The best desktop OS is...

Brick Walls

I love every OS out there. You could call me an OS nerd. I can never stick to one OS, due to the fact that one can't out rule the other. Windows is good for games and composing songs and writing web pages, but it is so simple. Too simple. The target audience for Windows is the average person. My computer skill is way above average. That is where Linux comes into play.

Linux is fun. People need to understand that. Things in Linux are generally harder to do.

Printer not working on a network?
Find a way to make it work.
Sound card not compatible out of the box? Find a driver that makes it compatible.
Web browser app not installing?
Find a way to configure it to work.

You see, sometimes Linux is like a series of knots. To make things work, you have to untie it, remove the kinks. It can be like Zelda games, before you can do that, you need this, which you cant get until you do that. And once you finally make something work, you feel a sense of victory. Something Windows seldom gave me.

I have a rig that I built over a long period of time, and almost all the hardware I use didn't work with a clean installation of Ubuntu. I didn't stop until everything worked perfectly which took me weeks. Weeks of tearing out my hair and being frustrated at life. But when I finally had everything working, nothing felt greater. I had overcame every brick wall in my path...

"Brick walls aren't there to keep you out, they're there to keep out those who don't want it badly enough."
-Randy Pausch

...And whats more, I couldn't wait to do it again. Since then, I've done single boots, dual boots, and tri-boots. For now, I'm on the beta of Windows 7. I can't wait for the beta period to end so I can install a new distro of Linux.

Also, just something I found funny one day. I went to Barnes & Noble (bookstore) and there was a section titled "Microsoft and Windows" (or something along those lines)beneath it was instructional books on Microsoft Office, Outlook, Windows XP and Vista, and that kind of stuff. The section next to it was titled "Professional Computing" and beneath it was the same kind of stuff, but this time in Linux flavor. There were books on Gimp, Ubuntu, Gnome, KDE, and the like. Just thought I'd share that, it made me chuckle.

Good article

Nicely sums up what I've been trying to tell Windows users about why they will always have a large chunk of their processor time eaten up by virus and spyware kilers, as well as viruses and spyware.

Let's not forget MS's creating and using their own proprietary lunacy instead of using open protocols for everything from networking to sql.

Linux Or Win ?

I have been using Windows XP /2000 all this time thinking there isnt any alternative to it.

But since last year i tried Suse Linux and after a few days of getting used to the UI, it had me hooked.

It runs, faster, neater . I Dont need AntiVirus or those 1000's of patches.

I use a Lenovo T60p laptop and the Graphic 3D effects are just amazing. This stuff beats Vista hands down in terms of performance for similar/cooler 3D effects.

On the flipside, most of the shareware, widgets etc are not supported on linux. Also since i am not a gamer, it doesnt matter which games run and which do not.

VLC player plays all DVD's, Media, songs, so no problems here.

Best of all, the setup is pretty simple thru YAST.

Maybe someday i will give Ubuntu a try, but unless it offers something really different and better i dont see myself changing anytime soon.

Great article

There are few things more important in a desktop environment than security. Unless you don't use the internet, security is paramount. The operating system grinding to a halt, your identity getting stolen, a virus trashing your hard drive, all will put a huge damper on your flashy glass effects.

Windows is unstable, some think by design. Why does even Windows XP slow over time? Whether because of uncontrollable factors in the operating system or by design, so you'll by a new computer and, thereby, a new Windows license, it's due to a poor operating system.

Linux has it's bugs, but distros such as Ubuntu are very easy to install, setup and use. Yes, Windows programs won't run on Linux easily, and some closed hardware (think junk) won't install easily, but Linux does Linux fantastic.

Microsoft is about "time to market." Google the phrase, but essentially, a company rushes a product out to market to be the first and works out the bugs later. Open source is about quality, not a monopoly or competition.

Please, do keep using Windows; I'm not talking down to anyone using it. But I'll never use it again if I can help it.

A Linux desktop running native Linux software will run for years on the same hardware, as good as the day it was installed.

It's been now three and a

It's been now three and a half years that I moved everything to Linux at home (and I AM still with it). First RH9 then Ubuntu. And while I am spending much less time worrying about keeping it secure, I lose my time on getting particular software/hardware running. You simply CAN'T connect things as easily as on WIndows. Printers? HP printers - yes. Anything else - think before buying. Have no broadband - gonna have fancy time recompiling the kernel for your modem. USB drives? Ubuntu often says that I can disconnect the device while its LED says it's still writing data. Good luck with unplugging.

From the software and consumer viewpoint, the only use of Linux is Internet browsing, because Firefox or IM clients (or Skype) are the same on all platforms. But even with that, you will soon hit the wall with things like missing codecs for streaming media. Want to do more? Open Office? Same bloatware, but with amateurish UI polish. Digital photography? Ok, GIMP is good one, but there is no software for photo management. GThumb or F-Spot of how is it called on KDE are NOT the same quality and ease-of-use grade as, say, Picasa. And Picasa doesn't work well on Linux. Video? Forget it. Oh, nevermind, you won't be able to get it out of the camera anyways. Installed a new graphic card. X just crashes on boot. Do you think that a normal user will fix it by booting from CD, letting it autoconfigure and then copying the X config file to the hard drive? What else people are doing on their PCs? Games? Ouch...

Get real guys. But don't forget to add some negative votes for my reply.