What does it take for you to switch to linux?

[Craftable124]

Hey guys, what do you need in linux (I'm mostly thinking of Ubuntu) before you ditch windows?

 

I'll Start:

1) Better Game/Driver Support (Coming for Steam Machine! I think!)

2) Better programs from main devs. (For example, Skype for linux is TERRIBLE compared to Mac/Windows)

3) More programs from main devs (Microsoft Office, After Effects, etc.)

 

So really I like Ubuntu WAY more than windows and mac, It has my favorite feature from both and it's free. FREE! My only issues are relating to devs that make software for linux, nothing directly at the fault of linux/canonical.

[Joshyy]

Easier installs, IE 1 click executables, Don't get me wrong, typing --Sudo Apt Get and seeing it download is great fun, but  I tried Ubuntu and quit when I had to spend 20 minutes in the terminal trying to install Java

[MatheusSanzo]

What I can't run on Wine I run on a windows VM.

 

Simple like that.

 

I run on dual boot for about 1 year and a half, but using linux 100% of the time.

 

I plan to fully switch (erase windows) at the end of this year.

[needmorewood]

when video games are more supportive. in tertms of drivers (i just wanna lay dota 2 nicely )

[prolemur]

mostly just the games that I want to play that I can't on linux, and that it's a new os have to get used to it which isnt that big of a deal. Have been using it on my parents laptop and learning what's up.

[AraSarkisyan]

Linux Mint 15 master race. 

[lutzee]

2) Better programs from main devs. (For example, Skype for linux is TERRIBLE compared to Mac/Windows)

Yeah, good luck with that

 

3) More programs from main devs (Microsoft Office, After Effects, etc.)

Office wont be ported, or any M$ programs for that matter, use LibreOffice or LaTeX

After Effects probably won't come till at least drivers are fully supported in the graphics departments

As a linux user the only reason why windows is still 'tucked away' in the corner of my desktop is for the odd gaming session, otherwise it boots to linux

[rockking1379]

Linux Mint 15 master race. 

Linux Mint 16 with Cinnamon 2.0 that's the new master race.

[Craftable124]

Yeah, good luck with that

 

After Effects probably won't come till at least drivers are fully supported in the graphics departments

As a linux user the only reason why windows is still 'tucked away' in the corner of my desktop is for the odd gaming session, otherwise it boots to linux

IK these things probably won't happen it's just an imaginary wishlist for ubuntu, and like you, I mostly just use windows for games. I can deal with most of the other issues.

[prolemur]

I would use linux on a laptop, if I had one

[Lyons]

Google Drive support

A respectable Office Suite (Libre Office and LaTeX don't cut it)

Font rendering on par with OSX or at least windows

A much better skype application

Photoshop (Gimp sucks)

[lutzee]

A respectable Office Suite (Libre Office and LaTeX don't cut it)

No sure what your definition of a respectable office suite is, because last time I checked MS office was still fowling up on most standards in place.

Also there are FOSS unofficial apps to sync with drive.

GIMP isn't great for high quality photo editing I'll give you that one, and I barely use skype (only for text chat for one project)

Not even sure what you mean by 'Font rendering on par with OSX or at least windows" though, I've never had problems with fonts. Unless you are trying to use some nasty fancy fonts for some reason.

[Lyons]

No sure what your definition of a respectable office suite is, because last time I checked MS office was still fowling up on most standards in place.

Also there are FOSS unofficial apps to sync with drive.

GIMP isn't great for high quality photo editing I'll give you that one, and I barely use skype (only for text chat for one project)

Not even sure what you mean by 'Font rendering on par with OSX or at least windows" though, I've never had problems with fonts. Unless you are trying to use some nasty fancy fonts for some reason.

 

When saving a .docx/.doc in Libre Office and opening it in MS Office, the formatting is almost guaranteed to be ruined. Don't even get me started on Powerpoints. FOSS Office suites aren't a viable option for university and career work where the standard implementations are that of MS applications, and this rules out LO and LaTeX for me entirely. MS Office has never failed me and Office 2013 is incredible. Everything from Word to Visio has improved significantly and the $15/month subscription is a very small price to pay for something I use daily.

 

I use Photoshop often and Skype constantly for social and work reasons so Skype is a big killer here.

 

Font rendering has never been that good on Linux. I've tried many fixes and distros, but nothing brings it to the standard that's seen on OSX. If you've seen it, you'd know what I'm talking about. You can get it to just about as good as it is on Windows, but OSX just can't be reached.

 

I wasn't aware that there are unofficial Drive clients, thanks for that one.

 

It's a personal thing for me, and what I've said above are still killers for me. Linux alternatives of software are just never up to par. I look for great, not good, and good is all that Linux provides for me currently. I WANT to use Linux full time, but I just can't.

[lutzee]

When saving a .docx/.doc in Libre Office and opening it in MS Office, the formatting is almost guaranteed to be ruined. Don't even get me started on Powerpoints. FOSS Office suites aren't a viable option for university and career work where the standard implementations are that of MS applications, and this rules out LO and LaTeX for me entirely. MS Office has never failed me and Office 2013 is incredible. Everything from Word to Visio has improved significantly and the $15/month subscription is a very small price to pay for something I use daily.

 

This is the point, the doc/docx format is so convoluted and broken that its practically impossible to get it perfect, because MS decided that the standards for document files were 'not what they liked' and changed them to some poor implementation that no one can truly understand nor implement. If everyone actually used an open document format then things would be better. Though if you are sending a doc to someone who doesn't need to edit it, you really should be saving to PDF at the end anyway.

[Lyons]

This is the point, the doc/docx format is so convoluted and broken that its practically impossible to get it perfect, because MS decided that the standards for document files were 'not what they liked' and changed them to some poor implementation that no one can truly understand nor implement. If everyone actually used an open document format then things would be better. Though if you are sending a doc to someone who doesn't need to edit it, you really should be saving to PDF at the end anyway.

 

Certain things have certain requirements that are out of my control. MS Office works bloody well for me so I see no point in changing. I decentralized format would be nice, but unfortunately that won't happen, and FOSS isn't particularly important to me, especially when such a thing as torrenting exists (not that I condone it  ).

[ultimatemythbuster]

Hey guys, what do you need in linux (I'm mostly thinking of Ubuntu) before you ditch windows?

 

I'll Start:

1) Better Game/Driver Support (Coming for Steam Machine! I think!)

2) Better programs from main devs. (For example, Skype for linux is TERRIBLE compared to Mac/Windows)

3) More programs from main devs (Microsoft Office, After Effects, etc.)

 

So really I like Ubuntu WAY more than windows and mac, It has my favorite feature from both and it's free. FREE! My only issues are relating to devs that make software for linux, nothing directly at the fault of linux/canonical.

Easy first time setup, better game support, more "top tier applications" such as office.  Visual Studio for Linux? And probably other things as well.

[Craftable124]

Easier installs, IE 1 click executables, Don't get me wrong, typing --Sudo Apt Get and seeing it download is great fun, but  I tried Ubuntu and quit when I had to spend 20 minutes in the terminal trying to install Java

There actually is some easy-install programs, the ones that are .deb (like google chrome) are simple installs. (but yeah ik what you mean.)

[lutzee]

Easier installs, IE 1 click executables, Don't get me wrong, typing --Sudo Apt Get and seeing it download is great fun, but  I tried Ubuntu and quit when I had to spend 20 minutes in the terminal trying to install Java

So what was up with sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jre?

[GoodBytes]

-> Easy install system of programs

-> Restructure and enforcement of proper folder structures (programs through files everywhere... Might as well have a folder called "stuff" and dump everything inside).

-> Greatly improve font rendering engine under XWindows environment for making things readable after long hours of usage.

-> xWindows GUI that is not half, and that is made by talented artists, down to the icons, and a team of programmers that actually love working on GUI, and not see it a annoying choir, to pay attention to detail (I haven't found 1 GUI that pays a minimum attention to details).

-> DPI scaling for high resolution displays on small screen size.

-> Ability to change OS settings, "no mater what" (to some extent.. of course), without the need of use the Terminal.

-> Significantly faster startup and shutdown (Feels like Windows 2000 starts faster, and that was painfully slow to startup even on a really fast system)

-> Full UEFI support

-> Interface design language on the GUI and programs (they are none now)

-> Account management should be able to be fully managed via GUI, and not need the Terminal

-> True unified task bar (no hacked up things)

Solving the above would make things a lot more inviting.

Now what I also need, beside the above:

-> Visual Studio or similar software (they are none),

-> Office support (Kingsoft (http://www.kingsoftstore.com/) has it pretty good, but not quiet there yet. LibreOffice/OpenOffice lives in the stone ages).

-> Significantly improve current software quality, care-ness, user-firendly-ness, and polish. (AT no point, text files should be needed to be changed to get something working, or setup)

-> Need significantly more apps.

-> Needs significantly better driver supports.

That's for starters. They are more, but I THINK I might be able to live without it or compromise a bit.

[lutzee]

-> Easy install system of programs

-> Restructure and enforcement of proper folder structures (programs through files everywhere... Might as well have a folder called "stuff" and dump everything inside).

-> Greatly improve font rendering engine under XWindows environment for making things readable after long hours of usage.

-> xWindows GUI that is not half, and that is made by talented artists, down to the icons, and a team of programmers that actually love working on GUI, and not see it a annoying choir, to pay attention to detail (I haven't found 1 GUI that pays a minimum attention to details).

-> DPI scaling for high resolution displays on small screen size.

-> Ability to change OS settings, "no mater what" (to some extent.. of course), without the need of use the Terminal.

-> Significantly faster startup and shutdown (Feels like Windows 2000 starts faster, and that was painfully slow to startup even on a really fast system)

-> Full UEFI support

-> Interface design language on the GUI and programs (they are none now)

-> Account management should be able to be fully managed via GUI, and not need the Terminal

-> True unified task bar (no hacked up things)

Solving the above would make things a lot more inviting.

Now what I also need, beside the above:

-> Visual Studio or similar software (they are none),

-> Office support (Kingsoft (http://www.kingsoftstore.com/) has it pretty good, but not quiet there yet. LibreOffice/OpenOffice lives in the stone ages).

-> Significantly improve current software quality, care-ness, user-firendly-ness, and polish. (AT no point, text files should be needed to be changed to get something working, or setup)

-> Need significantly more apps.

-> Needs significantly better driver supports.

That's for starters. They are more, but I THINK I might be able to live without it or compromise a bit.

I just new you'd have a big post

Most big distros have a GUI repository install tool, you can install pretty much everything you need from there

Not sure what you mean by restructure folder structures? binaries go in /usr/bin and then any other files for programs generally go in /usr/share/<program> and any libraries go in /usr/lib

Again, I'm really not sure what people mean by the 'Linux font rendering is poor', never had any problems myself, also X is being replaced soon for Wayland (unless Mir picks up its support)

Some distros do things well, Zorin has a really nice UI, as well as cinnamon being really customisable in the graphics area, can look stunning, alternitively some people just want a minimal UI (me)

I'll give you DPI scaling, hopefully Wayland will fix that

Specifically which OS settings? Most commonly changed options do have gui stuff available.

Again not really sure what you mean by starts slow? I had Ubuntu running on a P4 machine that booted to login screen in ~10 seconds (minus bios time), on my own system on an SSD my boot time is ~1.8s, my laptop comes out of suspend while I'm lifting the lid, win8 would still take a moment to wake

UEFI support is available, not really sure what you mean by 'full'

GTK+ and QT should really be used for GUI rendering, meaning that all programs can follow the same design theme when a theme is selected.

Again, there are programs available..

The task bars were made to be customisable, that's the whole point about it, and the Linux principle, you aren't locked down to one style, you can customise everything.

Code::blocks, eclipse, sublime text

Kingsoft is getting there, for now I find Libre is enough.. though I prefer to use markdown and use Pandoc to compile to PDF

'Significantly more apps' Explain, I have everything I need to work efficiently and use as a general purpose machine

Driver support has gotten a lot better the past couple of years, but if you are sitting running on Debian then that would be why your driver support sucks (3.2 kernel is super old, come on..)

One, last point, I think you just love using windows, just as much as I love using linux

[GoodBytes]

Most big distros have a GUI repository install tool, you can install pretty much everything you need from there

Right and that's great. But, I can't download outside of it (downloaded program from the web), double click and install it. It's not hard to implement in reality. It could be a .rep file (let's say), which is really a tar.gz file with a configuration file, which when you double click on it, launches the repository install tool, and install it as if you got it from there.

 

Not sure what you mean by restructure folder structures? binaries go in /usr/bin and then any other files for programs generally go in /usr/share/<program> and any libraries go in /usr/lib

Sadly, I see programs putting config files in bin folder, binary in usr folder, and more. I understand the folder structure, but it looks like there is a lack of communication on how its suppose to work for some developers.

Perhaps use full names, and include documentation?

 

Again, I'm really not sure what people mean by the 'Linux font rendering is poor', never had any problems myself, also X is being replaced soon for Wayland (unless Mir picks up its support)

Here is an example that I have a while back... a screen shot from Linux, compared to the same one, if the font was rendered under Windows 7.

(Click to view full size)

(Click to view full size)

Notice how the Windows font, despite smaller, is cleaner, sharper, and easier to read

 

Specifically which OS settings? Most commonly changed options do have gui stuff available.

I don't have Linux in front of me, let alone installed anymore, so I don't exactly remember, but they are options that is a click away in Windows and MacOS, but requires the Terminal in Linux based OS.

 

Again not really sure what you mean by starts slow? I had Ubuntu running on a P4 machine that booted to login screen in ~10 seconds (minus bios time), on my own system on an SSD my boot time is ~1.8s, my laptop comes out of suspend while I'm lifting the lid, win8 would still take a moment to wake

In all my life, even at the school computer labs, I have seen Linux boot so fast... and I have an a fast SSD.

The only time it boots tis fast is if you have a bare-bone Linux based OS, with no xWindows and anything.

 

UEFI support is available, not really sure what you mean by 'full'

I mean that Linux based OS can get everything that was detected by the UEFI, and not have to rescan everything at startup. Also, support for secure boot, to name 2 things.

 

GTK+ and QT should really be used for GUI rendering, meaning that all programs can follow the same design theme when a theme is selected.

Sadly they are not good, ignoring lack of complete documentation for devs, the cross-platform widget toolkit doesn't allow for advance GUI designed and limits everything to a Windows 95 style look (I am not talking about icons, and buttons looks and such, I am talking about the layout of elements, if that makes sense). I understand why, because they try to make it cross platform and work well with different Linux based OS distros, and environments, but none the less it's an issue.

 

Again, there are programs available..

The task bars were made to be customisable, that's the whole point about it, and the Linux principle, you aren't locked down to one style, you can customise everything.

Sadly, if I right-click and go on Properties, I don't have options. Therefore, from an end user perspective, it's not customizable. I should not need to do anything more than what I describe.

 

Code::blocks, eclipse, sublime text

LOL! Those are Notepad compared to the power of Visual Studio.

Why do you think Microsoft charges so much for it per license, and companies have no problem cashing our money for it? It's because, nothing comes close to it in development. You can say what ever you want about Microsoft, but one thing they have mastered and have an 'unbeatable' edge is Visual Studio.

[GoodBytes]

Kingsoft is getting there, for now I find Libre is enough.. though I prefer to use markdown and use Pandoc to compile to PDF

Why? Save as PDF. Office can edit and work with PDFs as well.

'Significantly more apps' Explain, I have everything I need to work efficiently and use as a general purpose machine

Yea.. I don't do "general purpose"

Driver support has gotten a lot better the past couple of years, but if you are sitting running on Debian then that would be why your driver support sucks (3.2 kernel is super old, come on..)

Not really. It's more like "Here is a Linux driver! W00t! Oh you want the full featured one, well optimized, better/faster output of what the device/hardware does, with control panel and everything.... get Windows"

[rashdanml]

@GoodBytes two questions, as it will dictate my response:

1. How long has it been since you used Linux?

2. What is your typical usage scenario?

[GoodBytes]

I have been using Linux based OS (mostly Ubuntu, I did use Arch Linux if you wonder), here and there, never as a main OS, as I could not due to the listed issues to start with. I did use Linux for embed system projects. So you can consider that I know it well to get myself around.

My usage scenario under a PC running Windows is:

-> Software development (mostly C/C++ but starting C#. Java as well, but currently not at work, just school. I also use ActionScript for mostly personal things)

-> Web site development

-> Office Word/Excel - Documentations for work and of course, using it for school. Rarely use PowerPoint, and if I do, it's for school

-> Microsoft Office OneNote for note taking in class.

-> I use Paint.NET and Gimp.

-> My files are in sync between my devices (laptop/desktop), and Windows account settings via SkyDrive.

-> I use Zune desktop for music listening. I have XBox Music subscription (their isn't much choice in Canada, and XBox Music is the best I have used as music service. Plus, I have a Zune MP3 player).

-> Gaming

[rashdanml]

 

Let me rephrase: how long has it been since you actively used Linux as a primary OS? Because if you've never used it as a primary OS long enough, your views on its shortcomings are very limited (font rendering is nitpicky; folder structure is a lot worse on Windows, particularly with how Windows handles appdata and things like game saves). A lot changes in even a single year of not using Linux as a primary OS. 

 

-> All easy to do in Linux. C# is the exception, but that's Microsoft. That being said, Mono. It'll have its minor flaws, but it's more than adequate. You said Code::blocks and Eclipse are notepads compared to Visual Studio - you have absolutely zero idea how extensible both are if you make that claim. 

-> Web development stacks (XAMPP, LAMP, etc). I recently heard of Vagrant, which allows for the same idea, but creating virtual servers. 

->I'll give you this one, only because of your resistance to Libreoffice. I don't know how long you've used it, but personally, I've been using it for over a year and it's more than adequate. Formatting issues aside, but you said it yourself, use PDF. Libreoffice supports it as well. 

-> StylusLabs Write - it's an outstanding program and it saves as HTML and SVG. Works on every platform imaginable, and it's the best performing of all free, open-source that I've found for Linux. PDF Export exists, PDF Import is coming (contacted developer about it).

-> Both the same, essentially. Gimp works on Linux. It's exactly the same program.

-> Subjective. XBMC is excellent and runs on Linux. I'm not a huge fan of music subscription/streaming services. 

-> Changing trend, but I'll give you this, though.

 

Also: Just because a product has a pricetag, doesn't mean it's "good". The limitations of C# makes it not worth the pricetag.