FA+
Shop
Windows / Mac / Linux. And some thoughts.
16 years ago
So...
Well, for the last few months, I've been using Linux for the vast majority of my computing needs. But I still keep windows on a small drive just for the handfull of games I've got that don't play well under Wine. This is the first time I've really seen them both running on the same machine as I honestly hate dual booting a computer, but it's given me a real first hand look at the difference between Windows and Linux as far as how they perform on the same computer. And it has confirmed with stark realisem the huge difference in resources needed between, and performance given by the two.
I routinely use Linux for gaming, video editing, photo editing, chatting, web browsing, email, often all at the same time, and it barely phases my computer. (even when I'm playing FEAR, or Spore under Wine). But I flip over to the Windoes install, and suddenly it feels like my computer is 20 years old. I'm watching the text lag behind my typing as I write this right now. (Killing time waiting for a game to update.)
Seeing the two different OS's on the same computer, is a real eye opener. I can remember when Windows used to be the small foot print OS that did most everything. Now it's totally the other way around. When a full install of Vista can be upward of 10 gigs, and a full install of Ubuntu is only around 4.
It's taken a while for this to happen, but I think that I'm fineally for the most part over Windows. I don't use it for much of anything anymore. And Linux has been a very solid performer for me over these last few months. Even the little bit of gaming I do on Windows now is barely enough to make me want to boot that OS just because of how poorly it performs. Given, I don't have the newest system out there, but I have a decent one. Even on a fresh install it seems like Windows just takes forever to do things now that I'm used to how fast and agile linux is.
I've used Mac on and off through the last like 8 years too, and like that OS a lot as well. but when you figure the cost into it, Linux obviously is free, and I can get a PC laptop or desktop at half the cost of a Mac, with similar specs, and run it on that. I'm getting so I care less and less about the couple games that I can't run in Linux, and more just want to stay in Linux and use that. I think unlelss Windows 7 is something spectacular, my time running that OS is very quickly coming to an end.
I routinely use Linux for gaming, video editing, photo editing, chatting, web browsing, email, often all at the same time, and it barely phases my computer. (even when I'm playing FEAR, or Spore under Wine). But I flip over to the Windoes install, and suddenly it feels like my computer is 20 years old. I'm watching the text lag behind my typing as I write this right now. (Killing time waiting for a game to update.)
Seeing the two different OS's on the same computer, is a real eye opener. I can remember when Windows used to be the small foot print OS that did most everything. Now it's totally the other way around. When a full install of Vista can be upward of 10 gigs, and a full install of Ubuntu is only around 4.
It's taken a while for this to happen, but I think that I'm fineally for the most part over Windows. I don't use it for much of anything anymore. And Linux has been a very solid performer for me over these last few months. Even the little bit of gaming I do on Windows now is barely enough to make me want to boot that OS just because of how poorly it performs. Given, I don't have the newest system out there, but I have a decent one. Even on a fresh install it seems like Windows just takes forever to do things now that I'm used to how fast and agile linux is.
I've used Mac on and off through the last like 8 years too, and like that OS a lot as well. but when you figure the cost into it, Linux obviously is free, and I can get a PC laptop or desktop at half the cost of a Mac, with similar specs, and run it on that. I'm getting so I care less and less about the couple games that I can't run in Linux, and more just want to stay in Linux and use that. I think unlelss Windows 7 is something spectacular, my time running that OS is very quickly coming to an end.
The only reason I got a Mac lately was to write iphone apps with it, and let me tell yah, I'm LIKING it. It's fast, it's easy to use, I've had zero problems with it. I just wish it wasn't so pricey. I have teh cheapest macbook they make, and at $899, it was a few hundred overpriced.. but all in all.. I'm happy with it.
I've gotten so I like Linux better than windows for a lot of things. The only thing is, thanks to my boyfriend, I have gotten to be a bit of a gamer again, and that unfortunately is where Windows still reighns supreme. But that's a double edged blade too. Because though it is better at gaming, the best Windows for gaming is XP, Vista seems to get much lower frame rates on many of my games on the same hardware as XP, (not bad hardware either). And so far Windows 7 while having some improvements over Vista, also has some very obvious flaws coming along with it. So with XP still being the very best for gaming, and it's support doomed to end soon after the release of Widnows 7, Unless they really pick things up in Windows 7, they're going to end up dead ending things for PC gamers on that OS. (as well as many business users who refuse to switch to the newer Windows OS's because of issues.) Mac OS has a little better game coverage than Linux, but still nothing like Windows. Oh well, at least I can still play Spore on any OS. :)
I've been using Linux for a long time too. I started with it back in the RedHat 7.2 days, used that through to 9, then Fedora up to 8, then went to Ubuntu shortly after the launch of 8.10 and have been very happy with it. Outside gaming, there's really nothing that I need or want to do that I can't do in Ubuntu. Only other thing is that the codec needed to play audio for Reuters podcasts seems to not be available for Ubuntu, (at least not in a form that works with the podcasts in say Miro). But I can get around that. All in all, between Windows, and Linux on this machine, Linux stomps it for responsiveness and overall speed, as well as resource handling. It's also nice to not have as much to worry about virus wise.
I'd buy a Mac if I could afford one honestly, mainly because even at that I'd still be able to use Windows on it for the games that I can't play in Mac OS. though, much like my current machine, I doubt that it'd spend a lot of time in Windows.