snobel on 8/9/2016 at 06:20
Try googling "linux two panel file manager". Two-panel mode was removed from the standard file manager Nautilus - so Ubuntu doesn't have it by default but Mint's Nemo does.
bikerdude on 9/9/2016 at 11:19
Quote Posted by Brethren
I say this honestly, not trolling at all - why do people use Linux?
At some point in the not to distant future I see myself migrating to Linux (probably mint) when I am forced into upgrading to Win10 due to lack of support under 7/8.1.
Chade on 11/9/2016 at 12:31
Start with Linux Mint, unless you care about licenses and so forth.
Brethren: the "best" OS to use, most of the time, is going to be the same one that all the people in the communities you belong to use. Availability of programs and sane defaults trumps OS-specific issues most of the time in my experience.
Also, you might be surprised how well "friendly" Linux distros work out of the box nowadays. I am neither a Windows nor Linux power user, but I would much prefer debug computer problems via Linux then via Windows ... it seems to be much easier to find out what is going on under the hood. That may just be my inexperience (in general, but especially with Windows) talking though.
Red_Breast on 11/9/2016 at 13:07
Quote Posted by mensch
This has been the subject of many (
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?HolyWar) Holy Wars, but in the end it comes down to what you prefer personally.
Never seen that Holy Wars page before. Thanks mensch.
It could do with an update - There's no mention of the current init wars (systemd). (I done a ctrl-f search)
The last time the page was updated was 2013.
Red_Breast on 11/9/2016 at 13:31
Quote Posted by Brethren
Maybe the real questions should be, is there anything you can do in Linux that you can't already do on a PC/Mac?
No that's not the real question. It comes down to things like philosophy, package managers, virus, Windows giving free reign to the system files. It's about how you want to do your "computing" as opposed to what you can or can't do.
Windows has got better in these areas but around 2004 I ditched Windows for those reasons. I wasn't gaming much at the time anyway.
Around the time of Windows 8 release I got a new PC and a good deal on Windows 8. I got Windows 8 as I felt like digging some old games out to play.
I did upgrade to Windows 10 but I'm not liking it. Somebody once asked me what's the difference between Windows and Linux. I replied I feel dirty (metaphorically) when I use Windows. As for the iCorp. Never used anything of theirs. If I did I'd have to do it whilst sitting in a bath.
heywood on 12/9/2016 at 22:08
Unless you are committed to the cause of open source software, or you really like to tinker with things, I don't see the point of using Linux as a desktop OS.
I've certainly tried. I've been a Linux user ever since I installed my first Slackware distro back in 1995. I used Slack & Stampede as a primary OS for a few years in the late 1990s and Ubuntu as a primary OS during the Windows Vista years. Otherwise, I've used various Linuxen as platforms for tinkering and programming, and for servers. For example, right now I have CentOS 6 running on an old headless HP EX490 re-purposed as a backup server, and an infrequently used Fedora VM for tinkering. I've also used Red Hat Linux on and off for work, along with practically every other UNIX.
I keep hoping the Linux desktop experience will get better, so every time a new or significantly updated interface comes out I usually try it. One complaint I have is that most Linux desktop interfaces are basically trying to clone Windows or Mac OS X or both, and usually poorly. Linux Mint is a great example. It's basically Windows 95 perfected. For most of its life, KDE has also been a Windows 95 clone. They've made it more customizable now so you can kind of make it work like Windows 7, but I find it clunky and a bit ugly. Several desktops have tried to clone OS X, most recently Elementary, which is pretty looking but feels incomplete, like a proof of concept. GNOME 2 was basically a nonsensical mismash of a traditional X11 WM with a Windows 95-like taskbar AND a separate OS X-like menu bar where a Windows 95-like start menu was located. I've managed to make GNOME 3 serviceable with heavy tweaking, but task switching and window management still takes too much clicking around. But right now, I think I prefer Xfce. Unity-forget it. One new distro I've been looking at but haven't tried yet is Solus - looks very Windows 10.
I've also been using Mac OS X since 2001 and I think it provides a far more polished and productive interface but retains UNIX-y goodness underneath and the ability (through MacPorts or Fink) to run most of the X11/POSIX applications available for Linux. Not to mention that it has more commercial software available for it, and it's fairly plug & play and trouble free thanks to being designed for a closed hardware platform. If only Apple hardware wasn't so damn expensive.
Windows 7 and Windows 10 also provide a fair bit better desktop computing experience than anything I've seen on Linux. There have been periods where I've hardly fired up a Linux VM, preferring to code in a Cygwin environment where possible just to stay in Windows 7.
Chade on 12/9/2016 at 23:34
I have become accustomed to using tiling window managers over the years, and find the ergonomics of other window managers to be a bit painful by comparison. Currently this only works well on Linux (I haven't tried one for OS X or Windows that wasn't buggy and/or laggy and/or a resource hog). Not exactly a mainstream option, admittedly.
On the other hand, I set up GNOME 3 for my kids accounts and they found it much more intuitive then Windows. That's starting to change though as they get older, use Windows all the time at school, their friends use Windows or OS X, and they start using software that only runs or runs much better on Windows. Ecosystems trump operating systems.
Also, my younger kids took a while to learn that my laptop monitor is not a touch screen. Strange times ...
Pyrian on 13/9/2016 at 03:21
Hah, I'm still trying to convince my three-year-old that the TV isn't a touch screen.
Renzatic on 13/9/2016 at 17:07
Quote Posted by heywood
I've managed to make GNOME 3 serviceable with heavy tweaking, but task switching and window management still takes too much clicking around.
To me, Gnome 3 is the most straightforward of all the Linux desktops, and barely requires any tweaking at all. I'll install the (
http://www.android100.org/uploadfile/2015/1231/20151231013711_0.gif) Arc Theme, change the fonts to taste, install a couple of convenient shell extensions for poops and giggles, and I'm done with it. It takes all of about five minutes.
The thing I like about it the most is that it's the most out of the way DE I've ever used. When I have something like Expose, I don't need a taskbar at the bottom of the screen for window management. I just flick my wrist to the top left corner of the screen, and get a display of all my open windows and virtual desktops all in one go. When you're in an application, all your screen space is dedicated to that application alone. The only OS specific thing is that tiny bar along the top of the screen.
Though I will admit that Gnome 3 does take some adjusting to, especially if you've used Windows all your life. I can understand why some people don't like it at first, because it doesn't do anything the "normal" way. It's weird even when compared to OSX, which it's arguably more akin to, though still not exactly the same. Once you get used to it though, you can fly between windows and manage open applications like it ain't no thing.
I spend the vast majority of my time in Win10 these days, simply because MS finally got around to adding every single UI feature I've always in Windows. A good expose-alike, virtual desktops, scroll on mouse over, all that good stuff. But there are still times when I find myself missing the way Gnome did things. It is, to me, the major reason why I liked using Linux.
