Switching to Linux

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I know im more likely to get slaughtered with this poll but im just keen to know:

Are you thinking of switching to Linux as your main OS? or Have you considered making the switch? or Has it crossed your mind in the future you might need to switch? Or have you already switched?

No one will know your answer so please feel free!

 

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Yup, as I posted previously I made the move to Linux over a week ago and I'm still loving it I've only fired up my Windows installation once since. ff's post about WGA has just reinforced my decision.

 

no and no
Linux is no where near ready to replace windows on my primary system at present
weather that is the fault of app vendors, hardware vendors or distros themselves i dont know, not really fussed either, the fact is until all my hardware is supported, all my games work, and all the apps i want to use work, it aint happening

still a great OS though

 

Have to agree with Phoenix regarding apps, hardware etc being fully supported. I have test machines with linux distro’s on and I enjoy messing around with them now and then.

For now I will stick with XP.

 

Do bears **it in the woods?

Of course I've changed my OS. There is still a Windows install on my laptop, but I haven't booted into for quite a while now, and when I get around to it, it will be gone. I'll probably end up dual booting it to two different Linux OS's. One will be Debian. I don't know what the other one will be as yet. That's probably why I haven't wiped out the Windows install as yet.

 

Not for me either. I am using Linux as a desktop system, but that is mainly when I havent got other stuff to do, so that I can learn it. I see linux as becoming more and more dominant in the server market than on the desktop.

Behing the scenes people can adapt, infront of them they know only windows.

 

I dont feel I need to.. I am quite happy with windows. so it's a no from me too.

 

I dunno, there are a lot of people who only use a PC for browsing the web, writing emails and the odd word or excel document. From what I've seen so far Linux with KDE would be a perfect replacement for them.

 

No from me. I'm quite happy with Windows, and while I will likely get a linux machine sometime for the sake of learning, I don't forsee it being my "main" machine.

 

Just like Phoenix until apps and hardware and everything is fully supported I will always use Windows...for heavens sake I aint even thinking about using Mac OS X!!! so Windows all the way for me...

 

I agree. My wife is the typical user. She couldn't even drag and drop or cut and paste until I showed her how, after she had been using Windows for about 20 years at work. She adapted very easily to Debian and the Gnome gui. In fact, she uses the computer now more than she ever did when we had Windows installed. She spends several hours a week a playing games now because she likes the games that come Gnome and KDE. I'm surprised to tell the truth because I used to try to get her to try playing games on Windows and she would get upset saying she had already spent her day on the computer at work and had no interest in sitting in front of one while at home too. Now I find her in front of the computer either playing games, checking her email, surfing the net, reading the news, or playing wth the different software installed.

This idea that regular users can't adapt to Linux is way overblown. It's simply just not true.

 

i dont know about you but i was excited about learning linux because it was different.. i think your wife had more or less the same.. it was different from the norm.

 

So tell me freddy, did your wife set up her own system? It's quite easy for you to toss this around, but when IT professionals have a steep learning curve to learn any linux distro how can you expect the average home user to learn it?

Until any distro becomes any where near as usable as windows it's staying off my machine.

 

LOL. I've heard this argument so many times it isn't funny, and it doesn't make a bit of sense either. Could my wife install Windows? Not on your life. Could she deal with driver issues in Windows? Not on your life. Could my wife clean up malware, virus, adware, and rootkits from a Windows computer? Not on your life.

Why is there a huge industry built up around installing, repairing, and just overall maintaining Windows computers for home users? Why are there approximately a dozen small businesses advertising that they do computer repair work in an area of only about 40,000 people here where I live? Because the average user does all their own work in all those areas in Windows? Don't make me laugh.

This argument is like telling me there isn't a major learning curve for IT professionals in Windows because people can point and click in Windows. That's not true and you know it. It takes a lot of knowledge to be a successful IT professional even in the Windows world. Why would you expect there to not be a major learning curve in learning another OS? Because if you've learned Windows you've learned it all and there shouldn't be anything more to learn in the computer world?

Sorry, Nugget, but your argument against Linux, while it seems to be a very common one, is one of the worst arguments there is against using Linux.

 

I completely agree with you there Freddy. Most of the average users I know can't set up a wireless PC (which is a very popular sport at the moment) or do anything more than install and run applications.

For my part, I will at some point switch to a dual boot set up with the Windows installation purely for playing games, I just need to find the time to learn Linux - I have a Red Hat for Dummies book as a first port of call but I havent' had the time to do anything with it. I would like to at least do a Linux+ at some point as well.

 

This couldnt of come at a better time, Im installing Debian in a dual boot now!

Jack

 

To tell the truth, I'm pretty surprised at the percentages so far. Out of 20 people who have responded in the poll 40% either having moved or thinking about moving is pretty amazing to me.

That percentage will probably drop quite a bit if a large number of newbies respond to the poll, but this being a MS centric forum it's indicative of MS losing market share as this same type of response is going on all over the interent on different forums.

The more ham-handed MS gets the more users they lose....