Decius wrote:
The last time I ran linux on my desktop, it had the following problems:

1. It didn't really work right. It sort of worked, but not really. Things were broken. Things weren't well supported. Things like the mouse. It actually didn't click exactly where it pointed some of the time. And this was an IBM laptop. Not something oddball. And some hardware was tweaky... like wifi adapters that had to be unplugged and replugged sometimes in order to reload the drivers.

2. It came with WAY, WAY too much shit by default. Every jackass who had ever written an open source GUI application had managed to get it placed in the default menu.

3. Things needed to be screwed with a lot. A lot of tinkering, a lot of configuring and compiling and updating. Systems Administration. People who run linux desktops like to configure stuff and seem to enjoy applications like mutt that are way too feature rich and are basically useless if you don't want to invest a few hours into getting them to work right. I don't want to do that. I want basic shit to just work. I have work to do. I want to get it done. My computer should enable that. The reason I'm sick of my mac is that its getting in the way.

4. Firefox was fine, everything else was crummy. The IM clients were just downright ugly.

Are these problems still the dominating factors of the world of desktop linux?

Ok, a few comments.

First, there is a quality difference between the iBook and MacBook line. I've been using the 17" Powerbook line for several years, and have encountered very few problem. Mine has survived beer in the keyboard. However, I do not like the fact that I don't have a backup machine. One thing I liked about using the IBM ThinkPads was how you could rip out the hard drive and put it into another machine in about 45 seconds. When we were doing the Asia thing, I always had a spare laptop in my luggage, and I was always able to work around any hardware or software failure without obstructing my ability to do work. Apple's insistence on making anything other than putting in ram hard is highly annoying.

Second, I have not been using a linux notebook in awhile, so I'm unfamiliar with the current state of many apps. I've been meaning to try out Ubantu, because I've heard good things about it. In Linux's favor, it's very easy to manage backup, it's stable as hell, and when doing what I'd consider "real work", it's great. It's really nice to be able to put just about any server or database application on the machine you need to work with. When it comes to doing any kinda operational engineering, it's a huge time saver.

Like Billy was saying, I too miss the lack of a really good drawing program.. I don't think there is a good outliner yet either.

Thirdly, if you get a PC laptop.. Just make sure to buy one that is designed to support Linux, so you have less headaches to deal with.

RE: Desktop Linux