntu? It is based on Ubunto but designed for Windows users. Most flavors of Linux come with Firefox, office suites and full media capability. With package handlers you can install any software you want with just a click and never have to touch a command line if you don't want to.

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Ah, I gotcha. You oppose evil and don’t wish to support evil, unless it’s inconvenient. I understand.

PPtk

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There you go , you understand !

Everyone is the same , we tolerate evil as the other option is inconvenient ..

We pay taxes , we allow our ( alleged ) leaders to commit crimes on our behalves , we prop them up , support them , and even allow them to commit treason against us ...

We accept much for convenience : Butt !!! Im looking for an alternative ! and one day soon I hope , I can give up windows ..

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The ubuntu installer has not changed : its a POS

Its trying to install Ubuntu on the same drive with Windows ( what a POS )

The other option is not much of an option as its trying to use every partition I have ...

Once again refusing to go where I want ..

The installers 5 to 7 years ago were better :