4 ms·

I would suggest to anybody that is considering ditching Linux to give a thought to trying another distribution. I've had very few problems with the following:

by papaf 15y ago

I would suggest to anybody that is considering ditching Linux to give a thought to trying another distribution. I've had very few problems with the following: Lubuntu - simple, elegant and fast Fedora 16 - pretty and lots of features out the box (LVM, SELinux). OpenSUSE - No fancy new desktops, no trouble getting software such as flash to work I know this may be preaching to the converted here on HN but I've seen several posts today from people who have ditched Linux to go back to Windows.

dman 15y ago
Whats wrong with debian? Ive never run into a situation where debian stable has negatively surprised me by moving into some unproven tech. Upgrades work between releases as they should, synaptic is pretty decent.
gouranga 15y ago
Great advice. I'd go with CentOS if you want something that is rock solid and 100% complete out of the box.
mongol 15y ago
I liked OpenSUSE a lot, I used it for almost 10 years between 2002 and last year. It was on my computer at work for 5 years, and at home the entire time. But the article has a point, and it is something that made me switch to Windows last year. The problem is that it never works perfectly. I am not so much talking about the desktop, although I have suffered through my share of broken Gnome and KDE desktops. The problem is the driver situation. I started my own business last year and needed a computer to work on. The Dell laptop I purchased is great, except - The wireless network did not work - Bluetooth did not work - The video camera did not work - The mic did not work - The SD card slot did not work - The touch pad's scroll area did not work I worked on these problems for a few months, and I fixed many, but finally I had it. My conclusion was that while much of the software in the Linux ecosystem steadily improves, other parts continuously breaks, and it will remain that way. The experimentation with the desktops I could live with, but the driver situation is another matter. I am too old to spend hours and hours patching the distribution to support the hardware I have. I love Linux - and my intent was to use it in Virtualbox under Windows. I reasoned that Windows will have the driver support, and Virtualbox will deliver a sane hardware interface for Linux. But Windows 7 works well enough for me, so in practise I don't start Virtualbox often at all. I don't think I will return to Linux running on the bare metal. But I will always bring the skills I learned with me, and I expect them to last me for decades.
- ChuckMcM 15y ago
  I wish I could +10 this, but alas. The driver issue is insane. The root cause of that issue is the GPL. The reality is that hardware margins are thin, very very thin, and there are few protections against person X taking something you spent a year getting to work right, having it built in a Chinese copy shop and using your own drivers against you. No one is funding open hardware, try to create a business model where your first chip has to make back its development cost at commodity margins. It can't.
- leave 15y ago
  Funny thing is that I couldn't manage to have bluetooth working on my Latitude running Win7, while ubuntu brought up all the devices out-of-box.
  - Danieru 15y ago
    The media keys on my keyboard do not work under Win7 without letting windows download extra drivers. Let's not even mention my printer. Meanwhile with ubuntu 12.04 beta 2 everything came up without configuration. Printer included.
- iron_ball 15y ago
  Xubuntu is my main OS for personal work, but I have the same experience. When I boot into Windows and connect to my TV with an HDMI->DisplayPort adapter, the TV is recognized as a monitor instantly. In Linux, nothing. Maybe I could figure it out. But why should I have to? When I use gpointing-device-settings to disable the touchpad, it becomes enabled again on reboot. Maybe I could figure it out. But why should I have to? When I lose wifi connectivity, a notification window informs me of the fact. Always. Clicking "don't show this again" has no effect. Maybe I could install one of the patches someone uploaded to the months-old Launch pad bug. But why should I have to? Sometimes the Hibernate command doesn't work. Sometimes it works, but causes the computer to reboot. Sometimes it works, but the system does not resume on restart. Maybe I could figure it out. But why should I have to? While editing code in gvim, sometimes the screen is corrupted with tiny dots where text isn't fully redrawn. I can hit Ctrl-L to redraw. But why should I have to? Sound playback is consistently quieter than on Windows. Sometimes I have to switch to Windows just to watch a video with a friend. Maybe I could figure it out. But why should I have to? I love the quality of this Thinkpad, and I love the power of the Linux command line and the simplicity of the XFCE interface. But my next laptop will have to be a MacBook Pro.
beej71 15y ago
Newer Windowses really aren't so bad anymore, either, making them more compelling to Our Kind. I'm a big Linux fan, but running Win7 in a VirtualBox, I've found it perfectly adequate. (Well, there was the time that it thought I had pirated it--I hadn't--and made me go through a guilty-until-proven-innocent routine to get it going again, but aside from that...) But I don't run a standard desktop (I run fvwm on Arch), so I get huge mileage out of Linux that I wouldn't get out of Windows. Could be people running GNOME or KDE don't realize such a gain.
w1ntermute 15y ago
> Lubuntu - simple, elegant and fast I can strongly recommend Lubuntu (and Xubuntu). I've installed it for relatives and acquaintances with great success - there are people still using 5+ year old computers that they were about to throw out after just 2 or 3 years because Windows had gotten really slow. For the ones that are tech-savvy and interested, I compiled a simple guide on clean installing new versions of L/Xubuntu, while the others have been running LTS releases for several years now.

by papaf 15y ago

dman 15y ago

Whats wrong with debian? Ive never run into a situation where debian stable has negatively surprised me by moving into some unproven tech. Upgrades work between releases as they should, synaptic is pretty decent.

gouranga 15y ago

Great advice. I'd go with CentOS if you want something that is rock solid and 100% complete out of the box.

mongol 15y ago

I liked OpenSUSE a lot, I used it for almost 10 years between 2002 and last year. It was on my computer at work for 5 years, and at home the entire time. But the article has a point, and it is something that made me switch to Windows last year. The problem is that it never works perfectly. I am not so much talking about the desktop, although I have suffered through my share of broken Gnome and KDE desktops. The problem is the driver situation. I started my own business last year and needed a computer to work on. The Dell laptop I purchased is great, except - The wireless network did not work - Bluetooth did not work - The video camera did not work - The mic did not work - The SD card slot did not work - The touch pad's scroll area did not work I worked on these problems for a few months, and I fixed many, but finally I had it. My conclusion was that while much of the software in the Linux ecosystem steadily improves, other parts continuously breaks, and it will remain that way. The experimentation with the desktops I could live with, but the driver situation is another matter. I am too old to spend hours and hours patching the distribution to support the hardware I have. I love Linux - and my intent was to use it in Virtualbox under Windows. I reasoned that Windows will have the driver support, and Virtualbox will deliver a sane hardware interface for Linux. But Windows 7 works well enough for me, so in practise I don't start Virtualbox often at all. I don't think I will return to Linux running on the bare metal. But I will always bring the skills I learned with me, and I expect them to last me for decades.

ChuckMcM 15y ago
I wish I could +10 this, but alas. The driver issue is insane. The root cause of that issue is the GPL. The reality is that hardware margins are thin, very very thin, and there are few protections against person X taking something you spent a year getting to work right, having it built in a Chinese copy shop and using your own drivers against you. No one is funding open hardware, try to create a business model where your first chip has to make back its development cost at commodity margins. It can't.
leave 15y ago
Funny thing is that I couldn't manage to have bluetooth working on my Latitude running Win7, while ubuntu brought up all the devices out-of-box.
- Danieru 15y ago
  The media keys on my keyboard do not work under Win7 without letting windows download extra drivers. Let's not even mention my printer. Meanwhile with ubuntu 12.04 beta 2 everything came up without configuration. Printer included.
iron_ball 15y ago
Xubuntu is my main OS for personal work, but I have the same experience. When I boot into Windows and connect to my TV with an HDMI->DisplayPort adapter, the TV is recognized as a monitor instantly. In Linux, nothing. Maybe I could figure it out. But why should I have to? When I use gpointing-device-settings to disable the touchpad, it becomes enabled again on reboot. Maybe I could figure it out. But why should I have to? When I lose wifi connectivity, a notification window informs me of the fact. Always. Clicking "don't show this again" has no effect. Maybe I could install one of the patches someone uploaded to the months-old Launch pad bug. But why should I have to? Sometimes the Hibernate command doesn't work. Sometimes it works, but causes the computer to reboot. Sometimes it works, but the system does not resume on restart. Maybe I could figure it out. But why should I have to? While editing code in gvim, sometimes the screen is corrupted with tiny dots where text isn't fully redrawn. I can hit Ctrl-L to redraw. But why should I have to? Sound playback is consistently quieter than on Windows. Sometimes I have to switch to Windows just to watch a video with a friend. Maybe I could figure it out. But why should I have to? I love the quality of this Thinkpad, and I love the power of the Linux command line and the simplicity of the XFCE interface. But my next laptop will have to be a MacBook Pro.

beej71 15y ago

Newer Windowses really aren't so bad anymore, either, making them more compelling to Our Kind. I'm a big Linux fan, but running Win7 in a VirtualBox, I've found it perfectly adequate. (Well, there was the time that it thought I had pirated it--I hadn't--and made me go through a guilty-until-proven-innocent routine to get it going again, but aside from that...) But I don't run a standard desktop (I run fvwm on Arch), so I get huge mileage out of Linux that I wouldn't get out of Windows. Could be people running GNOME or KDE don't realize such a gain.

w1ntermute 15y ago

> Lubuntu - simple, elegant and fast I can strongly recommend Lubuntu (and Xubuntu). I've installed it for relatives and acquaintances with great success - there are people still using 5+ year old computers that they were about to throw out after just 2 or 3 years because Windows had gotten really slow. For the ones that are tech-savvy and interested, I compiled a simple guide on clean installing new versions of L/Xubuntu, while the others have been running LTS releases for several years now.