Ignoring the rant way of putting things this is exactly my experience :D plus: I'd ike to be able to run every tiny indiegame out there.
> > Warning: semi-rant ahead. Feel free to ignore. :) > > Sean Kelly wrote: >> My >> Windows machine is now used exclusively for playing games. I have no >> intention of ever using Windows for anything else again. Games are >> the only thing the other OSes lack compared to Windows anyway. > > Winamp. More specifically, Winamp 5 + the DSP plugins I use; without > that, all my music sounds *wrong*. Wine just can't seem to run Winamp > properly. And please don't anyone "recommend" any of the linux-specific > players... they're either too bare-bones to be usable, or are pretending > to be iTunes. I HATE iTunes. > > That and general usability. It's likely I'm just biased because I've > used Windows for so long, but there seems to be a long stream of things > that don't work "right" in Linux. Little things like mounting media, > keyboard shortcuts on GUI widgets, navigating folders in the GUI with > the keyboard, or that every second application uses different dialogs. :S > >>> Whenever the endless debate of windows vs. linux vs. mac comes up, I >>> repeat my comment: if you are a programmer, you better acquire some >>> experience in each. For Windows/Mac it's not as easy because they may >>> cost money, but now with virtual machines, good distributions etc. I >>> think there is no excuse for a programmer to not seriously looking into >>> Unix. > > I have an Ubuntu VM lying around somewhere. Aside from being broken, I > could never find any reason to use the thing. > >> I desperately wish my computer-illiterate family members would move >> off of Windows as well, since it would eliminate basically every tech- >> support call I field from them. Perhaps I've simply had good luck with >> other OSes, but Windows is the only one I've had regular problems with. > > It's funny, but for me it's exactly the opposite. I make an effort to > switch to linux about once a year. There's always, ALWAYS, something > that goes horribly wrong that just can't be fixed. > > Up until about two/three years ago, it was sound; I simply could not > make noise come out of the speakers [1]. Weird thing was that it would > sometimes work with the Live CD, but once installed it would stop > working. I only got it working when I accidentally discovered that the > open-source drivers for my Creative card DISABLE SOUND BY DEFAULT. I'm > hard pressed to think of a stupider default setting. > > Currently, the major technical issue with linux is that it's seemingly > incapable of doing multiple monitors properly. I've got two monitors in > a specific physical arrangement with different resolutions. This causes > no end of issues, since X or Gnome or something seems to assume all > monitors are the same size. > > But it IS improving. The previous time I tried it, I had one LCD and > one CRT. The built-in multi-monitor config applet ended up rendering my > machine unbootable. And if nothing else, at least it isn't showing new > windows up between the two monitors, although it still has trouble > working out WHICH monitor to show any given window on. > > Let's not even touch goddamn graphics drivers. > > Windows is a pain in the arse, and there isn't a day that goes by where > I don't wish I could get rid of it from my life. But the fact is that > it's STILL better than Linux. > > Andrei said that Windows is for users, and unix is for programmers. > That's fine; I'm a programmer! But I'm also a user. I shouldn't have > to spend all day to work out how to do something in linux that's trivial > in Windows. > > I'd almost be tempted to switch to Mac OSX if it weren't for the entire > machine, hardware and software (sans BSD), driving me up the wall... > >> As for programming specifically... I made a deliberate shift away from >> Windows years ago because it's a nightmare to develop for (aside from >> Visual Studio, which is a great debugging environment). Best move I >> ever made. > > I don't really see this. From the last several years of using Cygwin, > I'm not sure what it is that would be markedly better. > > I WANT to get off Windows. But whatever I switch to would have to be > better by a fair margin to offset the cost of re-learning how to do > stuff. And as far as I've been able to discern, Linux isn't it. > > -- Daniel > > > [1] Which is sad when you consider the last time I had sound problems > was with Win 95; by Win 98SE, sound always just worked.
