Windows 8: The most important reason to switch to Linux

It always irritates me when I read things like:

Quoting: As somebody who fully embraces the Free Software principle, I have no need for Windows 8 in my environment. Never used any version of Windows, and never will.

My environment at home is Linux...BUT, occasionally I am tasked by a university research centre to do contract work for them and it requires Windows because the software I must use will ONLY, repeat ONLY, run on Windows and there is NO alternative because the software is itself designed by the research centre. In the words of the author's article, I should refuse to use Windows......but to do my contract work and receive the appropriate remunerations, I absolutely must use Windows.

I prefer a pragmatic approach: use the appropriate tools for whatever job it is that you are undertaking. You do not use a carpenter's awl to drill a tooth. And as James Bond would likely say: "Never say never, it may come back and bite you most inappropriately."

I agree completely. I avoid Windows when I can, but I sometimes I just can't because of the nature of the work I do. I primarily support Linux but that includes interoperability between Linux and other operating systems, including Windows.

don't be so hard on those who just happen to be so lucky that they are not in a situation like yours. envy them or even better congratulate them for having that luck and opportunity. i used to be in that position too, and for the most part i am again now. but it takes determination, and sometimes it's just not worth the effort or even counterproductive and in other times it's simply not possible.

those who have no need for windows probably have not yet been in a situation where they were forced to choose, meaning they haven't had their ideals tested yet. when you got a job where you can do everything with free software like i had before then it's easy to speak of high ideals, but how is this:

Quoting:as someone who tries to embrace the Free Software principle i refuse jobs that require me to work with non-free software. i managed to avoid using any version of windows so far, and i will continue to try to do so

(the reality is more like that i do occasionally need to use windows to test the websites i build (and don't anyone suggest running IE under wine, that's definitly one of those "not worth the effort" and also "not possible" cases (because wine or not, IE is still non-free and i'd rather not run it on my workstation. windows otoh is contained on a separate machine that i only fire up for testing, so i don't really have to worry much about the problems windows has))

greetings, eMBee.

I'm in a couple of situations right now where I'm running a whole lot of Windows 7 and 8. There's a lot to be said for the many free-software projects coded for Windows platforms that are making things so much less onerous for me than they could be otherwise. I've been meaning to write this up ...

I got an XP box, jes in case.....

I actually hadda learn to use it, I've been out of touch with Windows for so long. I stream Netflix, so my XP box earns its keep. I'll probably eventually get a Roku thingie, but still keep the XP box. Why? I jes received several documents from my attorney. You guessed it. They're all Word docs. Hopefully, LO will do the deed, but jes in case......

I'm using Netflix-desktop in Xubuntu like I did in Debian Wheezy before that. Works great. I couldn't get it working in Fedora 18, and that was the deal-breaker that sent me to Xubuntu.

@notbob....identical situation here. We use solar power, so it's all laptops. However an XP laptop mostly sits in a drawer, but on odd occasions, it gets pulled out for purposes Linux based software simply cannot yet handle. Incidentally, if it is only .doc that's your problem, load Crossover Office and put Microsoft's Office onto that. Works a treat and has been my solution for ages. Libre Office makes a good stab at "translating" the ISO .docx format, but it's not perfect, which indicates to me that Redmond is once again jemmying so-called "standards" to make sure ONLY its software works perfectly with Microsoft formats. Lovely company, really, really lovely and so ethical.......Not !!

@Ridcully,

Aren't you tempted sometimes to just send them the doc back with a link to download LO/OOo?

If Windows Vista didn't get World plus Dog to get fed-up with Windows, I doubt that Windows 8 will have that much more effect. If Windows 9 turns out to be any good, most will either put up with or just skip over, Windows 8, and continue to stick with Microsoft Windows as the default, "go to" option.

And that will leave Linux proponents winning over only some fraction of the smarter and more flexible computer users. It might be argued (some will argue) that this is a Good Thing.

But Android and Steam might actually make a bigger difference.

hmm, this almost feels like windows user anonymous ;-)

i agree with bernhard. the other day i overheared someone sharing how they felt that windows 8 was so much of an improvement. so yeah, there will be people who like it and those who feel that they are suffering less. i believe the real problem still is that most people aren't aware that alternatives exist. (and i also agree that Steam might help here)

greetings, eMBee.

I opened 3 doc files. Only one had a formatting glitch. Fortunately, they were only for my personal perusal. Not required to print out. My M$ Word is 2000. I forgot I also have Word on my XP eee netbook, which I run with Slax from a flash drive. That's still only word 2007 and it's got a 25 use trial period. If my attorney needed me to print out and use these doc docs, I'd be SOL and I'm sure not gonna shell out $100+ to get a current version. She can mail 'em to me or reformat 'em as txt or pdf files. I don't do Word.

@mbaehrlxer......Interestingly, I have heard a similar comment from a person who really WOULD know. He's a Unix trained, plus Linux plus Windows software developer person. His comment was that Win8 is much faster and probably more stable than Win7. If you can get past the nausea of Metro and put in a normal Aero interface (which I do believe is relatively simple to do) Win8 does turn out to be quite good. Personally, I consider it to be on a galaxy, far, far away and it can stay there. I have WinXP and I also have Win7.......Win8 can go jump for as long as possible.

@notbob.....this comment came recently, and I cannot remember who said it, but I mentioned that I was running Office 2003 as a test bed or port of final desperation if there was a problem with a very rare .doc file. His comment was very pointed: Hang onto Office2003 like grim death.....do not upgrade to the latest Office software. He didn't elucidate too much further but one got the impression the person did not like the way Office has evolved. Personally, I leave office and Word strictly alone unless it is, as I said above, a final desperate port of call to get a file opened.

For those increasingly rare times when I need something on Windows, there's Virtualbox.

Really, the only thing left is the HP photo printing software that came with my HP printer in 2003. For that, I keep a copy of XP in a VM.

Too bad "Buying the ISO" didn't get Microsoft what it deserved.

Ballmer just announced plans to retire. An "asset" for Linux will be gone. Bummer.

> Ballmer just announced plans to retire...

And the stock price immediate rises by 6% on a day when the broader markets are down 0.1%.

If I had control of Microsoft and was actually interested in promoting their "bottom line", I would release "Office for Linux".

I said that when Office-97 came out, too. Microsoft didn't listen then, I doubt they'll listen now.

> I doubt they'll listen now.

I take it you don't think you'll be offered an interview for the position, then. :)

I wonder if they would consider Whitehurst for the job? He certainly seems to have done an adequate job at Red Hat. Or they could merge with Oracle and get the one ego that's bigger than Ballmer's to run the show.

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20121114

"You still haven't beaten Bill Gates at anything, have you?"

Quoting: Ballmer just announced plans to retire. An "asset" for Linux will be gone. Bummer.

Why am I hearing "Ding, Dong,... The witch is dead,... Which ol' witch?!?! The WICKED Witch!!! Ding, Dong,... The wicked witch is dead!!!"... Over and over in my head???