peace

Obviously this is a very specific niche, but it helps to illustrate a point that ‘OMG OS WARZ’ are absolutely pointless because merits of an OS come down to the specific needs of the user, and the user’s preference / previous experience (and unfortunately preconceived bias).

I primarily use Ubuntu at home, but I still dual-boot to XP for some panoramic / HDR photography software I use, and games.

I assure you I am no programmer (just a control freak). I agree, however, that it’s all about choice. Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD, Minix, Syllable, ReactOS, BeOS, etc…use whatever makes you happy.

I will say this. If any person should have anything negative to say about an OS or any software (for that matter), should at least spend a month or two using it thoroughly before commenting on how terrible it is.

Peace V :my friends:

P.S why can’t we all just get along

Ease of use or easy to use is a relative term.
I don’t care how easy a developer makes a peace software to use if the person sitting in front of it is clueless.
Here’s what I mean. I happen to build, repair, and teach computer use to a number of people.
Linux and Windows are both easy and hard to teach to those new to computers. But once learned a person can take off doing whatever it is they need to do (although I find that people think if you are good at any aspect of computers that you should know how to run/work any peace of software they download or buy. I get calls like this all the time, mainly because people are too lazy to rtfm). Anyway, for those that I have installed linux for are usually people who want updated software but can’t afford new hardware or Windows OS prices. This allows the hardware they have to last a little longer (or a lot longer).

One last thing on hardware. I have some hardware that still does not work with XP because hardware companies did not want to update their drivers, but instead wanted you to buy new hardware. But this same hardware works in linux because of the community of developers who had the same hardware and needed it to work.
But when it comes to hardware it’s not about OS. It’s about the willingness of the hardware companies to make their drivers available.

As for me I still use windows for some games although Cedega is allowing me to install many games on linux and they run quite well.
I like windows and I like mac but I prefer Linux.

Peace V :my friends:

Just curious…what in terms of “usability” can be used to form this conclusion that Microsoft Windows (every version, apparently) as “horrible”? I know we shouldn’t care that much…just look at the article title…but you’ve just made a pretty sweeping statement that I for one didn’t expect. Or is it only about jump drives?

That was precisely my point, which may very well be different from yours. I just don’t accept the idea that diffusion means better products. Free to disagree.

I used Mozilla until Firefox came out, and Netscape before that when I had dial-up. I still use Office 2003 and have no intention of moving to 2007 or silly OpenOffice.org (you forgot the .org) any time soon. Too bad for you, this article is about operating systems, so stop talking about applications.

You saw me as a nothing-but-Microsoft user, and that is totally not the case. You threw a bunch of programs at me that you expect that I use. You were wrong in doing so.

You also decided that the reason I appeared “pro-Windows” was that I’m comfortable with Windows and only Windows.

We are talking about Windows. Not Internet Explorer, not Office. This article as about operating systems, and we are in the comments section. When it comes to using an operating system, I say that part of the user-friendliness stems from the fact that millions of users can identify with many of the same functions in Windows over many different versions. The Start menu, the placement of icons, the use of the taskbar, etc. Microsoft kept these the way they were, only changing the visual appearance. I was able to navigate Vista right away after installing it. You can’t argue with that. MacOS is the very same way; it too benefits from the fact that it is also a market standard (albeit one with a smaller actual user base) and hasn’t greatly changed in its interface and such. With Linux, on the other hand, you have scores of distributions with a handful of window managers to choose from and tons and tons of layouts. It’s a mess – you can’t go to some random Linux user’s home and expect to be able to sit down and navigate the computer.

“There are lots of products that are considered the standard but they are horrible in terms of usability”

A very bold statement. Do you consider Microsoft Windows an example of described product?