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Everything about Linux is customizeable. Every single thing you see on the screen is replaceable by a ton of different options. Ubuntu is a distribution that wants to make it accessible by complete retards (which is the reason why it has become so popular (well along with commercially backed marketing power of course, so everyone knows about it)). But you can change everything.
Just as an example, this is the KDE desktop: http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.1/
It goes without saying that it brings a completely different look+feel which you might even find great. Contrary to Windows or MacOS, there is not just one way of doing things. You don't like that one way? Then do it another. Many Linux users have started out with a distribution and software which they are NOT using anymore now. It's not surprising: if you have so much choice, you'll eventually find one which works perfectly for you. Sure it'll take some time but it'll pay off in the long run.
Then it should be noted that Linux is far more useable than Windows if you already know your way around (and use the powerful shell quite a bit). Whenever some Windows user sees me doing stuff on Linux, they're usually amazed at how fast I can do standard things and how many features are hidden below the surface. The Windows UI is extremely inefficient, but you only learn that after using an alternative long enough, which most people don't do.
And yes Ubuntu is fairly modern and needs 1 GB RAM at least, otherwise I wouldn't even touch it. Well I wouldn't touch anything with < 2 GB these days.
But there are other Linux distributions which ship with lightweight programs or those who let you decide what to install from the bottom up, e.g. Arch Linux (which is my favorite distribution, it's also extremely fast. Needs at least an i686).
There are also distributions for using something as old as an 486, which is powerful enough for a small home server or router (of course without a GUI).
Here's a good article for Windows users new to Linux, it's not very accurate at some points, but overall it's nice:
http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm
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The Windows UI is extremely inefficient, but you only learn that after using an alternative long enough, which most people don't do.
I don't understand what could be more efficient than all the things I use on my computer being one click away from me on my quick launch. Internet, Limewire, Wordprocessor, MusicPlayer, Converter, StarCraft, and Torrent are all exactly one click away using my quick launch. With Linux I have to use this weird clone of a Start Menu/apple and find it in a list, and if it isn't there I have to hopelessly try to find it browsing the files, but they're not organized in anyway that I can understand, and have unfamiliar names...
Windows has skins too...
I don't know. I'm not willing to spend anytime learning a new operating system... Isn't there a clone skin of windows XP I can just put on Linux if it's so customizable? Or would that be illegal :/
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I don't see how Gnome and KDE are much more efficient than Windows.
Linux is all about the powerful tools + CLI. Gnome and KDE are really just for looks and to hook newbs/posers to hop on board.
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What makes you think that there is no quick launch? In Gnome (Ubuntu default desktop), Right-click on the panel ("taskbar"), select Add Application Launcher or so and then you have your quick launch icon (of which you can have as many as you want, at any position on the taskbar or even a 2nd or 3rd taskbar as you want. Ubuntu comes with 2 panels by default, I find this is a waste of screen space and always disable one).
The file system is organized, although not perfectly, it's just completely different than in Windows.
When you install a program, all the files are split up usually. The executables are in /usr/bin, images/sounds and other stuff is in /usr/share, libraries (.so files, like .DLLs in Windows) are in /usr/lib, system-wide configuration files in /etc, and so on. You can check the contents of some installed packages to get a feel for it. There's also /{bin,lib,...} for important system files, and /usr/local/{bin,lib,...} for additionally installed stuff not controlled by the package manager.
What you should also know is that to install any software, you don't visit the homepage and download it from there (well you CAN do that, but it's not the most convenient way). Your distributor (in this case Ubuntu) offers tons of pre-compiled packages which are specifically built for and will Just Work with your system. For example to install Thunderbird, start up the Synaptic package manager, search for thunderbird, and click install - done. No stupid wizard to click through, it'll just be ready. Using the shell is even faster: sudo apt-get install thunderbird. (The "sudo" command means run the following command with administrative rights (In Ubuntu, the "root" user account is actually disabled for security reasons, but your normal user account is configured to be allowed to use sudo, you simply have to type in your own password. You can also get a root shell (if you need one) with "sudo -i"). You can also use "gksudo" for a graphical password prompt)
Of course the shell supports tab completion so you don't actually have to type in every single character of each word (pressing TAB will complete it for you). You can also set up aliases like alias ai="sudo apt-get install", then you just have to type "ai firefox" to install stuff.
And yes Windows has skins, but that'll just change the appearance, not the way you use it. 
In Linux you can change both, and there are even radically different approaches to what you know from Windows. The terminal is one such thing, but you could also check out a window manager like AwesomeWM or DWM - they take a while to set up but they're tiling WMs which automatically position the windows for you (unless you tell them not to), which is great if you're working with fixed-size windows a lot and you don't want to position them in a grid or whatever for yourself.
Another thing which is possible with EVERY desktop or window manager on Linux is auto-starting applications with specific settings, e.g. automatically starting a maximized Firefox and Thunderbird on workspace 2, starting 4 terminals with a specific geometry on workspace 1, and starting your favorite music player on workspace 4. All automatically when logging in.
Oh well I could go on and on but yeah you get the point. Linux is much more powerful than what it might look like. 
If you don't want to spend time learning it, then forget it though. Because that's simply required for using Linux: a will to use it and a bit of free time to get used to it. Because it is very different from Windows, and Gnome/KDE only make it look like it's the same but under the surface everything's different. That's probably the reason why Linux is becoming more and more popular on business desktops where the user is NOT the administrator, but not at home where user == admin and 99% of all people are used to Windows and will dislike any other behavior.
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:O I don't disagree with anything you said. I'm just not the tech type person to be interested in what Linux has to offer when I'm already so familiar with Windows :O I just wanted to talk about how pissed I was that I couldn't use my favourite operating system. Between school, work, and writing, I don't know where I'm going to find time to learn a new operating system. Linux isn't intuitive to me, and I know I'll find myself reading thru mountains of shit trying to find out how to do one thing. I was so happy to get a laptop finally, after a year of scritch scratching in university, and then I find out I don't know how to use it at all lol.
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Yeah well that's fine, you don't have to use it. But please don't say it sucks or is not an alternative, just because you find it unintuitive.
There are a lot of reasons why geeks or any persons using computers a lot often prefer it over Windows (on the desktop): because it's more efficient once you've learned enough about it.
And let's also not forget the ideological advantage of free software.
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Linux might not suck, but Ubuntu sure does (if I'm understanding that it's just one of a million different ways to use Linux...)
Apart from the op system, all the software on my computer is free too :O
lol... why is Linux telling me "invalid encoding" when I'm trying to open a .txt file... Just do it, damn it 
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Hehe yeah I don't particularly like Ubuntu too. But it's still the distribution I always recommend for people new to Linux, because they put in a lot of effort to make the standard things just work. For me, after installing Ubuntu the first thing I do is to change everything because I don't like most of the stuff that is pre-installed. That's why I prefer distributions like Arch Linux where you set up your system like you want to.
And "free software" is not just about prize, it's also about freedom to use/copy/modify it. No restrictions (well, except mentioning the original author and in the case of GPL that any derivative work must also be released under the GPL with available source code, so that Microsoft for example can't simply "steal" code to improve Windows without giving anything back - although there are quite a few commercial software developers which do steal GPLed code like that).
The availability of source code is also useful if you personally don't do anything with it: after 5-20 years, closed source programs enter a questionable state. The original developer does not support it at all anymore, and because of no code, no one else can do it either. It might not even run with a modern operating system anymore (you've probably had that problem with some old game). Now if that game/program would be open source, it would be pretty much guaranteed that someone (not the original developer) would simply make it work again. Or maybe port it to other systems. Or simply somehow improve it (just think of all the great Doom 1/2 ports which are available these days and run on all modern operating systems). All that is not possible with closed source games/apps. id Software is pretty much the only company which does things right: at first, to be profitable, they release it as closed source, but later on (~5 years later) they open source it, to ensure that their games will always live on. Sadly, I know of no one else who does that.
Then there's also the security advantage. This isn't always guaranteed of course, because after all if you release something as open source and no one looks after security holes then they won't become known anyway. But the more popular your free program is, the more eyes will look at the source code and find errors and submit patches. Other people, not just the original developer, can help improve it.
Furthermore, free software may even be the only way to make a program successful, especially today where Microsoft dominates so much of the market.. For example, if Netscape hadn't open sourced their Netscape Navigator (which is now being developed as the open source Firefox browser by Mozilla), the product Netscape would have died with the company back when Microsoft started dominating the web browser market. By simply pre-installing Internet Explorer with Windows, they gained like 90% market share because most users are lazy and won't go install another browser if there's one already there.
If Linux had started as a commercial program, it would have suffered the same fate as BeOS or OS/2 (both were considered better than Windows at their time): dead/bankrupt, because of no chance of competing with the always pre-installed Windows.
Open sourcing Linux was the only way. Linus also said that in an interview.
Free formats and protocols are also very important, so that it is guaranteed that even after years there will still be software available which can deal with them (and that you aren't dependant on one particular program/company).
And let's not forget the constant annoyances which the commercial software industry always forces upon its customers: copy protections which don't work anyway but annoy the hell out of you, DRM which no one likes but is there anyway, extremely restrictive licenses ("you aren't allowed to install this on more than 1 computer, even if you own several", "you aren't allowed to distribute this game on LAN because every single player needs to buy a copy before you all can play it together"), etc. etc... of course it's not surprising that many Windows users are cracking and pirating software and doing other illegal stuff all the goddamn time, because it's simply unuseable without. With Linux, you have the chance to use your computer 100% legally.
So yeah, that should give you some insight as to why free (as in speech) software is a great thing.
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to be fair, windows isn't any more intuitive than ubuntu. in fact i find some aspects of ubuntu totally amazing compared to windows (getting/updating your programs, keeping up with updates for the OS is a total breeze in Ubuntu (literally just one click) while in XP it's a pain in the ass)
the only reason windows seems more intuitive is because you've used it longer, and things that actually don't make any damn sense are "fine" because you've grown used to them over the years.
anyway, here's a relevant ubuntu article about windows>ubuntu conversion (guy gives his non-techie girlfriend some tasks to do in ubuntu without any assistance, and see the results)
Ubuntu isn't ready at all for the average user, but at least it's getting better. I'll probably switch over again as soon as ATI stops sucking.
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Well the main issue is that A: my laptop isn't connected to the internet. B: I can't use any of my favourite programs cause they aren't compatible with Linux, and even if they were, I wouldn't know how to get them on there since everything is separated into a few main folders, instead of each program just having it's own folder (which whether you admit it or not, is logical). The problem may really be simply that my home computer isn't a Linux based machine, so things aren't really compatible with my laptop, which is a pain in the ass. I'd like to be able to just copy paste stuff from a portable harddrive, but obviously Linux is a system all it's own, that's really meant to be your primary tool if you get it.
I rarely update things anyway, but when I do it's like automatic updates (which I've recently opted away from since I don't like the new ToS). If I like my machine running the way it is, and an update isn't specifically a new feature, I don't bother... Usually it's just finding new ways to make it hard for you to use your computer anyway.
I don't know why not having an install wizard is an advantage... All a wizard does is ask you if you want icons in some typical places, and you tell it exactly what you want... takes like 3 seconds, hardly a pain in the ass where if it just did it automatically, you'd have to search thru every place it installed a stupid shortcut and delete it.
All the programs on my PC are either open source, or came with the computer... Their websites ask if you'd like to make a donation discreetly in the corner, but I'm sure that's no different from any Linux developer.
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I was convinced to try out Ubuntu awhile back.
It really is a lot more customizable than windows, since you can make user interface do anything you want. I also think that it really runs stable and beautiful right out of the box more so than Windows (setting up my computer to get on the internet after an OS reinstall took about an hour with Windows and Ubuntu started the internet up right upon boot).
However, the user interface I want is Windows. Every program I use is native to Windows (except the GIMP , so if you prefer windows there is no reason you should use ubuntu instead (unless your dedication to open source is enough to warrant learning a whole new OS, which in my case, its really not).
I would be willing to give it another shot if somebody could recommend me a decent CAD program for linux
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On September 01 2008 02:16 PsycHOTemplar wrote:
B: I can't use any of my favourite programs cause they aren't compatible with Linux, and even if they were, I wouldn't know how to get them on there since everything is separated into a few main folders, instead of each program just having it's own folder (which whether you admit it or not, is logical). The problem may really be simply that my home computer isn't a Linux based machine, so things aren't really compatible with my laptop, which is a pain in the ass. I'd like to be able to just copy paste stuff from a portable harddrive, but obviously Linux is a system all it's own, that's really meant to be your primary tool if you get it.
What are your favorite programs, and what do you mean by "not compatible"? You mean you can't run them on Linux? Well yeah that's why you look for Linux programs (or cross-platform ones which run on any system). Maybe this link will help you: http://www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/table-eng.html ... but there are a ton of programs listed, many of which are also old or bad. If you tell us which programs you want an alternative for, we can give you some specific recommendations.
And what about using a portable harddrive to share stuff? Why shouldn't that be possible? I do that often. Even the filesystems are not much of a problem anymore - Linux can read/write NTFS with the ntfs-3g driver (installed by default on Ubuntu) and Windows can read/write ext3 (the most common Linux filesystem - you just have to install a driver from http://fs-driver.org/. FAT32 is supported out of the box by both, but it sucks anyway)
About the file separation thing: when you install a program you can choose not to separate the files. For example you can install any program in something like /opt/programname (which then contains the usual folders bin, lib, share and so on). One drawback to this is that you can't start the program by typing "programname" in the shell anymore until you add the new directory to the PATH environment variable.
When you use the package manager, you don't get to choose. But you don't really have to. The package manager keeps track of your programs. If you want to know what files belong to which programs, you can open the package manager and see a list (in the shell via "dpkg -L packagename", you can pipe the output to grep in order to see a list of specific files, e.g. "dpkg -L firefox | grep bin" will show you the executables).
If you want to use a Windows program (via Wine, it's not an emulator but something similar, it has almost no performance penalty, you can even play modern games with it), you can copy/install it where you like, everything in 1 folder only - what matters is that the program finds its files, which wouldn't be the case anymore if you spread them across your filesystem.
I rarely update things anyway, but when I do it's like automatic updates (which I've recently opted away from since I don't like the new ToS). If I like my machine running the way it is, and an update isn't specifically a new feature, I don't bother... Usually it's just finding new ways to make it hard for you to use your computer anyway.
You should bother, most upgrades are security updates, and these are harmless anyway since they don't introduce anything new to the program so it'll just run like before.
I don't know why not having an install wizard is an advantage... All a wizard does is ask you if you want icons in some typical places, and you tell it exactly what you want... takes like 3 seconds, hardly a pain in the ass where if it just did it automatically, you'd have to search thru every place it installed a stupid shortcut and delete it.
But you can install like 10 or more programs at once, all without having to click on anything. Clicking through 10 wizards takes a huge amount of time, in Linux it's just 1 command and then like 1 minute waiting for download and installation - no user interaction required.
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I've never in my life felt the need to install 10 programs at once o.o Quality over quantity, right? Also, I'm used to the motto "a computer only does what you tell it to," so I'm slightly uncomfortable with just leaving it to do its own thing :X
What are your favorite programs, and what do you mean by "not compatible"?
I mean I can't just copy paste the folder in my Program Files anywhere in Linux and it'll run...
There's really only one program I want to run on my laptop, since I'm not going to have internet on there anyway. It's called Microsoft Works Word Processor, and I want it to look like this:
Boop
Basically, even though the format .wps is mostly incompatible and unknown, I've grown used to it and enjoy it. I save my documents as .rtf or something when I really need to send them to someone. It'd also be nice if I could make the program go full screen, because Ubuntu's side bars are really gross.
The other program I might want to run, since I basically can't use my PC at all when it's on, is called MediaCoder. A catchall converter. All2Avi on rare occasions that I need to mix soft subs with a video.
You should bother, most upgrades are security updates, and these are harmless anyway since they don't introduce anything new to the program so it'll just run like before.
I have bad experiences whenever I update things. Like when I updated FireFox last week... I thought it was an update for FireFox two, like a bon voyage before they give up on in entirely and focus on FireFox 3. No, it was FireFox three, and now none of my plugins or themes work. The closest thing I could find to the theme I used before still has these ugly fucking gay gradients that are supposed to make it look shiny, but really just make it look douche. It's pixels on my computer, not brushed steel... I'm always afraid the next Window update is gonna be something like "oh yeah, and we're gonna search your whole computer for files of questionable legality and sue you for 10 billion dollars."
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It's hard to justify to the average user why they should use Linux, so I won't. It takes quite a bit of effort to switch but one of the best things about it is instant out of the box use, one of the worst is when it doesn't recognize your hardware out of the box, though that is improving.
I can't argue about your favorite programs or whatever but there are most likely Linux alternatives if you're willing to look. Like instead of your weird proprietary word thing, you could use Vi. If you're running to slowly you could always try a different window manager like flux/open/blackbox, though those are kind of hard to get used to but very, very slick.
On another note, I don't think that you or the people advising you have any idea what they are talking about. Ubuntu motherboard, the fuck? Can't dual boot because of emulation, the fuck? Just tell them they are idiots and format that fucker.
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i've no idea what microsoft works is (i've heard of its existence but i've never actually met anyone that uses it)
What's the difference between it and MSWord? judging by the screenshot it's basically like Word 03 ?
and as for
I mean I can't just copy paste the folder in my Program Files anywhere in Linux and it'll run...
... =(
this doesn't work all the time when c&p from windows to windows either, unless you know how to mess around in the pile of garbage known as the registry
think of linux and windows as french and spanish. you can't really expect a french person to understand spanish but that doesn't mean he can't express the same thought in his own language (perhaps even in a better way )
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i've no idea what microsoft works is (i've heard of its existence but i've never actually met anyone that uses it)
Despite it being such a rare program, oddly enough the friends I send my writing to, and receive writing from, use it and its .wps format. I haven't used MSWord in a really long time, so I couldn't really tell you. The main issue is that all my files are in .wps, all the files I receive from friends are in .wps, and MSWord will not read a .wps file. My other issue is that I need the text and background to be non-standard colours, because as I writer, I utilize the different colours to help me switch from the perspective of a writer, to the perspective of a reader when I read it in black and white after it's been printed out or I changed the colours on the computer.
On another note, I don't think that you or the people advising you have any idea what they are talking about. Ubuntu motherboard, the fuck? Can't dual boot because of emulation, the fuck? Just tell them they are idiots and format that fucker.
My brother is a genius and he specializes in computers... I trust his first hand inspection of the computer over the opinions of strangers based on my possibly inaccurate description of the problem. He never used the words "Ubuntu" and "motherboard" next to each other, that's just what I call it because he was telling the issue was with the motherboard. I haven't had a chance to talk to him again yet, but I'll definitely ask. It's possibly since he's a tech geek kinda guy, he just expected I'd be able to get used to Linux too, when really he and I are not very alike.
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about wps files -- i guess that's a reasonable issue
i don't really know why you would use it, i assume you have your reasons.. certainly as a windows user, i can't do shit with wps format either unless i shell out $200 for the msworks suite. i sincerely doubt ubuntu will have a solution if even windows doesn't have a good one, but i'll look...
from a bit of googling, apparently nothing else can directly open wps files (evidently even MSOffice conversion apps have issues.. neat isn't it)
gotta love stupid proprietary formats that nobody else can use =(
i found some possible solutions (zamzar converter, renaming to *.rtf & using Oo, wine -- although this doesn't seem like it will work very well.. i'm assuming you referred to it in your OP)
but none of these are actually any good if you use wps on a daily basis
basically there's nothing that i could find with a quick google search. sorry. like i said in the beginning, if a windows user like me can do shit-all with wps format, i doubt ubuntu will have a solution. perhaps somebody else knows though
edit: apparently i was wrong. there's a library that lets you do this in Oo, libwps. hi5 to the open source community. ill go boot up my ubuntu and see if it works
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That's why I'm so hard pressed by windows :O I know I could get everything to work if it were the same OS.
Thanks very much for trying though Very much appreciate your efforts. I actually got my Word Processor from a friend, because years ago when I had to reformat my computer due to accidentally deleting the sound driver (DOH!) I had no word processor apart from notepad when I finished reformatting. Since then I've been using this, and become accustomed to it.
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Any PC that can handle ubuntu can handle XP
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With open source anything you always run into the problem that there are a million different versions customized a million different ways and unless you know what you're doing it's going to be a bitch to figure out what's going on.
That said, a motherboard is just a piece of hardware. Get rid of that Ubuntu shit and put on Windows. If you look up Ubuntu online, you should be able to figure out how to do that much.
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EPT
