Linux Needs to Master Hardware to Beat Windows

Page 5 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
What are you talking about? Installing all the drivers and configure enviroment in MS win is a nightmare.. You're basically facked without a DVD to networkinterface(s). Using all big distros last 5 years and I just fly through installations and configurations. Like someone said: How easy is MS win when it's becoming a little shaky. dl another spammy softy to try to solve the problem. Run through 1000's of 'next' 'I agree' 'choose' - windows - clickin'; still don't know what you'ra doing.
Right - you think you have a master in computer science since you have downloaded and installed thousands of win32 programs last 10 years? Mmm.. Master in clicking!

When it comes to hardware support I disagree on some points; MS can't actually read disk in a good manner. Several times people come to me with a 'broken' disk. ALL of those I have been able to read in a linux shell enviroment and NONE of them have not even been listed in an MS OS. Great job MS.

Futhermore I agree folks - stay away from Linux. Better for me and your brain will not cook..
 
Some of the points in this document are irrelevant. Hardware is always one step ahead of the software that is written for it. Try installing Windows XP on any new machine. You will have the same result, you will need to install multiple drivers to get it up and running. Linux is actually better in this regard as all drivers are compiled/linked into the kernel. So you will get more support right out of the box with Linux than you will with Windows XP. GNU/Linux eventually gets support for the hardware, but sometimes it doesn't happen overnight. As to the statement about the Dell Vostro wireless for example, some distributions such as Fedora / Red Hat have support for the Dell Wireless card now. The problem is that the driver seems to be a proprietary one from Broadcom. If the driver was open source it would have been included sooner I'm sure.

http://members.apex-internet.com/sa/windowslinux
 
I've read the Windows Vista chapter of the book, and it seems to be written in a quite "Anti-Microsoft" way. The book seems not to be quiet objective it only shows the advantages of free software and the disadvantages of closed software; a book making the inverse could be a good idea :).
Come on! Keith Curtis try to be more objective next time; and i'm sure i'll keep on reading.
BTW; it shows some experiences of final users with home-made test! That cannot be taken as general information it's just a personal experience!
More objective and general information, plus different point of views would be nice (for not to say MANDATORY)
 
I love linux having it work fine right now 😀 most of the hardware i have worked out of the box. I'm running ubuntu studio edition, and had mint installed on another friends computer, the biggest, and only thing holding me to windows is games 🙁 if there was a way to have full gaming on linux i would probably not be running windows 7 right now... although 7 is pretty...
 
[citation][nom]rbarone69[/nom]I think you're being a bit harsh there... It's not that they don't care, it's the engineers have a hard time empathizing with the end users.Good strong leadership, a consortium of some sorts, that makes standards, checks standards, monitors quality and guides development by recruiting the proper individuals to do the job. Going to be hard to find good quality leadership that will do that for free while they are tied up working 12-18hrs per day at their normal job (like I am).So you end up with a bunch of talented engineers that either love the challenge, need the ego fueled or simply want to help the community all with very little insight as to what 95% of users need in a computer.[/citation]

this is the point. what linux offers isn't based on what consumers want and need. it's based on what this small community want and need. this is why linux will and forever be where it is. and i know linux will forever stay at where it is.

i am not being harsh. i'm being realistic. why can't the community come together and make a big effort to develop a windows xp like linux. why must it be an individual effort? why not make an effort for the sake of the consumers?

if linux developers really want people to use the os, then they should make strides so consumers will like it [that is make it according to the need of the consumers]. but this sort of motto or concept doesn't exist in anyone in linux. this is why linux will be an os people don't give a crap about. you don't care about the consumers, and the consumers aren't going to care about you. end of story. linux isn't based on the need of the consumers, so it's going to be a dead end.

everyone keeps saying how great the open community this and that. if it's so great then why don't people use more of the os? the question is already answered.

 



FYI, ive been using linux for a while (arch linux mind you, one where you have to set everything up manually), and no the ATI linux drivers are not there yet. Sure some cards work, but by no means all of them. I have 2 4850's at the moment, and regardless of which driver i use (the open source radeon or radeonhd), direct rendoring doesn't start up properly, and therefore make the desktop beyond jerking. I have tried a million xorg.conf but to no avail. When i have time i will try enabling KMS, and also trying with only 1 card plugged in, but alas work takes priority over tinkering.
 
[citation][nom]randomizer[/nom]Neither is Windows, it's based on what Microsoft thinks consumers need.[/citation]

microsoft copied their work from apple. apple made products for people. remember, before apple, computers were only for business and professionals. when apple showed up, they made computers for everyone. it means apple made it accessable. to make something accessable would mean to put the needs of the consumer in the product.

microsoft copied what apple were doing so they can get those from apple computers into pc computers as well as those outside of apple computers. linux needs to do the same, that is do what microsoft did with apple. but this isn't happening.

microsoft is extremely vulnerable right now. you have firefox, which is kicking their ass. you have google, which is kicking the butts of yahoo and msn. you have handheld devices, which are killing the zune. you have the 360, which is slowly being demolished by the ps3. with the situation on the pc os, you have windows vista and windows 7, which are not doing so well. this shows that there is an opening, an opportunity to sweep them off their feet. but linux doesn't want that opportunity. but linux likes to stay small so they can complain and have their special little thing going on for them.
 
Linux is not a commercial product. It is not run by a company that has a responsibility to shareholders. It is not there to control the market. Microsoft and its products have these traits. How big Linux gets depends more on the people than on Linux. If people are happy to stick with Windows, they will, and nobody should force them off it onto Linux as that is depriving them of their freedom to choose. But nobody should force people to stick to Windows either, or any other OS.

The problem is that Microsoft being in a vulnerable position is not necessarily a good thing. Google is gaining ground, but Google is not a friend of the open source community. As Keith mentioned in his book, Google is extremely secretive and while their software is free, you can't do anything but use it. The only difference between Google and Microsoft is that one company charges for the product and the other uses ad revenue for profits. Their business models don't really differ beyond that. Both companies want to own the market with proprietary products and block out competitors.
 
Microsoft has a lot to do with the lack of Linux drivers. With companies creating things like "Winmodems" and the like that only work with Windows. This has always been the problem with Linux. I love Linux but have never been able to get it to work with wireless on my laptops. I also think that the cool thing about Linux is the very thing that will prevent it from becoming a Microsoft/Mac killer. There are too many distros and its a pain installing generic linux apps. People want ease of use, they don't want to comb forums to figure out how to install something. They want to buy software bring it home and stick a disc in and install it. Yes I love free apps too, but people who think the free apps are "just as good" are smoking something. A serious photographer is not going to choose Gimp over Photoshop. Gimp is great for free, but its no Photoshop.
 
[citation][nom]cisco[/nom]Yes I love free apps too, but people who think the free apps are "just as good" are smoking something. A serious photographer is not going to choose Gimp over Photoshop. Gimp is great for free, but its no Photoshop.[/citation]I think it's a mix. Some free (and by "free" I mean open source) apps walk all over proprietary ones. VLC hands WMP's ass to it, Firefox trumps IE (it's personal preference compared to Opera and others though), x264 equals or bests proprietary implementations of the H.264 standard. But as you noted, not all free software wins. I really don't like GIMP that much, at least the Windows version (as I've not used the Linux one enough, but I know that it's more polished) is not even close to Photoshop in complexity and some of the functions are a bit odd. The text function brings up a text box instead of allowing me to type directly on the layer, and even if I just want to move the text layer around it still brings up the box, requiring me to close it. I understand that this is being changed soon though, which is good.
 
If games started supporting linux natively a lot of gamers would probably go to linux because of linux performance (faster than mac os and windows). ive dipped my toes in linux a few times in the past and i cant complain. but the reasons i stick to windows goes from the very nice UI that windows has built over the years, the games that are only windows compatible, the hardware issues, office 2007, adobe products and a few more etc...

Im sure that if somebody poured a few hundred thousand into developing linux you could come out with a very nice slim, responsive, trim, and smart UI better than windows and mac, further develop the linux kernel so it wont be as buggy and perhaps will work smarter with its code, i think its problematic that so many people and companies have contributed to its code(its very good too), i think its likely to be quite messy in there, i believe their should be a big investment into trimming it (since its likely to have some old code that really is not worth having too)and organizing it and adding some to it too. The only real problem is the adobe products and office 2007. if i got to choose between office 2003 and open office id go for open office but i really like the UI on office 2007. and adobe seems to be more and more cooperative with linux. so it might be a matter of time for them to release their software with linux. also adobe could promote using linux with its software since its faster than windows or mac.

The real problem is the lack of games and the lack of graphic card compatibility.
 
[citation][nom]bennyaltuca[/nom]further develop the linux kernel so it wont be as buggy[/citation]
Buggy? This kernel runs tiny hand-held devices through to the majority of the TOP500 supercomputers. The only kernel that is buggy is the Windows kernel.
 
[citation][nom]kyeana[/nom]FYI, ive been using linux for a while (arch linux mind you, one where you have to set everything up manually), and no the ATI linux drivers are not there yet. Sure some cards work, but by no means all of them. I have 2 4850's at the moment, and regardless of which driver i use (the open source radeon or radeonhd), direct rendoring doesn't start up properly, and therefore make the desktop beyond jerking. I have tried a million xorg.conf but to no avail. When i have time i will try enabling KMS, and also trying with only 1 card plugged in, but alas work takes priority over tinkering.[/citation]


Thats Odd. My 4870x2 in my desktop has none of those problems.

I had some OpenGL apps running very well. Hope you find your solution.
 
linux isn't a commercial product and that is stopping the linux community from making a final product that can destroy other computer os?

firefox is a free product. open office is a free product.
even better, both are open source.

even worse, google is experiementing on trying to make an os. rather that google os is working good or not, it doesn't matter because the purpose of it was experimentation. what this means is that they now have an understanding of the concept. later in the future, they'll revisit this idea and implement it somehow into other things. then boom, you have a big hit product.

it is clear that microsoft is being attacked from every point. linux is simply letting the opportunity pass by. why not make a linux that is more efficient then windows?

clearly there is a lot of things going on that people aren't satisfied with windows. this clearly shows that there is something there for linux to fix. but there is no reason given but only excuses.
 
I know some people might think I am an idiot for saying this but I think linux will definitely take over the desktop market. So many people complain now that it is too hard to use, but I think that as the human brain evolves people will stop being so afraid of the machines we build. I very much believe that the idea of a "nerd" will fade away as we all become capable of understanding what people of today consider to be "complicated"
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom