Journal eno2001's Journal: APPLICATIONS: What, Exactly Does Windows Offer? 17
Seeing that the only use I make of Windows these days is on servers at work that I have little to do with and my one workstation that I use for editing video at home, I have to ask myself, "What, with the exception of very specialized applications for which there isn't a decent FOSS alternative, does Windows offer someone like me these days"? It would appear that Windows offers me nothing anymore. This would explain why I only have one box here at home out of eight in use at any time that runs Windows about once every three or four months. And that box will likely be ditching Windows once I find a really suitable video editing program for *nix that handles MPEG2 videos.
This actually has less to do with the OS and more to do with the applications. So far, I've found applications that do everything I need that work in either GNU/Linux or one of the BSDs. There are all the obvious applications like Firefox, Thunderbird, Evolution, Gaim, OpenOffice, GIMP, Xine, XMMS, Mplayer, VNC, and WINE. We've all heard of these and are pretty familiar with them. But there are the less obvious uses of these applications and the glue behind customizations (Perl, Bash, C) that really allow you to go way beyond anything Windows can provide you with.
As an example, I've used RealPlayer 10 for *nix + Xine + ALSA + arecord + oggenc + lame + bash + cron to create a PAR (Personal Audio Recorder) that will record Real or WMA audio streams to either Ogg Vorbis or MP3 files so that I can catch all my favorite radio programs. Throw that together with mkhybrid + cdrecord (although I hate cdrecord and would like a better alternative) and I can throw the MP3 files to a CD for playing in my car's MP3 player. No more crap American radio. Now I can hear the latest dance hits from over the pond on the Annie Mac show or Pete Tong's Essential Selection on Radio 1! CD-Rs have truly taken the place of what I did as a kid with a boom box and cassettes.
The same box also works as a sort of computer based PVR. It works perfectly and I didn't need to do MythTV. It's just a combination of Xine + IVTV's ivtvctl + Zenity + bash + perl + and NVIDIA's nvidia-settings app. Not only can I record and pause TV, but I can retransmit it to any computer in the house including the laptops so that any of them can be a "TV". I just need to get LirC going and then I'll be all set (since the asses at DirecTV won't make a computer video card for reciving their signal). The interfaces are simple and work like a normal desktop meaning that the wife doesn't have to learn a whole new interface.
Of course I've also got the more boring but necessary network services: named, dhcp, samba, nfs, apache, courier (imap, smtp), openssh and openvpn to provide my network services both internal and external. But on top of that, I am working on getting Asterisk running so I can offer VoIP to my friends and family over openvpn. I'm also looking into a way of streaming MPEG4 to them over the same tunnel so that they can watch content that I present.
However, the biggest benefit of all is that I can spend all of my money on hardware and get more of what really matters. I know this would never be possible with Windows unless I either pirate or win the lottery. The trade-off is that I have to work a bit harder to implement things, but it's worth the extra effort if I don't need to bother with license, and software upgrades/fees. Not to mention, it's a lot more fun to say... build a pair of kickass stereo speakers than it is to buy them. I just get a huge kick out of DIY and Windows doesn't seem to encourage that without a lot of hefty development fees. To be fair, I haven't looked at how much it would cost to get a Microsoft IDE these days, but that last time I looked it was around $600 if you want the good stuff in an "inexpensive" package. I don't imagine it has come down in price any.
But, my main reason for writing this was just out of curiosity to ask anyone who is running Windows (and likes it) what it offers to you. Leave out examples like Quicken, TurboTax or specialized business software because I think those are useless myself. We're rtalking about the more important stuff (ie. what you do at home in your spare time). I'm just really curious what Windows offers to intelligent users that alternative OSes don't these days in that venue.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that I don't use Windows on my desktop at work either. Most of my work is on HP-UX, Slowlaris, and Tru64, so all I need is X Window System (which I think rules) and OpenSSH. When I must work with a Windows box, I will either use Samba to map a drive and emacs to edit text files, or I will use grdesktop/rdesktop to connect to the Windows box remotely. So far it hasn't impacted my work other than to make me more productive. I wasn't able to do as much when I ran a Windows desktop unless I installed Cygwin. At that point, I figured, "screw it", if I'm going to be using *nix utils I may as well use Linux. Of course, I'm the only one in my department who runs that as a desktop, but it hasn't impacted my ability to interact with others either.
Speaks for itself (Score:2)
This is fun (Score:2)
- You need to get this WinModem working, and it's not one of the 40% covered by linmodem code.
- You need to get this wireless card working, and it's a G plus card, but you really don't want to sacrifice the speed by running it as 'just G'.
[ I run Linux on three different laptops, I run into these all of the time. ]
Second, support... no, not the kind offered to you.
- My mom calls up and asks how 'this' happened. She will sometimes not be able to send a sc
Re: (Score:2)
Windows (Score:2)
Sarcasm aside (although the paragraph above is true), I think the variety of useful apps on Linux today vastly outstrips those on Windows. Windows boxes to me feel crippled by lack of good software, and I usually end up downloading java apps and cygwin to fill the gaps. The only thing good I can say about windows is that hardware seems to just "work" althoug
Hmm (Score:1)
I don't run Windows at home, I have a Gentoo workstation and a OS X Powerbook. Haven't run Windows at home since sometime in 2001. However, I might have to install it soon because my school requires IE and a wachdog plugin for their online classes.
It's pretty clear that Windows doesn't offer anything enticing for us technical folks. However, I can't see myself recommending Linux for my parents or sister anytime soon, much as I would like to see them running a more secure and stable OS. They're used to Wi
Re:Hmm (Score:2)
Why Quicktime of all things? You can use the win32 codecs for any number of Linux media players. I've never had issue playing Quicktime files in MPlayer.
Re:Hmm (Score:1)
I do use Mplayer as much as possible. However, it cannot play all Quicktime files (though perhaps my codecs are out of date). Also, by using Crossover Office the Quicktime browser plugin is installed, which can be useful.
Regarding Video editing... (Score:1)
avidemux can be found at http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/ [fixounet.free.fr] or in your favorite repository
No argument (Score:2)
I completely agree. I'd futzed around with Linux off and on since at least 1994 or 1995, but I didn't really become a Linux *user* until about five years ago when I did two things:
At first I booted into Windows relatively often for Microsoft Word and a few other things I hadn't figured out how to do in Linux yet. But reboot times are (relatively) long, and so often it was a matter of thinking "Do
I switched back to windows.. (Score:1)
1. I am using Protools for music editing with Digi002 rack, witch is for windows and MacOsX only. There is no Linux alternative application that can support my hardware and protools projects. ---NO LINUX ALTERNATIVE
2. I have an HP IPAQ 5555, witch I sync it with MS outlook to get my appointments-emails and contacts on my PDA. I have tried some Linux alternatives like sync but no one works as good as the windows ones. -- ---NO LINUX ALTERNATIVE
3. I have a Cannon i865 printer wit
Re:I switched back to windows.. (Score:2)
Re:I switched back to windows.. (Score:1)
When I said "No Linux alrternatives" I mean no alternatives for "me". I know that there are alternatives (like ALSA, Jack, etc.) but these alternatives doesn't support my hardware as you said.
I have a good knowlenght of how Linux works, not a very deep knowlenght but I know what I need to know to fully use my Linux system.
From now on I will only buy hardware that is fully supporter under Linux. Maybe it will take me some years to fully switch, but I WILL SWITCH at the end.
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Oh My God! (Score:2)
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Re:Oh My God! (Score:2)
Cisco has a Linux client for their VPN, but that would require extra licensing which is why I didn't go that route. And in most cases, I imagine that employers probably won't want to pay for the extra licensing for the oddbal
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