I'm sure the heading is going to make some people go, 'This guy is nuts' specially me being a Java developer. Let me explain why I chose to change from Linux to Windows.
1) Hardware Support
The biggest problem I had running Linux (I use Fedora 14) on my laptop is the hardware support. I agree Linux has come to a point where it supports most of the drivers (and yes Ubuntu has more support) the problem is the drivers are done by third party developers and companies and not from the actual vendors. The drivers work fine I'm not complaining about that, but it does not support the hardware fully to a point I would prefer it to. It is evident as the laptop heats up.
2) Flash and Video Streaming
One of the second most thing that I do when I'm not coding is streaming Movies and TV series. Have you even tried it? let me tell you what happens, It sucks your processor usage at-least to 70-80% I can check for prime numbers on Java programme and it still would not have to take so much, and yes I have tried it on Firefox 4 and Chrome 11 this is because of Flash. If you search for a solution regarding this on the net, you will see a lot of people have complained about this but there is no proper solution to this. Maybe this is because of the hardware support.
3) Programmes and Games
I am not much into games, but once in awhile (once in three months ;) ) I just like to play a game. With linux its not possible, just the option knowing I can is more then enough, and yes Linux has its games but nowhere close to the once you have on windows.
yum and apt-get are really powerful and I'm definently going to miss this on Windows, but I'm sure I can download any programme that I want to install on Windows. I have still not come across programme that is available in Linux but not available in Windows (the functionality vice).
4) MS Office and Graphical Programmes
Open Office is really good, but no where close to as MS Office, you can argue much as you want but if you use it couple of times you will feel the difference, and when specially all the customers documents are done using MS Office.
Gimp is good, but not as Photoshop and other programmes like Dreamweaver and Flash you cant find it on Linux
5) Intellij Idea and Visual Paradigm
As you guessed it correctly I use them more then any other programe. VP is defiantly faster on Windows than on Linux it's even faster if you run it on VMware on the same machine. Same applies to Idea, it runs faster on Windows but this has not as much differences as VP but it is defiantly faster.
That raps it up. The above reasons are more then enough for me to switch to Windows. Definently there are some things I will miss in linux following are some ;)
1) All shell commands and the linux terminal, windows powershell does not come close to it but cygwin will fix that.
2) You can delete a file while its been executed on linux, specially commands like mvn clean and remove can be done without any problem in linux, but if you do that on windows there could problems like file been access by some other programme errors.
3) I'm into bit of Ethical Hacking most of the hacking tools are in linux so that will be a definite disadvantage.
4) Most spoken thing when comparing linux and windows is the boot time. linux could be couple of seconds faster, but until now I have never sat in-front of my laptop waiting it to start I have more than enough things to do at that time, and be honest with your self. when was the last time you shutdown your computer?
Windows does all the things I need better than linux and some things that I cant do in linux. So why do I still need to be in linux?
Just to add something on this. When you give something totally free and with so much versions out there. Why are people still paying so much for Windows. Just some statics http://www.dzone.com/links/r/the_top_20_strongholds_for_desktop_linux.html
ReplyDeleteInteresting points. Going through them from my point of view (as a Linux users):
ReplyDelete1) Linux wins, but maybe I've just had too much desktop experience. There's the odd manufacturer that puts something odd in a laptop, but the *only* driver I've ever had to install on Linux is proprietary graphics. Windows? There's always two or three.
2) That's Adobe's fault because they can't do anything right. The latest versions seem to ahve improved things greatly, though. Use a site that has proper video, not some proprietary rubbish, and it wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, Adobe is what the 'cool' companies use.
3) The best games I've played have been on Linux. Every version of the Humble Bundle has been available on Linux. Yeah, you can't go into a shop and buy the big AAA titles and guarantee they'll work, but a) 90% of them are all gloss and no substance and b) a number of them will run in Wine at near-native speeds. Besides, if you're on a laptop then you're not likely to be doing serious gaming anyway.
4) I definitely see the difference between MS Office and OpenOffice/LibreOffice - LibreOffice makes sense and has useful, powerful functions, while MS Office is cryptic and appears to be missing useful features or hides them under awkward names.
As for graphics, Gimp has done everything I need, Photoshop has one hell of a license fee on it, I've not touched Dreamweaver in a decade (coding by hand gives me *exactly* what I need and works perfectly in standards compliant browsers from the off) and Flash is best avoided for any serious website.
5) Can't say much there - I've never used them. I've normally found Linux more responsive than Windows, though.
To each his own, but I'm not sure the license fees make it quite as rosy on the Windows side as you make out :)