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Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

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TaoPhoenix:

Heh "Typical" is a little vague, but let's try a weak definition.

I'm decent on Windows, and I do light helpdesk as part of my official job at work. So I'm clearly no Turbo-Newbie. Yet all the assumptions of Linux break my instincts, so I am a classic mid line Windows user trying Linux for basically the first time. I could have picked any of 5 cores, I tried OpenSuse last year, it was okay. This year I decided to try to stay as close to Debian as I could, but all the pure FSF principles lose out to just getting a working box, even if that means Non-Free Codecs.

I believe I am representative of a big untold group of users out there. Get me at least as far as a desktop with Flash and Sound, and I'll slowly learn the other stuff later.

In a sense there's only three OS's, Windows, Mac OS X, and the Linux Family. (I'm skipping the outliers.) So I don't care to get stuck in Mac vendor-lock, so the remaining Non-Windows choice is Linux. Also, I like their philosophies.

Tuxman:
I'm decent on Windows, and I do light helpdesk as part of my official job at work. So I'm clearly no Turbo-Newbie. Yet all the assumptions of Linux break my instincts, so I am a classic mid line Windows user trying Linux for basically the first time. I could have picked any of 5 cores, I tried OpenSuse last year, it was okay. This year I decided to try to stay as close to Debian as I could, but all the pure FSF principles lose out to just getting a working box, even if that means Non-Free Codecs. -TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 08:35 PM)
--- End quote ---
Debian has non-free repositories. IMO the FSF philosophy is one of the only reasonable reasons to switch to a "free" (Linux is only partially free) OS, but it's just me, probably. (Hey, a rhyme.)

"Experiences with one or two major Linux distributions" and "knowing Linux" is a bit different by the way...

I believe I am representative of a big untold group of users out there. Get me at least as far as a desktop with Flash and Sound, and I'll slowly learn the other stuff later. -TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 08:35 PM)
--- End quote ---
Who still needs Flash? :P

In a sense there's only three OS's, Windows, Mac OS X, and the Linux Family. (I'm skipping the outliers.) -TaoPhoenix (April 29, 2012, 08:35 PM)
--- End quote ---
Unix is an "outlier"? WTF?  :huh:
Kids of today...

TaoPhoenix:
Flash - Hulu and Chat Rooms.

And yes, Unix itself is not a generic desktop solution. It's become a back-end item.

The main trick of the Non-Free respositories vs drivers is that I don't have to go looking for them (today). So I don't need to get all theoretical, if I need 7 drivers, by golly I need 7 drivers, and I'd rather have a distro include them. I know full well what "modest" limitations there are for them being non-free, but ya know, once you set up your box, it sits there.

Tuxman:
Hulu does not yet have HTML5? Now that's ancient. :P (OK, not quite serious.)

Unix itself is not a generic desktop solution.
--- End quote ---
Neither is Linux itself. Putting a desktop environment over it does not make it a desktop operating system yet. Not even if it is called Ubuntu and has funny code names. On my FreeBSD (virtual) machine, KDE runs (theoretically) fine, so how is Unix less of a desktop OS than Linux?

You see?

So I don't need to get all theoretical, if I need 7 drivers, by golly I need 7 drivers, and I'd rather have a distro include them.
--- End quote ---
How can they be included better than in its repositories?



edit: Can't sleep if I leave that typo in place.

TaoPhoenix:
Hulu does not yet have HTML5? Now that's ancient. :P (OK, not quite serious.)
"Ancient is as Ancient does". Of course I know the theoretical arguments, but I want my TV-Online shows *today*, not in 2014 : )

Unix itself is not a generic desktop solution.
--- End quote ---

Neither is Linux itself. Putting a desktop environment over it does not make it a desktop operating system yet. Not even if it is called Ubuntu and has funny code names. On my FreeBSD (virtual) machine, KDE runs (theoretically) fine, so how is Unix less of a desktop OS that Linux?

You see?

So I don't need to get all theoretical, if I need 7 drivers, by golly I need 7 drivers, and I'd rather have a distro include them.
--- End quote ---
How can they be included better than in its repositories?
-Tuxman (April 29, 2012, 09:17 PM)
--- End quote ---

Okay, leaving aside Free-BSD, putting a desktop environment over Linux *almost* does make it a generic desktop operating system. Again as a "typical" user, (whatever that is) LXDE almost satisfies what I think a "desktop" should do, with a few quirks. The recent trend to Browser-Apps has reduced the load on OS'es.

As for the drivers, if they are included in the CD's, they "Just Work". I know, Linux advocates hate that, but sorry, for new users, that's how it is. If I can't even boot to a desktop, how the blazes will I diagnose which driver is missing and fire up a web browser that didn't load to go find it and somehow install it? That's why I am a good test case - I don't really ask for much, just get me a basically working system with sound and TV. Not that tough. Any CD that goes "will not load - invalid file system" is not something I need to deal with.

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