[SGVLUG] FW: Windows functional support on Linux [preaching to the choir?]

[Emerson, Tom (*IC)]

Finally, someone put it to the test and wrote about it...

-----Original Message-----

http://apcmag.com/6574/replace_windows_with_linux_part_1_installing_and_
updating_ubuntu

==========================

A couple of things I noticed, however:

  -- he /initially/ chose Ubuntu 6.0?/LTS [I can't remember if it's .06
or .04 -- but then, I don't use Ubuntu] but somewhere along the line
upgraded to 6.10  (I believe this is/was a multipart series over several
months, just published "all at once".  During that time, the 6.10
release came out.)  One of this reasons for choosing Ubuntu was the
Gnome desktop as opposed to KDE, however his "yardstick" was "does it
work like it does in windows?", for which KDE would have been the better
choice than Gnome (I think).

  -- he dissed the lack of media support "out of the box", though noted
this was due more to legal ramifications than lack of trying.  He is
partially justified, though, in some of his ranting in that "for a first
time user", it would have been a good thing for the Ubuntu maintainers
to put in large pop-ups when these particular items were hit indicating
"we can't legally do this, but /you/ can go here for a fix..."  [though
come to think of it, sometimes it wasn't even the Ubuntu maintainers
fault, but rather the developer of the particular app he chose]

  -- he also gave a "flop" rating for "disk space management" because of
one "incident", (and this might actually just be "a gnome thing"): when
his disk "filled up" [due to "trash" not being emptied], he didn't get
an option to "clear the trash folder" as he would under windows.
Offhand, I'm not sure of how other window managers would react [I use
KDE, but I don't often use KDE's trash -- when I delete something, I
purposely select /really/ delete, not "save it behind my back in a
folder where I'm not expecting it..."] but the fault lies more with the
window manager than with "Linux" per se.

  -- and he "flopped" camera support for two reasons: one was the
proprietary USB webcam and the other was permissions problem with the
photo application.  Admittedly, he discounted the USB webcam as it
didn't initially work under windows without the vendor's driver (and the
realization that no matter how they try, linux distribution maintainers
cannot /force/ a manufacturer to provide drivers...)  The permissions
problem is indeed "silly", and also I think related to the specific app
that he chose [gthumb?]  Then again, it might have been a
Ubuntu-specific slip-up -- there are hundreds, if not a few thousand,
"apps" that are packaged with a distro nowadays, and it could be that
tightening security for everything in general "broke" this particular
app...

Tom

P.s. the article is several pages long -- expect to waste a good hour
reading this...