Windows or Linux? (moving to Linux, how is it?)

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Windows or Linux?

I know why windows is called windows, its an open window for errors to get in :(

Over the last week or so i have more problems with windows XP then i have ever had with anyother computer, just about any microsoft developed programs and softwear on this computer was playing up, disapearing or just not working at all. All in all i have had enough of windows :mad:

Ive heard Linux doesnt suffer from so many problems but i would like to know what if it is very compatible, how games play and if its easy to use?

Do any of u recomend changing over to Linux and dropping windows?
 
I'm not sure what's caused your problems but I'd bet my right arm it's not purely Windows at fault. Linux has its uses but I wouldn't use it as the main operating system on a home PC unless I had a really good reason to due to:
  • The majority of the software I use doesn't run on Linux,
  • I'm lazy and like being able to install hardware and software by double-clicking Setup.exe :p
 
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Agreed. Linux is not really a suitable everyday desktop OS. I suggest you find out what is preventing your Windows PC from operating correctly and remedy it :) Maybe if you post some details of the problems we can help...
 
Well my problems are like this.
All JAVA aplications will crash the computer if u use the scroll on the mouse.
The computer will lock up and get 100% CPU use buy just sufing the net.
The other day even paint crashed it :eek:
All the Microsoft games that were on the computer just vanished(and mum likes them and im getting the blame :mad: )
I turned on my computer used to day played around on the net abit went back to the desktop and discoverd Windows media player and Internet explorer short justs had disapeard and i could not find another short cut for them anywhere else on the computer.
Once windows has loaded and the desktop is up u cant open anything for about 2 minutes even if u try.
When ever i close one window it leaves behind a part of that window on the screan for about 10 seconds to 1 minute.(its even doing it right now and its still there from about 2 mins ago :mad: )
And about 3 or 4 days ago Ad-watch was picking up changes to the registry every 5-10minutes.
Ive run ad-aware Pro, Spybot, Nortan, Crapcleaner and microsft anti-spyware and they dont pick up anything at all?

Those are my problems, i need a big remidy.
This computer is only about 2 or 3 weeks old :(
 
Windows XP is actually a very good operating system, problems with it usually stem from poorly written 3rd party software, malicious third party software, poor management, and user error, among others. Yes it sticks its legs in the air from time to time but no operating system's perfect, Linux included :p

Best to reinstall it in this case.
 
I think Windows XP is probably the stablest windows OS that I have used. If you make sure its patched against the latest vulnerabilitys you should have no problems.

Linux on the other hand is a superb operating system, I mainly use it for forensics but in my experience of using it for other applications I cannot fault it.
 
well if you only play solitaire linux has it but if you want to play any commercial 3d games (except doom3, wolfenstein et, ut2k4 and darwinia) then you are in a bit of a sticky situation, you can purchase cedega to run them but really there is no point, what you could do is have 3 partitions, 1 for windows, one for linux swap and one for linux, then you could install windows, disable all network hardware (from device manager) and use that to play games and have linux for everything else, linux has a boot manager so you can choose what operating system to boot, i would reccomend suse if you want to dual boot
 
I have tried using linux as a main os but I could not do it as:

1. Many programs/games I use does not run in Linux
2. Some of my hardware was not supported
3. When I have run linux on a number of occasions I have always found it not to be that stable. I would say that my windows system is more stable than linux.
 
Linus is fine for my own desktop use, but I basically gave up a lot of the games I used to play (or could play) on Windows when I switched (took maybe 6 months before I finally stopped dual-booting), which is fine for me cos I'm happy with the odd session of NWN, ut2004 and a few good free games that all run on Linux.

If you feel like giving Linux a try I'd suggest you install something like Ubuntu or Suse Linux or try out one of the live Linux distributions that run of a cd /dvd.

I had very few problems running Windows XP when I got my first pc, maybe a reinstall of XP and the usual of configure a firewall & anti-virus software will help. I guess I stick to Linux cos I like it, and have the choice. It's extremely stable for me, but then I chose the parts for my current computer based on the fact it was primarily going to run Linux, not Windows.

Give Linux a try if you feel like it (can be a challenge, and fun if you're so inclined :)). If you decide to stick with Windows (must admit, for certain games I have switched to the odd dual boot...) then at least you'll be more informed about what a Linux OS is like :)
 
Zip said:
I know why windows is called windows, its an open window for errors to get in :(

Over the last week or so i have more problems with windows XP then i have ever had with anyother computer, just about any microsoft developed programs and softwear on this computer was playing up, disapearing or just not working at all. All in all i have had enough of windows :mad:

Ive heard Linux doesnt suffer from so many problems but i would like to know what if it is very compatible, how games play and if its easy to use?

Do any of u recomend changing over to Linux and dropping windows?
Click to expand...

No, in a word. You will find that Linux is much harder to use than Windows. There are arguments in favour of using Linux over Windows but ease of use certainly isn't one of them.
 
I have to use Windows at work and still do at home. However, I do have a Linux box at home as well and it is absolutely fine for everythin except, as mentioned, games. I have given this some thought and if you are a hard core gamer, don't use Linux but if you want a stable, secure and virus-free and free OS use Linux. If you want games, get a console. :)
 
If you really feel the need to play games on linux or runing any windows software, I suggest looking at the following:
wine (Free)
cedega (Comerical)
cedega (cvs) (Free but no CD protection software)

tbh, anyone switching from windows to linux should review these options along with what replacement apps are available in linux before making the plung.

For those of you curious I can play the following games under linux using cedega or native ports:
Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2, Deus Ex, Diablo I & II, Neverwinter Nights (native), Unreal Tournament 2004 (native), Doom (native original :) ), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Need for Speed Underground 2 (little unstable, but playable), Black & White, Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Counter Strike, Counter Strike: Source, Morrowind (+ Tribunal), Hidden & Dangerous II, Baldur's Gate, Thief: The Dark Project, No One Lives Forever: The Operative...

I have more but that's all I can remember. In some cases the cutscenes don't play or have stutter but in general their all playable.

If your interested to see if your games can be played on linux check out the following databases:
Cedega - http://cedegawiki.sweetleafstudios.com/wiki/Category:Games
Wine - http://appdb.winehq.org/ (other apps as well)
 
AJUK said:
I have to use Windows at work and still do at home. However, I do have a Linux box at home as well and it is absolutely fine for everythin except, as mentioned, games. I have given this some thought and if you are a hard core gamer, don't use Linux but if you want a stable, secure and virus-free and free OS use Linux. If you want games, get a console. :)
Click to expand...

I'm still yet to discover a Linux distro which is as stable as Windows XP. Sure, Linux itself might not fall over but the GUI and programs running on it certainly do. Also updating it while simple in theory is not nearly as easy as Windows. Basically Linux comes across as shoddy, unprofessional and cheap :) It is only good as a server OS, not a desktop OS in my opinion.
 
ANY linux OS for everyday desktop is no no, its ok if u want to try something different but sadly its not good as winXP

for example,

i've got brand new custom budget PC at home for my girlfriend

Intel Celeron D 2.4GHZ
Geil 512mb ram
Abit SG-72 (onboard SIS graphic card)
DVD-RW
Maxtor 80GB ATA hard drive

installed winXP and updated, every fast, perfectly for surf internet, play DVD, divx movies, MSN, few simple games, even play farcry well at low resolution. 1280x1024 on desktop, CPU always at 2 to 4% if i scroll down/up website, smooth drag box around the desktop etc etc

now, formatted

installed Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy, rebooted, detected onboard graphic card perfectly,but resolution was set at 1024x768, spend 30 mins finding out how to config the xconf file, got it working at the end. The original sources.list doesnt work well so i had to config the sources.list to download all updates. but the CPU always goes up 70 to 80%, DOESNT MATTER what i do, scroll down/up website, move box around desktop. Ubuntu already had driver for my logitech webcam but i still had to spend about 10 mins to get it working (why Ubuntu cant do it for me?) which winXP installed driver for me in less than 10 seconds without driver CD or needed download driver from microsoft update thingy.

installing multimedia codec was biggest pain for me, but got it working at the end, i had to add a repo in sources.list to get w32codecs via apt-get but got it working afterward, but when playing movies by totem,mplayer and others, movie shuddering all the time, totem crashed, movie plugin for Firefox never work well, no matter what i do, i had all help from Ubuntu forums, no better. one linux expert guy said i'm having problems due my onboard graphic card is out of date!! :rolleyes: other said its cos my CPU is too slow. PC at work got better spec with ATI 9600 AGP graphic card, same problem

Multimedia is biggest let down on ANY linux OS, i've tried SUSE 10, Fedora Core 4 and Mandriva DVD 2006, no difference. its can be fun to try them out to make yourself feel like a linux geek :p but they're not ready for everyday use.

so i formatted and re-installed winXP, all problems disappeared, me and girlfriend are happy again.

its not that cos we're M$ fans, we use winXP cos it doing all jobs very well for us. we stay with M$ OS cos they're only company in the world that provide a good and stable OS.

my 2p
 
I must admit the biggest bugbear for me have been video codecs. I am no Linux expert but I am not stupid either and despite my best efforts I just cannot get any Linux distro to play either videos or DVDs properly. Linux for desktop is slowly improving and some of the commercial distros (SuSE, Mandrake etc.) are damn good.
 
AJUK said:
I must admit the biggest bugbear for me have been video codecs. I am no Linux expert but I am not stupid either and despite my best efforts I just cannot get any Linux distro to play either videos or DVDs properly. Linux for desktop is slowly improving and some of the commercial distros (SuSE, Mandrake etc.) are damn good.
Click to expand...

They are improving but truth be told, they haven't even caught up with the user friendliness of Windows 95 yet - seriously.
 
Personally i use Linux as my main, and only, os on my main machine, it does everything i want it to do absolutely fine, including some light gaming (currently playing through Deus Ex again)

Multimedia is a bit of a pain, but in gentoo 'emerge xine && emerge mplayer' will play 99% of videos/dvd's, ubuntu is slightly more awkward in this respect imo (use it on the family's pc)

I agree it's not for everyone, but it's not that challenging to use, and it is stable and reliable, at least as stable as XP....
 
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