Windows7HelpGuy
New Member
May I ask what the point of this thread is. You asked if you should install linux along side windows, but yet you're acting negative towards linux. I think this thread so be renamed "Why you shouldn't install linux"
All you need do is right click the shortcut (launcher) and select move to desktop or panel.
This is how it's done in Ubuntu though you report it to be not possible.
Again more misinformation.
By the way a few paragraph breaks in you posts would go a long way to making them more readable.
Less misinformation would be appreciated.
So it does seem that I have found a brand of Linux that works for me Linux Mint 9 Gnome. Linux Mint 9 KDE does not work well even though it is from the same company,Linux Mint. But I have read other people also have had problems with KDE. Andrea Borman.
They probably don't run Wow or Tomb Raider on any of those computers.
Hi
I get the point but the problem is, it's just too hard to get all your software to run in Linux.
I understand why people use it for servers etc, but if like me you have over 90 different software programs it just impossible.
The super computers are running software that is written for those computers.
It's great for general stuff like word processing and email, my Ubuntu boot disk works great, I can access the internet, word process and use it to recover if Windows goes belly up on me.
I'd love to see a real alternative to Windows, if just to push Micro$oft to do a better job.
But I'd be at it for a year just trying to get all my graphic arts stuff to work.
Then you have to start on the games and sound editing, etc.
The thing with Windows is it runs everything.
It has it's shortcomings but unless you are running a Mac it's the only complete operating system, love it or hate it!
I have a friend who runs Ubuntu on one of his hard drives, he uses it to do his email and internet, because he's paranoid about viruses, but he still has to boot into Windows to play Lord of the Rings Online or use his scanner, etc.
What it all really comes down to is, it all depends on what you want to do with it.
Mike
Respectfully, the trouble with linux-based PC operating systems is not with linux-based PC operating systems - it is with people's expectations and with their inability to understand the meanings of the terms that they use. IOW... Linux IS user-friendly. Unfortunately, 99.9infinity% of the people who use the term "user-friendly" actually mean "I want something to work exactly the way that I have already learned to use something else." Modern major linux distros are user-friendly by every correct definition of the term. They are laid out logically and things can be quickly learned because of their intuitive nature. Of course, as with anything more complicated than managing to hit the floor when one falls down, there is some learning required. How much really depends on what a person wants to do. Much of the effort involved with becoming comfortable with linux has to do with unlearning ways that one must do things in a Windows environment. It's really unfair IMHO to blame linux for that. I have a few friends who are much older than I am. One of them is in her mid-70s and had never used a computer before, let alone used one. Her daughter bought her one. She decided that I'd be her "fix-it guy" whenever she messed something up and expected me to teach her how to do whatever she thought up on her computer. It was (and to some extent, is) stressful. Maybe it's her age or maybe it's the fact that the most complicated electronic device she'd operated before was her television, but I'd show her something repeatedly and slowly, and she still wouldn't get it. So I started writing simple step-by-step directions for her to follow. It helped, but she was still calling me a minimum of several times per week with problems and often just to verify that she wasn't about to mess something up. She had a hard drive failure and rather than deal with sending it off for repair she told her daughter who bought a new hard drive for it - and then left for vacation. She asked me to put it in. No problem there, but she didn't have a Windows installation disc. Being on a fixed income, she said she'd have to wait until her daughter got back from vacation and see if she'd buy it for her. I said that was fine and installed UE linux to make sure the drive was ok. I let her have the computer just to play around with, printed up a few pages of simple things, and expected that I'd be on the phone with her constantly for the next few days. Instead, I called her two days later to see if she'd decided not to try it. She stated that she was using it, but that every time she would not know how to do something she "just thought about how it should work and it turned out that was how it actually did." Intuitively. Had she experienced a problem that would have required some work in a terminal she'd have been lost, but for normal operation she had no trouble. She had no preconceived notions of what it would be like and very little "learned behavior" to unlearn.elantz01 said:The trouble with Linux based PC Oper Systems is that they are not very user friendly
Don't you really mean, "I get the point but my problem is, it's just too hard for me to get all my Windows software to run in Linux?" I could be wrong, but that seems to be a more realistic statement. If that is the case, then I understand. Some software that is written to run under a Windows OS/desktop environment do not have linux versions. Some do not run well under WinE (fewer, but a still appreciable amount, do not run at all) without some tweaking. And some do not have alternative applications that run under linux. But many do.Hi
I get the point but the problem is, it's just too hard to get all your software to run in Linux.
Only 90? I am not positive because I did not think to count them, but I'd be willing to bet that my linux distro-of-choice - Ultimate Edition - came with at least that many applications pre-installed. I've installed many more since then, of course. I see things once in a while that I wish to have while surfing the Internet, but I've found a lot more by simply running Synaptic Package Manager - or Ultamatix, or the Add/Remove Programs menu option - and typing a keyword in the searchbox at the top and reading the descriptions of the many apps that appear.I understand why people use it for servers etc, but if like me you have over 90 different software programs it just impossible.
I'd love to see a real alternative to Windows, if just to push Micro$oft to do a better job.That has already happened, lol, and the real alternative was... linux. There are several improvements that have come about because they appeared in linux first.Graphic arts? If you mean specialized fields such as 3d design suites that interface with and control very expensive CNC milling machines, then sure, I'll agree that the options are somewhat limited - but then again, there aren't exactly hundreds of such apps for the Windows environment either - and that not all of them are free. But if you mean more mainstream things such as "simple" 2d or 3d design work, architectural design, desktop publishing, photo restoration, CGI/animation from the simple stuff to motion picture quality output, et cetera... Then there are certainly alternatives. For everything that can be done in Photoshop, for example, you might take a look at Gimp and the many plug-ins available for it. Being a powerful app, there is of course a learning curve - but the same can be said for Photoshop.But I'd be at it for a year just trying to get all my graphic arts stuff to work.
Then you have to start on the games and sound editing, etc.Uhh... No. Windows runs applications that are written to run under Windows. My Chevrolet accepts parts that are designed for it and my Subaru accepts parts that are designed for it. It is not a failing in the Chevrolet that it cannot accept a Subaru bumper, and vice versa. I suppose I should point out that there are emulators available for both Windows and linux OS that allow one to have a virtual "copy" (+/-) of other computers, operating systems, and game-consoles. The list of emulators written to run under linux OS is, however, FAR more exhaustive than the list of emulators written to run under Windows. There are actually ways to run linux software under Windows, but as there is more work involved and the degree of success seems to be somewhat less successful overall... NO one OS is capable of running "everything." But when it is a case of which one is capable of running more applications, I'd give the nod to linux.The thing with Windows is it runs everything.I'm not sure what you mean by "complete operating system," but all of mine (both the versions of Windows and the various linux distros) seem to be quite complete.It has it's shortcomings but unless you are running a Mac it's the only complete operating system, love it or hate it!I have no personal knowledge of Lord of the Rings Online, but I typed the following into a Google searchbox: linux "lord of the rings online" And I got 676,000 results. Granted, many of those results will be people asking if it can be done, how it can be done, or complaining because they don't know how to do it. But the very first result is the LOTRO Launcher for Linux. I'm not sure of this site's policy on linking other sites, but I'm sure your friend can find it via Google. Coincidentally, I have had some experience with using a scanner. I bought a new one last year. Actually it's an all-in-one device, the excellent Epson Artisan 810. Scans, copies, faxes, prints on CD/DVDs, prints screenshots from video, and also just prints. I was worried at first that I'd not be able to use it in linux or that I'd lose some functionality such as the WiFi feature (it connects via USB, ethernet, or wirelesly). But a little searching and I realized that I had nothing to worry about. I hadn't planned on purchasing a new scanner. But, you see, when I upgraded to a newer version of one of my operating systems, I was no longer able to use my old one. I'm talking about Windows here, lol.I have a friend who runs Ubuntu on one of his hard drives, he uses it to do his email and internet, because he's paranoid about viruses, but he still has to boot into Windows to play Lord of the Rings Online or use his scanner, etc.Agreed. And also whether a person is able to easily put aside their preconceptions and unlearn previous ways that they have been doing things. And that great catch-all, personal preference. I mainly use linux. But I still use Windows on one laptop from time-to-time because of an application that I particularly like that does not run well under linux (I have found linux-based alternatives that work well, but as I mentioned, personal preference, lol). And I still use Windows on a desktop to play a few games that are annoyingly slow under linux. It's an older desktop and they're not exactly fast when playing them natively in Windows. I still buy the new Windows when they come out and I am not adverse to trying new applications that are written to run in Windows. I do not consider myself to have the "fan-boy" mentality where I wouldn't give anything but my favorite a second glance. It's just that at this time I spend 95%+ of my computer time in the linux OS. Not by conscious choice (other than the decision to try Ultimate Edition linux after several years of not using any linux OS just to see if linux had matured any; wow did it!), it's just worked out that way.What it all really comes down to is, it all depends on what you want to do with it.