XP vs Ubuntu.... FIGHT!!!!
Mar. 14th, 2008 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pasitheaSo I got a new development station at work to replace the very slow and flakey windows box I have. Hurray!
Regrettably, I still need to use Windows for testing so I have to re-install all my apps on it. On the positive side, the drive is big enough I can dual-boot and have a linux partition and be using Windows a lot less.
So... The last time I installed linux from scratch was Slakware 0.98 about 14 years ago. It wasn't too bad back then but it took a long time, and I knew all of my hardware pretty intimately back in those days. It would have been murder otherwise.
So.. Yesterday, I downloaded Ubuntu and burned it to a CD and started the install. It gave me a series of prompts and without having to know jack shit about partitioning, it let me just chose a drive percentage and repartitioned my drive of me, shuffling Windows around without breaking anything in windows. It then did all of its install stuff. I only had to answer about 5 questions. The most complex of which was 'timezone'.
C compiler, ssh, perl, python, and just about every other development tool I needed other than Subversion were installed with the OS. Total time from putting in the CD to having a working Ubuntu development station... About 45 minutes.
Windows XP....
It came pre-installed on the drive so I didn't have to install the OS but there were more steps involved in setting up my identity and getting connected to the internet on Windows than for Ubuntu's entire installation process. It also defaults to making my account an administrator account, adding a layer of security risk that Ubuntu wisely sidesteps.
Once I got logged in, it was time to set up my development environment... So... The thing you should know about installing official licensed Microsoft products is this: They require that you ONLY use Internet Explorer. No Firefox or whatever else. They also require that you turn off your firewall and virus checker and otherwise basically make you set your computer to 'Virus whore' mode. This installation takes about 6 hours. During most of which time, it's just sitting on an install screen. No progress bar nothing. No indication at all that this program hasn't just crashed and burned.
Meanwhile, you can't install anything else. Windows is only capable of handling one installation at a time. All my other programs have to wait.
And there are a lot of things to install. perl, python, an ssh client, virus checker, not-fucking-IE browser not-fucking-Outlook mail program, etc.
See... On Ubuntu or Mac, I might actually use the default programs and browser for a little while but IE and Outlook are so notoriously buggy and vulnerable to exploits that there's no way I'll use them unless I'm forced to (see above)
As usual, many windows installations also require you to reboot and history has taught me: Don't install 3 totally unrelated things that require reboot and then reboot. You have to reboot after each and every one or you're just asking for a pinecone in the ass.
So here I am over 8hrs later and my windows development station is still not completely set up.
So... Uh... Remind me again... Why are people using this OS? Ubuntu was easier to install and works perfectly so far. It's gotten such that it's nearly as good as OS-X I'm quite impressed. Windows on the other hand seems stuck in 1995. It's sluggish and feels dated and I won't even start on all of its security vulnerabilities.
At this point, I honestly can't see why most people would chose to use Windows. Even assuming the OS comes free with your computer, the cost to make it usable is still a lot when you figure the average user wants Office and needs a virus checker. OpenOffice is free and doesn't require virus software hogging your CPU and memory and for anyone more technically saavy, the benefits are obvious (unless, like me, you're forced to use Windows to support your customers who are still using Windows)
Seriously. If you're still using Windows, do yourself a favor. Take it out behind the barn and put a bullet in it. Or at least if you have enough free disk space, at least try installing Ubuntu and give it a whirl. You might just discover a much more painless way of using your computer.
Regrettably, I still need to use Windows for testing so I have to re-install all my apps on it. On the positive side, the drive is big enough I can dual-boot and have a linux partition and be using Windows a lot less.
So... The last time I installed linux from scratch was Slakware 0.98 about 14 years ago. It wasn't too bad back then but it took a long time, and I knew all of my hardware pretty intimately back in those days. It would have been murder otherwise.
So.. Yesterday, I downloaded Ubuntu and burned it to a CD and started the install. It gave me a series of prompts and without having to know jack shit about partitioning, it let me just chose a drive percentage and repartitioned my drive of me, shuffling Windows around without breaking anything in windows. It then did all of its install stuff. I only had to answer about 5 questions. The most complex of which was 'timezone'.
C compiler, ssh, perl, python, and just about every other development tool I needed other than Subversion were installed with the OS. Total time from putting in the CD to having a working Ubuntu development station... About 45 minutes.
Windows XP....
It came pre-installed on the drive so I didn't have to install the OS but there were more steps involved in setting up my identity and getting connected to the internet on Windows than for Ubuntu's entire installation process. It also defaults to making my account an administrator account, adding a layer of security risk that Ubuntu wisely sidesteps.
Once I got logged in, it was time to set up my development environment... So... The thing you should know about installing official licensed Microsoft products is this: They require that you ONLY use Internet Explorer. No Firefox or whatever else. They also require that you turn off your firewall and virus checker and otherwise basically make you set your computer to 'Virus whore' mode. This installation takes about 6 hours. During most of which time, it's just sitting on an install screen. No progress bar nothing. No indication at all that this program hasn't just crashed and burned.
Meanwhile, you can't install anything else. Windows is only capable of handling one installation at a time. All my other programs have to wait.
And there are a lot of things to install. perl, python, an ssh client, virus checker, not-fucking-IE browser not-fucking-Outlook mail program, etc.
See... On Ubuntu or Mac, I might actually use the default programs and browser for a little while but IE and Outlook are so notoriously buggy and vulnerable to exploits that there's no way I'll use them unless I'm forced to (see above)
As usual, many windows installations also require you to reboot and history has taught me: Don't install 3 totally unrelated things that require reboot and then reboot. You have to reboot after each and every one or you're just asking for a pinecone in the ass.
So here I am over 8hrs later and my windows development station is still not completely set up.
So... Uh... Remind me again... Why are people using this OS? Ubuntu was easier to install and works perfectly so far. It's gotten such that it's nearly as good as OS-X I'm quite impressed. Windows on the other hand seems stuck in 1995. It's sluggish and feels dated and I won't even start on all of its security vulnerabilities.
At this point, I honestly can't see why most people would chose to use Windows. Even assuming the OS comes free with your computer, the cost to make it usable is still a lot when you figure the average user wants Office and needs a virus checker. OpenOffice is free and doesn't require virus software hogging your CPU and memory and for anyone more technically saavy, the benefits are obvious (unless, like me, you're forced to use Windows to support your customers who are still using Windows)
Seriously. If you're still using Windows, do yourself a favor. Take it out behind the barn and put a bullet in it. Or at least if you have enough free disk space, at least try installing Ubuntu and give it a whirl. You might just discover a much more painless way of using your computer.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-14 07:37 pm (UTC)I have to use Windows for some things at home, alas, but at work I am 100% Linux.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-14 07:44 pm (UTC)1) Every operating system has its level of snark. For an older Mac, it was, "You don't really need to be messing with that, kid. Stick with the pretty icons where it's safe." For every UNIX-alike, it's "What file? Oh, you mean File! Case matters. And how could you not know all my arcane two-letter commands? Stop thinking like a human." For Windows, it's "Your name... is TOBY!" (Oh, I'm gonna get in trouble for that... from the two people who get it.) In many ways, these systems haven't changed. Macs still want you to do things their way. UNIX-alikes still don't care how you do things because eventually something just won't work right and you'll have to learn three programming languages, a new shell, and how to frob your baz before it can be fixed. Windows still doesn't care what you do so long as you're not doing it with other OSes. This is really what makes it hard to switch when all else is equal, which it never is, because....
2) Some demographics simply can't get what they want for anything else. In many cases, one's career (that's job, hobby, etc.) locks one into a couple particular pieces of software. This is less the case for me now than it once was, but it's still a factor.
I will say that repeatedly over the last decade I have been looking desperately to other operating systems, hoping for hardware and software support and hoping to break these chains. Every time I look over to my wife's openSuSe-running laptop and see her struggling with another Cedega crash or wondering what magical system update broke her video drivers or why on earth Flash crashed in Firefox again, I get back to thinking... it ain't ready yet. I'll continue being productive with what I know, even for the times it lets me down.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-15 12:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-18 06:43 am (UTC)(Hi to
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-15 04:50 am (UTC)But I am getting better. I've started spending more time in a command shell of my debian machine......
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-15 05:26 am (UTC)