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Re: OS wars in the mainstream

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On 2014-05-26 11:55, Aragorn wrote:
> On Monday 26 May 2014 12:28, BartC conveyed the following to 
> comp.misc...
>> By contrast, all I remember of Linux  is delving into it from time to
>> time (because everyone said it was so great), and wasting a huge
>> amount of time tinkering to the most basic things working (such as a
>> display screen! But with low-res, low-bit-depth, washed out colours,
>> and poorly driven LCD display). I think it was 20 years before I had a
>> Linux system where enough things worked for it to be useful (mouse,
>> screen, USB drive, internet). But it's GUI still looked amateurish.
> 
> There are many different fully-fledged desktop environments to choose 
> from, and some - like KDE - can be tailored to look like whatever you 
> want, and behave in whatever way you like.  In fact, Microsoft looked 
> quite heavily at GNU/Linux - and most notably at the Compiz window 
> manager and at the KDE 4 desktop environment - as inspiration for the 
> graphical effects in Windows Vista.  And then Vista still needed a 
> machine with much heavier specs than GNU/Linux in order to offer the 
> minimum of those effects and the same level of performance.

After years of using Windows primarily for application software which
wasn't available for GNU/Linux, GNU/Linux has--for my
purposes--overtaken Windows.

I had some trepidation about installing Debian, especially for the
package system which was a mess the last time I tried it (several years
ago), but everything just works. Installation was smoother and faster
than any Windows installation I can recall. The updates, repositories,
and the desktops just work. Updates rarely demand a reboot. USB works
perfectly: flatbed scanner, DSLR, audio interface, sound recorder, MIDI
interface, DMM, even an old webcam which I couldn't find any Windows
drivers for at all--all plug and play under Debian.

>> In Windows most of these things just worked [...
> 
> If you were lucky.
> 
>> ...] (you could also type either dir or DIR at the console, and it
>> would understand what you meant.
> 
> Because Windows is case-retentive but not case-sensitive.
> 
>> But type LS instead of ls, and Linux apparently wouldn't have a
>> clue what you were trying to do. Which is more user-friendly?)
> 
> Case-sensitivity is important.  GNU/Linux isn't user-unfriendly.  It 
> merely asks of its users that they'd be a little more computer-friendly.

I was exposed to case-sensitivity at an early enough stage to find
Windows the aberration. :-)

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OS wars in the mainstream Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> - 2014-05-25 09:38 +0100
  Re: OS wars in the mainstream mm0fmf <none@mailinator.com> - 2014-05-25 11:25 +0100
    Re: OS wars in the mainstream Kara M'bola <maxupixu@in.val.it> - 2014-05-25 11:19 +0000
      Re: OS wars in the mainstream Bob Eager <news0002@eager.cx> - 2014-05-25 12:45 +0000
      Re: OS wars in the mainstream Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> - 2014-05-25 18:11 +0100
        Re: OS wars in the mainstream Randy Westlund <Vorzakir@invalid.invalid> - 2014-05-25 17:47 +0000
          Re: OS wars in the mainstream Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2014-05-26 07:00 +0000
            Re: OS wars in the mainstream Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2014-05-26 15:07 +0000
            Re: OS wars in the mainstream despen@verizon.net (Dan.Espen) - 2014-05-26 11:43 -0400
        Re: OS wars in the mainstream Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2014-05-26 02:42 +0000
        Re: OS wars in the mainstream mm0fmf <none@mailinator.com> - 2014-05-26 09:26 +0100
        Re: OS wars in the mainstream "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2014-05-26 11:28 +0100
          Re: OS wars in the mainstream Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2014-05-26 12:55 +0200
            Re: OS wars in the mainstream Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> - 2014-05-26 12:48 +0100
    Re: OS wars in the mainstream Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2014-05-25 17:27 +0100

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