(October 15, 2008 at 3:41 am)Kyuuketsuki Wrote: No it's not, Ubuntu is not significantly different from any other Linux Distro!Either you have no idea about any other distro or you are lying. The only thing similar between every distro is the Linux Kernel. That is it.
Ubuntu uses Gnome whilst others use KDE or xkce for the desktop environment, as well as using Alsa for sound whilst some still use OSS. The apt-get install system from Debian is in Ubuntu, but things like Fedora use "yum", and Gentoo uses emerge or paludis. So already the distros are very very dissimilar.
(October 15, 2008 at 3:41 am)Kyuuketsuki Wrote: I've been trying, trying hard, to migrate to Linux (including several fairly long periods of exclusive usage, one of them for 6 months) to migrate to it for the past 10 years off and on ... I failed every time and returned to the Windows comfort zone (read PC Pro's latest review, "1 week Linux test" I think it was, on that very subject). Call it a Windows thing if you want (maybe Windows users just get brain damaged by their OS) but no version of Linux has ever approached Windows usability IMO and, like it or not, you cannot truly use Linux to it's full capacity without being fairly technically competent.True, you cannot use Linux to it's full potential without some knowledge of the system, but that was never the point I raised. Ubuntu can be used by anyone, from the PC illiterate to the Windows fanboys perfectly well. Sure, you might not get into complex things with the kernel, but you can easily configure your system thanks to the numerous programs people have written for it.
As for usability, Windows has always been more unstable, with BSOD's and viruses at every turn. Linux can run for years without needing rebooting (unless you want to upgrade the kernel) and has no active viruses to speak of.
(October 15, 2008 at 3:41 am)Kyuuketsuki Wrote: Add to that the simple fact that there simply IS NOT support for Linux, driver support sucks especially for recent hardware, forum support sucks because though they want to be helpful they walk away when the questions get too difficult (based on many instance of personal experience), games are many years behind the tech curve (if you are a gamer you simply do not want Linux because you cannot get that many really good, by which I mean latest, games).Driver support is great, and wherever you heard otherwise is a bad source. Most things you need to use (printers, keyboards, mice, usb pens, external harddrives, webcams, etc) all work as soon as you plug them in (no need to install drivers at all). Nvidia have released drivers for their graphics cards, which work perfectly. I have no idea which forums you have been too, but all the official forums (Linux forums, Ubuntu forums, Gentoo forums etc) are great for asking questions and getting answers. The IRC channels give great live support as well!
As for games, you evidently have no experience with Wine or other such emulators. I was playing Spore the day it came out on my Linux machine. Direct X is installable in Wine, and so are a multitude of other gaming accessories. Of course, I don't doubt that these games are better on Windows, since they were written for Windows. This is why I always have Windows installed as well. Linux is a fine operating system though.
