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So is Lunix completely useless?

blaXXer said:
What I however do know is that: Open-Source software has, more often than not problems perfoming the easiest of tasks with ease.
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That's a very subjective statement and opposite to my own experiences. I'm still on a Windows OS but a lot of the software I use is open source (e.g. OpenOffice, Firefox, VLC Media Player, GIMP) and usually, those programs work like a charm. The reason I got into OSS was that commercial programs didn't work the way I wanted (basically, Windows Media Player didn't display videos correctly due to lack of codecs and was unable to give useful error messages). So for the average user I don't really see a reason to fall back on commercial software.
You being a graphics designer, a switch to Linux wouldn't bring you any advantages since in your line of work you need a number of specific programs that don't run on Linux natively (or at all) and for which no OSS equivalent exists. At least, so I assume.
I don't get why you had to have such a trollish OP, though. It's kind of childish.
 
I agree with your examples, OpenOffice, Firefox, VLC Media Player are really the cream of the rop and I wouldn't know what to do without them.
GIMP, well I'm using Photoshop and some corel products and they suit me just fine.

Just so you know, I'm not against OSS I am, in places just very disappointed with it.

The OP, well ,I thought I'd garner faster responses with posting a few highly controversial theses.
 
Aside from games, most of the software I use--even under Windows--is open source.

The nice things about OSS are that you didn't pay for it, and if it doesn't do what you want, you aren't out any money--and you can add the functionality yourself, if you are so inclined. Granted, that is not something the casual user will do.

Also, it's easy to forget that a huge slice of the Internet is built entirely on open source software. The LAMP stack (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) is an industry standard--all free, open source applications. TrekBBS (and all of TrekNation) run on it, you know. :)

It is fair to say that the OSS community is slanted toward the server side more than the user side, but that gap has been closing for some time now. Programs like the GIMP, OpenOffice, VLC, etc. exemplify that.
 
blaXXer said:
Just so you know, I'm not against OSS I am, in places just very disappointed with it.
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It's futile to judge OSS by any particular pieces of software though because the specific developers who give time and the people who run the project are going to have a drastic effect on what comes out. I've poked at Blender a few times over the years and every time I came away with the same impression that you did... that the UI was complete trash and it was borderline unusable (I use Max at work and mostly XSI at home) and everytime I buy a new system over few years I always put the Gimp on it first instead of Photoshop to give it a whirl... this usually lasts about an hour before I get fed up with it. I actually have a deep-seeded hate for all Adobe products and I'd be extremely happy to break my Photoshop-dependence, but Gimp just ain't got it for me.

But this isn't a condemnation of OSS... just these particular projects. And poorly writen and mismanaged software exists in closed source projects as well. I mean, have you seen the latest version of MS Office? Yuck.
 
I think the main obstacle GIMP faces is that it's totally different than Photoshop. So all your PS skills are of absolutely no use to you if you migrate to GIMP. And it's not very intuitive but PS isn't, either. The main advantage of GIMP to me is that you can easily and quickly google for solutions once you're stuck.
Apart from people with special needs that are dependent on PS and Corel Draw and therefore can't change to GIMP, the main obstacle is really that people got used to working with their pirated copies of PS and would have to relearn everything in GIMP. Once you get accustomed to it, it's nice working with GIMP.
 
I love the GIMP. I would probably be totally lost if someone dropped me in front of Photoshop, since I haven't used that in about 10 years.
 
Dr. Mabuse said:
I think the main obstacle GIMP faces is that it's totally different than Photoshop. So all your PS skills are of absolutely no use to you if you migrate to GIMP. And it's not very intuitive but PS isn't, either. The main advantage of GIMP to me is that you can easily and quickly google for solutions once you're stuck.
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Yeah, I definitely feel that's the problem. When I move between 3D apps (and I've used quite a few over the years) there's obviously some adjustment but it doesn't take much for me to start to become comfortable. But whenever I try the GIMP my productivity drops to almost nothing. Because as much as Photoshop hacks me off, I've been using it for so long that I don't even have to think about what I'm doing.

I'm trapped in an Adobe nightmare :(
 
If I'm not mistaken, there's a variation of the GIMP called GIMPshop, which is supposed to be more similar to Photoshop. I've never tried it and have no idea whether it's still being developed and whether it matches Photoshop in its abilities but maybe you might want to give it a try.
 
I'll repeat myself:

The next Full up revision of Blender they are going to rectify alot of the UI problems you mentioned.
 
C. Cole-Chakotay said:
I'd give Linux a try but it and my Winmodem don't get along and I need my modem to get on the Internet.
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Maybe you should try a live cd (you boot on the cd and it starts a linux system without installing anything on your HD) one day, just to see if it works.
 
You could also just buy an external modem. They aren't that expensive--and any OS can use it without special drivers.
 
The Dead Nations said:
If you don't like having full control over your operating environment, then many of the advantages of Linux will be lost on you. You can fine-tune Linux to a far greater degree than you can Windows.

If you really want to be convinced about Linux, download Wubi and install Ubuntu non-destructively. Windows won't go anywhere, and if you end up not liking Ubuntu, just run Wubi again to uninstall it. No risk.

My Ubuntu installation was completely unattended, as I recall. When I came back to it, it was ready to rock, with every last device detected and operational. You might be thinking, "but Windows does that, too." Actually, it doesn't. Your PC just happens to ship with drivers, but Microsoft did not provide those, usually.

Because it's a different operating system, expect a learning curve. If it suits your needs, great. If not, go back to Windows.

Linux advocacy is often a misguided, futile effort, but this sort of nonsensical trolling is even worse.
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I tried linux but it keeps asking for passwords and shows a black screen with dense numbers and cryptic messages.

It will not boot.Tried every version ubunta and koppentu.

What does it mean?
 
strongmind said:
The Dead Nations said:
If you don't like having full control over your operating environment, then many of the advantages of Linux will be lost on you. You can fine-tune Linux to a far greater degree than you can Windows.

If you really want to be convinced about Linux, download Wubi and install Ubuntu non-destructively. Windows won't go anywhere, and if you end up not liking Ubuntu, just run Wubi again to uninstall it. No risk.

My Ubuntu installation was completely unattended, as I recall. When I came back to it, it was ready to rock, with every last device detected and operational. You might be thinking, "but Windows does that, too." Actually, it doesn't. Your PC just happens to ship with drivers, but Microsoft did not provide those, usually.

Because it's a different operating system, expect a learning curve. If it suits your needs, great. If not, go back to Windows.

Linux advocacy is often a misguided, futile effort, but this sort of nonsensical trolling is even worse.
Click to expand...


I tried linux but it keeps asking for passwords and shows a black screen with dense numbers and cryptic messages.

It will not boot.Tried every version ubunta and koppentu.

What does it mean?
Click to expand...

You might have some exotic hardware that it doesn't recognize. If you could post some of the messages involved, that would be more helpful. There's also an issue I know of where some hard drives don't spin up fast enough for Linux's liking, and it will abort the boot process because of it. You type "exit" at the prompt, press Enter, and it goes about its merry way.

That's the only thing that comes to mind immediately, though.
 
The Dead Nations said:
strongmind said:
The Dead Nations said:
If you don't like having full control over your operating environment, then many of the advantages of Linux will be lost on you. You can fine-tune Linux to a far greater degree than you can Windows.

If you really want to be convinced about Linux, download Wubi and install Ubuntu non-destructively. Windows won't go anywhere, and if you end up not liking Ubuntu, just run Wubi again to uninstall it. No risk.

My Ubuntu installation was completely unattended, as I recall. When I came back to it, it was ready to rock, with every last device detected and operational. You might be thinking, "but Windows does that, too." Actually, it doesn't. Your PC just happens to ship with drivers, but Microsoft did not provide those, usually.

Because it's a different operating system, expect a learning curve. If it suits your needs, great. If not, go back to Windows.

Linux advocacy is often a misguided, futile effort, but this sort of nonsensical trolling is even worse.
Click to expand...


I tried linux but it keeps asking for passwords and shows a black screen with dense numbers and cryptic messages.

It will not boot.Tried every version ubunta and koppentu.

What does it mean?
Click to expand...

You might have some exotic hardware that it doesn't recognize. If you could post some of the messages involved, that would be more helpful. There's also an issue I know of where some hard drives don't spin up fast enough for Linux's liking, and it will abort the boot process because of it. You type "exit" at the prompt, press Enter, and it goes about its merry way.

That's the only thing that comes to mind immediately, though.
Click to expand...

something else comes to mind and it begins with T.
 
Arrqh said:
sojourner said:
I'll repeat myself:

The next Full up revision of Blender they are going to rectify alot of the UI problems you mentioned.
Click to expand...




Which is fine for them to say, but I'll believe it when I see it.
Click to expand...

Well, considering this is free software using GPL, I don't think it's marketing spin. They are telling you what they are working on, not what they are promising. It's not Microsoft.

Read more here:
http://www.blender.org/development/current-projects/blender-25-project/
 
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