Re: Feo: This is the seed that will wither
Posted by Shasta on Jan 31, 2004 at 12:25
(65.172.150.222)Re: Feo: This is the seed that will wither (Feo Amante)
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I carry that over to my ever growing fondness for Linux - for it's bare bones approach (in most applications and O/S). That said , I still use Windows because it remains way ahead of Linux in most user friendly things (Linux has only itself to blame as, for years, Linux geeks took the clique-y POV that they didn't want anyone in their sandbox that didn't like working in root and text. GUI was for LOSERS!).
...snip...When was the last time you used Linux?
I guarantee if it was when kernel 2.2.x was out, it's improved. KDE, the desktop environment I use near-24/7, available from kde.org, has made vast strides in usability and user-friendly-ness since v.1.x. It still has a few quirks (because I use 3.2 release candidate 1-- 3.2.1 will be stable as all get out). Gnome, the other desktop environment, I stopped using because it was too easy.
Ease-of-use depends also on which distribution you use. Debian, for example, has what some geeks have called "the installer from hell". Mandrake claims "can be installed in 4 clicks". Gentoo is designed "not to get in your way". Knoppix, a Debian variant bootable from a 650MB CD-R, has "insert the cd" installer. It also has some scripts to install to HDD, but I haven't tested these, having only used it as a recovery disk for my then-broken Gentoo partition.
It's all a matter of choice. Xandros, another Debian variant (you have to pay) can be gotten by googling "xandros desktop". Same with the ever-present LindowsOS (runs Windows apps via Wine and WineX). Lycoris Desktop/LX, the distro designed to be the easiest Linux ever, is based on Debian, costs $70 for the edition containing the GNU C compiler, and looks suspiciously like Windows XP Pro.
Also, if the look of Windows is essential to you, you might check out the up-and-coming XPde project (google it, lazy-bones), which is designed to look as close to Windows XP as is possible in every single way, excepting the mentions of "MIcrosoft" and "Windows". It is open-source, but is written in Kylix, Borland's Linux-compatible port of Delphi. I gave it a whirl the other day, and thought: "Geeze this looks a lot like XP. Too much so for me!" The developers don't have code written in for changing visual styles or background images (but the property pages are there!) yet, but I'd expect that before version 0.75 comes out.
Wow, I've ranted. I need my daily dose of /. NOW