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Linux try-out results
Oct. 17th, 2007 08:01 pmEnd result: I'm back on Windows, but I could live in Linux pretty happily if I had to. That was the purpose of the test; at some point in the next 10 years, Microsoft is going to make it impossible for me to be happy in Windows. That means, it's going to be untenable for me to continue running XP; I've already decided that my line is drawn well this side of Vista; I will not run it.
I'm perfectly happy with XP, and I have legal copies for all my machines.
I was really quite pleased with Ubuntu 7.10. Some of the things I was doing were probably a bit beyond "average joe user" setup skills, but those were mainly things joe user wouldn't be doing anyway.
Even interfacing with work was smooth; the RDP client is very good, and the Cisco VPN client works very well too.
For a few things, I wanted to use Windows apps, because there just isn't any Linux equivalent that's reasonable. I was happily surprised that everything I tried ran either perfectly or "well enough" under WINE. In the end it was a bit of clunkiness with my MPEG editing program that finally said "OK, I've seen enough" and booted back to Windows.
So for now I'm back at Windows, but I'm keeping my eye out for a handful of Linux apps to replace my Windows ones. And next time I buy a printer it'll be Linux compatible (I was able to print but very slowly).
In the long run, I'll be running Linux. For now, I have a bunch of stuff that I need to get done and I need to stop messing with this, but I expect that in a year or two, I'll be fully over to Linux. It wouldn't be good to wait until I'm FORCED there.
I'm perfectly happy with XP, and I have legal copies for all my machines.
I was really quite pleased with Ubuntu 7.10. Some of the things I was doing were probably a bit beyond "average joe user" setup skills, but those were mainly things joe user wouldn't be doing anyway.
Even interfacing with work was smooth; the RDP client is very good, and the Cisco VPN client works very well too.
For a few things, I wanted to use Windows apps, because there just isn't any Linux equivalent that's reasonable. I was happily surprised that everything I tried ran either perfectly or "well enough" under WINE. In the end it was a bit of clunkiness with my MPEG editing program that finally said "OK, I've seen enough" and booted back to Windows.
So for now I'm back at Windows, but I'm keeping my eye out for a handful of Linux apps to replace my Windows ones. And next time I buy a printer it'll be Linux compatible (I was able to print but very slowly).
In the long run, I'll be running Linux. For now, I have a bunch of stuff that I need to get done and I need to stop messing with this, but I expect that in a year or two, I'll be fully over to Linux. It wouldn't be good to wait until I'm FORCED there.
