Quote:Original post by Raghar
I actually wonder about this market, the only worse is XBOX360 as it's easier to pirate game for XBOX360 than for PC.

What?

Have you got any sources to back this up? I seriously don't know a single person with a pirated 360 game.

Users having problems with using a CLI is really a more fundamental issue in computing. This is not about Windows vs Linux, it is about smart users vs stupid/uneducated users.

Back in the 90's when I started to use computers I used DOS and I used Norton Commander for some tasks. Commands like dir and cd were easy to learn and as intuitive as typing "look around" in Kings Quest. The unix counterparts of these DOS commands are far superior but I didn't know unix at that time so all in all things were fine back then.

15 years forward I have to fix other peoples problems because they don't know the difference between a file and a folder even though they already use computers for several years. I have clients sending me emails with 200 raw pictures attached because they are too stupid to compress them into a zip file or convert pictures from bmp to png. Who is to blame? Solely blaming Windows would be unfair, I think it is simply how things have turned out unfortunately. When it comes to computers, many people deliberately act like idiots. If there's a problem, it's either "the computer" or some software manufacturers' fault. It's never the users own ignorance.

Unfortunately though, there are some features in default installations of Windows which don't exactly help remedy this problem. Having an animated dog graphics for your search is great (well, it's not) but I'd rather see a more useful built-in search engine in WindowsXP. And what exactly is wrong with a per-user home directory where you put all your files? Virtual folders like Documents and Settings or My Pictures, and the whole DOS-based filesystem in general, are a total hack and should have been rwritten from scratch 10 years ago. Power users that already know that these things are fundamentally broken are now switching to Vista and they can adapt to the new filesystem design easily but I fear that other users are getting even more confused.

I'm using the gnome desktop full-time for a good year and I've used several linux distros and some BSD systems before. I am a developer but I honestly can't remember that I had to touch the shell once for getting Ubuntu up and running or for doing some standard tasks like installing, configuring or launching software, playing videos or music etc. I'm actually using the Terminal on my Mac much more often than I use bash on Linux. Why? Because like Windows, Mac OS X only includes functionality for the average user. When you actually need to do some real work, you either have to download third-party software from more or less dubious websites or you have to find your own ways around Explorer or the Finder app. In gnome or KDE, there is a reasonable set of default tools and a good balance between power users and average users. Soon this will improve even more.

I somewhat dislike Windows for political reasons, but besides some incompatibility issues it is still a great system for many tasks. Unfortunately, it has several fundamental design issues that make me not want to go back again for at least the next 5 years or the next version after Vista.

Quote:Original post by desudesu
it doesn't force you to hunt for drivers for your hardware on the internet;

Hang on, you're using this as an argument for Linux? Every time I've tried to use Linux, lack of drivers has pushed me back onto windows, and this wasn't for some exotic piece of hardware either, it was a wireless card. Instead, I have to go "hunting on the internet" for ndiswrapper or some other bullshit. I have never had a single piece of hardware that I couldn't get a driver for on windows.

I'm quite happy to use a linux desktop for something like the eeepc, where all I want from it is web, email, look at the occasional doc and maybe play an mp3 or 2. For real work? Give me XP anytime (I won't comment on vista since I haven't used it although I have to say that gd.net is the only source of positive views on it I've seen)

Quote:Original post by ChaosEngine

Quote:Original post by desudesu
it doesn't force you to hunt for drivers for your hardware on the internet;

Hang on, you're using this as an argument for Linux? Every time I've tried to use Linux, lack of drivers has pushed me back onto windows, and this wasn't for some exotic piece of hardware either, it was a wireless card. Instead, I have to go "hunting on the internet" for ndiswrapper or some other bullshit. I have never had a single piece of hardware that I couldn't get a driver for on windows.

But that's the WONDERFUL thing about linux! Can't find a driver? No worries, you're perfectly free to go out and write your own!

Who wouldn't jump at that chance?

Quote:Original post by desudesu

Quote:Original post by ChaosEngine

Quote:Original post by desudesu
it doesn't force you to hunt for drivers for your hardware on the internet;

Hang on, you're using this as an argument for Linux? Every time I've tried to use Linux, lack of drivers has pushed me back onto windows, and this wasn't for some exotic piece of hardware either, it was a wireless card. Instead, I have to go "hunting on the internet" for ndiswrapper or some other bullshit. I have never had a single piece of hardware that I couldn't get a driver for on windows.

Yes I am. The fact that some piece of hardware doesn't work with GNU/Linux is a completely different matter. What was I talking about is the fact, that if GNU/Linux supports something natively then the driver for it is "installed" and configured out-of-box, contrary to Windows, for which drivers you need to hunt on the internet yourself.

I'm just going to come out and say it for everyone right now. You're a moron.