Five reasons I'd rather run Windows 8 than Linux

Many of us use Linux every day. Thankfully, most of the people using Linux don't know they're using Linux.

My octogenarian parents, for example, have been using their TiVo DVRs for years, but have no idea that there's a variant of Linux running deep inside. The guy who installed my kitchen cabinets, who loves his Android phone but insists Facebook is hard to use has no idea he's using a variant of Linux....


Reason #1: As soon as you mention one distro, all the fanboys go insane claiming you've made the wrong choice.
You did it, didn't you? Just as soon as I mentioned Mint, a whole bunch of you started to foam at the mouth. Mint's not the distro-du-jour anymore. There's Bodhi. There's Xubuntu. There's the truly unfortunately named DouDou.

Read more at: Five reasons I'd rather run Windows 8 than Linux | ZDNet

 

[nonono]

And some can take about half an hour to just load (linux live) Anyway, looking from a simple desktop user position, there always is some showstopper bugs in linux. I'd say after 10 years linux should become usable on desktops for simple users (as a professional, you can do anything with anything, so there isnt much to talk about).

 

[whs]

For me, there was never Windows vs. Linux, it's AND in between. Both of them have pros and cons and have their place. It's just the question of being able to use two or more OSs, or chew gum and......

That is exactly the case. You use them where they fit best. I use Mint in Virtual to go to the internet and Mint on the stick to recover data from my friend's dead Windows systems - and they always brick their Windows. For that I use a 128GB stick so that I usually do not even need another external device to recover the data. I have a 115GB data partition right on the stick. For the rest I use Windows - Vista, 7 and 8.1.

If somebody is trying to tell me that Linux is no good or difficult to use, they don't know what they are talking about. If you pick the right distro, it is a pleasuer to work with. Just stay away from the Redhat systems. With those you need advanced skills.

 

[whs]

But you cannot drive both cars at the same time. And vm's are too slow - it requires ferrari, if you want to run vw golf, but why would i want golf, if i already have ferrari ? And you could do even bigger orgy - you could include some NOTmobile phones, some cloud computing and run every step of your work in a different environment, but whats the point of that ?

I am sorry, but you are not well informed. I run 5 different Linux virtual systems on my desktops and on my laptop - and I have them installed on an external disk that I attach via eSata, USB3 or USB2. The speed is quasi the same as the native OS which is Windows 7 in all cases. If you give it 1GB of RAM and a couple of procerssors, it will run really great.

I also run Windows 8.1 in that mode - and that is a lot more demanding on resources than Linux. Have a look at a demo I made with Windows 8.1.

And here is a boot time comparison booting 8.1 in virtual and Mint in virtual. Here you see that Mint is a lot faster - also in bringing up webpages. The boot times are from the time the OS logo appears. The rest is VMware Player setup time.

 

[nonono]

I'm not informed, i tried everything myself and i know it, i dont need to read some rumors to know anything, and the speed is not near at what i call usable. VM is used for situations, where you just cant use dual boot, so therefore you use windows as main os, you use some programs in windows, you use some vm program with linux in it - that requires a lot of ram, 8 gb minimum, because my 4gb ram gets full instantly and puff, plus you need at least core i7 to keep all these things running and not under "not responding". Also, ssd is quite a requirement to, as using simple hdd with vm is just a pain in the bottom. So, as you can see, you need to have quite a powerhorse, if you want to use all things comfortably, without cutting your veins during loong load times.

 

[CountMike]

It's also well known in IT servicers circles, If you are not sure if something is wrong with HW or SW (OS) try booting with live Linux and if it works than you know that it's not HW. Linux works in closer relation to HW, without intermediates like DirectX, .NET etc.
It's silly to discount anything a priory because of some psychological barrier like "I don't like it, I don't understand it or can't be bothered to learn it, therefore it's no good". I use Linux Mint of latest generation and it boots from a 32BG USB2 drive in less than 2 minutes, which is about same as XP did from HDD on computers made at that time. It may look longer because of verbose listing of what it's doing but for people that know Linux, that says a lot even before desktop becomes usable.

 

[whs]

I'm not informed, i tried everything myself and i know it, i dont need to read some rumors to know anything, and the speed is not near at what i call usable. VM is used for situations, where you just cant use dual boot, so therefore you use windows as main os, you use some programs in windows, you use some vm program with linux in it - that requires a lot of ram, 8 gb minimum, because my 4gb ram gets full instantly and puff, plus you need at least core i7 to keep all these things running and not under "not responding". Also, ssd is quite a requirement to, as using simple hdd with vm is just a pain in the bottom. So, as you can see, you need to have quite a powerhorse, if you want to use all things comfortably, without cutting your veins during loong load times.

You must have had a different experience than myself. I am running very well on an old Inspiron 530 with a Q6600 that has 2.4GHz and 4GB of RAM. I split the resources 50/50. Note that all my virtual systems run from an external disk (SSD) and there is very little difference between USB2 and USB3. Even eSata (which I have on another system) is hardly any faster. The host Windows 7 is also on a small 60GB SSD that you can buy for $50.

The main reason why I keep all the systems on an external SSD is because we live in different locations and also travel a lot. With the external approach I have to maintain only 1 set of systems and not 6 - one for each of my systems. Plus Windows 8.1 I need only once (1 license) because VMware Player is the system where it is installed - not the actual hardware on which it runs.

I don't think that RAM or CPU is such a big factor (within limits) for the performance. It is the disk which is the bottleneck. But these days where you can get a 60GB SSD for $50 and a 120GB SSD for $70, there is no reason to keep the OS on a spinner.

Here is a lineup of my virtual systems on the external SSD.

 

[mdmd]

... It's silly to discount anything a priority because of some psychological barrier like "I don't like it, I don't understand it or can't be bothered to learn it, therefore it's no good".

Interesting. Isn't this exactly what so many say about the metro UI, metro apps, start screen,
the direction of Microsoft, the choices they make to improve the system etc...

I wonder how many contributors here have read the blog post / article
Five reasons I'd rather run Windows 8 than Linux | ZDNet

 

[nonono]

Its not that i dont like it, i just like to keep things as simple as possible, i dont give a damn about what most of the people do in this world. A choise is given to people be the devil, therefore i prefer one perfect and simple way to do one thing. A choise leads to competition, competition leads to lower quality, as most people dont care about quality, they just want more functionality, you can see for yourself how low microsoft has felt with that. I prefer quality and speed over functionality.

 

[nonono]

Interesting. Isn't this exactly what so many say about the metro UI, metro apps, start screen,
the direction of Microsoft, the choices they make to improve the system etc...

Its not exactly improvement what ms is doing, they are just doing some coke and messing with windows code. You think that such a smart people should make rock solid decisions about their product, but they are just literally blending sh1t and praying to the ancient gods to give them a miracle... no wonder corporations like this are in murica...

 

[whs]

Its not that i dont like it, i just like to keep things as simple as possible, i dont give a damn about what most of the people do in this world. A choise is given to people be the devil, therefore i prefer one perfect and simple way to do one thing. A choise leads to competition, competition leads to lower quality, as most people dont care about quality, they just want more functionality, you can see for yourself how low microsoft has felt with that. I prefer quality and speed over functionality.

Now we are getting to the heart of the discussion - at least as far as I am concerned.

I use Linux virtual for browsing on the web because it is a million times safer than Windows - even if you have the best AV program installed. And switching between Windows host an Linux virtual is done with 1 click.

Linux on the stick I use to rescue data from crashed Windows system - and believe me there are a lot of those in my computer club with 800 members.

Those are 2 excellent Linux applications where Windows cannot compete. There are also a few select applications where I prefer to go with Linux. But for the rest I use Windows even if it is more complex and slower.

 

[CountMike]

Its not that i dont like it, i just like to keep things as simple as possible, i dont give a damn about what most of the people do in this world. A choise is given to people be the devil, therefore i prefer one perfect and simple way to do one thing. A choise leads to competition, competition leads to lower quality, as most people dont care about quality, they just want more functionality, you can see for yourself how low microsoft has felt with that. I prefer quality and speed over functionality.

Wish it was that simple for me. Most of my life I was presented with multiple choices and required multiple solutions at the same time so early in life I had to get used to multitasking were there was mo simple, one way out. Changed few countries, couple of continents and many jobs and could never say there was only one thing I can simplify things to. It's nothing different than working with computers, can't just stay at one thing even if it seams perfect at the time and nothing is perfect anyway.

 

[nonono]

Well, you can always use multiple partitions, multiple hdds, external hdds for data, then you wont need to rescue any data, plus you can have one usb flash with full system backup of C: disk, and one with some bootable backup/restore software, so that eliminates linux live for backups, and there also are things like hirens boot cd (if you buy some programs, you can legally use them in hirens too, there are also some editions only with free software), which you can use for restoring your windows backup as well, it has many different programs for the whole pc maintenance, plus it has live modes of windows xp/7 and so on. Plus talking about restoring deleted files, linux kind of sucks : it has only command line tools, and most of them are very bad, because it dont play well with windows file systems like exfat, those programs can only scan full hdd and restore the whole deleted content, where as in windows all the tools have gui versions, so you can just open program, press scan button, and select files that you want to restore. So yeah, the point is to know how to do things in your environment, to have tools to fix things. And one more thing. You know what they say, one a linux man can catch virus with windows It also depends on which network you are, bigger companies networks are more likely to be attacked, i had like 2 viruses in 10 years, both were blocked by antivirus, one tried to get in when my pc was connected to the internet via some companies network, and the other one was when was visiting some crackzzzzzz site.

But seriously, this false virtual world security is overrated, i'm more concerned about real life security, about all these *******s that drives cars like crazy, or all the guns that people have, and other stupid people, who things, that guns are made for peace and to kill kittens. You can die from one of them 1000 times before you will catch a virus with windows and loose your private pron collection.

 

[whs]

Well, you can always use multiple partitions, multiple hdds, external hdds for data, then you wont need to rescue any data, plus you can have one usb flash with full system backup of C: disk, and one with some bootable backup/restore software, so that eliminates linux live for backups

Yeah, of course. I make images at least once per week of all my systems and the data is always on a seperate disk or partition. But tell that to the little old ladies in my computer club. I have taught several classes about imaging, but most still dont do it.

And the extra data partition is a challenge too. Most have laptops and those come nearly all the time with 4 primary partitions - which is stupid. For them to convert a couple of partitions to logical so that they can create an extended partition for their data is far beyond their capabilities.

To give you an idea of the level of skill those people have: When IE9 came out, the favorites were on the right top in lieu of the left top like in IE8. We upgraded all the club systems to IE9. But there were so many complaints about the favorites being on the "wrong side", that the club decided to go back to IE8. That may sound stupid, but that's what we deal with. 90% of those people know how to click on the 5 icons on their desktop, but anything beyond that is terra incognita.

 

[CountMike]

It's one thing doing stuff like that in my own system, I have so many backups and safety measures so I can be fairly confident I and my systems are going to survive most anything. Another thing is when I have to deal with other people's computers and I deal with that because they are not able to do that so any tool that can give me an edge I will and do use. Not stupid enough to go to gun fight with a knife.

 

[nonono]

Well, sometimes knife is all you need.

 

[CountMike]

Well, sometimes knife is all you need.

The point is, you always have to be one up, not down, but like they say the best weapon is the one you have with you when you need it and I keep my USB memory with Mint and ammo of utilities in my pocket all the time. If time comes for hawy artilery, there's a 2.5" 250GB HDD with the rest of stuff.

 

[pparks1]

I'm not informed, i tried everything myself and i know it, i dont need to read some rumors to know anything, and the speed is not near at what i call usable. VM is used for situations, where you just cant use dual boot, so therefore you use windows as main os, you use some programs in windows, you use some vm program with linux in it - that requires a lot of ram, 8 gb minimum, because my 4gb ram gets full instantly and puff, plus you need at least core i7 to keep all these things running and not under "not responding". Also, ssd is quite a requirement to, as using simple hdd with vm is just a pain in the bottom. So, as you can see, you need to have quite a powerhorse, if you want to use all things comfortably, without cutting your veins during loong load times.

I haven't WANTED to run a dual boot in years because of virtual machines. I'm with WHS on this one, vms for me run absolutely great. If you have never had the pleasure to work on a real physical server, you don't understand that they can take minutes to post, to test RAM, to initialize RAID controllers, to get even to the point where the OS boots. But with vms, it's mere seconds.

I'm an IT guy by trade. I live and breathe in vms. I often have 3-5 vms running at all times. Domain controllers, exchange servers, system center, SQL server, various clients, and a bunch of Linux servers running BIND, FTP, and apache and tomcat.

My desktop hosts are not powerhouses. 1 is a core 2duo with 8gb of ram, and a single 2tb spinner. My 2nd one is a core i7-3770 with 16 gb of ram and 4 x 7200rpm spinner drives. These machines give me great performance. Unless you are rendering video, trying to mix audio, rendering 3d cad applications, or playing video games like battlefield 4, vms should run quiet well.

 

[pparks1]

Just stay away from the Redhat systems. With those you need advanced skills.

Jeez, Red Hat systems aren't that bad O. I use CentOS, which is a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, for our work servers. It's without a doubt my number 1 choice for a Linux server. But I don't usually use it as a desktop OS, I used to use Ubuntu until they went Unity and then I went to mint. For Me, my years of experience has been with Red Hat based distros, so all of my docs and notes over the years have been done in CentOS/RHEL. And I did earn an RHCE, so my credentials are in the Red Hat distros.

 

[whs]

Well, no doubt you have advanced skills. And they are probably great systems for servers with which I never got involved. But as you said, for the desktop, Mint is a better choice.

 

[Bruceclarke]

As far as I'm concerned Microslop really screwed up with this bulls**t