Way back around 2000 I built my own pc and some one I knew on line told me about Linux and sent me about a half dozen Red Hat disks. I installed the Red Hat and decided to join what was called back then a user group. I found a Linux user group near my local university, and was told to wait before I could post, after about a week and a half I inquired about my status and was immediately banned from that user group....Linux left me with a very poor impression from that day on. I've used a couple distro's since then and it has become much easier to use, but certain things like setting up my router as a repeater/bridge (dd-wrt) through Linux totally sux'd. I went to using windows because it does not fight me tooth and nail when I attempt to configure something. I know that I could've researched it to continue using the *nix box, but I'm getting tired of researching and just want to use my pc
Quite simple, pen computing/inking doesn't exist at all on linux. There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING equivalent to OneNote on linux and that kind of thing will NEVER exist because M$ worked on this for more than 2 decades and has just too many patents and hardware support and an entire ecosystem, which can NEVER be open source to be available on linux. Linux is free only if your time have no value.
What about Apple? Or Google? They have pen computing technology. And they have their own APIs and their own copyrights and patents. Their OSes are based on Linux. I suppose the same thing could be argued about Cortana and speech recognition. As far as your second statement is concerned, -ANY- time spent in search of knowledge is not wasted time. And, the value of that knowledge may not be immediately realizable. However, there may come a time when that knowledge will pay off. And pay off in a big way. Accruing knowledge is sometimes like saving money. :MJ
I remember working with a Linux based firewall appliance a few years ago. It was a nightmare. There was documentation, comprehensive and accurate documentation for all of the features and settings, but no explanation. I LITERALLY had my assistant engineer reading the commands aloud from the manual while I typed them into the console. My biggest fear of Linux at this point is the scenario where I'll be sitting in front of two computers, one running Linux and the other running Windows in which I'm Googling for instructions on how to do something on the Linux machine.
That means you are still a newbie at that stage. Once you pass that stage, you'll find using any other OS, like Apple Mac OS X is very easy, not to mention Windows. Do you find it's hard to use Android phones? They are all based on Linux OS.
I've been using arch linux for about 2 years, and used ubuntu before that. Well, ubuntu wasn't bad to use, until I updated it. It was just crashing more than Windows (and don't forget the search queries on dash being sent to amazon). Then I installed Manjaro. Because I didn't RTFM enough, had to reinstall it up a couple of times. Manual was more Arch linux based, so I decided to install this instead. Since then I had to do a printer hack to make my printer work at all, had to make another hack to make sure my musical keyboard sounds play on the computer. I don't even remember how I did them. If I have to reinstall, I'm going to have to suffer to make those work again. But even still, I prefer it than Windows. I can at least play the games I used to play there (I know, I'm lucky). It's also much easier to develop things - the cmd line is powerful, libraries are all in the same place and can be updated easily. I guess I'm the exception in the family. I've set it up for my mother, with the programs she likes (or the linux alternatives). She didn't want to try, because she felt that she wouldn't be able to know what to do if something didn't work anymore. So she stayed with windows 10. Blame RTFM and cmd line (in Ubuntu I didn't have to use it alot, but it came with a price - if things broke, I had no way to know what was broken).
Windows 10 - a "Desperate Housewives OS"? I remember finetuning OS X Mavericks for my grilfriends Acer Aspire 5920G, it was a waste of time, she never used it.
If you try hard enough, you will always find a reason why you CAN'T use Linux. So then just don't... but stop complaining about Linux if you have no idea. This sounds quite typical and like a lame excuse, literally this means: I have absolutely no idea and I don't even want to try. Yes, there may be some exceptions like OneNote or specialised software... it's like trying to get Porsche sell you a Ferrari. That is not going to happen, no matter how hard you try, because Porsche is not Ferrari and Windows is not Linux. But there are many free alternatives if you have a look around. And, yes, you have to learn how to use Linux and it might be less user friendly but it also leaves you more options. MS Paint is easier to learn and use than Photoshop but evidently the latter is no alternative to the aforementioned and vice versa. Linux/Unix provides you with a lot more freedom... if you have options, you also have to choose. No options, no need to choose. Yes, being a new Linux user you have to "google" things (search for instructions), but the more you learn, the less you have to search. And as mentioned so often, you can also use a virtual machine or dual boot. On my home computer I use Win7 (rarely) and Linux which I can choose when booting - grub bootloader. My laptop runs Linux only. Maybe Linux was no Windows alternative 10 to 15 years ago, but it definitely is now. Just give it a go before judging it. I was skeptical myself in the first place, but I instantly loved it. Would I be advocating it with such energy if otherwise... ? @Michaela Joy I would recommend dual boot for you. You can try Linux and go back to Windows if you need to use Software that is not Linux compatible. Maybe a Virtual Machine is an alternative - VMWare Player is really easy to use and e.g. Linux Mint is still enough Windows feeling to get the hang of it quickly
I am using an Android smart phone - this is my third phone now - Lollipop. I have NEVER gone behind the GUI into the CLI stuff. I do use CLI in Windows sometimes - I cut my teeth on MSDOS - but Linux CLI syntax is quite different. It is the little things that eventually get you down. When you have to install and set up a TFTP server just to upload a small file because the system hasn't been set up for anything else, you start remembering the bad old days of Windows past where you had to load drivers for the disk controllers while booting using that much hated and very temperamental floppy disc. Give me a Linux distro where I don't HAVE to go to CLI until much later, when I'm comfortable with the OS, and I'm your man. I'm going to try UUMATE in a day or two - that seems very promising.
Have a look on Linux Mint 17.2 or Zorin OS 10, imho the easiest distributions for ex-Windows people. At least for the distributions I tested myself. (Note: Easy is relatively! )
The ignorance is strong in this thread. Photo editing, video editing, games, document, watching and burning cd's or dvd's or even blu-ray, surfing the web, networking, accounting, ect... All can be done in Linux.
All true. But Windows is where it's at. Most users aren't into computers like us. They just want a tool to get the job done, with as little fuss as possible. Example: one of my clients had been reading (something, dunno what) about Linux and asked me to convert his SOHO LAN workstations to Ubuntu. I advised against it, but he who pays the piper calls the tune. In less than a week, he's back on the blower to me screaming "PUT IT BACK! PLEASE PUT IT BACK!", and further stating that he had a "kind of mutiny" on his hands. He had to pay me twice, and he also pissed off his staff. Most users have grown up with Windows. They don't want to add to their workload by having to learn a new OS.