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My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

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Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#201
After reading most off the coments. It feels that we are going in the right and healthy direction. People will be able to chose what OS they want without losing the benefits of actualy doing useful work.

Some will want Windows 8, some will go for Linux and some for Mac OS. We are not yet there, but having a healty market distribution of the major OSes will benefit the end-user.

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#202
post #144
post #21

Both my parents are 60+. My mom is perfectly fine using Ubuntu on my old x61 for email, browsing, and YouTube. To be fair she could probably replace it with a tablet if it weren't for the fact that she visits a lot of flash sites (Chinese TV streaming sites). Likewise my dad is on another Ubuntu machine at home. His work needs access to some software / printers that can't be run via Wine so he's stuck with Windows th…

Nobody has mentions the UI. I know Ubuntu has come a long way but Windows' UI is much, much nicer. It may sound silly but I think it's a valid reason for some. The same reason why one would buy an iPhone over another less expensive (or non-apple) phone, you pay for looks (it may not be the only reason of course but it is part of it). People like nice-looking stuff, and older folks seem to care (or notice) less these…

Please don't try and pass off your personal preferences as fact. Beauty is just a matter of preference.

Personally I've never cared for Microsoft's design. XP always looked chunky and gaudy to me - I hated it. Aero looks unfinished compared to Compiz (but part of that might be down to the fact that Linux has been doing desktop compositing for years before Windows finally caught up). And Windows 8 just looks like Microsoft forgot the last 2 decades of OS design and reverted back to the 320x200 days of square windows, square widgets, etc.

So I'm happy you find Microsoft's design to be your particular eye candy, but don't patronise us by arguing that this preference is fact.

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#203
post #3

The same experience here. My parents also use Ubuntu now (firefox, Libre office). The main issue with Linux is, some one needs to install and setup everything for them. Finding and installing that missing wifi driver is not something that they can do. Windows installation is breeze, just pop-in the disk and it will install everything for you. Hope pre-installed ubuntu systems get common.

>Finding and installing that missing wifi driver That "missing" wifi driver is not there because it's proprietary. It doesn't make sense to blame a free operating system for faulty hardware. In any case, I know that in Ubuntu, the user is informed of nonfree drivers being available and it's trivial to install the drivers from that point.

The user doesn't care whose fault it is. If the WiFi doesn't work in Linux, but it worked fine under Windows, then Linux is worse.

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#204
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what drives me craziest about programming in windows, the freak'n console is awful

I recommend installing Console 2: http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/ And msysgit ( https://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list?q=full+inst... ) which includes the "git bash" shell. It's got almost all the basic unix tools installed by default.

I moved to consoleZ: https://github.com/cbucher/console

Its a fork of console2.

+ Adds Splitting Tabs into views

Console2 development seems to have slowed down.

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#205
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your brother is 25 and has shit to do. I'm sure that once he's old and retired he'll be glad to have learning a new system to take up his time.

25 and no time to learn something new? You're doing life wrong.

You're right, why don't I have a paper published in every possible field of academic inquiry?

Seriously, just because you had too much free time doesn't mean I do. I appreciate your nonsensical condescension.

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#206
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your brother is 25 and has shit to do. I'm sure that once he's old and retired he'll be glad to have learning a new system to take up his time.

I wanted to voice my concurrence with the sentiment ensconced in the rudeness you are probably being downvoted for: I am in my twenties, generally operate from the perspective of one who thinks he "has shit to do" (in fact I use that very phrase frequently to characterize my obligations and commitments), and don't see myself having time to learn a new tool, method, or technique every time I have a need to express mys…

Were you trying to be anything other than condescending?

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I never got about Windows and especially Windows devs. How can you get anything done with all that clicking and no unix tools?

Vmware + linux + unity mode. Vmware Workstation has always been very seamless with things like copy/paste between the guest and host. Havent used Virtualbox for a few years but I'm sure thats ok too.

VirtualBox running linux server, share folders with Windows host, PuTTY

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#208
post #146
post #44

Handed a GNOME 3 PC to my dad. He got it right away. The multitasking in GNOME is just so fluid and efficient compared to any other operating environment, and it's just so... intuitive. As an OS X user, I find GNOME more consistent and easy to use, to be quite honest with you. I'm just holding out until Wine gets to the point where CS6 is supported.

Let me start by say that I am actually a fan of Linux, but not much of a fan of the community that surrounds it and for what it's worth, this is just my opinion. Obviously everybody's milage will undoubtedly vary! My personal experience of Gnome 3 is the polar opposite of yours. I cannot stand it. The UI elements are just horrible and I find the paradigm clunky and lacking in coherence. In fact I find the experience…

That last line should read:

"While there is no doubt, IMHO, that it shouldn't be surprising that anyone can get "real" work done..."

WTF is "real work" anyway?

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#209
post #69
post #21

Both my parents are 60+. My mom is perfectly fine using Ubuntu on my old x61 for email, browsing, and YouTube. To be fair she could probably replace it with a tablet if it weren't for the fact that she visits a lot of flash sites (Chinese TV streaming sites). Likewise my dad is on another Ubuntu machine at home. His work needs access to some software / printers that can't be run via Wine so he's stuck with Windows th…

My mom 50+, No technical knowledge, uses ubuntu for email, youtube, and general browsing, and occasionally makes presentations. My colleagues at work, Programmers, aren't able to get out of Windows, even though they are just writing python. They would rather stick with the pain of having to use git in a crappy console, and suffer loads of pain when shell-ing into ec2 linux boxes, Than learn a new UI and file-system

About git in a crappy console on windows - I feel their pain - you might want to suggest your colleagues http://sourcetreeapp.com/ an awesome and free windows git client. Just saying :D.

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It doesn't make sense to blame a free operating system for faulty hardware. This mindset is toxic because it does not adequately think about the end user. I mean--drivers? What's a driver? Why do I, a user, care that it's difficult for Ubuntu to do something that Windows does? It doesn't work, that's all I care about.

> Why do I, a user, care that it's difficult for Ubuntu to do something that Windows does? It's not Ubuntu that can't do it. It's the hardware manufacturer that refuses to do it. I personally choose to vote with my feet. I only buy computer hardware/software that works with Linux. If someone refuses to support Linux, they don't get my business. If everyone does this, eventually everyone will support Linux or go out o…

> It's not Ubuntu that can't do it. It's the hardware manufacturer that refuses to do it.

Thanks for the explanation, but I've written (very simple) Linux device drivers before, I am aware. :) But my point was that you are making a distinction that simply does not matter to the end users that are under discussion. That a hardware manufacturer doesn't produce drivers for Linux doesn't change that, to a user, "Windows can do this and Linux can't."

It's great that you buy stuff that works with Linux. Linux's problem for normal people is that it doesn't work with everything. Windows does work with everything that a normal person is likely to run into and OS X comes pretty close to the same.

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