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Linux has issues

but not as many noted as Windows.

It really falls upon which of the many many Linux distros you opt to download or possibly find retail. Not all are created in the same manner, nor have the exact same updating tools, nor the same range of multimedia support. So you have to wisely research and choose the one that will fit your needs or fit the needs of the group of people you wish to seamlessly interact if they adopt Linux as well (though it isn't 100% necessary just very helpful, especially on a shared network).

Some of the flaws I've found in OpenSuse and Fedora are along the paths of upgrading, hardware recognition/proper usage, support of multimedia out of the box and issues with full success using Wine to emulate the environment necessary for some Windows native programs to run without error. I've had installation problems with SuSe and Mandrake dealing with Radeon cards on several Dell systems (home and work) and either switch to another distro like Fedora or kill having that system be a dual boot (Windows for work and play, Linux for exploration). Also, have had issues with dual head recognition with Fedora not liking spanning two monitors, freezing up or ignoring the setting and treating the second screen as a mirror of the first. Tried triple monitors, but it recognized two, and scouring forums, people suggesting rewriting the config file for the display (but shouldn't a help GUI take the hand coding outta the picture, way uncool). At home, WinFast tv capture card and Hauppage worked fine in Windows but of course, had issues in Linux. They were recognized as the hardware they are, but either failed to produce anything but snow on the screen, or lacked audio when video was present. Now, for mp3 and streaming internet audio, . . maybe it's a downloaded ISO issue or a pure hate to deal with commercial and/or proprietary formats, but having to hit up the extras repositories or add another like Livna to get things like system wide MP3 support, DVD playing support, audio to stream through browser plugins was a bit of an initial shock and awe. There may be a 'ton' of applications out there, but you'll have to add them or find them and add them, like VLC media player or Xine. The big drop out of the box, playing games. Yes, it can come with a lot of rudimentary games akin to Hearts and Minesweeper or checkers, but if a publishing house didn't make a native version of game, you need some emulation on the part of a third party to get the more commercially popular shoot em ups and other genres working from beginning to end, unless maybe they're java based games.

As for security updates, applications seem to get regular updates depending on what you install initially, unless you look for all updates. I like that SuSe's updater YAST shows the different between a security patch and regular ole updates, since Fedora's PUP and even YUM just seem to want you to know something is out there, what it's summary may be, but not necessarily that it address a security issue (unless I've missed a tab or column).

The other pain I've experienced is a not so robust Virtual Network Computing. In Windows, I have a range of VNCs that work well enough to show each window of another PC as its hostname versus some indescript Lib server which means alot with many opened and tiled (oh yeah, tiling opened windows in Linux, what's up there, do you need a separate program to handle that nice little request from the panel?!)

Linux, depending again on distro, has a ways to go for some of the ease of use whether it be system trouble shooters, retail based diversity/purchase, native gaming, Windowcentric software full emulation especially on 3rd party software created for a particular business sector that performs a customized or expects a distinct work environment.

Now, as others have noted, their are many faults, issues and problems with Windows. They can rehash those. Some people may or may not rehash or expose the issues with Apple's Mac system pre 10 and after. OS/2 has gone to the great beyond, but I'm sure somebody can attest to its pros and cons. And speaking of cons, Sun and their Solaris, anybody anybody.

Posted by: Boot_Agnostic   Posted on: 09/06/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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