Re:On the state of Windows on the desktop
by lmm on Monday January 14, 2013 @11:41AM
(#5055324)
>It's the same as digging for coupons. Everything has a learning curve if you want to do it cheaply.
Not linux. For most distributions the free version is right there on the homepage - often it's the biggest and most prominent link.
The coupon-digging analogy is a good one. Rather than a case of "linux is free, windows is expensive", it's often "linux is free, windows is cheap/free if you can dig out enough of the right coupons". But it's still a much better experience with linux.
>I've been installing vanilla MSDN Windows 7 (with SP1) images on 15 different types of Dell/Lenovo machines.
How many different wireless chipsets was that? And yeah, some manufacturers get it right or lucky, but many don't. My impression is your odds of it working out the box without having to hunt down a driver are better with linux - but I've had to track down a driver there on occasion too.
>Again part of the learning curve. The same with Linux.
Which is the article's point - not that linux is always easier than windows, but that many of the things you have to learn when starting out with linux were just as difficult to learn when starting out with windows, you've just forgotten them through familiarity.
>Sorry gstreamer stuff via ubuntu-restricted-extras. It's the same turd rolled in different coloured glitter.
I don't know what you're talking about; I installed mplayer in the default way and it plays everything I encounter on the internet. It would probably need some codec installation to play WMV3 or real media, but does anyone use those any more? My impression is the world has pretty much settled on MKV/h264, and linux handles that fine out of the box.
Not linux. For most distributions the free version is right there on the homepage - often it's the biggest and most prominent link.
The coupon-digging analogy is a good one. Rather than a case of "linux is free, windows is expensive", it's often "linux is free, windows is cheap/free if you can dig out enough of the right coupons". But it's still a much better experience with linux.
>I've been installing vanilla MSDN Windows 7 (with SP1) images on 15 different types of Dell/Lenovo machines.
How many different wireless chipsets was that? And yeah, some manufacturers get it right or lucky, but many don't. My impression is your odds of it working out the box without having to hunt down a driver are better with linux - but I've had to track down a driver there on occasion too.
>Again part of the learning curve. The same with Linux.
Which is the article's point - not that linux is always easier than windows, but that many of the things you have to learn when starting out with linux were just as difficult to learn when starting out with windows, you've just forgotten them through familiarity.
>Sorry gstreamer stuff via ubuntu-restricted-extras. It's the same turd rolled in different coloured glitter.
I don't know what you're talking about; I installed mplayer in the default way and it plays everything I encounter on the internet. It would probably need some codec installation to play WMV3 or real media, but does anyone use those any more? My impression is the world has pretty much settled on MKV/h264, and linux handles that fine out of the box.