Wrapping up the Linux experiment

[johnridley]

This has been the most successful "Linux on the desktop" try yet for me. I really could continue to use it as is. However, the stack of little annoyances finally built up to where they're just not worth putting up with. I have workarounds for everything, but some of those involve booting a virtual XP box anyway. Mainly it's hardware compatibility (though I must say, in that respect great advances have been made), but the one that finally pushed me over the edge is a software issue that's apparently been around for years, but since it's not bothering any of the developers who know how to deal with the problem, it's not fixed.

Anyway, I remain impressed, and I may well recommend Linux in a few more places than I would have a month ago.

Comments

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Well, even when I'm running Windows, I still need a virtual XP box. The VPN at work has the policy set where everything but local IPs get forced through the VPN. This means any outside connection goes through work's filtering, which means no BitTorrent, very restricted web browsing, and no expectation of privacy.

Even needing windows to get things done under Linux wouldn't necessarily be a killer, if there were enough things that were not possible under Windows, or were at least much easier under Linux. There just aren't. It's not an absolute killer, if I had strong feelings about it or there were an issue like Windows cost $1000 or something, I could live with Linux just fine, it's been really a fairly pleasant experience overall.

In prior attempts I've spend hours and sometimes days trying to get trivial stuff working, like just being able to print at all. That's really not a problem anymore, but there are still enough irritations to make it not worth it.