Windows or Linux?

DarrenM343 · 9 Dec 2012 at 11:40

shankly1985 said:
If Linux Supported all the games I play (Hoping One Day That Happens) I would make the switch right away.
Its the games and support that is keeping me with Windows. Linux just needs the support from Game/software Devs and I think it deserves it.

It'll never happen. Windows is an OS for the masses, Linux isn't, and has a steeper learning curve. There are too many flavours of Linux. Read some installation instructions and things can get complex. There's deb and tar files for example, depending on the flavour in use you may need to do different things.

As with most things in life you get what you pay for. Windows today is a very good slick product. Free Linux is very good too, but isn't for the masses, and I doubt it ever will be.

Outcast · 9 Dec 2012 at 12:00

DarrenM343 said:
It'll never happen. Windows is an OS for the masses, Linux isn't, and has a steeper learning curve. There are too many flavours of Linux. Read some installation instructions and things can get complex. There's deb and tar files for example, depending on the flavour in use you may need to do different things.

As with most things in life you get what you pay for. Windows today is a very good slick product. Free Linux is very good too, but isn't for the masses, and I doubt it ever will be.

Really ?

I guess people wont take to Android then ?

Oh wait ..... !!

Their routers & pvr's are almost certainly using Linux too.. I wonder how they will connect to t'internet ?

Throrik · 9 Dec 2012 at 16:07

DarrenM343 said:
It'll never happen. Windows is an OS for the masses, Linux isn't, and has a steeper learning curve. There are too many flavours of Linux. Read some installation instructions and things can get complex. There's deb and tar files for example, depending on the flavour in use you may need to do different things.

As with most things in life you get what you pay for. Windows today is a very good slick product. Free Linux is very good too, but isn't for the masses, and I doubt it ever will be.

I'm pretty sure Debian derivatives such as Ubuntu, Mint etc will continue becoming more popular, deb and tar files is possible one of the worst examples to use, you can use exactly the same method on both Ubuntu and Windows for those files, right-click and extract for tar files and double click to open deb files in the software centre.

More and more games are being ported over to Linux, the next few years will be interesting to see. Linux has a steep learning curve if you want it to, there's not much need to play with config files if you're only interest is running native apps from the software centre and browsing websites just as there's no need to play with the Registry or CMD in Windows.

cb_linus · 9 Dec 2012 at 21:49

Linux is already picking up some Steam (pun intended

) in terms of more games coming to Linux - long way to go but it is happening to some degree

Anon-e-mouse · 10 Dec 2012 at 02:19

I've started my move over. Winblows 8 was the reason I'm moving, I detest and hate Metro about as much as I hate Pepsi (which is a lot).

So I've started playing about with Kubuntu 12.10.. Liking what I see so far. Once I can get some games, I might even start deleting Winblows OS installations. Just have to find a couple of alternatives to some Win programs (Tag And Rename for one, Newsbin for another).

craptakular · 10 Dec 2012 at 07:15

newsbin should be replaced by sabnzbd

SMN · 10 Dec 2012 at 11:38

Oxy said:
newsbin should be replaced by sabnzbd

And then a nice front-end, like Lottanzb.

jack.mitchell · 11 Dec 2012 at 13:36

Anon-e-mouse said:
(Tag And Rename for one, Newsbin for another).

If Tag and Rename is an mp3 tagging program, try Picard - Win, OSX and Linux compatible.

HuckleberryWill · 16 Dec 2012 at 18:14

They both have their pros and cons, its up to you really.

If you are going to want to play a lot of games or use steam a lot (although there is starting to be some steam support for Ubuntu), and want to be certain that your new hardware will work with the minimum of fuss, then go for Windows. Also the majority of programs are written for Windows.

However, with Linux you have a lot of customization, you can change pretty much everything about it so it suits you and has all the features you want, not what a company like Microsoft thinks you want. Linux is also less susceptible to viruses, and can run off of a USB drive/CD which can be really handy. Plus, its great for fixing Windows.

There isn't as many programs written for Linux as Windows, but you can emulate most of them in Wine (Google it.) Not everything emulates perfectly, and there is a small loss in performance. Plus quite a lot of stuff is command line based.

Run Linux off of a USB or CD/DVD first to see if you like it.

Nothing is stopping you from dual-booting (Unless you have a small hard drive).

I would recommend starting with either Ubuntu or Mint. However, there is loads of different versions "Distributions" available, but those two are very easy for beginners and have quite a lot of support.

When you consider yourself a Linux Pro then try Arch, it is very customization, but doesn't even come with a GUI, so not very noob friendly. But the end result is an OS to fit you.